The Empty (2016)

I have recently completed a new short film, The Empty. It works around a very simple idea, shot in long Steadicam takes by Ben Rowley. The Empty emerged out of work on a previous film I had made with Paul Richards called Deliver, which I had previously blogged about the making of and is ready to view on my YouTube channel. The Empty is aesthetically, narratively, and thematically very different. It has a very naturalistic style, with minimal use of close ups. The sound is naturalistic too, but this presented a problem in terms of deciding the appropriate sound levels. Too loud and it would sound affected, too quiet and it could rob the film of power. I wanted the natural and realistic style so I tried to keep things like the spot effects quite unobtrusive. It was very easy to pick up unwanted sound while recording it live, especially when moving a Steadicam through populated streets and in long takes through multiple locations. So the soundtrack was almost entirely constructed in post-production – with only minimal use of tracks we had recorded during the (one day) shoot.

The film is currently being shown at festivals, but if do want to see it send me an email (see Contact page) or tweet me @JamesEdNewton and I will reply with the link and password.

In the meantime, you can listen to a review in this podcast by filmmakers Dom Pillai and Chip Thompson – available here https://soundcloud.com/justaride-films/spectre-justaride-films-podcast-episode-24