Ian Clark of Kauri Multimedia introduces They Are The Last, a short film about Leonardo de Costa, lighthouse keeper in Uruguay.

THEY Are The Last evolved from two initial premises: first, we wanted to film a short documentary about a disappearing profession and secondly, we wanted to show the dedication and love of an individual towards his own livelihood.

We found out that Uruguay is one of the last countries in the world still with manned lighthouses. We identified a lighthouse – the Faro de Cabo Polonio – and duly obtained filming permission from the Uruguayan Navy.

Like all our previous projects, we wanted to emphasize the extraordinary in the ordinary. However menial the tasks seemed, or however simple some aspects of the nature of the job may have appeared, they were all of utmost importance, and Leonardo Da Costa carried them out with diligence and precision.

Here is a man who carries out his work professionally but also finds time for himself and time to appreciate the beautiful surroundings in which he finds himself. And this is what we wanted to convey.

The challenge in this project lay in making it look different stylistically from similar videos. Theeefore we decided to take a risk and omit any interviews or spoken audio. As much as Leonardo Da Costa is an interesting man, we did not want to reduce the piece to a straightforward description of his job and lifestyle. We therefore opted to use ambient sound to tell the story, adding music only at the end.  We hoped that the use of diegetic sound could take the viewer into the world of Leonardo Da Costa successfully, and elicit emotions and sensations at the same time. We hope the viewers agree!

Like all our videos, They Are The Last aims to bring positivity and passion out of everyday life.

They Are The Last won the Special Jury Award at the DC Shorts Film Festival 2014.

See Ian Clark and Diego Vivanco’s website at www.kaurimultimedia.com