Behind the Scenes of Suite (#1)
It’s been well over a month since Suite premiered, and at the time of writing this post, it’s reached over 16K views. If you haven’t seen it yet, I’d encourage you to do so as I’m about to do a bit of a run down on how Jack and I made this film, and there will inevitably be spoilers.
The whole purpose of this ANAM collaboration project was to create a piece of art in its own right by bringing together music and film. I’d previously completed two of these ANAM projects with pianist Ronan Apcar and flautist Maria Zhdanovich. You can watch and read about them here if you’re interested:
The Concept
My conversations with cellist Jack Overall started all the way back in September 2023. At this point all we had was a piece that Jack had chosen, JS Bach’s Cello Suite No. 5 in C minor (I.Prelude). We knew that we wanted to tell a story that had heart and humanity that befitted the musical material and what we felt was the essence of Bach. The story needed to be about life and what it meant to be human.
Drawing inspiration from Aftersun – a film that was brought up in our conversations – we wanted our story and its form to explore quiet intimate moments that interrupted the present day.
Between the inspiration from Aftersun, our own experiences and interactions with those who’d gone through a similar journey; the story of Joan and Barry began to take shape.
I remembered watching Louis Theroux’s documentary “Extreme Love: Dementia” (gosh over a decade ago now), and being moved by the impossible circumstances that people had to encounter while trying navigate this illness. It made quite the impression on me, so it made sense to revisit it. There was also the Dementia Careblazers Youtube channel that I came across that had some useful info, and insightful (and quite frankly heartbreaking) interviews with caregivers on looking after their loved ones. Sifting through forums by caregivers also taught me about the usefulness of Post-It notes. This little detail ended up being included the background of the montage where Barry washes the dishes on his own.
The 5 page script for Suite took a few weeks to write and refine. There was the present and past timelines that I had to navigate and make sure worked well together and with the music. Essentially throughout the writing process, I had an eye on the score, and an eye on my notes and index cards (when my cat wasn’t lying on them). The music served as the vital structural and emotional blueprint for the film.
Index cards and cat booty
First page of Suite Script
Structure + Music
The Prelude is made up of two sections. The beginning is in cut common time, and has an improvisatory quality to it, with breadth and openness in its character. Visually, it made sense to use the introduction to introduce not only our heroes – Joan and Barry – but also the empty spaces in which their story would take place, such as the corridor, the hallway in the couple’s home, the TV room, etc. The use of slow-motion, with a camera on a gimbal, allowed the viewer to float through these spaces.
Coming in to the start of the second section in 3/8 time, the feeling is much more lively and industrious, like a well-oiled machine. It was a no-brainer to show the first instance of the couple’s daily routine here. I wanted diagonal movement across the screen to complement this energy, which was why we went with an overhead shot showing Joan and Barry’s arms reaching out, back and forth. The movements needed to flow and be fluid, to show that they’d done this many times before.
Empty hallway - introducing the space
Routine - overhead shot
The montage of routines was a way to subtly show the progression of Joan’s illness through the passage of time. These montages were punctuated by milestone events, such as Barry finding the garden glove in the fridge, the night garden scene, and Barry packing Joan’s suitcase.
The interruptions of flashbacks, not only reveal the moments that have led up to this present journey down the corridor, they also represent the disruptive nature the illness has on our couple.
In my next post, I’ll go through the reasons behind the choice of colours, shadows, and visual motifs; and run down some of the logistical production side of things. See you in the next post!