Viewfinder Falling for You
Grant I. Worden
About the Filmmaker
"Grant I. Worden is a Producer, Director, and Screenwriter who also took on the Cinematographer and Editor role for this experimental short film. Grant I. Worden wrote the original music and had Jonathan Zungia recreate the tune to be more classical. With moving to Uptown Chicago in the Fall of 2023, ""Viewfinder Falling for You"" (Part 1) became an exercise in locating the beauty in the hustle and bustle of the new city streets. Getting to know the new surroundings through the viewfinder was a unique way to adapt to a new place.
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DePaul MFA 2025
Colorado Film School 2015-2018
Marquette University 2009-2013"
From the Filmmaker
"""Viewfinder Falling for You"" (Part 1) is about locating the beauty in the everyday. The frame might be mundane, dull, textured, passed by, faceless, or even across the way, but the frame found me during my first year living in Chicago, IL.
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By pressing my old iPhone camera into my Vivitar viewfinder and taking a photo I believe the feeling of creating a photo, capturing a moment, and winding up to film to capture another one is replicated but expanded to be beautiful and exciting. I wanted to take a breath in that moment. That is why Chicago, IL. is only Part 1. ""Viewfinder Falling For You"" (Part 1) focuses on a blurry Chicago landscape becoming clearer with each photograph. Perhaps with each click of the camera, the photographer becomes more comfortable with the city's surrounding sidewalks and sounds."
Viewfinder Falling for You
Director, Writer, Producer, Cinematographer & Editor: Grant I. Worden
Composer: Jonathan Zuniga
Are you able to find beauty in the places, people, and things you pass day after day? "Viewfinder Falling for You" (Part 1) is my "love letter" to living in Chicago, IL. I loved getting to know the neighborhoods through the eye of the camera.
I leaned heavily on the experimental elements of overlapping frames and sound design here to help convey a sense of "getting to know a new place" or "feeling like a stranger in a new environment."
This experimental short film is my love letter to my first year in Chicago. I hope it is relatable to anyone who is a transplant to the big city. I found myself exploring my new neighborhoods using the viewfinder of my old film cameras and iPhone camera. The layered frames found me. The places I passed daily turned into "Viewfinder Falling For You" (Part 1).