style |
the hour of living is a character driven comedy-drama that deals with what’s going on inside theo and george. it’s a multi-layered, subtle and in places very funny examination of how two people relate to each other when they are connected from the outset through a very absent third. the film takes its themes and its characters very seriously, but not itself. there’s an irreverent humour about it and it deliberately plays with, and undermines, genre. both its central characters - and as it happens all the other featured characters - are somehow outsiders, they are all people who, each in their own way, don’t fit the mould. so neither does the film. it combines oddball character comedy with psychological drama. it embraces surrealism and toys with perceptions of reality. it doesn’t follow the classic three-act structure and its visual language is free. the references are wide but firmly in the indie-arthouse bracket. jim jarmush, the cohen brothers, gus van sant, peter greenaway and derek jarman and early almodóvar all spring to mind... |
realisation
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the hour of living is a resolutely independent no-budget project.
written and produced by sebastian michael under the optimist label, together with swiss coproducer pascal verdosci and falling rocks, its finance comes from optimist’s fundaframe.org scheme, which allows people to fund individual frames in films that are yet to be made. in return, framefunders get a credit on the film, together with a jpeg of the actual frame(s) that they’ve funded, as well as other benefits, such as a free download or a DVD/Blu-Ray once the film has been released, depending on the number of frames funded. the hour of living will thus be the first frame-by-frame funded feature film in history. fundaframe has previously been used successfully to finance optimist’s second short film the study of bunkers & mounds in a temperate climate (relatively speaking) which upon completion was ‘highly commended’ in the TCM classic shorts competition and was shown in the official selection of the locarno international film festival. the scheme also financed the short film the ash can by jamie hewitt, which is currently in post-production. the hour of living was shot with a canon eos 5 mark ii digital SLR camera in high definition by video artist and photographer gregor brändli who also worked with sebastian on bunkers & mounds. sebastian michael directs, together with codirector adam berzsenyi bellaagh who directed sebastian’s last play elder latimer is in love at arcola theatre london. principal photography took place in october 2010 on location in switzerland, cornwall and london, with completion expected in january 2012 and an international festival premiere later in the year. this website will follow the progress of the project, and framefunders receive regular updates at key stages on how their contribution is turned into film. |
banner image from our footage, shot on location in london, england