A Snail's Pace - Short Documentary - UK

A Snail's Pace', Ian's first wildlife doc! But no commentary. No music. No explanations. Nothing to explain. Just observe. An observational wildlife doc! Presenting 'a snail's pace', my first film shot and edited on a smartphone. Filmed handheld. No tripod or gimbal. No additional lens. No external microphone. Edited on iphone's imovie app. Simple shots. Straight cuts. Capturing a moment, a movement, a journey. From Trivandrum in Kerala, South India during lockdown (May 2021). When my world shrunk to a house and garden. When time detached itself from the days. When the unnoticed became noticeable. When life calmed down. Like its main protagonist, 'a snail's pace' moves at a snail's pace. Presenting a challenge to the audience to keep pace with the intrepid snail. To slow down.

Director Ian McDonald

Director Statement
I had always been skeptical of the smartphone as a device for 'proper' documentary making. But being gifted an iPhone and languishing under lockdown in India (without my video camera) led to enforced experimentations in filming with the smartphone! I spend every morning on the verandah of my wife's family house in South India drinking coffee, reading the newspaper, and observing life around me: stray cats coming and going, crows excitedly crowing, ants marching, and if it has rained, snails, snails, snails. On one such morning, I saw a beautiful snail and decided impromptu to film it's journey. Without the smartphone, the journey would have been observed but not filmed. But the process of filming concentrated my mind on the snail and I saw my lockdown life mirrored in the snail's journey. Life had become solitary, slowed, methodical, precarious. I am also charmed by the fact that I can shoot, edit and upload the film to vimeo all from the phone itself. But is this 'proper' documentary filmmaking?

AniFab judge's aggregated score is 7.2 out of 10 with one judge sharing the following, "Thank you for experimenting Ian. Silver linings are everywhere, so hard to see sometimes.  Thank you for taking time to spend time with a snail and friends. Keep experimenting.