This short stands out amongst Capture's short films as a more ambitious cinematic endeavour, which leaves the real world far behind.
Hawk succeeds in seeming to be much higher in production value than it probably is - clever use of drone shots and VFX to create a hawk's eye view of the craggy landscape give the film an epic scale from start to finish. Indeed the way DoP Martin Hill shoots the landscape is shot is a key strength of the film. It is packed with static shots that frame the cliffs and sky very nicely - and the use of the sky different times of day (including some beautiful magic-hour twilight scenes) keeps the lighting varied and interesting.
Production Design is also another element that adds value to and richness to the world of Hawk. The shelters, tea boiling bags, drinking horns, leathered and feathered costumes. These work especially well because Rowan and his father would have had to make these by hand which Production Designer Emma Lo Gatto and her team probably did. All of this brings texture and detail to this story and grounds the characters within it by showing us the instruments and tools with which they live day-to-day
The story itself is a real journey - from coming of age survival lessons and camp-fire stories with Rowan's kindly, wizened father, to psilocybin-induced nightmarish visions of Celtic demon-gods, and finally to a poignant moment of self-sacrifice. Despite the relatively small cast, the narrative spans many years and many worlds. What's particularly good is that the story is given space to breathe, and the dialogue does not shoulder the entire burden of exposition - meaning we have to fill in the gaps ourselves.
All of these elements combine to make Hawk more than the sum of its parts - a short film that feels more expensive and epic, and has the legs to be adapted into a feature.
Review of Hawk
