Does the power of your editing bring audiences to tears? Do dramatic timing and creative transitions excite you? Does the thought of missing great clips, inadequate breathing room and cheesy music make your stomach churn?
Christopher Ball
Christopher Ball, Clothesline Media’s superbly talented cinematographer, will make his film debut at Cannes.
Christopher was the cinematographer on Ingrid and the Black Hole by Truro’s Leah Johnston. The short film will be showcased as part of Telefilm's Not Short on Talent program at Cannes Market in May.
“It’s pretty awesome, I must say,” said Christopher in his endearingly humble manner.
Leah wrote and directed the film which is about Alzheimer's, and how it parallels with time travel. The story features two children who discover a black hole, imagining what it would be like to travel through time.
While it is the first time one of Christopher’s projects has been showcased at Cannes, he is no stranger to accolades. Christopher has a Gemini Award nomination and has won six Atlantic Film Festival Awards, among countless other honours. Along with his award-winning film and documentary work, Christopher has been Director of Photography on Haven for five seasons.
Check out Christopher’s complete film credits at cbifilms.com
Read the Truro Daily News story about Leah here: http://bit.ly/23tZayJ
We're Hiring – Director of New Business
You reach for your phone when your alarm goes off. You quickly scan headlines, emails and social media for stories that inspire you, people that interest you and goals that motivate you.
Treating your business contacts as partners, you connect with them often, heading out to chat over coffee or connect over the phone. You build genuine relationships based on trust, integrity and respect. You know their goals and you offer innovative solutions.
You value creative collaboration and thrive when sharing ideas with your team. You have an ego - what great business leader doesn’t - but you check it at the door. You would prefer to be surrounded by positive energy rather than negative attitudes.
You dabble in creative pursuits, love going to the movies and think that holding a light stand until your fingers cramp while the crew gets just the right shot sounds like a great way to spend an afternoon.
Nova Scotia is, in your mind, an unpolished gem waiting to be uncovered, admired and valued. You are ready to be a driving force behind its discovery.
Is this you? Read more.
Over The Clothesline
The good folks from Nova Scotia Business Inc. shared with us their clothesline stories this week and, as it turns out, not all clothesline memories are warm and fuzzy.
Take, for instance, Heather Mosher’s tale. Heather, who is Manager, Channel and Platform Development at NSBI, remembers one summer night as a toddler trying to go to sleep without her beloved stuffed bunny.
Heather and her stuffed bunny, circa 1968.
The bunny had been washed earlier in the day and hung out on the clothesline to dry. Somehow, it had become entangled in the reel at the far end of the line and was stuck.
Her parents tried everything they could think of to help Heather fall asleep, but no luck.
“All I wanted was that bunny,” Heather laughs.
Finally, her desperate father hauled out a ladder, carried it to the backyard and in the pitch dark, climbed to the top of the clothesline pole to yank the bunny free. It was a bit tattered from its ordeal but it’s magical powers were still intact.
“He gave it to me and I immediately fell asleep,” says Heather.
For Suzanne Diab, NSBI’s Marketing and Communications Advisor, it is the squeak of the reel that brings back memories of her grandmother.
“I remember she kept the clothespins in a old butter container,” says Suzanne, her smile wide and bright as she is briefly transported back to her childhood.
Connecting over the clothesline is one way of sharing stories. Another is to join NSBI’s ConnectNS (http://connectns.ca/en/home/default.aspx), to keep in touch with Nova Scotia business leaders near and far.
Sound & Music
At Clothesline Media, we work with your team to find the sound and music that represents your brand, tells your story and connects with your audience.
It’s not a science - it’s an art. It demands the very best talent.
Here’s how director Nance Ackerman and sound and music guru Jamie Alcorn describe their creative process:
Jamie Alcorn and Nance Ackerman ham it up.
Music is pure emotion. It is a melodic and visceral bridge to our first loves, our broken hearts, last summers and first steps. Think of any seminal moment in your life and you will remember the soundtrack. It is in our soul, our core. Rhythm and melody is part of being human: the beating of our hearts, the wind in wires, our footsteps on stairs, a bicycle going through a puddle.
Our job as filmmakers and composers is to massage the music out of everyday life and apply it to the visual story.
““You can make a film of someone rearranging their sock drawer, and with the right soundtrack and sound design, make people cry.””
When I create a story or direct a film, I will invariably have the music in mind. I can hear the instrument, the tempo and will create scenes and camera angles to accommodate that band playing in my head. This is equal parts freeing and frustrating but it’s how I work.
Sound ‘events’ in the film’s audio become soundscapes and can feed into the music itself. That shopping cart wheel will morph into an industrial low drone with a rhythm and melody of its own; that squeaky clothesline will flow into an emotional fiddle lick that takes your breath away.
When it comes time to create the soundtrack, Jamie and I have our own way of collaborating. It’s a combination of trial and error, musical brainstorming and improvisation. We allow the organic nature of music and audio guide our soundtracks, inspired by the story itself.
...Nance and Jamie
Watch our Clothesline story here and see if you can pick out the squeaky clothesline that flows into a fiddle lick.