The Long Summerof Marta Vey

Director's note

We stopped waiting for the light and started waiting for the wind

Every scene in The Long Summer of Marta Vey was shot in available light on a flat that floods twice a year. When the water came in, the crew moved to the ridge and waited. Sixty-one shooting days, forty of them spent doing nothing but watching weather.

This roll is longer than the film's second act. That is deliberate. Nobody on this list was optional.

• 65mm
• Available light
• Vestland
• Four seasons

Technical

Shot specification

With thanks

The salt flats of Vestland, and everyone who let us stay

Filmed on the traditional lands of the Vestland flat-keepers with the permission and participation of the Saltworks Cooperative. The production paid a per-day access fee that funds the flat's winter maintenance in perpetuity.

No sequence in this film used a generator on the flats. Power came from the cooperative's own array, and every crew vehicle was staged behind the ridge line.