The writer, Ryan Thomas, was and still is a huge Heath Ledger fan - even before he knew about him becoming the Joker. Well late last year Ryan wrote a script about the Joker and wanted to film it. He linked up with an actor friend of his by the name of Josh Davidson. I never met Ryan before that shoot but I knew Josh from before. Him and I did a feature together called The Despair. I was a producer, cinematographer, and editor on that project and Josh was one of the lead actors. Him and I got pretty close while we were shacked up in the Poconos for nine days. Also on set I got pretty close with another filmmaker by the name of Leigh Sturgeon. More on Leigh later...he deserve his own future post.

After the Poconos shoot I had to take a leave of absence from the project due to health issues with my two year old son. Also more on that later (actually...that will also be a future post). I kept in touch with both Josh and Leigh. Josh actually lives in Maryland, Leigh used to live in Ambler, PA (now lives with Josh) and I live in New Jersey. Glad The Despair brought us all together...

So one day early this year I got a phone call from Josh asking if I wanted to work with him on a short. At the time is was more of a technical exercise to try out some equipment and to see how well we all work together then some kind of short that we would submit to film festivals.

A few days before principle photography was about to start news broke out that Heath Ledger mysteriously died. Once the writer, Ryan, heard about the news he wanted to pull the plug. He didn't want to make a film portraying one of his favorite actors right after his untimely death but somehow Josh convinced him otherwise.

I headed down to Maryland and we filmed this Joker piece in a single day. Think all in all it took 8 to 10 hour to film. All we had for crew was Leigh and myself. In regards to actors, we had Ryan (the writer) play the male hostage, a girl named Sam to play the female hostage that was one of Josh's roommates at the time (she was a last minute replacement and unfortunately not an actor), and Josh himself as The Joker. Josh was also the producer that got everything and everyone together so we was playing on both sides of the camera. At the time...I thought I was only going to help film the short but I wound up being the director, dp, and editor on the project. Leigh was the sound man and 2nd camera op on set.

A couple months later, March 15th to be exact, we posted Born Laughing on YouTube. We just thought mainly that family and friends would take a look at it and that was about it. Well, just over four months later we received over 150,000 views. Mostly...people were raving about it. It helped to wet their appetite until The Dark Knight came out.

The funny part of all this was...since Heath died we decided to only film about a third of the script and just leave it at that. So technically, its an unfinished project. But people still loved it. Hell, a decent amount even begged us to finish it. But after that project...Josh and Ryan went on to do other projects and we just couldn't sync our schedules up. Once all of our schedules did sync up together - I heard Ryan lost like 40lbs and looked totally different. So that put an end to that.

Finally...this leads to my current pre-production situation. Josh and I decided to make another Joker film. Why? We know we can't make any money from it. Mainly...since we're already establishing a fanbase we decided to raise the bar across the board. You see, with Born Laughing, we hardly did any pre-pro on it and we kinda came in with a more carefree attitude not thinking it would do a whole hell of a lot. Like I said...it was only a simple technical exercise. Now we want to show the people that loved the first one and the YouTube flamers out there that we can make a kick ass film once we really put our minds to it.

On this project Josh will be once again be the producer and the Joker and I will be the director and editor on the piece. I wanted to step away from being the DP and focus more on directing. Thankfully Josh is giving me that chance.

We're planning on principle photography to be at the end of September and we plan to release it right around Halloween. Think it would be a great time frame for this project.

We're currently working on the script and all the details that go along with it but once we get closer I'll keep you guys updated.

If you haven't seen Born Laughing and would like to check it out then watch the video below.

Enjoy!

Until next time...

So far, the things i am using to convey this change are:

flowers and plants that change in seasons

clothing (obviously) worn by the actors

colder colours used in winter, more set dressing

sparser set in summer, warmer colours

lamps and heaters in winter with rugs and cushions

i honestly feel like I'm going to have to seriously go over the top to really do this properly. hoorah.

ash

Here's a summary of what I have been able to soak in:

-don't overlight the bar scene to keep the atmosphere in tact
-fill light on the main cast during the bar scene is sufficient
-don't bother with the infinite reflections of two mirrors (shot in London I really wanted to imitate)
-bouncing a redhead or dedos off the white ceiling in the bathroom is enough for lighting, this will bring up the overall levels
-to hide the sound recordist, get him to bring a mattress and lie him on the floor
-focus is effected by the mirror - the optical distance, from subject to mirror, to camera
-prepare a tight shotlist, to avoid getting lost in trying to get 'cool' shots
-what is necessary? film those and then experiment if there is time
-he reassured me to go handheld and supported, because it would be impossible to wrangle a tripod in the tight space
-don't limit the actors too much by using them to hide my reflection, their performances will suffer
-Alexis' dress should be a contrasting prime color
-Brian's clothes have to work in the bright space of the bathroom and the dark bar environment (something similar to what Bill was wearing on the test shoot day)

Thanks for all the advice!!

Lionel

-the obvious problem is my own and the other crew's reflections
-the other main issue is going to be focus, because it is shot handheld and we have the optical distance of the mirrors to deal with

In terms of solutions. I rewatched London again and actually never noticed how many shots are shot from quite a low angle to hide the DP's reflection. I thought shooting it all from the bottom up would make for awkward perspective and draw attention to the fact that I am trying to hide myself. It doesn't however. The other idea was to hide my reflection behind the cubicle door, which causes an out of focus door on the edge of frame and results in a voyeuristic look. Bill did not like this as much. Then the third is demanding on the actors and me. But I managed to get shots straight on and make the actor's / Jen - brilliant actress :) reflection cover my own. Then I used Bill's back to hide my reflection whilst the camera is mobile THEN I filmed myself a-damn-gain.

I am looking at focusing tables to be able to measure the distance and adjust focus that way. Robert pointed out that the optical distance for focus is measured from the subject to the mirror to the camera (kind of obvious but still helpful and reassuring). Problem is that I then need someone that does not cause a reflection and can measure stuff for me. I'll talk to the producer.

We are now using the test footage to slot the different angles to the right sections of the script and then break them down into a comprehensive shotlist (social life on halt).

Here's the bathroom footage from the day

Lionel

Here is what I shot on the day

Lionel

We just received the pre-production sample from our in-house model builders. We will be sending it to the Nissan license agent for their review. So, it's possible that there will be some minor changes before it goes into production.

It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words so we'll quit writing and you can start looking. By the way, if you ever needed a car to speed around in underground, this might be the one.

Here's a photo of one our master craftsmen working on the tooling model (the hand-made model that was the oversized prototype for the steel molds that will be used for the production models).

But lets start from the start, kind of.  When we first set up, we decided to get the bar stuff out of the way.  FIrst thing we found out was that the place a mini switch board that controlled all the lights in the venue.  From that board, we can dim any lights in the venue and then use some of our own gear to pump in the required key or fill as necessary.  So in effect, most of our lighting has been done for us, but we will still need to balance the fill so that we get a more even exposure.  Seeing as how we are shooting on standard def video, the exposure latitude is very small.  Have a look at some of the stuff we got on the day, it probably doesn't explain much in the way of story, but it does give an insight into what kind of shots we will be looking for.

Bar test shoot

Now comes the fun stuff.  If you haven't seen the film London, go and check it out, it's pretty good.  But it also stands as the major influence for our films style and in particular the starting point for the use of mirrors.  Once we got into the bathroom it became apparent that space was going to be an issue, but not as much as was originally thought.  The room is pretty spacious and if we shoot from within the cubicles  and there is also ample room to shoot down the length of the room as well.  It's unfortunate that we couldn't bring in a mirror because on the day there might be few a shoots that will need to be shot by pointing into a mirror which will reflect into the scene.  Basically, if there is a tight shot where we cant fit the camera, we will place a mirror where the camera is meant to be and use the mirror as a prism.  I think we are going to have to perform a few tests to see if this will be a viable option.  On the day, because of the limited amount of time and the size of the script, we really can't afford to experiment, we will need to have thought out each set up in advance and run through the dialogue.  Here's a sneak peak from what we tried out in the bathroom.

bathroom stuff

During a few experiments with the mirrors and and actor blocking, we found that near the wall on the right side there is a small triangular glass plate that we could use for the characters to snort coke from (its in the script).  The best part of it all is that there is enough room for the camera to shoot from underneath the plate and get a really low angle shot that will require the actors to really snort something on the day.

All in all, I'm really pleased with the progress we did during our test shoot.  The more we go out on test shoots the more I find them invaluable.  The amount of things that we discovered on the day, whether it be shot construction, lighting or even blocking will help us during shooting to be able to solve problems which will undoubtedly arise. 

Bill.

Today we went by to take some preliminary photos to begin storyboarding and visualising the film from. It was rather dark and we had to take shallow depth of field photos (which are virtually impossible with flash), meaning some of the shots are NOT sharp.

Anyway here are a few shots I took with comments below on what the intention is (enjoy):

(two shot of Brian and Oliver at the bar, certainly not this framing, more for reference)

(the idea is to end a track of Brian in a shot reverse shot of Oliver and Brian with a swiveling motion - the idea...)

(racking focus of different visual planes, extras in the background and our main cast in the foreground)

(a high angle with multiple perspectives, this is where it first dawned on me that I probably won't be able to wrangle a tripod around in there and have to go handheld or otherwise supporter)

(a low angle approach which will give two reflections, plus the first perspective, I find this an appealing shot - great acting Bill)

(triple perspective from the side, for mentally reflecting moments of the main cast)

Lionel

Both of these films use mirrors in a creative way. London moreso to emphasise the effects of drug use and a bunch of unlikely people meeting in an unlikely space. The Last Kiss, is shot well overall, however I am particularly interested in one scene. In the tiny bathroom when the couple has there first small scale fallout, the mirror is used in a really effective way. It shows the reflection of her and his face, both facing the screen, whilst they're talking.

The visual effect that has is, that they are not really talking to each other, but voicing two different opinions.

I am thinking of using another mirror and shooting off its reflection, using low and high angles to avoid filming my own reflection, use the cubicle doors to hide my reflection and maybe even use the actor or their reflection to hide the camera.

Ambitious, but that's how we like it!

Lionel

Last Wednesday was the first visit to the "Brian & Alex Family Home" at East Doncaster. In a way we are glad that the place was indeed suitable and comfortable enough to film in. The only thing that worries me would be the scheduling. As the location is quite a distance away from the city centre, (probably an estimated drive for half an hour, or close to an hour via public transport), Antonius and I talked about the possibility of having to hire a van-converted minibus in addition to Ash's car for a day or two, just so we can travel with the equipment (and possibly chauffeur the cast and crew from and back to the city?), this might save us some time and reimbursements on tram and bus passes on the actual day of filming. It might eventually cost just as much for hire cost and petrol, but we'll see how it works out when we get some quotations done this week. There are definitely minor changes to be made to the script and possibly during the shoot itself after seeing the location and in a way it was good that we've brought the camera along to test out some of the shots. Tentatively, we should be ready to film on the evening on 29th as well as 30th August, the following Sunday we just might pop by again to pick up additional 'filler' shots and cutaways.

Kate and Dan (Soap)

Having visited Ash's place during the weekend, I sort of have a clearer sense about interpreting the script onto the actions in the film. It has kind of a Bohemian-style to it, with the paintings and mirrors on the walls, which I though overall, it really fits as a home for Kate. We tested out some shots and worked out how some scenes should be changed and played out. This will probably give me some time to go through the script more thoroughly again. The directors' workshop was really useful especially the last one where I got to rehearse a scene from the script. As there is little dialogue in it, the actors advised me that it is important that I should make clear the motivation of the character, especially to the actor who will be playing Kate, who will need to enact a certain profoundness throughout the film. This was even apparent during the audition, when one of the actors trying out for Kate was being quite professional. The questions she raised in turn cleared some of my doubts and made me contemplate about Kate's character and how she should behave. Shall put some final touches on the script. On the other hand, I'm quite excited about filming the soap opera segment. Watching The Bold and Beautiful made me cringe. Should be fun.

Tee Pao

Wei is amazing to watch work. She tracks and registers minute degrees of color temperature changes by eye. She is so experienced with Light, (with a capital L.) noticing Light, bringing Light to the set, that I can barely get through the daytime hours feeling centered, now that she's left Minneapolis and gone back to NYC. She is truly a talent as is and clearly superior in her age group. (Let's not even talk about the gender stuff.) Wei dwells in possibility at all times. Which I thank her for, greatly. From the start we both agreed that "honest green" was the was how we wanted the corn to look in this film. Thank God for honesty and people like Wei who manifest it.

Every protagonist will answer three types of questions: Occupation and life (4 questions), city / country / culture (6 questions) and global interest (2 questions). So in order to organize it I just took a sheet of paper and I made this table:

Seems that everything goes ahead, and it makes Mike and I happy and a little bit more ready than before.
Sébastien from Paris, one of the protagonists, has already sent the questions (how can be so fast?). He has been the first one and really made a great job.

Here's a great, thorough article by Paul Cullum about the world of female directors:

For female directors, independent is beautiful

Politics make personal vision a constant battle

By PAUL CULLUM

"The pendulum is swinging in the wrong direction. It is absolutely not a golden age."

So claims Nancy Meyers, the most successful woman director in Hollywood, who has single-handedly proved that talent-driven romantic comedies have the capacity to do international blockbuster business -- i.e., that chick flicks have legs. If she's not happy, chances are it's not going to get any better the further you go down the food chain.

From the mid-'90s onward, as independent film took its turn at the table, it seemed like a new generation of female directors was about to finally explode the old boys' network of Hollywood gender disparity. Enabled by female and female-friendly producers like Christine Vachon, Ted Hope, James Schamus, Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa plus a host of others, directors as diverse as Kimberly Peirce, Nicole Holofcener, Mary Harron, Sofia Coppola, Kasi Lemmons, Lisa Cholodenko, Lynne Ramsay, Antonia Bird, Adrienne Shelley and Sarah Polley seemed to finally promise an end to the dominant patriarchy.

A decade later, the Directors Guild of America reports meager advances. As of 2006, female membership stands at only 22.4%. Limit that to directors proper, and the equation drops to 13%. Granted, these numbers are up from 10.2% in 1993 and just 6% in 1983.

So is the glass half full or half empty? It depends on the case study. While helmers like Coppola and Holofcener work with regularity, and with seemingly little interference, Peirce ("Boys Don't Cry") and Tamara Jenkins ("The Slums of Beverly Hills") have taken eight and nine years, respectively, for their follow-up narrative features to come to term ("Stop Loss" and "Savages," both due imminently).

For the most part, many female directors seem to fall into the same conformist traps as their male counterparts, which is in itself a form of equality. This is especially true of those who start out making strong personal statements in the indie realm, only to stumble when they become directors-for-hire or attempt to funnel their vision through the studio hierarchy. After invigorating, self-penned indie debuts, "Girlfight's" Karyn Kusama and "Thirteen's" Catherine Hardwicke both attached themselves to studio-driven packages that performed below expectations.

Jenkins, writer-director of Sundance standout "Savages," with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney, spent several years trying to mount a biopic of photographer Diane Arbus, for which the body count was already considerable. In the meantime, she accepted script work for hire with husband Jim Taylor (Alexander Payne's writing partner) to pay the bills.

"And then by the time I make ('Savages'), it's nine years later," says Jenkins. "My husband tells me I'm really stubborn -- it's really great for a director, but it can be trying as a wife. Your fists are clenched for so long, defending and trying to hold onto this thing that has to go through so many other opinions and voices. At so many different stages, you're just trying to hold onto some grain of your original intention."

Kusama, whose autobiographical "Girlfight" paved the way for multiple Oscar winner "Million Dollar Baby," was unable to raise the $5 million for a horror/sci-fi "shape-shifter story" in the Cronenberg mold. So she pursued and won a directing job on "Aeon Flux," an estimated $65 million futuristic epic at Paramount that was both critically and commercially disappointing. (More than 30 minutes were deleted from the director's cut before it was released theatrically.)

"I can tell you from my perspective it is emphatically not a successful film," Kusama says. "It was in fact a pretty painful experience. The film that's in the theaters is not a cut that I'm particularly supportive of, and it reflects a lot of the anxieties and hostilities of just the chaos at the studio at the time.

"By the time we were cutting the film, we were working with our third administration at Paramount. I didn't actually understand the impact of the regime changes, one after another, on the film until it was actually happening to me. To give you a sense of what the difference was in the two regimes, Sherry Lansing said when we started, 'We want this to be our "Blade Runner," and Gail Berman wanted it to be 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer.'"

Kusama doesn't blame the fact that she was essentially a writer-director working from someone else's script (perhaps because she married one of the screenwriters, Phil Hay, with whom she has a 3-month-old child). Nor does she factor gender into her experience, especially, as both the outgoing and incoming executives were women.

From her vantage point in the indie world, writer-director Hilary Brougher has been relatively unsullied by studio politics. She has earned dream raves for her teen pregnancy drama "Stephanie Daley," for which the L.A. Times credited her for having taken "material that sounds contrived and potentially exploitive and used her gift for careful observation and restrained emotionality to give it surprising authenticity."

And yet her first film -- the cerebral, microbudget time-travel fantasy "The Sticky Fingers of Time" -- remains so obscure that, as she puts it, "I like to say I made two first films." As a consequence, Brougher calls her views on the subject of Hollywood and gender "sort of naive and in progress."

"Even back when I worked on crews," she says, "a set where you have a nice mix (of men and women) is a happier set. But I think there's also an evolution going on in terms of women in film as content. There's an adage in Hollywood that women will see a men's film, but men won't see a women's film. I don't know if that's true, but we're still dancing with that belief. 'Boys Don't Cry' isn't a weepie, but it is emotionally intense."

This received wisdom only deepens the perception that Hollywood is primarily interested in making movies for adolescent males with a weakness for broad humor and shiny, souped-up gadgets.

"I can certainly see what movies are being made," Meyers notes: "They're comicbooks, heists, action, science fiction -- they're pirates. They're very male-driven themes."

Add to that the man's world tradition of the movie set. "It's hard not to be slightly self-conscious because all the iconic images of directors are powerful men," Jenkins says. "John Ford, Howard Hawks: men in jodhpurs -- it's a very masculine archetype.

"And then a kind of anxiety sets in, because it's a very gear-oriented environment; it can sometimes feel like a construction site, but really what is happening is two actors are sitting across from each other talking. And I started to feel more empowered once it became clear that storytelling was more important than knowing what a fluid-head tripod is."

Hardwicke arrived at filmmaking with her eyes wide open, having served as a production designer on 20 films, from the humble comedy "Tapeheads" to testosterone-fueled epics like "Three Kings."

"I think, in some ways, being considered for a big, imaginative, visual extravaganza, people probably have a harder time visualizing a woman director," Hardwicke says. "There are a few projects that are very interesting to me because I have the production-design background, (but) I didn't get the interview, and I think if I had, I could have taken in such amazing cool drawings that they would have been knocked out."

But she cites the proliferation of smart, savvy women executives throughout the industry -- Claudia Lewis and Nancy Utley at Fox Searchlight or Amy Pascal at Sony -- as a way in which gender is equally beneficial.

"Even New Line, which is mostly guys at the top as far as I can tell, completely got the idea of a woman directing the story of Mary," says Hardwicke, whose "Nativity Story" was in some ways a more sanitized sequel to "Thirteen."

Hardwicke also realizes that working one's way up the ladder in the movie business, no matter what one's sex, will always involve humility and sacrifice, not to mention a certain leap of faith.

"I look to my heroes -- David O. Russell or Rick Linklater," she says, "and they had to make their first movies for no money."

Things to do this week:

- Interview test (specially to check the microphone that our friend Geoffrey Cowper lent us)
- Buy the interrail global passes
- Look for a nice tripod

The progress for the film of Brian and Alex has been going slow but rather constructive. At the moment we’ve pretty much confirmed with the location we will be filming and according to Wye Keen, who will be the Director of Photography, this friend’s place is ideal for its space and natural lighting, and definitely adheres to the suburban traits and housing that we are seeking for the film couple. Hopefully the test shoot that will happen this week will be able to help both Antonius and Wye Keen to plan ahead in the visualization. The set design and the characters’ wardrobe are especially important in this film as both characters have a total of seven costume changes, with some pertaining to the pregnant ‘looks’ of Alex over the seasons. Antonius talked about how he may like to experiment with the look of the interior environment in the different seasons, which I suggested the changing placements of certain furniture or adding wall decorations like paintings and posters, attention to textiles like curtains, or even what the characters are wearing probably play a big part in relating the idea of the passing of time. These preparations also meant that I would have to set aside more time for the setting up of scenes. At the moment we are planning to film on the Friday and the weekend of week 6, in which Friday evening would be set aside for the night scenes and minor scenes that will take place at various parts of the house and Saturday for the rest of the living room scenes. Sunday is being KIV for any re-shoots before Antonius leaves for Perth for the week.

Kate and Dan (Director)

The script has come a long way from its first draft and despite still having some structural changes to be made, I was glad Loretta was able to offer a different perspective to make it more definitive in what the film should be addressing. Stylistic-wise, it’s gradually becoming what I had in mind when I came up with the story idea in the first place. Sadly, I haven’t been able to concentrate fully on this script, especially in the envisioning of its visual aspects in great details yet, and that I should take the other film that we will be filming soon as the priority. In general, I find the idea to have two contrasting scenarios (Kate & Dan, Derek and Chastity) an intriguing challenge. It’s not going to be straightforward, especially when there is virtually no dialogue between Kate and Dan and that I have envisioned the performances from the actors to be subtle and very restrained. Wye Keen has asked me regarding the way the film should be shot and the eventual ‘look’ of it. We have exchanged some thoughts about it and even relating to the other films we have watched but somehow nothing’s concrete in my mind yet. For the moment, Tony Takitani seems to be a benchmark and reference for its minimalist style from its monochromatic settings, performances and down to its choice of music. But at the same time I wish the end product wouldn’t look like a particular film. Last week, the second directing workshop gave me a good insight in how the actor thinks and I totally agree when it was mentioned that the relationship between the director and the actors should be of a collaborative nature, especially when it comes to trying to make a good student film. And I’m looking forward to the next workshop where we will be able to rehearse some scenes from the actual script and get a few good pointers. Hopefully by then, the inspiration will kick in fully.

[Tee Pao]

We've published in the website a short-visual test. We finally decided to publish just the shots with Atsuko, as they were the best footage we got. I publish here in the blog other nice shots that were finally cutted for the public video. The aspect-ratio is not the original one, but we had problems with the vigneting that obligated us to re-size the image. This problem made evident that making a test was a good idea...

I pitched the script to James & Liezel Pierce in Roundy's pub and they have agreed to help us out with designing posters and printing services.

I'm pretty sure I'm right in saying that printed media design is often neglected on the short film circuit and, in my opinion, eye catching posters and smart DVD presentation are an important factor in making a film stand out from the word go.

So... here's to Blue Orange; many thanks for showing faith in the project and I'm looking forward to working with you!

The previous post was all about the bathroom scene  but this one will focus a little bit on the scene at the bar.  I'll get back to the bathroom later, we have a lot more on that.  As the photo shows, because it is a real bar we won't have to use much production design to make it look good.  I'm thinking we might have to spend an awful amount of time to light it, but then taht should be all we need to do.  A great thing that I noticed is that the bartenders have a lot of room to walk around, which means we can get the dolly on that side and do some really cool tracking shots.  In fact, the entire place is pretty spacious and if the shots are composed properly, we can make the place see like it is packed and is really going off.

Here's another angle, which wil most probably be where the entire scene between Brian and his friend Oliver takes place.  To the right and behind the frame are two awesome spaces that we can fill with people so that when we go for a reverse shot, it wil look like a really cool club.  The more I think about influences, I can't help but think of Vanilla Sky.  There's the bit in the film where, after Tom Cruise gets into the accident and is ordered by his doctors to wear the "mask" he goes to a club to catch up with Jason Lee and Penelope Cruz.  Firstly, being Hollywood, they had the money to pay for some top class music by The Chemical Brothers and Leftfield which made the scen that much better.  But it was also in the way it was lit, the way they used lasers, the patrons and also how they explored various settings within the club.  Tom's character goes to the bar, the toilet and eventually onto the dance floor and the film manages to set up each part to make the club feel enormous while also packed at the same time.  I hope to achieve something as close to that as possible otherwise I'm blaming Lionel.  But I think that we have one of the hardest parts (location) locked down, though our schedule is now dictated by it.  Due to supervision concerns, the manager say we can only shoot on Tuesdays between 10am - 4pm and possibly Wednesday at the same time.  This eans that we only have 6 hours, 2 of which will probably be used for setting up.  I'm guessing we'd have only 4 hours of shooting time which means we might have to do 2 or even three days of production.  If we schedule it right, it should be fine.

A Strange Request was blessed with some fantastic cast and crew and Martin Corcoran, our composer, was one of our key team members and his score added to the high production values of the film.

Thankfully, Martin has agreed to score "Toxic" and he's more eager than ever to get stuck in.

He also tells me that he has recently upgraded his entire music studio so I'm really looking forward to working with Martin again!

looks really good, so we wont have to do much in terms of production design.  Maybe a few large vases with some outrageous flowers and a couple of lights and that is probably all.  Something that I didn't notice the first time we went there is the divider in the middle of the sink area.  The inclusion of a mirror there adds another angle where an image can be created.  This gives a lot more to work with but also it will require much more diligent shooting so as not to capture the crew in any of the mirrors.  In the script, there are a few shots where we get a point of view from Alexis, who starts off coming out of the cubicle, that will require us shooting straight into the mirror.  One way we've discussed to tackle the issue of possible rogue crew reflections is to shoot into a mirror which is aimed at the mirror in the bathroom.  If performed correctly, it should mean that we get the shot we want without disrupting the viewer by allowing them to see any member of the crew accidentally in shot.  After analyzing the film London, we found a really bad shot where the entire DOP and camera rig was in shot for at least a second.  It happens so quickly you don't notice it when watching, but because we poured over the film, we found it and it now serves as a warning.

This shot was taken to see what kind of shot we could achieve in order to show someone in one of the cubicles.  I had one idea of shooting from a birds eye view, having the door break up the frame as we see Alexis on the toilet and Brian on the other side checking under the door to see if anyone was there.  As it turns out, the ceiling isn't high enough to create such a shot.  The only way to get it is to place a mirror where the camera was meant to be and shoot into it.  Because we have so many technical shots planned, we might opt out of such a setup and just resort to what you can see in the photo to get the same point across.  Plus, if we can manage to set up some kind of dolly, we could track from left to right and start within the cubicle and end up on the other side where Brian is.  Just a thought.

Bill.

]]> http://sheandhe.wordpress.com/?p=37 Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:40:02 +0000 sheandhe http://sheandhe.wordpress.com/?p=37 Hey everyone, we did our first "proper" location scout today.  I say "proper" because over the semester break, we kind of knew where our story was going to be set, so we started scouting then.  We found a really cool bar and made a very flimsy agreement with the manager to shoot our film there.

So today, we went back looking all professional and made contact with the manager again and confirmed it was ok to shoot there.  He said yes and even signed a release form.

We discussed shoot dates and then went roaming around the bar taking photos for pre-vis purposes and to drwa up a floor plan.  Lionel is going to be the DOP and I think today helped him understand the kind of look and shots we could achieve.

A major influence for this film is London by Hunter Richards.  It mostly takes place in an upscale apartment bathroom and they manage to create a range of impressive shots with mirrors.  This is something we are going to attempt and hopefully sucessfully achieve.

Bill.

The beautiful orange beast that you see here is a pre-production 2008 Dodge Charger SRT.  More specifically, it's the one being driven from coast to coast to promote A&W's Cruisin' the Dub.  The prototype Dodge started its journey in Vancouver BC, when Chrysler handed the keys over to Roger Barnes, the national manager for Cruisin' the Dub.

The car originally started out in 2005 as a concept drawing by Chrysler designer Michael Castiglione.  How it came to market in such a short time (the first production models were delivered last week) is a complicated answer.  However, it probably had something to do with the number of shared components.  The car itself is built on the LX platform, which had first been used on the Chrysler 300 and Dodge Magnum in 2005.  The engine, a 6.1-litre Hemi V8 with 5-speed Auto/Stick transmission is already available in other cars bearing the SRT stickers (like the Charger SRT Daytona).  And the looks?  Well, they've stolen that from the 1970 Charger.  

From any more than twenty feet away, it's hard to tell if the car is really the new one or a very clean 1970 hardtop.  Important details like the (non-functioning) hood scoops, full-width taillights, and correct orange paint give even the hardest of the hardcore car buffs something to scratch their heads at.  The folks at the Brampton, Ontario plant where the Challenger is built even saw fit to attach a retro-style filler cap.

As mentioned, this is a pre-production model, meaning that Chrysler engineers partially built it by hand.  That said, Roger hasn't had a single problem in the 18,000+ kilometres he's put on the car this summer.  Even the oodles of electronic goodies--GPS, bluetooth, CD/MP3 stereo with 20-gigabyte hard drive et al--funtion perfectly, like you would expect from a $50,000 luxury car.  In fact, it's just as drive-able as the regular production Dodge Challenger that A&W will be giving away at the end of summer.

Of course, this car's journey would not be made possible if it weren't for A&W reaching out to the automotive community through "Cruisin' the Dub."  Every week in most major cities across Canada, the fast food giant opens up their parking lots to cruisers and gearheads, creating a safe and welcoming environment for those of us dealing with severe cases of "octane-itis."  A&W is serious enough about the event that they've hired on a national manager (Roger Barnes) whose sole job is to keep the classic wheels rolling into their restaurants.  Well, not literally into the restaurants, just the parking lots.  Ricky Bobby has that taken care of.

Left to Right: Roger Barnes, manager of Cruisin' the Dub, and Craig Falconer, franchisee of the A&W located at 1520 Portage Avenue in Winnipeg.

That's it for this week, but check out the links below to find out more about the car or about Cruisin' the Dub.  Don't forget to stop by next Tuesday to see a clean '55 Chevy that's looking for a new home.  Until then, keep it shiny side up!

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A&W's web page

Cruisin' the Dub-official site

Official Dodge website

Wikipedia's article on the history of the Dodge Challenger

Willy's Garage/Winnipeg Free Press on Manitoba's first Dodge Challenger

Autoclubs.ca gallery: First time the A&W Challenger came to Winnipeg