The Backdrop

El Claroscuro Films presents The Backdrop, a conceptual and fictional film inspired by the real events of the Dana of October 29, 2024 in Valencia. It is an audiovisual piece that we have created with great affection and respect for the people and areas affected. The Backdrop symbolizes and highlights the resilience and the capacity of the Valencian people to recover from those catastrophic effects.

We dedicate this cinematographic work to all the regions and people affected by the dana of October 2024, but especially we dedicate it to our region of L‘Horta de València.

The Backdrop has a running time of 3 minutes and is written, directed and produced by El Claroscuro Films and stars our beloved Trinidad Osusu.

Synopsis of ‘The Backdrop’

The protagonist of the story, who symbolizes the Valencian people, walks normally, on a sunny day, through the forest, in the mountains.

Water takes on a presence and protagonism, in the form of a distant storm, which worries and concerns the protagonist.

Normality” is broken when water and land, together in their worst version, abruptly change the landscape and the life of the people and areas they find on their way, from the mountains to the Albufera of Valencia. L’Albufera, however, will be the beautiful symbol of the rebirth of a people.

Why The Backdrop?

The Backdrop refers to the water from storms falling in the mountains, before starting its way to the Albufera, and to the coast of Valencia through different channels, rivers and ravines. Meanwhile, for the areas near Valencia, and especially the Albufera area, at that time, a certain normality was what was happening.

These storms, however, were the backdrop to this false normality. Eventually the water, dragging everything it found, would reach areas such as the Albufera of Valencia.

The water of those storms is the real backdrop with which our protagonist symbolically interacts in the mountains.

The essence of The Backdrop

In this video we explain the essence of this cinematographic work. Somehow we help you to understand the work from our point of view.

Inside The Backdrop. The Making Of.

Shooting The Backdrop has confronted us with different feelings. Because on the one hand we have shot some very beautiful images, and with a lot of narrative strength, but on the other hand, the emotional charge of these images is very high.

In short, we are telling in a conceptual way a delicate story, which has a hopeful and very positive ending: the resilience and the capacity of the Valencian people to rise again.

Inside The Backdrop is a small making-of documentary in which the main team of this project participated. Along with images of the shooting of the project.

The STAR

Our dear Trini stars in The Backdrop. She is Valencian, she is love and respect for everything, but especially for what is Valencian. She loves the fallas and the fallero world above all, or almost all. As a protagonist, Trini acts very well, really well. So no one better than her to symbolize the Valencian people in this cinematographic work with so much strength and feeling.

These portraits below were taken in our first studio. That’s where we met her, and since then, we haven’t been separated from her, nor she from us.

If you browse our website, you will find Trini in portraits, photos, videos and film projects that we have done throughout our career. And she, besides being very special to us, has something very difficult to find, she has what we call “texture”, and that’s a plus.

The Backdrop photo shoot

Parallel to the shooting of The Backdrop’s film work, we did a photo shoot in the same locations, and at the same time. This is a small selection of the photos that are part of the final collection.

The cinematographic atmosphere

It is true that in order to shoot The Backdrop, we had to create a cinematic atmosphere capable of carrying and guiding the viewer through the narrative of the story.

We have based this atmosphere on several concepts, such as pre-production, the effects we get from the lenses we use, color grading (color treatment in post-production) and of course in the realization (cinematographic language).

The pre-production of The Backdrop has been very important, because it has been where everything has taken shape. And also where the cinematographic atmosphere was created. This is where we chose the colors and shapes of everything; of the light, the wardrobe, the spaces, etc. It was the birth of the atmosphere.

As for the realization, the shots, they are shots that we have designed mainly to locate the viewer, and help him to recognize details of the place in question, as well as the protagonist. Undoubtedly the position of the camera in the scene, the relative position of the light and of the protagonist with the point of view, are determinant in the narrative of the story.

The cinematic lenses we have used help us control 80% of the final aesthetics of the image. As well as the quality, and also the amount of background blur in each frame. Regarding the lenses and camera settings, we have made decisions that help us to isolate the character and certain details of his actions, which for narrative purposes, we consider important to highlight.

The color treatment in the edition, that is to say, the color grading is of vital importance to create that atmosphere. All the rest would be of little use if the color and light of the final image does not match the feeling we want to convey. Light levels, tones and color saturation in The Backdrop play an important role in the narrative. One of the main objectives is to achieve a notable difference between the first part of the story and the final part. And here, color is determinant in the viewer’s subconscious. Simply compare the color science that we have applied to the beginning shots and the final shots.

The chiaroscuro in the light of The Backdrop

The chiaroscuro could not be missing in a cinematographic work created by us. Light, shadow and darkness are part of the whole story. The chiaroscuro helps us to create the perfect atmosphere we are looking for. Of course that chiaroscuro in the first part of the story adds tension, mystery and also visual beauty that helps us keep the viewer’s attention. We will talk about the second part when we premiere the play.

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