The Drop (Short)
When I interviewed Jeremiah Kipp recently about his series of COVID-19 Quarantine films, he made a point of how he is not taking directorial credit on the projects, and if you listen to that episode, you’ll understand why because of how the process has gone. With that in mind, I will be amending the directorial credits on these projects to include his co-producer, actress Jennifer Plotzke, as well. I could probably add more, but I think that will suffice, for now.
Their latest project is “The Drop,” from a screenplay by Timothy Nolan. We start by seeing Anne (Jessica Green) pacing in her kitchen, awaiting a notification. When it arrives, she checks for a bag that was supposed to be left for her. She looks inside, but something vital is missing, so she calls Robert (Ben Mchugh) to see what happened, and the conversation they have reveals a hopelessness in the two, as what they hoped for fades away.
Each of their projects have taken a trajectory of getting more and more ambitious. Here, the actors- who shoot their own scenes (with the help of significant others, if possible)- build natural rapport together while on the phone, as well as natural progression of the narrative without us thinking about the fact that this was all shot during individual quarantines during a pandemic. The way Kipp and his editor (Green) build this short in a traditional manner, out of non-traditional filmmaking, is quite impressive. We feel the emotional connection between these characters, and are engaged in the predicament they are in the middle of. We also feel like we are watching a film rather than an experiment during challenging times. And I cannot wait to see what Kipp, Plotzke and their collaborators have up their sleeves next.
The Drop (Pandemic Film June 2020) from Jeremiah Kipp on Vimeo.
