Friday, January 5, 2018

Films with Empathy

Every now and again, when writing a treatment, I find myself describing one of the objectives is “to create a sense of empathy.” And this short stood out to me as an example of when a film can sucker punch you right in the feels.

I also noticed a few parallels as it relates to the kind of work we do. For example, the scene with Salote and her manager could be compared to some of the communication and coaching themes that we deal with from time to time. Likewise, the idea that “everyone has a story” and “you never know what another person is going through” is a concept we've explored on a few occasions and I specifically like how, in this example, the audience is learning Salote's true motives along with the supporting characters - the misdirection is very clever.

Lastly, this film is simply shot really well. I would be interested in thinking about how we might be about to bring this sort of cinematic quality to our work as well.

Night Shift from Zia Mandviwalla on Vimeo.