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BAIT by Mark Jenkin - the new British 'strange!'


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Had the pleasure of watching this film over the weekend and I expected to be bored and expected it to be self indulgent......BUT.....I LOVED it. Absolutely loved it!

....in fact....there was a particular moment of tension in the story which was shot and edited in a way, in my opinion, that ranks up there with anything ive ever seen.....it certainly is the 'new British strange' and it certainly is up there with Ken Loach social films......

the film was shot on a Bolex with 16mm Kodak Eastman 100ft rolls which he processed himself and dried up as could....it was shot 'silent' and all the dialogue was dubbed later by the actors!!!

https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/reviews-recommendations/bait-mark-jenkin-fear-loathing-cornish-fishing-village

(I searched in this the forum to see if anyone had already posted about this film in order not to bore anyone)

Edited by Stephen Perera
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Mark Jenkin made a (40min) short called "Bronchos House" a few years before in the same process. Personally I liked Broncho's house more (it's a bit stranger).

The interesting thing about both films is how form follows function. Jenkins limited resources forced the films into their unique shape.  The jaring cuts due to the lack of coverage. A lot of the strange edits came from shooting random shots at the end of each roll, to avoid wasting stock. These unplanned 3 -5sec images were then used to fill holes in the edit. The 90 min film only had 4 and half hours of rushes. 

I do find the story of "Baits" production really inspiring, that someone could make such a strange film in a very homebrew way and find an audience.  

This interview with Dario Linares goes into a lot of detail about the project:

https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9jaW5lbWF0b2xvZ2lzdHMucG9kYmVhbi5jb20vZmVlZC54bWw&episode=Y2luZW1hdG9sb2dpc3RzLnBvZGJlYW4uY29tL2VwOTEtYXQtZmlsbXN0b2NrLXdpdGgtbWFyay1qZW5raW4tNGE5ZjBhZmIyYjgwNTkyZDBhNmZjOTdkY2Y3Y2YwZDY&hl=en-GB&ved=2ahUKEwjXsqz1jqTnAhVJTxUIHRFvA2EQjrkEegQICxAG&ep=6

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  • 3 years later...

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