American Cinematographer - July 2007 - 72
Short Takes A Surrealistic Ghost Story by Elina Shatkin Right: A young boy (Blaine Miller) bonds with the spirit of a dead woman (Kathryn Robinson) in Rose. Below: Cinematographer Adam David Meltzer (far left), 1st AC Aaron Schuh and Robinson go out on a limb for their art. C 72 July 2007 Photos and frame grabs by Adam David Meltzer, courtesy of Hoku Uchiyama. inematographer Adam David Meltzer knew he wanted to collaborate with director Hoku Uchiyama the moment he walked into the cafeteria at Art Center College of Design and saw Uchiyama storyboarding a spec spot for a competition. “It combined puppets and live action in a way that was visually inventive and very bold,” says Meltzer. Uchiyama’s spot, a PSA about drunk driving, went on to win second place at the Cannes Young Directors Awards in 2003. When Uchiyama met with Meltzer to discuss the short film Rose, about a young man who returns every year to the same spot on the same day to commune with the ghost of a dead woman, he came with equally unique and comprehensive ideas about the visuals. “Hoku had done illustrations of all the characters and all the costumes,” Meltzer recalls. “He was already in the process of storyboarding and creating animatics. He had put all of this on a DVD that he was presenting to people he wanted to work with.” Uchiyama wanted to emphasize the story’s fairytale elements. “I’ve always been in love with classic fairytale images that are extreme, evocative and very simple,” says the director. “They have a way of staying with you.” Uchiyama and Meltzer took inspiration from Stephen Gammell’s illustrations for Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, a book that features high-
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - July 2007
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