How do you narrate the feeling of experiencing a concert with a symphony orchestra? How do you translate that feeling of complexity into film? The feeling of living in a symphony, sliding onwards from a quivering harp string to the controlled flick of a violin bow. Wrapped in the sound of a dogged trumpet, swirled around in a whirlwind of perfectly timed paces making the symphony perforate you and somehow along the way inhabit you.
We did it this way:
Throughout the film you zoom in on different elements. A reflection of how you would experience the concert yourself, when you swiftly discover a haunting trombone or suddenly notice the baton vibrating in the air, coaxing the beginning of the next movement. We spoke to members of the audience as well as members of the orchestra to be able to narrate the feeling of a symphony as well convey as the versatility and vast comprehensiveness of the symphony orchestras abilities and the fact that no symphony is ever performed the same way twice. Every topic is highlighted by the score, defining the films’ pace.
The film is shot with an anamorphic lens to underline the grand feeling of a symphony playing and mimic the grand Hollywood feel and the format is 2,35:1 which enabled us to show the entire width of both the orchestra and the music. The lighting is constructed to create a sublime reality, playing against the already existing color scheme of the concert hall, and applying a couple of identifiable lightning sources such as the spotlight the conductor, dabbling between soft framing key lights and cool contrasting edge lights.
The goal was to make a testimonial that would reflect sitting in the audience watching a concert – to convey how experiencing classic musical can feel like and how and why the music somehow happens to stay within you long after you left the concert hall.
