Work
2 weeks to go before I finish off my teaching contract at the film school and things seem to just keep getting busier and busier. I have been spending atleast 2 days a week with Bernadette - the person who will be taking over the position, while I am still trying to finish off the paperwork and assessments for the year. It is always a huge learning experience sitting and talking with Bernadette as she comes from both news as well as film background. She has worked with prominent directors like David Cronenberg, Peter Bogdanovich, Sam Pillsbury and it is a pleasure listening to her about the craft of editing.
We have shot a total of 24 tapes till now on 'Five' and I have finished digitizing about half of them - got another 12 to go and then we shoot more stuff - the climax of act-2 and the remaining pickup shots. I can see it coming together in my head - now just have to see if it plays out properly.
Anyway I am babbling - I am tired and about to go to bed now.
Till later,
Amit
Labels: Five, Post Production
Weekend-4 of '5'
Crazy weekend....in every sense of the way. This was supposed to be our last weekend of filming. In between the last weekend and this, the climax of cycle-1 was re-analyzed and re-written, in order to keep the structure of the movie intact while building on the tension within the storyline that we had filmed up to that point. David M. did a quick writeup of the climax which we then tweaked as we started filming.
Each weekend has been special and challenging but this one was by far the toughest one and definitely one of the most satisfying ones. We started off late on Saturday afternoon since the plan was to do night shoot for the climax of act-1. We got to the location at 1.30 in the afternoon and took a good hours break before we started filming the climax of act-2. It started shaping up really nicely and by the time we were hitting the stride with it we were into the late hours of the evening. So we took a dinner break and started preparing for the night shoot.
The crazy trek in
All of us are pleased to see the hut
Mike tries to sneak one on me
Preparing for the scene
Benji explaining something while Dave looks onIn between all this we had 3 trampers (NZ term for 'hikers') came to the hut and were wondering what we were doing there since they had paid to stay there the night. We compared papers and found that even though our production had booked out the hut for all the weekends in November for filming, someone had made the mistake and double booked it for that night. Luckily the main guy in the other group also worked in the film industry and understood what we were doing and compromised on the whole thing - he put up his tent behind the hut, so they wouldn't get in our way. It was a really sweet thing to do and then they put up with our screaming and yelling which went into the early hours of Sunday.
Talking of the night shoot - one of the most challenging things with this entire production has been that the location does not have any electricity or running water or anything 'normal' you can imagine. Carrying a generator for an hour through a muddy and uneven track into the woods isn't exactly a feasible solution, especially when we are also carrying our costumes, our bedding and our food supply for the weekend. So the solution to that was that I rented out extra camera batteries for both the cameras and David M. would trek in every Saturday evening, recharge them overnight and deliver them to us the next day morning, so we could keep shooting through Sunday. And for the girls makeup needs - Mike helped us out with a portable alternator, which would power up their hair straightener so they could use to straighten their hair up for continuity purposes. So in this scenario going into a night shoot was a small nightmare as we had no lights or light sources bright enough to light up the scene in anyway whatsoever. Benji and me did a quick lighting test earlier in the week and found that we needed lots of light to make the night shots work. Solution - Lance, Benji and me went and bought heaps of candles and I also bought 2 gas lanterns which put out an equivalent of 75W house bulb each and also borrowed another gas lantern from James. This was our lighting equipment and the three of us were very apprehensive of it would shape up. But on Saturday night thanks to Lance, Benji and Mike - things worked out really well in terms of getting the lighting right. We ended up using a little bit of gain on the camera but overall that entire set of scenes look really nice with some great mood lighting.
Our 'lighting' setup
Love the mood lighting..isn't it just romantic?
Can someone show me the way to Auckland?Hats off to the cast and crew, who kept their focus and went through till 3.00 in the morning - which is when we completed the night shoot. A really satisfying shoot in the end. We didn't see or hear any rats through the shoot, which I reckon is because of all the light that was there in the hut (but I think Benji had a really close encounter with one of them when he went to sleep later that morning).
Sunday morning was a late start for everyone and the idea was to try and finish the rest of the scenes for the weekend. I woke up at 7.15 AM (after going to bed around 3.30 AM) because of my internal body clock and I just couldn't go back to sleep afterwards. So I sat on the porch and enjoyed the beautiful and melodious morning in the woods. It is amazing the different kinds of sounds you can hear out there. We started off filming on Sunday around 11.00 AM and it was another fantastic day of filming. Perfectly overcast sky for most of the day. We stopped filming around 4.30 PM since we knew that we couldn't get through the remaining 5 pages of the script in one and half hours. It definitely was the right decision as it had been a really taxing weekend for everyone and those last 5 pages we want to film were emotionally intense scenes and also has a lot of action happening within it - so left it for another day. How I co-ordinate that day now is a different matter altogether but overall everyone was pretty happy with what we have achieved in this short amount of time and no one seemed to mind the cuts we received from cutty grass (which has sharp edged blades) while filming.
Marjan and Anita review their take with Lance
The original '9'Overall - now we have finished shooting 92% of the movie and have about 6 pages left to film and I am pretty damn excited about the movie. I keep saying this but I think I really am lucky to have been working with such a fine group of people - the cast, the crew and the people behind the movie - who have made this experiment possible. Plus the weather Gods have favored us for better part of the shoot and it has been monumental in making the movie happen.
I have almost recovered from my sniffling and sneezing which usually happens because of spending the weekend at the hut. Now it is time for me start digitizing the footage and start thinking of the edit work flow and processes. I will take leave for now.
Till later,
Amit
Labels: Filming, Five
Movies
Small update- just watched 1 brilliant movie and an entertaining one. The brilliant movie was '
Children of Men' - which completely blew me away. It is dark but human at the same time. There are some story points which aren't explained that clearly but it still works because of the brilliant acting combined with the technical brilliance which makes the futuristic world of 2027 AD come alive.
The entertaining one was '
The Departed' which is a remake of the Hong Kong hit 'Infernal Affairs'. It takes it's basic structure from the HK original but changes a fair few things which work in it's favor. The acting is top notch and so is everything else but it doesn't seem so brilliant to me because I have seen the original, so somewhere at the back of my head I was always comparing it to the original. Other people in the theater seemed to love the twists and turns.
Between the 2 movies I think I prefer 'Children of Men' - which truly is a marvel. A must watch if you get the chance.
More filming with '5' this weekend and that should finish the principal photography with an occasional pickup shot needed at a later stage.
Till later,
Amit
[P.S - Just received an accounts statement from the US Distributor for 'Memories of Tomorrow' and we still haven't made any money but the movie has sold a total of 825 DVD copies in US from the time of it's release and it has also recently been sold to South Africa besides it's original sales to Italy and Thailand. So more exposure for sure but no dosh in sight. I still have to hear back from the NZ distributor regarding it's performance in NZ and how it is performing in Australia]
Labels: Filming, Five, Memories of Tomorrow, Movies
Weekend-3 of '5'
The last update I did was a week back and it has been an eventful week plus one of the most challenging but satisfying weekends. It can be defined by one of the things which Benji said on this weekend's shoot - it was pouring down cats and dogs but I insisted on continuing the shoot to which Benji gave me a look and said 'This is insanity!!!' and then we kept filming in the rain.
Besides the usual departmental meetings on various days last week - art department on Tuesday; camera department on Thursday - i had a long Wednesday evening meeting/ script workshopping session with the actors. Script workshopping??? Yep...since we decided to change the way climax of act-1 plays out we decided that it would be a good idea to sit down and talk things out as it would have an impact on the overall story structure. And things went from good to great at that point...we spent about 3.5 hours talking about stuff and basically introduced new elements into the second act of the story, which tie in the story threads a lot better than before.
Anita at the script workshop
It also developed new challenges in terms of rescheduling the scenes and order they will play out on the weekend.The weather forecast wasn't too good for the weekend either, which was another cause for worry. So all of us went into the weekend - a bit unsure of how things were going to shape up. But have to say that it has panned out well for the project. The thing is that when the production is rolling it is best not to fight the change but to roll with it and adapt to the situation - without which a production can come to a grinding halt.
It always helps when you have a cast and crew who are willing to give more than what is usually expected of them. Having Mike on set helped us heaps in terms of keeping things moving as he would take care of things which seemed small but in the longer run helped us save heaps of time. And I still find it amazing that Lance still carries his tripod into the bush and lugs it around the whole day. Everything about this project has been so special- the people, the experience, the journey.
Coming back to the actual weekend - Saturday started off with a heavy downpour and I decided to keep going with the filming - which is when Benji said the statement of the weekend. Since we are filming most of the stuff chronologically it did not bother me too much that we are filming in different weather conditions -in fact the couple of scenes we filmed when it was raining shaped out to be beautiful looking scenes. After that everything was a blur with the rate of shooting we were doing.
Insanity breeds magicThe start of Sunday was a lot slower than I expected - especially with the first scene but the actors managed to improvise and adapt the script to the changes we had been making over the past couple of weekends and came up with some beautiful scenes. We managed to film some awesome scenes and by the end of the day we were only a couple of scenes behind schedule. Now we will be going back in next weekend to film the remaining scenes.
Marjan, Anita and me rehearsing a scene
Richard giving us suggestions and I am soaking it in
Pain and loss
The Team in front of the hutThe net result is that we filmed about 17 pages of the script this weekend. Add that to previous weekends score of 25 pages and the first days score of 10 pages - we have filmed a total of 52 pages in 5 days, averaging 10 pages a day. We have another 20 pages to go, so it should be an interesting challenge getting everything done within the required time. So yeah - I am pretty pleased with how this is shaping up and pretty much with everything that's happening - right from acting to footage.
This time around the rats did not bother us too much as we kept big candles going through the night but I have been sniffling the whole day from the smells at the hut - more specifically the smell of rat poo. It happened last weekend and it is the same today but I think I will be alright by tomorrow morning once my body regains its composure.
Now have to get some rest and start thinking about this coming weekend.
Till later,
Amit
Labels: Filming, Five
Weekend-2 of '5'
Man, what a weekend. Fun, exciting, adventurous, challenging and productive - all in all it was just wonderful. The weather held out and it was nice and sunny most of the time. It was just the 8 of us as Mike - the art director called in sick for the weekend with severe ear infection. We trekked in on Friday evening and the first night was hard for most of us because of the rats in the hut which kept making these massive noises combined with the snoring of Dave, Benji and me - that kept everyone awake at some point or the other.
Saturday was full on and really intense but fun at the same time. All of us woke up at 5.45 AM and started shooting from 7.00 AM. The day just cruised by and the highlight of the day was the trek to the top of a waterfall and back. It took us a good hour to get to that place and the trek back was even harder because the path was so steep and there was no supporting trees around that you could hold to push yourself up plus everything was just so prickly that you basically had to use your entire body weight to keep going up. It definitely was a huge mission, especially with all the equipment we were carrying. By the end of the day everyone was just exhausted and really happy to go to bed after the dinner.
I was woken up at 5.45 on Sunday morning when the wake up time was actually 8.00 AM because Dave - the audio operator (who sleeps with his sunglasses on) forgot to turn his alarm off from the previous day, even after specific instructions to everyone to check their alarm time. And after that I couldn't really go back to sleep, so had a pretty full on Sunday as well.
Here are some of the pics from the weekend and you can see that we really did have a good experience. You can click on them to enlarge -
Blissful Lance
Five + one.
I am reflecting some light onto Andy and Richard
Benji spying on Anita and Andy
After a long day's shoot..
Lance chopping up some wood for the fireplace
Marjan by the fireplace (I love this pic)
Sleeping arrangements (Dave is in the red sleeping bag)
Dazed and confused!!!
Food tied to the ceiling so that the rats don't get to it
Typical Dave - sleeping again (this time between scenes)
Overall it was great. We got 90% of what we wanted and the one scene we did not manage to get, we have postponed it to the pickup day. The unspoken hero of the weekend was David M. - the script writer, who trekked in and out (2 hours in total) on the Saturday evening to take our discharged camera batteries to charge them up overnight. He then trekked back in again on Sunday morning to give us the charges batteries, which basically kept us going through the day. It is things like these which make this project so worthwhile.
I was down with major cold today but I am feeling a lot better - maybe a good night's sleep will get me back to normalcy. Now have to start preparing for this coming weekend's shoot - which will be as intense - if not more. Can't wait for it.
Till later,
Amit
Labels: Filming, Five
Weather!!!!
Man..the weather is so crap right now - feels like the middle of a bad winter. I hope it clears up for the weekend otherwise our rate of filming will slow down considerably. Most of the things are set for this weekend's filming - hopefully the weather Gods will be favorable to us.
I have just gotten back from swimming lesson #3 and today got into the deep end of the pool. water confidence is building up slowly, so thats always a good thing.
Off to learn the script for this weekend's filming.
Till later,
Amit
Labels: Filming, Five, Swimming
Screen grabs from Day-1
Here are some screen grabs from Day-1 shoot of 'Five'. The images are uncolor-corrected and no touch ups have been done, so the final product will look a lot better than what you see right now. Plus they are not necessarily the best screen grabs, I just picked them without going through all the footage. All the images are enlargeable so you can just click on them.
Labels: Filming, Five
Day-1 of FIVE
It is Tuesday and I have just got some time to do a small but quick update on 'Five'.
Sunday was an extremely long day and a huge challenge but it turned out to be a fantastic day. First day of any feature shoot is always tough because the cast and crew are trying to find the rhythm of the movie as they go along. I felt really lucky to be working with such a talented bunch of people because everyone found their rhythm really quick. I have digitized all the footage from the day's shoot and all we need is 3 pickup shots (not scenes - just shots) and it looks fantastic. So I am really chuffed and the great thing was everyone had fun while doing it. I can't describe how satisfying that feeling is. We also have some fantastic behind the scenes footage but for now here are some of the photos from this Sunday (click to enlarge photos):
Everyone preparing to shoot a scene
Andy and Marjan preparing for their scene
Lance and Benji discussing camera angles and coverage
Mike preparing his ingenious SFX rig while Dave films it
Marjan and Anita listening to a discussion
Richard and Andy in a moment from the movieOn Monday evening I caught up with Lance and Benji for a camera dept. meeting and told them my thoughts over Sunday's shoot and also had a small briefing for this coming weekend's shoot. Today, earlier in the evening I caught up with Mike - the art director, to discuss the art department requirements. I have already done the schedule for this weekend and now have to work out the logistics of everything.
Am I enjoying it? Every single moment of it.
Till later,
Amit
Labels: Filming, Five, Pre-production
T -1 and counting...
the last few days in brief:
Wednesday - shooting script lock down. schedule for this sunday's shoot locked down. discussions/briefing with actors about shooting style and how we are going to make this happen. picked up second camera from a friend. bought couple of t-shirts and a watch for the character I will be playing.
Thursday - drove down to waitakeres and got location permits for shooting in the woods sorted. picked up rental batteries for cameras and bought tape stock for the shoot. swimming lesson #2 (i am good on my chest but not so on my back) and an informal catch up with Lance and Benji.
Friday - checked out sound gear. technical camera tests for visual look & aspect ratios.
Today is sorting out last minute technical stuff combined with sorting out food etc. And obviously going through the script and making sure that I am prepared for tomorrow. Next post will be on Monday - if I get the time.
Adios,
Amit
Labels: Five, Pre-production
