#Sfsu project heartbeat skin

Jon: Some of those people who came up, they ended up staying in the background of the film. It did stop production quite a bit, but I loved how interested and open and receptive they were to us. So naturally, the whole community, one by one, would come out to us… stop the whole production, ask what we're doing, introduce themselves, tell us about their life. Pen: Was there a moment that stands out to you like that just extremely fun, chaotic thing that happened on either of the sets that you worked on together?Īlba: Our first day of shooting My Own Mecca, we had about 30 folks and we're in West Oakland. I just know what I wanted it to feel like. And he did the research to make sure that he knew before coming to set how many stops the lighting needs to be to be in slow motion and in black and white, because all these things matter, all these little details matter.

We both got a common goal and we take turns and we know each other's strengths.Īlba: For example, this most recent project that we're working on, Blackness is Everything, there was something that I kind of just threw at them, like, oh, I want to shoot slow motion on film in black and white. do you feel like your wide receiver and quarterback? Are you coach and offensive coordinator?Īlba: I wouldn't even say it's like a quarterback and a receiver, I would say it's like a tag team wrestling match. Pen: How does it feel to have a tag team partner as a director and a cinematographer. When the camera is on and rolling, you can hear it breathing as if it was like a heartbeat right next to your face.

#Sfsu project heartbeat skin

Through the years, it's been getting better and better for darker skin tones as well.Īlba: He said it was like a living organism.

So it's almost like a living organism with you capturing this story and like ingraining in it physically in this earth. So it's truly there in that moment with you and it's never going to be the same. when it's in the camera, it's physically capturing that light onto it. Jon: Just the fact that celluloid is like a physical thing you can hold in your hand. Pen: Jon, why did you feel pulled to shoot on film? But through the editing, we're able to let it sit there for a few seconds and you really absorb that intensity. And I feel like through the film, we're able to really capture those moments of the glare that they have towards each other. It's hard to maintain that eye contact because you feel that intensity. Jon: If you're just talking to somebody or in a tense situation. And there's these subtle digs that they do with each other in order to determine who is in control of the conversation, even though they're both friends and they both genuinely love each other. How did you do that?Īlba: have this tendency to battle for dominance. Pen: How do you make those moments so big and intense? Like, I'm nervous and squeamish watching 'em. And being in situations in which we're supposed to feel safe and we don't. It's about the issues that we have within our household or within our friendships. It's about the microaggressions that we don't really talk about too much. Pen: What was the first piece that you two collaborated on?Īlba: Basically it's a day in the life of a young Black man in the Bay Area… how he understands who he is in his reality. In this episode, we discuss how the filmmakers work together to build suspense in their stories, pray to film gods that their scenes are captured correctly and collaborate with the community to create cinema.īelow are lightly edited excerpts of my conversation with Alba Roland Mejia and Jon Warfield Harrison. But behind the scenes is the real story: Alba and Jon have come together to create a working relationship that’s balanced and productive, and evidently this workflow rubs off on the people around them.