Electronic Press Kit

Tagline:

Between sound and silence, between life and death… there lies a coda.

Synopsis:

Coda (n): "A new theme introduced at the end of a musical composition to emphasise the sense of finality." Inspired by the films of Deco Dawson and Maya Deren, this silent, black & white film provides a brief, surrealistic glimpse into one moment of this woman's existence: the coda of her life. Is it an ending, or a place between?

Credits:

Writer/Director/Cinematographer/Editor – Cara Mumford
Actor – Emma Claire Miller
Assistant Camera/Key Grip/Gaffer – Zenon Sept
Production Assistant – Oriana Evoy
Hair & Makeup – December Dawn

Production Notes:

Coda in G Minor was inspired thematically by the Blue October song Weight of the World, visually by Deco Dawson's film Knout and poetically by Maya Deren's film Meshes of the Afternoon Then, after working on James Reckseidler's film, The Ice Climber's Waltz, I was itching to try my hand at Super 8 filming. James generously loaned me one of his cameras and, after a five-minute lesson on how to shoot Super 8, I was ready to film Coda. I cast the lead from my first workshop film and we got together with a couple of my other volunteers from that film and shot it entirely in my stripped down bathroom.

Although most of the film was processed at the lab, I hand processed the final sequence of the film. I still opted for a digital edit, but I incorporated adaptations of optical printing techniques, such as skip printing and step printing, as taught to me by Deco Dawson while he was the artist-in-residence at the Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers (CSIF). I have additional footage that I shot for the film, but decided that I preferred the ambiguity of this edit. I am considering a companion piece to Coda in G Minor that would incorporate that other footage and experiment with other visual styles.

A full Electronic Press Kit (EPK) for Coda is available as an online pdf.

FFWD Magazine

We had the press pre-screening of a few of the $100 Film Festival selections last Saturday. "Coda in G Minor" was one of the dozen or so films shown, so I was quite excited to see my first "review" when FFWD came out this week. Alas, I realize that a "preview" doesn't necessarily mean a "review," i.e. no opinions necessary. Here's the blurb:

Coda in G Minor explores the concept of finality, borrowing from a classical music term, and writer-cum-filmmaker Cara Mumford says she was inspired by the work of Deco Dawson, the Winnipeg filmmaker who was CSIF’s director-in-residence last fall.

So I have no idea whether the journalist liked my film, was bored to tears by my film, didn't understand my film, or any of the many other scenarios I could think up. But press is still press, right? Here's the link for those of you who want to read the full article: Low Budget, High Returns... $100 Film Festival marks its 16th year of shoestring filmmaking.