One branch of blossom
A week of flowers, one branch, a very wide aperture and waiting for the wind.
For about one week each spring, the cherry trees in the park behind our studio flower all at once. Then the petals fall, and it is over. This year we promised ourselves we would not miss it, and we filmed one branch for twenty-five seconds as the wind moved it.
Chapters
- 0:00 Still
- 0:09 The wind arrives
- 0:18 Settling again
One branch
The park is full of trees, and the obvious film is a wide shot of all of them, pink against blue. We tried it. It looked like a postcard. So we chose one branch and filmed it close, against a soft blue sky, and let the wind do the work. A single branch, moving, felt more like spring than a hundred trees standing still.
Soft focus
We used a lens with a very wide aperture, which keeps only a small part of the picture sharp. The flowers nearest the camera are sharp; the ones behind fade into soft pink shapes. This draws the eye to a few flowers and makes the background feel like light rather than detail.
Waiting for wind
On a still day, blossom does not move, and a film of something that does not move is a photograph. We waited for a light breeze, the kind that sways a branch without shaking it. It came in short gusts every few minutes, and we filmed each one.
Wind is the cheapest special effect in film. You just have to wait for it.
Noa Park
Colour
Cherry blossom is a difficult colour for cameras. Pink against a bright sky can easily turn white or slightly purple. We exposed for the petals and let the sky go pale, then warmed the colour very slightly in the edit, to bring back the pink we saw.
The sound
Cherry blossom makes almost no sound. The soft noise in the film is the branch itself, moving, mixed with distant birdsong and the hum of the city. Lina recorded it with a microphone close to the branch, on a still morning, and blended in a recording of the park from a few minutes later. It is quiet on purpose. A film of blossom with loud music would tell you how to feel. We wanted you to just notice it.
The week after
Seven days later, the same branch was green. The petals covered the path below like snow, and children were throwing them at each other. We filmed that too. It is in our drafts, waiting for the right film.