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Short Film

Until The Day I Die

This is Walied’s story – an ex ‘Young American’ SA Western Cape street gangster, now turned community barber.

“This is Walied’s story – an ex ‘Young American’ SA Western Cape street gangster, now turned community barber. With bullet holes littering the side of his makeshift tiny barber setup and active gang affairs being conducted just a hair’s breadth away Walied is a great example of surviving by putting family first.”

Lens/Camera Information
Lens series: Panchro/i Classics
Focus lengths: 25mm (used as s35mm lens), 50mm, 75mm, 100mm,
Original Aspect Ratio: 1.9 to 1 for Full DCI 4k delivery
Camera: Red DSMC2 Monstro
Format: Digital
Rental Company:  16oz Studio http://www.16ozstudio.net

DOP Information
Director of Photography:  Anthony Dias http://www.anthonydiasdop.com
Instagram:  http://www.instagram.com/anthonydias1

Production Information
Production: Until The Day I Die
Producer: Tamsin Lower
Director: Michael Lindsay http://www.instagram.com/michaellindsay_film
Production Company:  16oz Film https://www.16ozfilm.com

DOP Anthony Dias on his lens choice:
“ When I came on to the project the Director, Michael Lindsay (who is also a capable cinematographer in his own right) had already decided on Panchro/i Classics. My initial small worry was that to shoot documentary style fast with primes in a dangerous area with minimal crew was idealist and perhaps not practical. I am pleased to say our simple fixed focal length approach was more help than hindrance and the Cooke Panchro/i classics really aided in the creation of the humanist tone we were looking for.

The Director Michael Lindsay’s reasons for using Cooke Panchros:
I wanted to tell Walied’s story within a sincere frame. I wanted no cheap tricks or to inappropriately aetheticize his difficult life. We needed to make sure we didn’t use a visual grammar that borrows from the seductive but cliché-ridden world of representations of urban violence and its parasitical commercial exploitation. This responsibility of not wanting to either sensationalise the extreme violence of our subject’s surroundings or fetishize the poverty of his situation pervaded every formal choice including lens selection. So with this ethical restraint in mind, and the need to stay focused on our subject’s delicately balanced life path, I really needed an unpretentious, simple and honest approach that was in no way brutal or distorting. The central subject of the film (Walied) was included in the process and needed to feel good about both their image and more importantly the truthfulness of our representations. For all these reasons everything was shot on Cooke Panchro/i Classics and the 50mm projected onto a large imager (with a FOV about a 35mm on S35) was used for about 70% of the film.

We hope that the overall look produced by the film’s simple optical approach allows the audience to really hear Walied’s story clearly! We also believe our lens choice offered unforced glimpses at the rare beauty in the tiny margins of such a challenging existence.  ”