The best stories often end before you expect them to.

The music was recorded live in the same space, on the same afternoon, which is why it fits the pictures so well. Nobody on this project was paid for the first month. They made it because they wanted to see it finished.

What makes a short work

Colour was kept deliberately muted until the last minute, which makes the final shot land even harder. Much of the light comes from shop windows and street lamps. The creator carried a small reflector and used it twice.

The edit was built around the music rather than the other way round, which gives the whole piece a steady, walking rhythm. A local choir recorded the closing song in a church hall on a Tuesday night, between two rehearsals of their own.

• A single clear idea
• An ending that trusts the viewer
• Sound that carries the picture

Sound does a lot of the work here. Turn it up, or better, put on headphones and let the room noise pull you in. Behind the scenes, the set was held together with tape, string and a surprising number of clothes pegs.

Look closely at the background of the second half. Most of what makes the scene work happens behind the main action. Weather decided the schedule. Three days of rain became the best part of the film once the crew stopped fighting it.

A short film is a promise you keep quickly.

Mei Tanaka, animation editor

When we asked what they would change, the answer was nothing, and after a few more viewings we agree. The opening shot lasts almost a minute. It sounds long on paper, but by the end you will wish it had kept going.

The final version is shorter than the first cut by almost half. Every trim made the story clearer. The creator told us the edit took longer than the shoot. Every cut was argued over, and it shows in how little is wasted.

Small crews make small films feel personal. This one was made by two people, a borrowed tripod and a very understanding landlord. If you are new to filmmaking, watch this one with the sound off first, then again with it on. You will learn a lot.

Nothing here was staged. The crew set up, waited, and filmed what happened, which took more patience than any script would. The creator shot this in the gaps between a day job and a long commute, a few minutes at a time over most of a year.

Every frame could be a postcard, but the film never stops to admire itself. It keeps moving, and so do you. The creator kept a notebook of every shot, with times, weather and what went wrong. It reads like a diary of the whole summer.