Why did you shoot all handheld?

Anyone who knows me, knows that I favor handheld. I come from a documentary background and it's the freedom to be able to react to the moment that's most appealing to me. I especially love this in narrative situations because I can be responsive based on what's happening story-wise and lighting-wise. I like to "dance" with the actors and I become a character in the story with them via the camera. Any operator will say the same thing, but when you're handheld it's the least restricted way. If you move a few steps in one direction, then an amazing flare could happen or you catch the right look from an actor from a not so typical angle. You can emotionally enable the audience and bring them deeper into the story and perspective of the characters. I call it a "static handheld" or "organic camera." It's not a frenetic handheld, but you can feel the camera is alive. Both characters have put up a wall around themselves and I shot it in hopes I could make the audience feel as though they were in trapped behind that wall with them.

Looking back now, if financially you could have afforded film, would you have shot film instead?

If I could go back in time and shoot this project on film, I wouldn’t. For me DPing, directing and operating would have been overwhelming if I couldn’t know what I had gotten- it wouldn’t have been impossible but it would have added another layer of the unknown. It was nice to have the immediacy of the digital workflow and knowing I was getting exactly what I was getting while I was working all three of those jobs. It enabled me to worry less about the technical end because I could get away with a lot in digital in terms of the shooting style. Also being so comfortable with the ALEXA, I know how to light it naturalistically and quickly.