Etain McGuckian arrived in Birmingham last night to assist us over the next few days. We have made a point of keeping the crew very small, but are simultaneously aware that we'll need support. Etain is great at being versatile and worked with me on "Watching & Waiting" as my 2nd AD, so John and I know her well.
I think she is as bemused by the project as many others. It is certainly a different approach to filmmaking from we are used to. But the experience is certainly a fascinating one. I am surprised how comfortable I am despite being so close to the shoot. This is usually an incredibly stressful period, but I don't feel too concerned at all, largely because of the confidence that "W&W" has brought to the small crew. I think it is this certainty (as long as it is not folly), that means I am finally becoming at ease with my filmmaking.
Friday 30 January 2009
Tuesday 27 January 2009
Getting locations
Picking locations is easy. Getting permission to use them isn't.
I have learnt the following when trying to secure locations:
1) Going to see someone in person is better than using email or phone. I once had to convince a priest that I was a good Catholic boy before he would let me use his church for my student film. He only agreed because I saw him face to face and could gauge my sincerity. I wanted to specifically use his church and I got it.
2) Be honest. If you are going to have a crew of 30 and take 12 hours then tell them. Don't say you'll have no lights and then turn up with a lorry load of Arri's. I've seen people push this, even when filming "Watching & Waiting", and it leads to a bad relationship with the location staff, and probably screws up any future filming there.
3) In guerilla filmmaking, it is easier to ask forgiveness than permission. This is not an invitation to be stupid. If you want to film at a station or airport, you'd get permission. But in the street, out of harm's way and not blocking a throughfare... I would controversially say do it. No doubt some union or industry "professional" location manager would disagree (as I am disregarding their job) on the grounds that everyone should have public liability insurance etc... then we start to talk big cash, because lots of licenses and a plethora of procedural paperwork begins. Be wise, do your health and safety checks and stick vehemently to them. Don't film the general public. Anyone asks... apologise sincerely and stop. Know that this time you were unlucky and you should never push your luck.
With this in mind, tonight I visited The Rainbow in Birmingham for permission to film there on Saturday night. I explained the project, the scale of the crew and was polite. I really wanted this location as it is one of the funkiest in Birmingham and could look like any one of the many bars in Berlin's nightlife - the ambiguity that we are searching for. The promoter of the night was positive and we are all set to film! Here are some pics to make this blog a little more visual...
I have learnt the following when trying to secure locations:
1) Going to see someone in person is better than using email or phone. I once had to convince a priest that I was a good Catholic boy before he would let me use his church for my student film. He only agreed because I saw him face to face and could gauge my sincerity. I wanted to specifically use his church and I got it.
2) Be honest. If you are going to have a crew of 30 and take 12 hours then tell them. Don't say you'll have no lights and then turn up with a lorry load of Arri's. I've seen people push this, even when filming "Watching & Waiting", and it leads to a bad relationship with the location staff, and probably screws up any future filming there.
3) In guerilla filmmaking, it is easier to ask forgiveness than permission. This is not an invitation to be stupid. If you want to film at a station or airport, you'd get permission. But in the street, out of harm's way and not blocking a throughfare... I would controversially say do it. No doubt some union or industry "professional" location manager would disagree (as I am disregarding their job) on the grounds that everyone should have public liability insurance etc... then we start to talk big cash, because lots of licenses and a plethora of procedural paperwork begins. Be wise, do your health and safety checks and stick vehemently to them. Don't film the general public. Anyone asks... apologise sincerely and stop. Know that this time you were unlucky and you should never push your luck.
With this in mind, tonight I visited The Rainbow in Birmingham for permission to film there on Saturday night. I explained the project, the scale of the crew and was polite. I really wanted this location as it is one of the funkiest in Birmingham and could look like any one of the many bars in Berlin's nightlife - the ambiguity that we are searching for. The promoter of the night was positive and we are all set to film! Here are some pics to make this blog a little more visual...
Sunday 25 January 2009
Cutting back on the rigmarole...
I believe that John and myself are benefitting from the liberty of filmmaking with less rigmarole upon this project. We both spent 2008 upon projects that required a lot more logistical organisation and to some extent, unnecessary procedure. Procedure is a fascinating piece of terminology. It suggests an obvious course of action, a predetermined sequence of events. However, as we proved when making "Watching & Waiting", it is possible to pervert that procedure, and still have a satisfactory result.
Similarly this time around, we want to rebuke 'procedure'. We are keen to keep the production team to a bare minimum, at most four persons. This requires versatile team members, who can perform a series of tasks as opposed to just one. Some critics will argue that this creates a 'jack of all trades, master of none' situation. It could also be seen to dilute the focus of any one team member, and create chaos on set. But here is my logic...
We are not rebuking 'procedure' per se, but the established perception of 'procedure'. The one which has scarcely been revisited since the days of the studio system and hideously fails to reflect the current possibilities within digital filmmaking. Therefore it is possible to develop new procedures, with new priorities that determine their shape and sequences. For example, finance continues to be a motivator, and therefore we cannot have a large crew that requires feeding and paying. Similarly, working with non-actors, I'd like to get as much time to them as possible, and not have my focus drawn away by numerous crew requiring attention. This would slow us down to attend to both, and time is another consideration. So these limiters, motivators, call them what you will, inform our procedural construction.
This procedure is also a developmental process. It is different from 'Peppermint' and 'Watching & Waiting'. I'm keen to explore ways in which to experience filmmaking processes. I can feel my filmmaking develop. I watched my African documentaries last night as I have a possibility of another next year, and I hated the constant fades to black, which I felt broke the rhythm of the narrative, yet informed the 'scrapbook' nature. In "Watching & Waiting" we only had three fades to black, which indicated the passing of time into the next day. However, I want to add another rule to the production of Rosie - no fades to black within the main body of the film. We will fade in from black and fade out to black, but nothing else... That is what I call development!!!
We must not lose sight of the experimental nature of this project. It is the usual cost attached to the rigmarole of filmmaking that prevents filmmakers from enjoying an apprenticeship or developmental phase. The pressure is on to create a 'hit' immediately, as opposed to develop your style or understanding. In any other art form this would be ludicrous, no-one would be expected to be a master painter without painting first. It is a craft. Similarly I have difficulty with the short-film approach to filmmaking... "make a short, get noticed, make feature". Would you only paint small paintings first before a larger canvas? Would you make doll's house furniture before making the dining table chair? Would you practice sprinting when training for a marathon? No. In my opinion, and it is an opinion and little else, we should take the focus away from the cost and business and put the attention back to developing a craft. Maybe then we can advance this cinematic art form.
Similarly this time around, we want to rebuke 'procedure'. We are keen to keep the production team to a bare minimum, at most four persons. This requires versatile team members, who can perform a series of tasks as opposed to just one. Some critics will argue that this creates a 'jack of all trades, master of none' situation. It could also be seen to dilute the focus of any one team member, and create chaos on set. But here is my logic...
We are not rebuking 'procedure' per se, but the established perception of 'procedure'. The one which has scarcely been revisited since the days of the studio system and hideously fails to reflect the current possibilities within digital filmmaking. Therefore it is possible to develop new procedures, with new priorities that determine their shape and sequences. For example, finance continues to be a motivator, and therefore we cannot have a large crew that requires feeding and paying. Similarly, working with non-actors, I'd like to get as much time to them as possible, and not have my focus drawn away by numerous crew requiring attention. This would slow us down to attend to both, and time is another consideration. So these limiters, motivators, call them what you will, inform our procedural construction.
This procedure is also a developmental process. It is different from 'Peppermint' and 'Watching & Waiting'. I'm keen to explore ways in which to experience filmmaking processes. I can feel my filmmaking develop. I watched my African documentaries last night as I have a possibility of another next year, and I hated the constant fades to black, which I felt broke the rhythm of the narrative, yet informed the 'scrapbook' nature. In "Watching & Waiting" we only had three fades to black, which indicated the passing of time into the next day. However, I want to add another rule to the production of Rosie - no fades to black within the main body of the film. We will fade in from black and fade out to black, but nothing else... That is what I call development!!!
We must not lose sight of the experimental nature of this project. It is the usual cost attached to the rigmarole of filmmaking that prevents filmmakers from enjoying an apprenticeship or developmental phase. The pressure is on to create a 'hit' immediately, as opposed to develop your style or understanding. In any other art form this would be ludicrous, no-one would be expected to be a master painter without painting first. It is a craft. Similarly I have difficulty with the short-film approach to filmmaking... "make a short, get noticed, make feature". Would you only paint small paintings first before a larger canvas? Would you make doll's house furniture before making the dining table chair? Would you practice sprinting when training for a marathon? No. In my opinion, and it is an opinion and little else, we should take the focus away from the cost and business and put the attention back to developing a craft. Maybe then we can advance this cinematic art form.
Monday 19 January 2009
Storage...
Much the same as the clutter you collect as you get older, I seem to of collated tonnes of hard drives of stuff. My concern with the shift to HD is that this takes up so much more space than SD, and I'm going to need more storage. Granted, the cost of hard drives has fallen dramatically but there is still a cost attached, especially when most people recommend you buy TWO drives, and clone them and store them separately. This is largely as insurance, but especially more poignant with the P2 workflow when we consider that the masters will get erased also after cloning, as opposed to remaining on a DV tape. This is a particularly daunting prospect.
Tuesday 13 January 2009
Locations
One of the elements that John and I discussed at great length is the look of the locations. We didn't want the film to be area specific. Indeed we wanted to confuse people to where the film is located as opposed to recreate anywhere else. Casting Eeva (who is Finnish), Raul (Spanish) and Laura Mengozzi (Italian) helps create this confusion within the titles also. We shot one scene previously in the Christmas market which looks decidedly German, and the intention is to keep other areas relatively vague also. I intend to have them read foreign books as well, as a cheeky little tease about the lack of language.
The film is divided into two time frames. The first is the present day, which I have no problem illustrating as the UK. It is made obvious by the Birmingham night scenes and the currency that Rosie is paid in. The present day will be filmed upon mounted cameras.
The second time frame is the flashbacks of the past, which are handheld, and exploit the ambiguity of their location. I plan to film some of the interiors in my own apartment blocks largely because they are fairly non-descriptive and not particularly architecturally 'British'. It is a reversal of my previous filmmaking experience of "Watching & Waiting" in which Galway was the obvious location, and was required to be so by the Fleadh organisers. Similarly Libya and Morocco landscapes play a major part within the African documentaries.
This challenge is another welcome one.
The film is divided into two time frames. The first is the present day, which I have no problem illustrating as the UK. It is made obvious by the Birmingham night scenes and the currency that Rosie is paid in. The present day will be filmed upon mounted cameras.
The second time frame is the flashbacks of the past, which are handheld, and exploit the ambiguity of their location. I plan to film some of the interiors in my own apartment blocks largely because they are fairly non-descriptive and not particularly architecturally 'British'. It is a reversal of my previous filmmaking experience of "Watching & Waiting" in which Galway was the obvious location, and was required to be so by the Fleadh organisers. Similarly Libya and Morocco landscapes play a major part within the African documentaries.
This challenge is another welcome one.
Monday 12 January 2009
Kit booking
Booking the kit today means that we are all go for the weekend of 31st January. This is where I think a bulk of the filming that involves Raul will be done. He has a month break in February, and I will be off the Berlin for the Berlinale on the 4th myself, so I would like to have more rushes by then. It makes me a little nervous, but we'll be adopting a similar turn around to 72 with P2's being rotated as we film, and audio being recorded to a Marantz hard drive and being dumped from that also to computer as we go.
A far cry from the VHS I used to have in college when I started in 1997. How 10 years have changed.
A far cry from the VHS I used to have in college when I started in 1997. How 10 years have changed.
Thursday 8 January 2009
New Year... holidays and hard work
A break from the blog whilst the festivities took over. Not much has developed other than some experimenting with the Abaltat software. I generated a rough cut of the opening sequence, which will ultimately be longer, but just to see how the sound responded to colours onscreen, including the credits. Here is the result:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)