Outsiders | Richard Trombly

This was made before the Canon D5 DSLR movie camera was released. I was looking at some rapid shots of action I took on my Nikon D70s and realized I had almost made a film. I wanted to play with that. My professional actor friends were excited to join and we shot this in one afternoon. This experimental short film was shot largely on a Nikon d-70s with about 2000 photographs. Some scenes were shot with dv. It was shot in Shanghai, China for entry in a local film contest by Meiwenti Productions. Outsiders was inspired by the experiences of a friend that felt really isolated - from both the expat and the local Chinese populations, and her company supplied a maid who did all the housework "everything is cleaned up - it;s like Beauty and the Beast's castle - like magic," she told me. She was pressured by the fast-paced life in Shanghai, China that she could just not keep up.... until she met her the Chinese man that was her soulmate and they could face the challenges of life at their own pace, together. I decided to use that idea that she could not keep up with the pace and the idea that her house was magical. many thanks to Christy Shapiro, Karl Dominick Ignaczak, Tim Zhu and Linda Jiang.