December 19, 2006

Location stills

I thought today I 'd give you a little insight into the stills we took as part of our location scouting. Part of getting the green light was signing off on all the various aspects of production that we wanted to use. As well as having descussions about the people we wanted to use in the film we also debated a lot on locations. There are several reasons for this, firstly aesthetic - the locations have to contribute to the story you're telling - and secondly logistical, there can be a lot of money saved if you can get round having to put everyone up in hotels so a location that's closer to the homes of the crew can have a huge economic effect.

So here are a few shots of places we plumped for in the end...

Verity's room

Cockburn St rooftops

Market St rooftops

Hallam Foe, a film by David Mackenzie starring Jamie Bell

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July 4, 2006

Storyboarding

This is really a subject that is part of pre-production. But I am about to start on some storyboards of my own so I thought I'd write a bit about.

They say 'a picture is worth a thousand words' and it has long been a feeling of mine that the reverse is also true, a word is worth a thousand pictures, books might not be so popular if that weren't true. This can obviously be a problem though when you want everyone to be thinking of the same picture. Cue the storyboard.

Here is an example of one the boards we used on Hallam Foe. They were done by a fantastic artist called Derek Gray. Note that they are done in 2.35:1 aspect ratio (scope). It's important that the drawing looks as close to what you envisage doing as possible.

You can go into a lot more detail (lens details etc), as is often the case when working on commercials, but in our case the drawings are a guide rather than a rule.

In fact, we pretty much abandoned them for the actual shooting of the scenes in favour of getting through the schedule, but without that prior thought and planning we wouldn't have had the means and unity to make the decisions we had to, so they were a very important part of the process.

The other crucial thing that the were used for was determining which parts of the set needed to be green-screen, and so replaced later with plates, and which parts could be covered with backdrop.

We had a massive backdrop that was created using photos taken on location, I think it's called a translight, but if anyone out there knows different let me know. It looks a bit like a giant shower curtain in this shot, but once it was all stretched out it looked great.

the translight

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April 8, 2006

Early Mornings Late Nights

This is a little bit I wrote before I started the blog. It's an insight into the prep period of production and the week before shooting when the pace begins to get turned up...

March 22nd 2006

One thing that has always been the same, no matter what scale of production I’ve been working on, is that the hours always, without fail, unchangingly, for definite, get crazy.

March 22nd 2006

Just to give you an idea of the hours David is working there is usually an early meeting, this mornings started at 0730 and went on ‘til 9 figuring out the new schedule, followed by a quick drive across town for a costume meeting before going into rehearsals at 1000.

Rehearsing is a very intense time, the content is prioritised by balancing the availability of the actors against the scenes that are difficult (for whatever reasons; blocking, emotional, dialogue issues, improv etc etc). A lot has to be squeezed into a short period of time.

Rehearsals finish at anywhere between 6 and 9 and then there is usually some kind of meeting to be done (finalising schedule, crewing, casting etc etc) before heading home. The thing is David’s work rate is going to have to go up when we start shooting.

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March 24, 2006

Cool Day

Today has been a particularly exciting day.

It's difficult to write about this sort of thing without coming across as a bit of a hippy, but, after a .small gathering last night with the actors and some of the members of production there seems to be a bit more unity to the greater family Foe (cast and crew).

So when we all reconvened for work this morning -- I met Giles (DP) and Deborah (1st AD) at David's flat - and drove to Bo'ness for the first bit of actual filming of Hallam Foe, there seemed to be a great energy amongst everyone. Fully kitted out with enormous puffa jackets, scarves and hats, we went to work.

Hugh Gourlay (yellow body warmer) commendered an old train and private track at the Steam Railway and Clay Mine Museum for us to film the travelling scenes in the script...

These are critical mood moments in the story but, even though a train was involved, not that complicated to shoot. So we got off to a great start. The buzz was high.

Next up was a bolt to Glasgow - today achieved in a law-breakingly quick 30 minutes - for a press conference. We arrived, with Jamie still in full make-up and costume, to a throng of hacks all eager to get the inside track on the movie and some snaps of the cast.

Photo call over we went in to the conference with our panel at the fore - David, Gillian, Matthew Justice, Jamie Bell, Sophia Myles, Claire Forlani and Ciaran Hinds.

The stand out question was to Jamie about nudity, reply, "If you're gonna do it, do it with Mackenzie."

So we're all of to do it with Mackenzie for the next weeks. Now back to rehearsals.

Posted by colin kennedy at 5:05 PM | Comments (1)

March 16, 2006

Tests

It's half past eleven at night and we have been working since quarter to six this morning. The end is nowhere insight today, but maybe early tomorrow. So I apologise if this entry reads like complete gobbledygook(?)...

We are doing a test between two different character set-ups with one actor. The actor plays two parts in the film and we just want to see if this is going to work before we nail our colours to the mast. Its one thing to have an idea in your head and completely another to stick it up on the screen.

The good news is it works pretty well. The difference is enough for you to know that its two different characters and the similarity is enough so you don't think they're being played by Eddie Murphy.

I'll explain David's reasoning behind doing this when my brain's working.

Posted by colin kennedy at 11:30 PM | Comments (1)