A COAT OF SNOW, the directorial debut of Gordy Hoffman, will be having its final screening in Denver on Saturday, June 2nd at 8:00 p.m. at the Starz FilmCenter. Hoffman is the Sundance-award winning writer of LOVE LIZA, which starred Philip Seymour Hoffman and Kathy Bates.
Digital feature had Hoffman casting unknowns to maintain the look of a home video, followed by an extensive script workshop stretching over three year period. Actors operated the camera throughout the shoot, with final edit containing 29 cuts and no music.
Harrowing finale is a twelve-minute single shot, captured in one take.
Tickets are on sale here.
Hope to see you there!!!
SYNOPSIS
When a girl takes her video camera to her cousin's bachelorette part, the night begins simply as a gathering of friends and family from the odd parts of a woman's life to celebrate her impending marriage. Clothes are noted. Gifts are presented. Champagne. Yet quietly, before they even begin, small accidents lead to serious injury. With the camera finding its way through several hands and eyes, missed connections tailspin into
abandonment and actual chaos, until the bride is missing.
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
Using film to tell the story in A COAT OF SNOW wouldve been more comfortable for the audience, but wouldve been less honest. The conceit of a woman at a bachelorette party videotaping what transpires over the course of a night obviously demands the use of video. And by not shooting on film, or with an orthodox point of view, I knew this picture would be demanding, but by using digital video and making the camera a character in the story, I believed I would be more truthful about what happens to these women. Having characters in the story literally hold the camera creates a cinematic vocabulary quite unfamiliar, in turn rewarding the audience in ways they could not have been had this picture been devised through conventional means.
I passed on a professional camera operator, as I believed traditional camera work, arguably much safer, would yield false results. I also did not cast name actors, as I believed an audiences familiarity with them would greatly distance the story. The combination of unknown actors carrying a camera with the intimacy inherent in the texture of home video vigorously serves the emotional arc of this movie.
I love the nakedness of video. Indeed, it is that vulnerability which makes the impact of what happens in this movie more powerful. If the viewer aspires to embracing the unconventional visual language of A COAT OF SNOW, I believe a true story, told humbly, lays in wait.
Gordy Hoffman
www.acoatofsnowthemovie.com
