Last week, I watched new indie sci-fi thriller The Vast of Night, which recently released on Amazon Prime. Set in a small New Mexico town, the two leads are working the high school radio one night and start hearing unusual white noise over the airwaves. After a report of strange lights in the sky, things start to get a little bit peculiar…
Now, I’ll say upfront, I didn’t really enjoy the film. It had some great things about it: the script is on fire; the sets and costumes are great and the way the threat goes unseen is pretty clever. But on the whole, I found it quite self-indulgent; simply slow and not very gripping.
However, there was one shot that really caught my attention that deserves to be celebrated — especially when this is a low budget indie and debut feature for its director.
Chilean DP M.I. Littin-Menz chooses to move the camera at high-speed in real time, at a low level across the town. It’s particularly impressive, as it crosses different ground surfaces and through tight gaps, and lasts a good few minutes. An interview on IndieWire with the film’s director, Andrew Patterson, helps explain how they achieved the shot.
It’s really cool to read that such an ambitious shot can be achieved through a clear vision and determination, and can claim to do something big Hollywood blockbusters like 1917 also do, but at a fraction of the budget. And unlike 1917, which is known for its seamless one-shot approach, I totally missed that this shot was created by stitching footage together — which speaks to the quality of the VFX work involved.
Take a look at the video below to see a Q&A with the cast and crew talking about the shot and where you can also see a clip of the shot itself.