SUNDANCE COLLAB DIRECTORS WORKSHOP SCENE (4:29) d. Nicki Micheaux - Summer 2020
Scene exercise for Sundance Collab Directors Fellow, Nicki Micheaux, based on a script excerpt by Alex Smith. The scene depicts a coming together of a mother and daughter, hampered by a revelation made by the mother about her daughter’s personal life.
The director was interested in conveying an attempt at healing a rift in the relationship of two characters through the deliberate closing of physical distance by the daughter throughout the scene. The footage garnered played out through a series of wide, handheld master shots to fluid medium shots panning between characters upon spoken dialogue to extreme close ups. Maintaining a slow, but deliberate closing of distance by the daughter to the mother as well as preserving dramatic beats through the close ups on way to resolution proved to be the challenge in this piece.