Tenderness
Interpreting the Spirit of Joshua Edward Smith’s Poetry
Directed by Adam Wilson
Interview by Tatev Avetisyan
In his recent short film Tenderness, LA-based director Adam Wilson, enthralled by the life story and the character of American poet Joshua Edward Smith, decides to feature him and his work within a surrealistic visual narrative. Exploring Smith’s fondness for the Queen’s Gambit, the director sets the viewer at the chess table along with the poet.
On par with Tenderness, Wilson has created many projects focused on designing an experience with the utmost focus on senses and light - ARCTERYX - Flow With Life, Man in Bloom, and others. In conversation with Curation Hour, Wilson - the production designer and director - introduce us to Tenderness’ backstory, the challenges of designing a chess game scene and the inspiration behind the project.
How did you get involved in filmmaking?
I went to school for sculpture installation art and wanted to be a sculptor (which I did for a time). But all my friends were in film school, so I was peer pressured into performing acts of production design on their films. From there, I started designing music videos, commercials and, eventually, feature films. I loved the filmmaking process because of its collaborative nature.
I started directing my own films as a way of recapturing the spirit of my time as a sculpture student. It was a time of pure self-expression, where my visual concepts materialised in a physical form. Now I can pair that spirit of self-expression with the collaborative filmmaking process to have my ideas materialise in a digital form. It is very satisfying.
Talk us through the concept of Tenderness. How did the collaboration with the writer, Joshua Edward Smith, come about; what was the brief like, and how did you interpret it?
Tenderness was born out of the conversation. We were introduced through a director friend of mine a few years back. Joshua was making poetry albums and was interested in pairing them with visuals. Like a music video for poetry. Poetry has such a vibe, so I thought let's do a performance of sorts and wrap Josh up in themes relevant to his state of mind while writing the poem Tenderness. Joshua described his life at the time (he was 23) as a race against time with himself. He was full of ambition and creative energy and was putting a lot of pressure on himself. He was a big fan of the Queen’s Gambit, so we decided to have him play chess against himself and then immerse him in a visual world of chess with themes of the passing time. The film is abstract surrealism, leaning more towards the surreal than the abstract.
Where do you draw inspiration from when it comes to building your projects, say, for Tenderness?
For this project, I took inspiration from Salvador Dali, a bit of M.C. Escher, and the film, Equilibrium by Alex Morin.
What is the touchpoint of film and poetry? Is this a genre you would see growth in the future?
I think it is whatever you make it. I am not super interested in setting rules or following them. In the case of Tenderness, I was interested in Josh more than in the poem. I think he is an interesting person I wanted people to know about and experience. Joshua is kind-hearted and has a unique perspective on the world. He is not only a poet, but also a filmmaker and an overall great thinker.
Where did you shoot the film? And how long did it take to complete it?
I shot the film last May in Toronto, so it took about eight months to complete.
What challenges did you face while directing Tenderness?
Money. This was a self-funded project that was very technically involved, so it was a challenge putting all the pieces together. VFX artist Luke Bellissimo was the star of the show going all in.
“Poetry has such a vibe, so I thought let’s do a performance of sorts and wrap Josh up in themes relevant to his state of mind while writing the poem Tenderness”
Do you think the budget limitations have somehow reshaped your initial idea of Joshua Smith's story?
Certainly, we knew we were limited in time and wanted to shoot motion control, so we had to make creative choices. And many of the scenes we thought of initially didn't make the cut or were elaborated on in the post. Both Nick Deliberto (editor) and Luke Bellissimo (VFX) had huge influences on how the visuals were built; it became a bit of a collaborative collage work in the end.
Was there any scene in the film that was particularly challenging to shoot? Why and how did you make it work?
The chess-playing scene was a big challenge. The shot took about half a day to shoot and about four hours to set up the day before. We first lined up the shot with stand-ins, rehearsed the camera move several times then locked in the move we liked the most. We then shot it in layers, starting with ‘Josh 1’ on the right side of the frame. I was sitting on the left side, playing against him, calling out the timing using a metronome to help set the pace. Once we shot a version we loved, we moved on to the layer for ‘Josh 2’. We set up a few monitors for me so that I could watch the live playback of the previous layer and again play against Josh, now on the left side of the frame. We played over and over until our gameplay was synced with the previous layer. Once the gameplay was locked we moved onto the position of the 3rd Josh in that shot. We could be a bit looser on this one, so we shot some variations. The rest is post-stitching.
Who are your filmmaking influencers? What films have shaped your working aesthetics?
I am a big SciFi fan, I love Blade Runner films. That is my go to with that question. But I am like a sponge: I soak it all up, then squeeze it out.
Are you currently working on new projects?
I am currently directing a new EE campaign in the UK as well as developing my first narrative film to be shot next winter.
Director: Adam William Wilson
Poetry and Performance: Joshua Edward Smith
Production Company: Goodbye And Milk
Executive Producer: Natalia Guled
Line Producer: Stephen Bodner
VFX- Luke Bellissimo
Editor - Nick Deliberto
DOP- Kris Belchevski
Sound design- Chris Nungary
Colorist- Ana Escorse
Music- Deeb Ryan Haidar
1st Ac- Jurek Oosterfelt
Motion Control- Jerry Andrews
Gaffer- Ed Kopp
Key Grip- Derek Teakle
Art- Robin Clason
P.A. Nikki Cupid