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I knew I wanted to watch this video as soon as I saw the title.

“The Coffinmaker” grabbed my attention because its content is immediately relatable and foreign at the same time. Everyone will need a coffin, but few of us know anything about the craft of building and designing one. The title and thumbnail image alone garnered my respect, so I’d like to point out that first impressions of a video do matter and can influence whether someone clicks or not.

The video wows from the start with a stunning time-lapse video of the night sky. I’m very curious about how to create this and I’d like to learn the technique during this term. But I have to note that this opening shot, while it caught my interest, doesn’t seem to have very much relevance to the rest of the video. All the subsequent scenes take place indoors, in a wood shop, and exclusively show the coffin building process. Why did the filmmaker chose to open this way if they rest of the video is so specific and contained to that one scene? My only answer is that they were looking for a strong open and that perhaps the time-lapse sequence is supposed to evoke the transitory nature of life on earth for the viewer, perhaps thus preparing them for the introspection on life and death that will follow.

At 0:29 filmmaker Dan McComb wastes no time. We immediately get a sense of who this coffin maker is, and why he does this work. It’s heartbreaking to hear that he lost a child and that his entrance to the profession began while he was building his child’s coffin. I think the choice to include this information first, before we hear anything else, is very smart. I was already interested in the coffin maker just based on the title, but after hearing about how personally connected he is to his craft, I’m emotionally hooked too. I want to know more, and as an audience member I’m completely ready for the storyteller to take me on a journey.

What follows is a lot of process shots. At 0:40 the coffin maker is smoothing out glue on the wood, not with a tool, but with his own hands. There’s a very nice follow focus as the hands come closer to the camera, and the overall feeling is that this isn’t just a craft, but a personal endeavor where a connection is made to each coffin.

At 1:00 we hear that the amount of metal going into coffins is enough to rebuild the Golden Gate bridge…each year! This fact is perfectly combined with the visuals of the coffin maker fitting a wooden screw into the coffin. I really appreciated this thoughtful timing of the interview audio with the visuals.

The next thing that really caught my attention and inspired me about this video happens at 1:27. The lighting in this shot is absolutely incredible. I can’t help but wonder where the light source is. It seems as if a tiny skylight is allowing just enough light to pass through the ceiling, and in this wide shot of the coffin maker, that tiny ray of light looks like an ethereal spotlight. It’s gorgeous and again, perfectly timed to the audio of “I never feel like it’s finished … but that’s probably how we feel at the end of our lives too.”

In some ways, I almost wish the video had ended with this shot and this line. With a run time of 3:40, you’d expect that we’d move out of the wood shop, follow the maker to his home or some other aspect of his life, and really round out the character. Instead we remain in the same scene, with more and more process shots. I think they are beautiful, but if a video is only going to take us to one scene, I’d expect it to be a little more tightly edited with a slimmer run time.

As a takeaway from this piece, I think we should all watch the process shots that begin at 1:58-2:18. Speaking only from a visual standpoint, I really found this sequence inspiring. There was excellent matched action, but also great action/reaction with the final pan up to the coffin maker’s face as he worked. I do think we could have seen his face a little more frequently throughout the entire video. There were moments when I found the process shots excessive. Ultimately, I don’t care about the wood grain or the shavings. I care about the man who puts the time and energy into the craft. Sometimes I think videographers get a bit carried away with the beauty of the shots that they forget the importance of the simple action/reaction, so that would be my second criticism of the video overall.

Finally, the last aspect of the video we should draw inspiration from is the end credit sequence. Beginning at 3:13, you have a wide shot of the finished coffin. The maker walks out of frame, finished with his work. There is a slow push-in as the original title “The Coffinmaker” appears. But it doesn’t just appear anywhere. It fades up exactly inside the coffin. I love this attention to detail. The scene begins to fade to black, and as it fades we see that the letters are retaining the color of the coffin itself. Finally at black, we hear the resounding and concluding thud of a door closing, presumably the coffin maker leaving the shop. I really appreciate that level of attention and detail in the final moments of the video. Even the text credits are artfully designed. Sometimes the end credit sequence for a short video feels excessive. I wonder “why don’t they just put the credits in the text description underneath the video?” But here I don’t mind it at all because it’s so artfully done.

We should all work to make the endings of our videos as thoughtful and artistic as the openings. Since this is a video dealing with end of life issues, I think it’s incredibly apt to look at “The Coffin Maker” as an excellent example of how to craft a creative conclusion.

 

 

The Coffinmaker from Dan McComb on Vimeo.

158 Comments

on “The End”
158 Comments on “The End”

  1. The shot at 1:27 is amazing. A man working in solitude on this handcrafted coffin with one light beaming down on him in an otherwise dark room is a beautiful shot.

    While I agree that the video could have been a little shorter because it’s all process shots, I think showing other aspects of his life would have been unnecessary. He’s doing solemn work, so I think cutting to a lighter side of him would be out of place.

    Finally I do like that the filmmaker took the care to have the piece end with the original title resting on the finished coffin. That is the kind of attention to detail and artistry that we should seek to have in our own work.

  2. Dang Rachel! You pulled no punches when writing about this. Makes me want to write so much more on my posts.

    I really appreciated the lighting in this video. It was consistent and appropriate considering the subject matter. I agree, the matched-action sequences are inspiring. They are good! I always want to believe the filmmaker never asks for his subject to do something again so that they can capture it on camera, but the skeptic in me is strong. Great post! Learned a lot.

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