We are an audience to a collision we cannot prevent. 
We feel everything we know slipping through our fingers. 
We are weightless.

 

I wanted to create a piece that got inside the last few milliseconds before a nation's collective insides flipped. Right before the disorienting lurch of the ground beneath our feet, somewhere between disbelief and comprehension, between cheering and horror.

 

I wanted to find that disconnected weightless feeling when something of immeasurable and uncontrollable importance happens right in front of you, and then run it backwards to the decisive moment that initiated it.

 

The VO is built from JFK's final speech, given that morning in Ft. Worth before traveling to Dallas.

 

Huge thanks to Rob Lowe, Ginnifer Goodwin and Will Rothhaar for putting up with wildly spinning cameras and split second takes.

 

More thanks to a great team of collaborators and the whole crew at Variable and Jonathan Bregel who co-directed, helping us cover an enormous amount of ground, multiple sets, and Phantom/Red/8mm shooting on an incredibly complex and multi-faceted shoot.

 

Production Company: Variable
Creative Development: National Geographic, Variable & Mill+
Director: Rama Allen & Jonathan Bregel
Executive Producer: Tyler Ginter
Producer: Alex Friedman
Production Supervisor: Paige DeMarco
Cinematographer: Khalid Mohtaseb
VFX Supervisor: Adrian Hurley
Phantom Tech: Edward Richardson
AC/DIT: Daniel Stewart & Jeffrey Levine
Production Designer: Joseph Sciacca
Photographer: Joey L

Post Production: Mill+
Head of Content: Ian Bearce
Post Production Producer: Adrienne Winterhalter & Richard Schwab
Editor: Caleb Woods
Assistant Editor: Jessica Ledoux
Lead Compositor: Danny Morris
Title Design: Wesley Ebelhar
Score/Sound Design: Fall On Your Sword