01 · personal · in post
the art also
waltzes
One take through the house. The art won't stay still.
full film · 1:38 · sound on
- role
- Writer · director · editor
- status
- In post · 2026
- production
- Sony a7 IV · Sigma 35mm · Insta360 X3 (HDRIs)
- post-production
- Blender · After Effects · Nuke · Premiere
the idea
I wanted my reel to feel like a place, not a montage. So it's one continuous take through my own house: a waltz between the camera, a person and the walls.
It starts with a crooked picture. Someone straightens it, and it tilts again on its own. Then the rest of the art starts to move: sliding along the walls, drifting down the stairs and gathering on the ceiling, until one sweep of their arms sends everything back where it belongs.
None of the art in the shot is real. Every piece is photographed, measured, taken down and rebuilt in 3D, so the walls are free to move.
The title comes from the music. Max Roach’s “The Drum Also Waltzes” plays underneath, and it shaped a lot of the piece. I wanted that Birdman feel, where the drums aren’t just a soundtrack but score every move. Its name fit too well not to borrow.
how it’s made
7 stages · reference → finalevery piece of art
I photographed every single artwork in the house that would be on camera, cleaned up the reflections in Photoshop, and used those photos as textures on 3D models I built in Blender.
drop: media/the-art-also-waltzes/01-lookdev.jpg — plan sheetthe whole house, to scale
I rigorously measured my entire house, everything, 3D scanned it, and rebuilt it all in Blender to scale.
drop: media/the-art-also-waltzes/02-plan-main.jpg — plan sheetthe animatic
With the house rebuilt, I worked out the whole take as an animatic: the camera move and every piece of art’s animation, before a single frame was shot.
a hundred dots
Then all the art came down, and nearly a hundred black dots went up all around the house. My wife wasn’t all that pleased. No paint was harmed in the making of this.
drop: media/the-art-also-waltzes/04-trackers-2.jpg — plan sheet
drop: media/the-art-also-waltzes/04-trackers-5.jpg — plan sheet
drop: media/the-art-also-waltzes/04-trackers-8.jpg — plan sheetthe shoot
No gimbal and not much gear, so I made do. A friend graciously lent their acting skills to star in it. We shot multiple takes and multiple passes, and I captured six HDRIs throughout the house.
track & paint out
I tracked every single black dot. Then I painted out every single black dot. Yes, this was painful, but it had to be done.
comp
Everything is rendered in passes and comped back into the plate: the performer rotoed for occlusion, contact shadows and glass reflections matched to the room, and the whole take colour graded as one piece in Premiere.