Boundless

Written and Directed by William Pope
Cinematography by Simon Van Parijs
Original Score by Natalia Tsupryk
Featuring Stanisław Węgrzyn
Voiced by Victoria Valcheva
Production Manager Dave Elliott
Focus Puller Ollie Pearson
Camera Loader Aida Garcia Vega
Steadicam Operator Kate Eccarius
Gaffer (1st Unit) Charles Power
Gaffer (2nd Unit) Ian Blackburn
Edited by William Pope
Assistant Editor Mossie Cassidy
VFX by Simon Van Parijs, Ollie Pearson, Jack Gyori
Sound Design by Henry Ley
Grade by Thomas Kumeling and Simon Van Parijs
“Boundless” is about the brief period where a dancer is at the pinnacle of their career, and the inevitability of that fading away. I felt that this journey would be interestingly mirrored in the life cycle of a star, and wanted that crescendo in his choreography to represent the peak brightness in a star’s life, before fading into darkness.
I discussed the idea with Stanislaw Wegrzyn, who then choreographed his performance to the original score written by Natalia Tsupryk, a Ukrainian composer, who based the piece on old Ukrainian folk music. Victoria Valcheva’s voiceover is also pitch perfect - hopefully it becomes part of the fabric of the film, and sort of gets under your skin.
Cinematographer Simon Van Paris and I were really aligned in how the film should look. We drew inspiration from the photos of W. Eugene Smith, especially his Minamata series. Also Kaneto Shindo’s film Onibaba, which is shot brilliantly. Both with plenty of contrast, really deep blacks and sort of resplendent, glowy whites. Naturally they both shot on black and white film, so we did the same in order to get a similar feel. The scans Digital Orchard gave us were fantastic - they were meticulous in their attention to detail. And of course, the latitude of black and white film is absolutely phenomenal.
We wanted the crispness and depth of field of 35mm but didn’t want it too clean. We decided to shoot on Double-X and push it a stop to gain contrast and texture in the image. We shot 3 perf to make the most of the Fonteyn Studio in the Royal Opera House, and experimented with a timing shift motor which gave a brilliant sort of streaking effect used in the “crescendo” of the film.

[@Byrolandito]

This is amazing, I love the black and white kodak 🎞️

[@goranristic1986]

This is absolutely gorgeous work. Luv it. Get me so emotional.

[@JacksonLanaa]

Anyone have an idea how those vertical light streaks were done in camera? Or if it’s done in post? Around the 4:10 mark

[@VariTimo]

Well done! Finally a 4K upload!! You see how amazing film looks if it’s not crushed by compression?