A small studio with a slow camera.
Quietcast Media was started in 2019 by a director, a cameraman and a sound recordist who were tired of arriving somewhere for a day, filming the obvious, and leaving. We now work as a core team of three, with a wider circle of freelance editors, translators and local contributors.
How we work
We pick fewer stories and stay with them longer. A typical film takes six to eighteen months, and we usually return to a place several times before the camera comes out at all.
The people in our films see the cut before anyone else does. They can ask us to remove anything they are not comfortable with, and they always receive a copy of the finished work and the full, unedited recordings of their interviews.
We are funded through a mix of commissions, small arts grants and screening fees. We do not make advertising, and we do not take sponsorship from the subjects of our films.
Contributors
Many of our projects depend on material from outside the team: home video, family photographs, field recordings made by local volunteers. Contributors working with us on an active project receive an invitation to our contributor media portal, where they can upload footage and audio directly to the edit.
Original material always remains the property of the person who made it. We ask only for permission to use it in the specific project it was shared for.
The team
- Nadia Ferrell Director & producer. Formerly a regional radio journalist; still prefers a notebook to a laptop.
- Tom Okafor Cinematographer. Shoots mostly handheld and mostly in available light. Grew up on the coast he keeps going back to.
- Jonah Pell Sound recordist & audio producer. Leads our audio series and keeps a library of more than four thousand field recordings.