Director’s Statement - Parking Space

    The first thing I had ever shot on 16mm was in 1999.  It was a very rough version of the first scene of this film, where the Odd Man, sitting on the street corner with his reel-to-reel tape recorder, confronts a man who’s simply looking for a parking space.  I only managed to shoot half of that scene, using a World War II-era Bolex camera and editing on an old Steenbeck.  I used that clip to get into film school, and then promptly forgot about it. 

Fast-forward to 2008 – I had written an ambitious short film script, but had not been able to get any funding for it.  I realized it had been 5 years since I had shot a film and decided that I needed to badly.  That’s when I re-discovered Parking Space.  I watched that little half-scene again and despite its many flaws, I saw energy in it that I found inspiring.  It had a dark mood and atmosphere that I wanted to revisit and try to reproduce. 

I wrote a new, more mature version of the script, seeing the hunt for a parking space as a way to explore the theme of obsession and what it can lead people to do, often in the name of something very trivial.  Within a month of completing the script, I was on set filming. 

I was spending my own money, but decided to shoot on Super 16mm rather than HD in order to recapture the feel of the 1999 version.  To that same end, I edited the film on 16mm using a Steenbeck and although I did the effects digitally, I tried as much as possible to maintain a classic, optical effect look.  My cinematographer and composer both did an especially wonderful job as well bringing that mood I was searching for to higher level.

So after 10 years, it’s finally done and is something I’m extremely proud of.  My only hopes are that it connects to you in some way, that it doesn’t come off as too serious, and that most of all you enjoy watching it.         

Thanks,

David Bitton

Director – Parking Space