Six minutes and 15 sec. This is the lenght of Last Minutes With Oden, the video that won the Vimeo Awards 2010. But they’re enough to make you cry, and reflect, and discover a new way to tell the life and bring it to a screen. Last Minutes With Oden tells the last moments spent by Jason with Oden, his beloved dog. The video tells the story with a stunning intense shooting, building an intimate storytelling without any rhetoric. The video is a craft of PhosPictures, the company of Luke Korver and Eliot Raush, two American independent video-makers. We interviewed Luke Corver. «I got into this business on accident. At Syracuse University, I couldn’t decide on a subject to specialize in, I just picked TV/Film production because I thought would be fun. After graduation I bought a camera on a whim and shot my first documentary and fell in love with the process».

When did you meet Eliot?
Eliot and I first started working together about 5 years ago collaborating on a few random projects. We could both edit and shoot but I was a stronger shooter and he was a stonger editor so our strengths seemed to line up well. Matt Taylor came onboard for the Oden piece, he's an amazing shooter and was an immediate perfect fit.

Do you make everything by yourself?
Yes, I would define ourselves as independent video-makers. We are independent in that we are creating and developing these stories on our own time and money. We all pay the bills shooting, editing, and producing for various clients and companies on the side.

Do you prefer Vimeo or Youtube to post your videos?
I wouldn’t say one site is better than the other, although it seemed that the Vimeo community seemed to have an appreciation and a desire to see content similar to what we enjoyed creating.

In which way is web-sharing of contents useful for the future of web documentary?
I think it’s a great way to solicit immediate feedback on your ideas and your craft. For us, we instantly saw people were drawn to the Oden piece and we knew we had to build on the idea and find more stories to add to the mix. I couldn’t really speak on the future of web documentary because I think it is still in its infancy and could grow and expand in so many different directions.

Talking about the techniques of storytelling, how do you establish a good relationship with your subject without being intrusive?
You have to be yourself, show compassion, explain to them your idea and your interest in their story, and slowly dig deeper and deeper, as deep as they will allow.

What kind of persons do you prefer to work on?
Anyone with a great story, perspective, or experience. But they must be willing to open up.

Where do you get the money to start your projects?
We’ve only relied on our own labor and equipment to start independent projects thus far. Ideally down the road we can start to fundraise before the camera starts rolling. To date we’ve self produced all of our independent work.

How much do you need to shoot a short film?
If you have access to a camera, editing tools, and a topic, you don’t need a dime other than your own time and effort.

Cinematography, editing and photography of Last Minutes With Oden are stunning, and the story is really touching. How could you find it?
Wood, the focus of Last Minutes with Oden is a dear friend of Eliot’s. We shot that project in a few hours one rainy afternoon.

You have used a Canon7D for filming. Are Hdslr cameras a true revolution?
We use that camera a lot, and are always keeping our eyes open for new filmmaking and storytelling tools. The HDSLR movement has been huge, but hopefully the audience and the filmmakers do not get too wrapped up in the visual quality and can focus on telling the story, because that is what is important. Last Minutes with Oden, because we shot it in such a short time and were still learning on the 7D, is not very technically sound in terms of how it was shot, but nobody really seems to care since the camera never gets in the way of the story.

What was your complete gear during the takes?
Like I said, we had just purchased the 7d’s and were more or less testing them out so we didn’t have any stabilization support or follow focus. We rented a few Canon L lenses and relied on the few lenses we did have at the time, a 50mm, 85mm, and a Canon 17-55mm zoom.

“Last Minutes with Oden” was a big hit at Vimeo Short Film Festival. As a filmmaker, what do you expect now from that? Are producers and broadcasters more interested in your work?
We get emails everyday from folks congratulating us on the win and on the film. It’s been great in terms of getting our names out and we’ve been approached by quite a few people about creating new work. I don’t think as an independent documentary filmmaker you’ll ever be able to say “We made it”! Certainly the Vimeo Festival has given us more exposure and hopefully brought us a little closer to our goals to make a living off creating documentary film.

Have you sold the project yet? Do you have a distributor?
We are repurposing Last Minutes with Oden into a larger collection of short documentary stories, all under one title in one film. We are hoping to wrap that up early next year. Once its complete we will look at the distribution side of things, but right now we are totally focused on the stories.

What is the goal of the project “8 lives”?
If you ask me this question tomorrow I’ll probably have a completely different answer, but here’s today crack at it…The goal for the piece is to take what was accomplished with Last Minutes with Oden and bring that formula to several other stories told over the course of a feature length film. We are hoping that people watch the film and become inspired, energized, and rejuvenated, To make people think about their lives and the lives of everyone else in a new way would make the film a success. We don’t have a specific audience in mind but we think people with a curiosity about the lives and struggles of others will be interested in watching this film.

What’s your next move: do you have any project yet?
We are slowly developing ideas for our Vimeo sponsored project set for a 2012 Vimeo Festival premiere. Vimeo has been amazing to work with and we can’t wait to get started on the next film, whatever it may be about. Eliot and I are currently working on an exciting new short doc series for Vans shoes, airing at offthewall.tv early next year. Were really excited about the episodes we've already shot and can't wait for people to check them out. I'm also working on a full length documentary, a project I've been plugging away at for almost 5 years now. It's called "The Medicine Game" and its due to air here in the states on PBS next fall with the support of NAPT (www.nativetelecom.org). I'm working on the edit now and I hope to bring in Eliot to work his edit room magic as well.

• Francesca Sironi