Glen Milner does some really nice short film work. The piece below was commissioned by Steinway & Sons to highlight and reveal the craft that goes into producing one of their pianos. Working with a small crew, Milner shooting with Camera Assistant Arne Zacher, the two created a wonderfully timed black and white short. The editing is tied tightly to the original composition by Elwin Hedrijanto and Dominic Ferris with cuts hitting on time to the music. In just two and a half minutes Milner shows the amount of skilled work and love that goes into producing a Steinway. The film highlights the Hamburg factory, the workers, the 1200 parts in each piano, and slowly builds through the performance by Hedrijanto and Ferris ending with the star of the show on stage.
Glen Milner
Birth of a Book, A Short Film by Glen Milner.
This wonderful video by Glen Milner for the Telegraph is a great example of timing with editing, and story telling only with visuals. Even if you know nothing about the printing and publishing industry, you get the complexities from watching this.
Milner’s short film, shows off the craft of printing and binding a book by hand. A craft that is in many ways a dying art form in this ages of pixels and e-books. (At the beginning there is a shot of rubylith overlays being placed over a piece of film. When was the last time you thought of that?)
Through the entire film, there is a rhythm, created by the edits that guide you through the entire process from burning plates, to numbering the limited edition. The film is only two minutes long, yet it goes through the entire process.
“Birth of a Book” has a great score, a great look, and really solid editing.
Shot at Smith-Settle Printers, Leeds, England. The book being printed is Suzanne St Albans’ ‘Mango and Mimosa’ published as part of the Slightly Foxed series.
Shot, Directed & Edited by Glen Milner
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