Yolanda Be Cool & Dcup’s We Speak No Americano by Andy Hylton

Andy Hylton's beautiful sepia-toned homage to the silent movie era - Charlie Chaplin in particular - fits perfectly with the quirky lightheartedness of We Speak No Americano by Australian dance outfit Yolanda Be Cool.

Hylton had this say about the shoot:

"It was a pleasure to ditch the digital technology for the day and get back to some good old school film making techniques. I was hoping to use a Bell & Howell 2709 hand-cranked camera from the 1920's but I decided to go use a modern Panavision camera with a hand-crank, which give the film the organic variable exposure. The cinematographer, Oliver Downey, had a lot of great ideas and really threw himself into the job, picking up some original Cooke Panchro lenses to give it an more authentic look. As one turn of the crank equals eight frames of 35mm film, the camera had to be cranked two to three times a second to give us a variable frame rate of between 16fps and 26fps. The theme to the Addams Family is ideal to help build the perfect rhythm and timing.

"I wanted the film to feel as close to how films were made in the silent era of the early 20's and not have a cliched black and white, scratched-film look . I did however want everything else to look period so it was a pleasure sourcing and recreating the clothes, make-up, props and vehicles of the era.