Look (2009 film)

Plot

Look is about a barmaid, Emma (Starina Johnson), who is caught in a daydream when interrupted by a lost model (Theresa Meeker). The desire for beauty reveals an unsettling emptiness.

In an interview with Matthew Saliba of Rogue Cinema, Pickett said, "I feel so alive as a director when making films like this. It's pure emotion. What can we tell you from just our eyes? What are you seeing with yours? Essentially what "Look" is about. Perception and how it works in our lives. The story was just part of the whole, I knew what I wanted to accomplish in this film and worked on a story that would allow that. There actually was a bit more dialogue in the film that I decided to cut out. The story is what you create in your head while watching it, not one I wrote. Or that was my intention." In an interview with Saliba, Meeker said, "Ryan really left its meaning up to interpretation. There are so many different ways that people could think about Look without being wrong in their analysis of it."

Cast

Starina Johnson as Emma
John Ferguson as John
Theresa Meeker as Supermodel
Alison Parson as Hair/Makeup Artist
Ryan Pickett as Photographer

Premier and distribution

Look was premiered at the Regal Cinemas theatre in Green Hills, Tennessee, in spring 2009. Look has distribution through IndieFlix and Indiepix Films online video streaming services.

Production

Look was directed, co-written, produced and edited by Ryan Pickett, who was a top five finalist in the Race to BE entrepreneurship competition hosted by Russell Simmons in Los Angeles. The co-writer was Spenser Fritz and the cinematographer was Shane Bartlett. Look was shot with the Red One 4K in Nashville, Tennessee.

Reviews

According to Sean Kernan's article "Look is an Elegant Examination of Beauty," captivating visuals showed why Look was an award-winning film. Writer Terra King reviewed Look and said that the movie is "deep and full of metaphor". The Four Word Film Review summarized the plot of Look by saying "Pickett picks apart beauty."

StudentFilmmakers as well as Film Snobbery included a press release about Look winning the Best Shorts Competition award in their online news section. Brian Skutle of Sonic Cinema said that Look had a "lovely score by The Other Deepak" and he said, "Pickett has a great eye for visuals and subtle storytelling that I’ll be curious to see more of."

Matthew Saliba of Rogue Cinema called the character that Meeker played a, "ravishing bombshell." Saliba said that Look is, "directed with an exceptionally keen eye for detail and color by Ryan Pickett".

Saliba said, "The film definitely feels like the "visual poem" the press release makes it out to be insofar as the cinematography (the film was shot on the Red One 4K camera) is stunning and the pacing of the film is almost dreamlike with some interesting sound design work where we catch snippets of conversation and the beginnings of dialogue before it fades out while the character is still speaking. Ryan Pickett won an "Award of Merit" for "Best Student Film" in the 2009 Accolade Competition. While it may not have been for his gift of storytelling, it was certainly awarded for his strong command of visual metaphor and the ability to use film as a way to address social issues without being too Oliver Stone about it."

In an interview with Pickett for Rogue Cinema, Saliba said that Look "is an exquisite experimental narrative short film that evokes feelings of a Lynchian nature in regards to its masterful use of visual metaphors as well as a Coco Chanel ad in terms of its costume and set design".

Mark Bell of Film Threat webzine said, "I think it is better that folks see it and come to their own conclusions. Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, the relevance, resonance and power of Look resides entirely in the eye of the person watching it."