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Est. Reading Time: 4 Minutes

MARK (M) Tell us a little about yourself - when did you become interested in film and filmmaking?

HANNA (H) I’ve always been interested in film! In middle school and especially in high school, I spent a lot of time watching movies, thinking about movies, and wanting to learn more about how movies were made. I would pull at least one all-nighter during the week watching movies.

M I love the opening quote by Bernie Krause, I think it perfectly captures the essence of your film. Did you always have that quote in mind when you were conceptualizing the film, or did you think about using it later, as you were working on and piecing the film together?

H I discovered it later on when I was piecing it together. I had a few different ideas going into the film that took a while to experiment with and eventually eliminate. Bernie’s quote really stuck with me so over time I realized it was worth adding to the beginning of the film.

M Were you always planning to play the whistler in the film - was it just a natural and simple choice for you, or did you put a bit of thought into it? Whether intentional or not, I think it does make the film more of a personal piece and statement which is awesome.  

H Thanks! I think it was a bit of a practical choice since we shot this during the pandemic but I’m also a little camera shy. I wanted to have an opportunity to break that wall and experiment with the idea of being in my own work.

On Sound Design

M With sound playing such a crucial role in your film, how long did you spend recording and mixing sound? And were all the sounds specifically recorded within the outer lands of Staten Island?    

H I wish I had the budget to use only sounds from the outer lands! Sometimes you just need very specific sounds to get across your message so it’s not really possible. I rented an ambisonic microphone for a few days where I took field recordings from different parts of south shore Staten Island and then I used different sound libraries to build the design.

For the sound mix - I worked on my own mix for a number of weeks before passing it off to ‘Somepoint Sound’ who did their own pass, and then we went back and forth until it worked.

M And please tell us a little about your approach to designing and showcasing the differences in sound between nature and the industralised world?

H It’s interesting because for the most part, they’re not actually mixed that differently. If you use spectograms to do an acoustic analysis of different soundscapes, nature actually has a much richer variety of information in sounds from the industrial world. In nature, sound is sort of evenly distributed across a wide frequency spectrum (unless you’re next to a very loud body of water). In urbanized areas, sounds are sort of clogged, cluttered and create a somewhat non-sensical portrait of space. It would be really great if we noticed this more and made urban design decisions or technology decisions based on what they do to our ability to perceive natural soundscapes.

‘A great silence is spreading over the natural world, even as the sound of man is becoming deafening’

— Bernie Krause

On Inspiration

M What are some of the films and who are some of the filmmakers that inspire you, and why?

H Oh man, there’s so many films and filmmakers that inspire me - it’s overwhelming to really think about. Top of the mind for me right now are John Ford and Gus Van Sant. For this one, I looked a lot to Alma Har’el’s work and Terrence Malick’s To the Wonder (2012).

On The Future

M What are you planning to make next?

H I am working on my first narrative short film which is a 13 minute romantic drama that we shot last spring in Chicago. I’m hoping to submit the film to festivals this fall so stay tuned for updates :)

Mark’s Final Thoughts

• So interesting to learn that the opening quote was added when she was piecing the film together - it’s kind of crazy how perfectly it fits which tells me that she was tapping into some kind of truth while making the film.

• Also great to see Hanna delve a bit more into the differences in sound between nature and the urbanized world - can sense her passion and get the feeling that she has more to say.

• And I think it’s cool that she will explore a different genre within her next film, looking forward to it!

  Tags Documentary Experimental Landscape Live-action

The founder of Hommage, Mark Shaba published this interview on 01.10.2021. Mark is a filmmaker from Victoria, Australia. He respectfully acknowledges the past and present traditional owners of the land on which he creates, promotes and screens art, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation who are the custodians.