September 11, 2006
Shrigley notes
We have just had David Shrigley in to do some shots. He has been doing some writing for Hallam's notebooks. David (S) is also doing an animted title sequence for the film so the two will tie in nicely together and give Hallam some more connection with the sequence. The overall effect will be one of getting closer to Hallam, more in his head, and that's what we want.
a single cell from the title animation
There have also been discussions about adding some colour to the title sequence. If this happens I'll post another version.
Posted by colin kennedy at 10:47 PM | Comments (7)
Pick-ups in Edinburgh
The rickshaw dolly in action
Last night we were on the streets of Edinburgh, guerilla style-ee with rickshaw dolly and steadycam. I'd never seen this piece of kit in action before. It allowed us to really get some speed into the steadicam without having to use something like a quadbike which would have been a much bigger deal than our setup. It does require some manpower though, as I'm sure Angus and the grips would be happy to tell you!
The aim of the pick-ups / re-shoots in Edinburgh were to get alternative shots for the ending of the film.
Here are some snaps of us on the street:
David and Gillian at the monitor
Rickshaw dolly
...who goes there?
Angus recovering from dolly towing
Captain Marc 'Snacks' Mills
Gordie writing camera notes at speed.
Posted by colin kennedy at 11:59 AM | Comments (4)
September 10, 2006
Studio gets a little busier
working hard
Everyone is in the studio now, beavering away in the treehouse and have been at it for a few hours now.
It's getting busier (and darker)
I've had several chats with David and Jamie and the whole exercise is turning out to be even more valuable than first expected. So good news all round.
The schedule felt less relentless this morning and more condusive to experiment, but, of course, as soon as you have more time, you use it. So we have pushed lunch back a little to make the most of the opportunity we have here and later we will be heading off to Edinburgh to get our evening shots.
Posted by colin kennedy at 1:47 PM | Comments (0)
In the dressing room
the wandering minstrel
I've just been down to see Hallam in his dressing room. All his gear is out of storage and ready to go again.
Hallam's costumes and continuity photos
He has even been re-united with Roger, who has been living in a box for the last few months, but looks pretty good and doesn't smell too bad either.
Roger
Here's a little clip of Jamie drinking some fizzy energy stuff.
Posted by colin kennedy at 10:53 AM | Comments (5)
Here we go again
Trucks outside Film City Glasgow
We're at it again. The trucks are here, the gear's being unloaded, the smell of bacon rolls, spray paint and dust fills the air.
It's great to be shooting again, this is my favourite part.
Giles and David in the treehouse
Our first task is to shoot some scenes in the treehouse. As we've explained in the last few posts these are to enhance a section of the film that could do with a bit more emphasis. The film currently flies along at quite a pace and there is one aspect of it that could do with being brought out a bit, heightened for the audience. You'll have to try and guess what I'm talking about when you see the movie!
Reference station
This is a laptop we've set up so that we can compare what we're shooting to the shots already in the movie. This will ensure continuity across all the different areas: costume, make-up, props and aspects of the lighting.
The set
Here's a nugget for the boffins. I asked Giles about the colour of the light in the room, for those of you interested in lighting the reason everything is so yellow/orange in the studio is not because of sodium lights. The room is actually lit with fluorescent lights but they are bouncing off an orange ceiling, which you can't really see in the photos.
Posted by colin kennedy at 10:01 AM | Comments (0)
September 9, 2006
Pick-up schedule
We now have a schedule. From the refining aspect of editing has come a list of things that David feels we could do with improving or clarifying. There are certain moments in the film that could be heightened by going out and getting some more shots.
So this morning we were all given the definitive list of what is going to be shot. All the departments went to a production meeting at Sigma and discussed the practicalities of what we need to get and how we're going to get it. Click here to see a video of some production meeting chat about the stuff in the treehouse.
We will also be some other stuff that requires a bit more sophistication in terms of the tools involved. We have a fantastic set that has been built by our CG people at Base Black so we are doing some more complex green screen stuff to go with that too.
Posted by colin kennedy at 11:24 AM | Comments (0)
September 8, 2006
The start of the pick-up set
Here is a shot of the treehouse set where we will be shooting some of our pick-ups. It's a bit dark because there's no light in there yet, but I thought it might be interesting to see the set come together from the ground up. More work will be done on it so I'll post shots of it as it develops.
It's an aspect of filmmaking that I really enjoy, it only matters what your camera sees in order to create the illusion you're after. The rest is about creating a practical environment in which you can work effectively. I suppose what I'm saying is I love the fact that with a bit of imagination, some talented people and a big room with some plywood in it you can turn the contents of this video into an important emotional scene in your movie.
The treehouse at its most basic
We're also going to be shooting in Edinburgh, so I shall get some video footage from there too.
Posted by colin kennedy at 5:21 PM | Comments (0)
Buzzing
The office is buzzing today.
Pretty much a full team has gathered for the pick-ups, today it's principally production, art department and riggers, costume, locations and accountants.
Trisha Biggar
We are re-united with Trisha Biggar today, our costume designer, and Marc Mills, production runner. The rest of our Family Foe are off on other jobs, so their shoes are being filled by others.
Hallam's stuff from the treehouse
This is not without its complications of course. The set is being re-built from plans, continuity photos and reference footage, not an easy task. Also this is in a completely different place which makes a difference, it's going to be fairly warm for example (we're shooting inside) so it will be a totally different experience for Jamie. Last time we were in utterly freezing conditions and snow.
That said, we are after specific material this time. There are less experimental aspects to this shoot. The scenes we are augmenting exist in an assembled form so we have a much clearer idea of what we're after. The jigsaw puzzle is predominantly made, it just needs some finessing.
I'm going to go and conduct an experiment of my own now...
Posted by colin kennedy at 11:52 AM | Comments (0)