Two fighters train alone in the same south London gym on opposite shifts. A ninety-second film for Veldt about the hours nobody sees.
Veldt's brief was a single line: show the work. Mara cast two amateur boxers from a gym in Bermondsey, one who trains before dawn and one who trains after midnight, and built the film around the fact that they have never met.
Everything was shot in the gym itself over two nights. Tomasz Wierzbicki blacked out all but one window per scene and pushed a large tungsten unit through the frosted glass from outside, with haze inside to give the light a shape. The fighters were filmed in long takes on a handheld camera at chest height, and Mara gave them rounds rather than actions, so the sweat and the breathing are real.
Ravi Mehta cut the two shifts against each other until they become one training session. The spot rests on Felix Durand's sound design: gloves on bags, skipping ropes on boards, and the bell, used only twice.
Credits
Director
Executive producer
Producer
Director of photography
Editor
Colourist
Sound design
Recognition
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