SMALL WORLD was the winner of BEST DANCE FILM at the March 2021 Dance & Music Film Festival.
1. What motivated you to make this film?
Leah and I are a husband and wife team who regularly do artistic projects throughout the year and quarantine had put a hold on our regular creative outlets so we started to brainstorm what we could do in our living room that represented the year for us and the people around us. We wanted to make something that encapsulated how 2020 was going so far, and I think everyone can relate on some level.
2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this short?
We created a few iterations of the piece and kept going back to refilming because we wanted to perfect it and there are a lot of moving pieces in the dance. All in all it took us about 2 weeks from start to finish.
3. How would you describe your short film in two words!?
Optical Illusion-y
4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?
The biggest challenge for Small World was finding a way to film in our living room without sacrificing the look that you would get in a proper video studio. How do you make a small living room look good? We had to experiment a bunch to find the best set design and lighting that we could pull off in the limited space.
5. What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video?
It was a whirlwind! I think Leah was close to tears and kept talking about how the things that were being said in the feedback video is why we make art. It’s about impacting people! Making people feel and think! With video projects you rarely get feedback or even know when people are watching it, so the feedback video was awesome.
Watch the Audience FEEDBACK Video:
6. How did you come up with the idea for this short film?
A big part of this piece is working within limitations. We didn’t have a lot of space, we didn’t have a budget, we couldn’t involve other artists, so we asked ourselves what could we do? And in exploring what we could do we came up with the small box, in our mind the perfect metaphor for what the United States and the world has been going through. Everything snowballed from there.
7. What film have you seen the most in your life?
How do you pick one?
8. You submitted to the festival via FilmFreeway, what are you feelings of the submission platform from a filmmaker’s perspective?
This is our first foray into film festivals and it’s great that a service like FilmFreeway exists. It made finding festivals to apply to really easy and straightforward, and having a central hub for the status of applications is priceless.. As a newcomer to video festivals we’re very happy filmfreeway exists and now we’re only wondering what we should do next.
9. What song have you listened to the most times in your life?
Oh goodness – that is another tough one and we’ll pass.
10. What is next for you? A new film?
We’re brainstorming a larger film with aerial artists and while it’s too soon to tell we hope to have it figured out before this time next year.
Matthew Toffolo's Summary 