12:44“You really know how to make a grown women cry. The site looks just beautiful. Something I have wanted to tackle for a long time. Your skill level and professionalism is something to marvel at.”Anne Willis, de la terre Skincare
A film by Will Mosley, 2018. All the films
Film · Good Friends · 2018
Two friends. One tight budget.
A day out in Asheville with his friend John: a parking garage, a meter they refuse to overpay, a rooftop and an honest talk about what makes a good friend and what makes a bad one. Will shot it, stars in it with John, and cut it into fourteen minutes.
Good vs. badThe film is built as two short lists, three things that make a good friend and three that make a bad one, argued out between the takes.
- 14:01running time, published on YouTube September 9, 2018
- 223shots, counted by scene detection on the film file
- 0.4sthe median shot; 63% of the shots last under a second
- 95sthe longest take, starting at 1:41
The film, cut down
Fourteen minutes, in six, fifteen or thirty seconds.
01 · The day
A garage, an elevator, a roof.
The day climbs. It starts in the car, waits out the parking meter, rides the elevator up and ends on a rooftop with the whole city under it. Six frames in film order, timecode under each.
Down below
2:04
4:08
Going up
5:12
6:12
On top
9:40
12:44
02 · The talk
What makes a good friend.
Most of the film is the two of them talking. Trust, showing up, being the one who tells you when you are doing too much. The longest take in the film is one of these, a minute and a half in the car without a cut.
Frames at 2:04, 4:08 and 5:12.
03 · The roof
Up top, the city opens.
Then the elevator doors open and the film breathes out: concrete, clouds and the Blue Ridge on every side. The shots get wider and slower, and the city becomes the third person in the conversation.
The loop at the top of the page plays without sound. The film itself is below.
04 · Two cameras
His camera. John’s camera.
Will was shooting on a budget Canon SL2; John brought a Sony. So they end the day by filming the same rooftop on both and labeling each shot on screen, a side-by-side test cut right into the story.
The camera labels are part of the film. Frames at 9:40 and 10:20.
05 · The way out
Back down, still talking.
The garage again, the car again, the argument about who owes whom for parking. The film closes the way the day did, two friends laughing on the drive out and heading for coffee.
06 · The cut
223 shots in fourteen minutes.
Every bar below is one shot, as wide as it runs on screen. The quick bursts are the montage pieces between scenes; the long bars are the talks, where the camera just stays.
Each bar is one shot, as wide as it runs, in film order
Counted with scene detection (ffmpeg, scene score over 0.35, frames scaled to 480 wide) on the film file. The median shot is 0.4 seconds. Will’s own shot sheets for this film, made at the same threshold, list 200.
Meet Will
Every film here was shot and cut by Will.
This one is part of the films he makes about his own life: friends, family, and the days that go somewhere he did not plan.
Next film: Unexpected Pride →
CreditA film by Will Mosley, who directed, shot and edited it on a Canon SL2. His friend John appears as himself. Published on Will’s channel in 2018.