A BRIEF CRACK OF LIGHT

My lovely friends Vera Holland and Ted Alkemade made 'A brief crack of light', a slow-motion film in cooperation with Salih Kilic, a young photographer from Rotterdam. The film is finished, but not yet published. I have seen the movie and I can tell you it is very impressive! You can already watch the making of movie here and read more about the background of this project. The making of and an interview will be broadcasted on Dutch television (Labyrint, Ned2, 08:50pm) on January 11, 2011.

The making of 'a brief crack of light' from a brief crack of light on Vimeo.

In a small town outside of Madrid, Vera and Ted met Salih  Kilic whilst watching an experimental short film in a museum.  They started talking and ended up with the question from Salih if they would like to participate in an experimental film project with a Phantom camera. Salih followed an intensive course to use a Phantom high speed camera, which makes 7000 frames per second. This results in an ultra slow-motion film. Salih was able to lend the camera for 2 days, which was an amazing opportunity.  He wanted to take this opportunity to make an experimental short film together with young filmmakers. It was a coincidence that he bumped in to Vera an Ted in Spain, but this led to a very special project. Vera explains more about the background and their ideas.

How come you chose to film bumblebees?

The only condition for this film was that flying animals were captured for research since this project is an initiative of  ‘De Vliegkunstenaars’, supported by the University of Wageningen. Being interested in bumblebees, Salih wanted to do something with this small animal so we came up with the idea to also use dancers. 

So what is the idea between bumblebees and dancers, flying animals vs people?

With the start of the brainstorm we tried to figure out what we wanted to do with the bumblebee.We saw a difference between human and insect, but we also saw similarities between them only with a different ending. Our idea was to make a short abstract film where it will be clear that the ballet of the bumblebee and a dancer are close to each other in a symbolic way. Where one will be disowned, the others are coming closer to each other. The film turned out to be a story about time, life, behavior and needs in short flashes.  

What are the plans for the future, will you continue with this kind of projects?

We all have future plans and ambitions in experimental short films. Together or on our own, it doesn't matter. All three of us have never experienced such joy in making a film as with this project. We have learned out of this project and hope to fulfill our dreams in the creative world.