Eric Norcross made DEATH & LIFE as an essay film for the purpose of exploring his love/hate relationship with New York City and his life in the arts. As a result, all of the art critiques included in the film are Eric's personal thoughts on the various works shown.
Eric Norcross and Michael Bailey visited art galleries in the New York City neighborhood of Chelsea almost every week for the two months of filming. These were largely research visits, whereas filming of the gallery scenes only took place in one afternoon and one evening.
The project initially started out as an art-house interpretation of the philosophies of Jane Jacobs, as written in her 1961 book, THE DEATH & LIFE OF GREAT AMERICAN CITIES. Although the film evolved out of this initial approach, the title and some of the themes that underpin the overall story still allude to this.
The project started out as a continuance of several experimental short films Eric produced in the spring of 2017: "dépression", "obscurité", "anxiété", and "fiévre". When the test footage he shot with Michael Bailey proved to hold promise for a larger project, Eric quickly drew-up an outline and continued shooting. The film shot in its entirety between June and July of 2017.
Jan Major re-wrote all of her dialog, one week after Michael Bailey shot his coverage of her scene. After trying to assemble the scene between the two, Eric Norcross realized that the tone of the original scripted dialog wasn't working for the project. Keeping Michael's coverage, Eric and Jan re-shot her side with all new material. Eric gave Jan full creative control over every aspect of her character. The only exception was that she had to retain the core information she provides Michael's character. Each piece of her scene was edited into the time-line the moment it was shot and thus, the scene was completed the same day the pick-ups were shot. The film was picture-locked that same week.