My Story | Hunter

This film was born out of a conversation between Derek Hunter (the main character in the film) and myself. We wanted to start to film personal testimonies of the members of our church in order to archive them for our church’s history and to share them with our congregation and others. What we came up with was a stylized film aimed to convey the story not only through the person telling it but through the filming, framing, and music as well. As a trial we started with his testimony. I had him write it down to help him develop it and to help choose the best way to film it. After reading through it we decided that given the content we would film it in an isolated minimalistic approach. Only being able to see the main character with no background would help isolate the audience’s attention the way the main character was describing his own personal feelings. The harsh lighting was intended to give that same feeling.

As the music was being composed, we felt the same need to space it out and keep it minimal. We went through about 4 different drumbeats till we stuck with the ones we have, minimalistic yet driving toward some point. The keys and guitar were meant to do the same thing. We settled on a key and chord progression that felt melancholic yet hopeful which is what we felt when we watched the testimony. From the first take till the last edit there was this sense that every part of this film should reflect the story as best as it could.