Short
(August 2013) 16mm 4:30
CAST: Phineas, Tessa Day, Thatcher
Boston and Harvard, MA

An in-camera construction within two sets of active hunting sessions in two locations: the first "hunt" as a walk, as a search within a single location. Within these movements, I was experimenting with a different way of experiencing the shooting process. I began each shot at the extreme end of the aperture ring, either all the way open or completely closed, and throughout each shot I would roll the aperture ring to the opposite extreme. As the aperture would shift, the image would become visible amidst a shifting depth of field (a changing range of focus, due to the aperture shifts), rendering the effect you can see in this film.

So I was remaining physically active throughout each shot, performing an odd sort of dance, knowing that, when the film would be projected, we would be catching glimpses of the forms posed before the camera, the imagery populated by extreme fields of darks and lights. I was determined to travel (a walk around my block, a crawl around a pool deck) while shooting, not realizing that the effect in projection afterward would have something in common with the active sifting through small moments that can characterize memory. This kinship with the fleeting quality of memory inspired the piece's title.

- RT