Behind the Soundtrack: The Castle of Baron Finch

[Don Cunningham]

Composer Andreu Jacob has published a mini-doc on his work on my recently completed short film "The Castle of Baron Finch." I am by no means professional, semi-professional, or trained. The only cinematography experience I have is hands-on working with film as an enthusiast and trial/error. I have a BFA in theater which led me to work completely unrelated such as a stint in the Army, haha. The short film took 6 years to complete and is based on a stage play I wrote over 25 years ago; this is the movie I always wanted to make.

Because this was self-funded with meager paychecks, the project was filmed in bits here and there as I could. The 16mm stock was a mix of fresh and expired/unknown origin. The choice to shoot as a silent was to not need special equipment or crystal synch cameras and give me the ability to use what I had on hand or acquire at a more affordable cost. Andreu was interested in doing the scoring when I reached out in 2018 (before any filming had started). After seeing the completed piece, it was worth the wait. Some scenes can be seen in the doc below (taken from a proxy file sent to him).