Two Waves

Please play the music below while you look through this page

The heart of the film

I’d like to bring us all into this film from the same starting point. It’s a space within the film, within each character, and maybe a space we recognize in ourselves, that is the very heart of this story. It is a place of calm, of curiosity and interest, of openness and love, of presence and beauty and a recognition of the way things are. How can it be a place from which to view everything in this film?

This perspective is so often covered up in our own lives as in the lives of our characters by so many things: anxiety, ambition, grief, self-doubt, frustration, loneliness, shame, regret, the list goes on. In the film, we will not shy away from these difficult emotions in our depiction of the inner lives of our characters, but try to bring the same curiosity towards recognizing them and their affect on our character’s behaviors and experience of life.

This space is one of openness. It holds all of these ups and downs from a compassionate view point - one that is right there with our characters in their struggles, right there in the tensions of the film, but also set back slightly, inviting our characters, and the audience, towards a new way of seeing. It is not a solution or an answer to any of the questions of the film. It simply exists along with them.

I find words lacking in their ability to describe what I’m talking about. That is why, afterall, we are using cinema to communicate this feeling. So I think the best way to bring us all into this is to share some music, video, and images.

The music you are listening to from John Luther Adams is a good starting place for the tone of the heart and soul of the film. It is an inner space that Clara has yet to recognize in herself, one her Dad searched for, one Anne holds too with a light hand, though still fails to see time and again. It seems to emanate from the natural world, and as the story evolves it pulls Clara and the audience closer. For much of the film this mood will be in contrast to the pace and rhythm of Clara in her scrolling and panic attacks, in her desperate rush to free herself from discomfort, but scattered throughout this mood will punctuate the film, teasing at a space to which Clara will slowly open towards on the island.

We will feel it right from the opening - Clara’s body and movement in her first moment on screen, before being swept into everyday life as the ballet begins. We’ll feel it after she nearly hits the animal, stepping out of her car and into the breeze of the day and watching the trees. And again arriving on the island, peering into the mystery of her Dad’s house, or arriving at Anne’s property, with the wind blowing through the chimes and strands of hair. And as these moments continue to get more and more frequent, and Clara is pushed to the edge of her grief and self-doubt, it will slip into her as well, for a brief moment, but one she will recognize for what it is.

I took the photos above and the video below (one you can watch and listen to while still listening to the JLA piece) one day while scouting the “Tree in the Woods”. I was trying to imagine that moment on screen, towards the end of the film, after Clara has to felt that space in herself from which to dance, and watches the video her father made, has seen his painting, and all of these for a brief moment blends with the perspective of the film, mixing into this moment of cinema, of sound and movement and light.

Perhaps none of this will look or sound like what we discover for our film. None of this is meant to be didactic, or a description of exactly what we must do. But for now, I hope to share some of my own inspiration. And as we find ourselves lost in this process, some of this might serve as a good reminder, whether remembered or revisited, as to what direction we are headed towards.