Interview: Short Films of Khris Burton
Khris Burton is an award-winning film/commercial director and cinematographer from Martinique, French West Indies. We are now here featuring his short films, and had an interview with him.
Nanny(2015)-1 minute
Coming back from the Market for her Granny, Nanny who have felt asleep wakes up and realize that the night is falling. As she runs back home as fast as she can, she makes the most frightening encounter ever...
Cast : Gloriah Bonheur, Lucienne Rosier, Writer, Director, DOP : Khris Burton
Maybe Another Time(2013)-1 minute
Marc & Juliajust met each other but already have to say goodbye.
Cast : Vincent Vermignon, Gloriah Bonheur, Writer, Director, DOP : Khris Burton
Interviewed by Anthony Huang.
Could you please talk about the ending of "Nanny" and the general structure of the film?
Nanny is a fictional tale about a young Caribbean lady that finds herself trapped in the limbo of her own subconscious. There, she has to fight her own fears, demons to find her way out. It’s like being sick, you have to heal yourself by willing to live. Her grandmother is her helper and with her voice she tries to guide her out of "the forest". Actually the ending of this one minute version of the story is not happy nor tragic it’s more hopeful. The idea is to give the audience the desire to know more about the story of Nanny. The structure is more teaser like, we are getting closer to a climax we don’t show and then we have a very open ending.
We hear your characters speaking in English and French simultaneously, could you please talk more about your use of both languages?
In the French Caribbean we are between two worlds. France (as we are part of it) and the Caribbean. Our culture and especially our movies are not considered as part of the French culture. We have to struggle more than any other French citizen to have serious (non funny) representation of the French antilles and its people. That’s why I have decided to write and shoot in English. Maybe Another Time has won the Best Ultra Short Award at International Film Awards of Berlin in 2014, TOP Rated Award and Jury 1st Commandations at Filminute 2013. It also went touring worldwide including Alaska, China, Brazil, Western Europe, and South Korea. This is very encouraging for us. It’s the proof that despite the contempt we have endured for many years our cinema, our stories can exist.
Can you talk about your experience working with natural light in these two short films?
Well, natural light does not necessary means natural colors. The key is good preparation : it’s better for you to know how you’re going to color correct the footage before shooting. For instance in Nanny I new i wanted a night-like mood, but we’ve planned to shoot day-for-night so that I would have enough latitude in post with the footage. In maybe another time the issue was to shoot both characters with only one light source (the sun). The time of day was at sunset and we had only two hours to shoot the entire movie. So I used one reflector and I had to make my actors (Vincent Vermigqon & Gloria Bonheur) exchange places on every close ups so they could be lit correctly.
What will be your next personal project?
I’m working on turning Nanny into a series and a feature film. I’m also working on a Sci-Fi series called S0.CI3.TY starring Vincent Vermignon. And a couple other projects I will announce by the end of this year.
