'The Door' Juanita Wilson and James Flynn

The Door is a universal symbol of life, of death, of entering the next life. It has many associations inherent in it, both positive and negative. It can mean an opportunity gained or an opportunity lost: As one door opens, another one closes...

The film opens with an absurd act: stealing a door. This raises a question in the viewer's mind, a question which is not answered until the final shot where the door's purpose is revealed. Then, what had seemed an absurd act turns into a simple statement of human dignity, of people making sense of loss through ritual.

THE DOOR reflects the fact that it is based on someone's testimony. Images are impressionistic, haunting, like fragments of memories which the viewer must piece together. Although the main character, Nikolai, gives us the facts, he himself is trying to make sense of them in his own mind.

The story moves forwards and backwards in time, revealing the events retrospectively as the viewer bears witness to the universal tragedy of Chernobyl through the eyes of one man.

This short was nominated for an Oscar this year and you can see why. The way it is shot is beautiful, we love the way the style of cinematography changes dramatically as the narrative goes on. The one shot that stood out is the hand held/steady cam shout of where they are evacuating their home it creates such an interaction as a viewer ( making you feel there). The colour grading is perfect it gives the whole film grimy feel making the characters look weathered and kind of beaten. We really like the way the film doesn't rely on music to create emotion upon the audience is is purely the action on screen. These techniques will help to produce emotions and tension with our production.