"Moving On" with Laughter and Suspense
Moving On (2023) is my second movie as colorist with producer/writer/director Paul Weitz and cinematographer Tobias Datum. Like our previous project Grandma (2015), the new movie is a comedy interwoven with a serious dramatic theme. It's really funny, suspenseful and emotionally moving all at the same time. Quite a balancing act, and something at which Paul is pretty genius. To express the mixed narrative tone though color we needed to find a look that would envelope the audience in the suspense but also allow them to laugh. My method on Moving On was unique in that in addition to doing the finishing color, I worked on set throughout production coloring the dailies as a Local 600 Digital Image Technician. With limited color finishing hours, this afforded me the most time possible exploring the image to find the right look for the movie. In the end we arrived at a dense image with deep shadows, rich colors and strong color contrast, avoiding “high-key” comedy on one side and desaturated bleakness on the other.
One of my favorite images is an early morning shot of the heroine, Claire, sitting on a bed. At this point in the story she isn’t sure of the path she is on. The room is shrouded in shadow, but it is not dark. We see everything (including her ex, asleep in the bed behind her). The rosy pink of dawn in the curtain and on the highlight of the bed makes the room feel quite cool, even though the balance is in fact relatively neutral —uncertain color for an uncertain moment. It is rewarding to find this kind of complexity in adjusting the color of a movie. It makes me want to watch the movie! I’ve posted this still here with a few other of my favorites. I hope they will entice you to go see it, yourself.
I should mention that Claire is played by Jane Fonda. Jane Fonda! I was freaking out every day. Her performance is very moving. Just a few other legends of cinema you’ll see in this movie: Lily Tomlin, Malcolm McDowell and Richard Roundtree. It’s an amazing cast they put together. A limited theatrical release begins on March 17, 2023. A broader release after that, I am sure. It’s a good movie. Fun, kinda twisted and very satisfying.
