Love Distance is Ready
COVID19 set up all the rules for 2020 and probably 10 years ahead or even the rest of our history on Earth. First of all, it broke us and then humbled us to follow the rules and probably stop many of our previous behaviors.
As their projects had to come to an indefinite halt as all of the rest of the world’s film industry, at AZCAfilms they put together a production of a short created during COVID19 and shot under lockdown and following social distancing. The story is about isolation and the need not only to communicate, but to reach out and contact others, physically, deeply. The film itself was filmed in isolation, with each actor’s camera, lights, locations and wardrobe. Of course, they all followed Art Director’s Rita Abreu’s guideline about what should be shown and how and in what position, apart from the color palette and types of clothing, but once actors got their script and rehearsed it with each other, they were all alone in shooting their section. It’s not that actors don’t know how to do that. In fact they are getting more and more resourceful to film themselves acting, since that’s the way they present their casting videos to future possible films, but this time they had to rehearse with director Agatino Zurria, virtually, to get his input not only about light and blocking, but about precise expressions and movements.
Between May and June all the seven actors shot their parts and sent them to the director for review. Once he was happy with the material, post-production commenced. And editing became a very important part of all the process, since each actor submitted three to four takes of their parts, with different energy and giving something new in each one. This provided the Editor, Director Agatino Zurría, with enough material to create a frantic feeling of desperation inside the four walls of each character’s home. Sometimes words are repeated as if they’ve said the same things over and over. Others, the editing imitates the typical digital connection problems we all experience when we can’t hear or see the other person, and the frustration that follows.
As the first cut of the film is ready, it enters the final stage of post-production in which original music is being added by the Venezuelan award winning composer Francisco Quintero, and sound being adjusted by Luis Vivas in the Mixing Room. Nevertheless, the film is ready to travel the world as a time capsule of how we felt during the isolated months of this pandemic that stopped the world for the first time in its history.
Love Distance, chronicles people’s reaction when they realize they put themselves at a dead end street, all alone, and as they are forced to actually isolate themselves, find how much they’ve changed from who they were…or how little they are willing to.
The film’s cast is made up of AZCAfilms’ regulars: Mireya Kilmon, Mark Kroczynski, Annie Jones, Lizandra Parra and Miguel García, and it includes two new actors to the troupe: Fernando Borrego and Marcel Para.
Producer Aurelina Romero made sure communication was open at all times, so that actors could contact each other and the crew. It is definitely a challenge for a movie person, used to team work, to be requested to create in the loneliness of their own home, and still being part of a bigger picture, but LOVE DISTANCE achieved it, and is now ready for its festival circuit round.