“The Moment Before” for the College of Arts and Lettersfeatured

The latest in the Missouri State College of Arts and Letters (COAL) Rise and Shine series of videos features the department of theatre and dance. (It’s a follow-up to last spring’s release, “Ensemble.” )

I produced and co-directed this one. I also wrote, but I got a big assist from one of Missouri State’s most well-known grads, John Goodman.

A few years back, Goodman received an honorary doctorate from Missouri State, and he gave this remarkable speech. When this speech was filmed, it was primarily intended for livestreaming and archival purposes. Meaning: the things you think about when you’re filming cinematically — lighting, frame composition — just weren’t part of the equation.

Goodman is, of course, a star and a master practitioner of his craft, which shows in every subtly imbued syllable. So we had this existing footage of an iconic alumnus sharing his own reflections — with specificity and some degree of intimacy — on his experiences as a student. From a producing standpoint, that’s like getting handed a brick of gold. We just needed a story concept that would account for the technical limitations of the footage we had.

Luckily, the audio track was clean and clear, but there wasn’t any way of fixing the issues with lighting and composition. So we decided to make them look intentional by exaggerating them.

The creative team at Springfield-based Locke and Stache, who partnered with us on this project, further degraded the file to make it look like it was shot on 8 millimeter and run through a vintage projector. This not only solved the problem with the original file, it established a gritty (yet appealing) visual aesthetic for the whole piece. A brilliant solution.

This projection of John Goodman then became the structural backbone of the video’s concept. His reflections serve as commentary for a separate narrative I scripted, which features theatre and dance students getting ready for their opening night. I incorporated dancers into the projection narrative, so it took on kind of a poetic quality — almost outside time. And this became an interesting counterpoint to the opening night narrative, where the sense of the approaching curtain feels palpable.

For time’s sake, we couldn’t use all of Goodman’s speech (but I encourage you to listen to the whole thing — it’s fantastic), so I edited together the portions that spoke most broadly to the student experience.

At one point, Goodman says, “This is the right place, and this is the right time. And I wish you everything.” This is a beautiful thing to say, and his delivery of it has such authenticity and depth. It became the tipping point in the video’s emotional climax. We built this climax toward another idea that took on thematic importance: breath.

Anyone who’s been through professionally-oriented actor training knows how central “the breath” is. For stage actors, breathing is the engine of a performance. And on camera, it’s one of the clearest tools for conveying an emotional state. So it’s fitting that Goodman wove this idea into his speech, and as a result, breathing is everywhere in “The Moment Before.” Our sound designer, Colton Jackson, layered in sounds of breath throughout — just one aspect of a thoughtfully constructed soundscape.

And while I’m on that topic, the whole team behind this piece was phenomenal. Josh Pfaff, director of photography, along with his partners Austin Elliott and Chris Olson, skillfully manifested the pretty-n-gritty look I mentioned above. Logan Triplett delivered a stunning edit, which involved cutting and pacing multiple timelines, including present action along with something that feels closer to memory. Composer Tyler Durham developed an elegant, sensitive score that elevates all the emotional beats.

And not one frame would have happened without the vision and support of Dr. Shawn Wahl, COAL dean. He’s willing to get behind big, complex concepts, which is pretty special.

So I’d say there’s not a weak link in this project, but it’s bigger than that. Every link was, in fact, strong. Please go read about them all here.