Presented with Outlook Nebraska and Radio Talking Book Service.
“The challenge of how to represent John’s account of blindness on film became entwined with the question of how to present these disembodied voices. We began to build on the idea of the dislocation of sound and image as the aesthetic premise for the film.
[…] Actors Dan Skinner and Simone Kirby learned the rhythms and cadences of John and Marilyn’s words to master the lip-synching technique. Instead of having a sound recordist on set, we had a ‘playback engineer’. Each line of dialogue was prompted by a series of audio pips to help timings.
[…] We worked with cinematographer Gerry Floyd to devise creative restrictions for the visual approach. All characters besides John and Marilyn would elude the camera, often framed only in fragments, especially avoiding eyes to suggest the loss of eye contact John mourns in blindness.
We used longer lenses, never shooting establishing shots that might give the audience a privileged understanding of the space. We wanted the camera to be sensitive to tactile details to foreground the new primacy of touch, and often designed scenes based around their potential for sound design.
[…] No on-set sound was recorded during the shoot and the supporting cast re-recorded their lines using ADR, continuing the dislocation of sound and picture which had become a guiding principle.”
— Peter Middleton & James Spinney
Following the film will be a panel discussion with Otis Rollins, an Outlook Nebraska Associate and machine operator who experienced vision loss in his twenties; Tracy Grothe, a professional counselor dedicated to supporting the mental health needs of people with disabilities; and Dr. John Shepherd, Director of the Weigel Williamson Center for Visual Rehabilitation at UNMC. Bekah Jerde, Assistant Director of Radio Talking Book Service will moderate.
