Ring Road Eastfjords — Iceland's Lonely Coast

Slow road film, 11 seconds, 16:9. An overcast day on Iceland's Route 1 through the Eastfjords: the camera following a lone rental car along the empty coastal road. 0-4 seconds: the follow — on the left, fjords of hammered pewter stretching to the mist; on the right, cliffs threaded with a hundred unnamed waterfalls, white threads on black rock; a small herd of reindeer standing on the tarmac ahead, utterly unbothered, and the car waiting, engine ticking, until they wander off. 4-8 seconds: the village — the road passing a fishing village of twenty houses, all corrugated iron in red and white, smoke rising straight up in the still air, boats nodding in the tiny harbor; no one on the street, the whole place holding its breath. 8-11 seconds: the crest — the camera cresting a pass as the next fjord opens below, a waterfall plunging directly onto the beach, the road unwinding toward it; no other car for an hour, the solitude complete. The car's headlights flick on though it is midday, the gloom that deep; sheep dot the green slopes like punctuation, and the next waterfall is close enough to hear — a white thread become a voice. Craft: rental car, reindeer herd, corrugated-iron fishing village, waterfalls, fjords. Camera: following the car with a pass-crest reveal. Lighting: grey overcast light, saturated greens, pewter water. Atmosphere: lonely-beautiful, meditative, end-of-the-map. Style: slow road film, muted Nordic grade, 24fps.