“In January of 2020, cinematographer Ken Ozuna and I were prepping a low-budget short I had written and was going to direct and that he was going to shoot. We went Downtown in Chicago one afternoon to test his lenses and get a handful of atmospheric reference shots. The pandemic shut the city down a few weeks later and we shelved the project (along with most other things in our lives).
“Months went by as we scrambled and clawed for new creative outlets. Finally, I realized that our test footage was itself the opportunity we were pining for. The anxiety, indecision, and menace were planning to base the film around were already present in those few shots we got that afternoon by the Chicago River.
“I did a first pass with my Dell’s home video editor (which is a joke) and quickly saw that I needed to get serious. I acquired a new setup and got to work educating myself with some professional-grade software.”
This is River Walk, shot in Chicago in January, 2020, edited on DaVinci Resolve 16.
Matt and Ken are only just getting started…