Where do ideas come from? And where do they go when they’re forgotten? Well, leave it to Elijah Allan-Blitz to throw his hat in the ring and give us an infinitely charming short called Remembering. This endearing and inspiring effort shows the kind of big-picture concepts running through the Emmy award-winning director’s mind.
The short film should leave all viewers clamoring for more – if not for a deeper dive into this captivating concept but just more time in this world. Good news is that in our interview Allan-Blitz told us that, yes, this is a proof of concept exercise that could dive deeper into plenty of trades/professions/creatives. Huzzah!
This ingenious short project is propelled by a combination of three factors: idea, cast and effects. First off, the point of the short posits how/where ideas come from. Once these delicate gifts arrive, it’s up to us to chose to take the idea or not. Further, if an idea is lost (because we ignore it or choose something else that gets our attention and focus), where does that idea go?
Next, the cast is about as light as you could get, and while producer/actor Brie Larson can really emote, it is newcomer Dusty Peak who steals the show, er, short. The legitimacy to her acting is so genuine, you’d think she was really seeing the effects we’re seeing on screen. And that gets us to the final point.
Remembering is shot on The Volume – the massive and immersive LED stage that had surpassed green screen as the next generation of VFX. Because the actors are able to respond to actual visuals (as opposed to tennis balls and cardboard cutouts), the reactions can be so much more genuine. There are also other small tangible bits where reflections are real; you actually see them on characters’ eyes which doubles the depth and realism in the shots.
And this isn’t his first time doing something on such a large digital scale. Allan-Blitz directed and produced THE MESSY TRUTH VR EXPERIENCE – a virtual reality series co created with Van Jones, that allow viewers to see the world from another person’s perspective. Starring Brie Larson, Zoe Saldana, Winston Duke and Josh Brolin, the project utilizes the immersive power of this technology to create a curriculum for empathy in VR. And he was the first VR Director for Time Magazine with an experience about the Holocaust created as a companion piece for the Ken Burns documentary, DEFYING THE NAZIS: THE SHARPS’ WAR.
Anyway, Allan-Blitz is a quadruple threat (writer/director/producer/actor) and we had a blast chatting with him. His personality is infectious; probably because his short is so charming and delightful. But really, Elijah is just a really nice guy. Enjoy this episode of The GoSeeTalk Podcast Experience, and don’t forget to check out Remembering on Disney+.
These central questions are brought to life in “Remembering”, an original short film by Emmy Winning director Elijah Allan-Blitz. The story (which airs exclusively on Disney+ on September 8) follows a writer (played by Academy Award winner Brie Larson) who loses a very important idea when her phone rings. Personified as golden light, this lost idea is found by the writer’s inner child, who takes us on a journey through The World of Imagination.
It is easy to lose touch with this world, but each of us can be inspired by it—if we just remember. With a first of its kind companion Augmented Reality app, where the AR experience is triggered by the film’s moving image, select Disney+ subscribers in the U.S. can interact with the story by scanning the TV to extend The World of Imagination, into their living room.
