Owner: Tree - The making of a short film URL:http://fundmyshort.blogs.com/tree Join Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2006 12:53:59 -0500 Rating:1 Site Description: A production blog. Follow the ups and down of filmmaking on a budget, from script to screen and beyond. Site statistics:Click here
Rain before 7 clears by 11 2006-10-21 18:01:14 DAY ONE OF PICK UPS.
Fine, wet, drizzly, persistent rain. That was the weather that greeted us on our return to the wood yesterday, as we came back for our first day of pick up shots. This was how we left the wood two weeks ago, with it raining.
"Don't worry," said Peter "rain before 7 clears by 11."
With only a crew of six, we set up as quickly as we could, but just as the camera was ready, the rain grew harder. We had a cup of tea while we waited to see if it would ease. After a while I decided to push on regardless. We lined up the shot. Peter lit it, got his f-stop ready, then suddenly out pops the sun.
We all look at our watches. It is 11am.
From that point on we pretty much have constant sunshine all day. We whiz through the shot list capturing the all important shots of our hero TREE that will open the film. Filming is so much more pleasant in the sunshine.
Lets hope tomorrow's weather is as good to us when we have Beth and Clive back with us.
Rough Assembley 2006-10-17 23:21:58 Over
the last week I have had a chance to review the rushes with a
fresher, more rational pair of eyes. We sat down with our editor
Ralph Foster and viewed a very rough assembly I had cut to get a feel
for what we have, and haven't got. We always knew we may have
to go back to do pick ups, but due to the rain on the last day of the
shoot that list grew a little.
We
are under a little pressured to shoot soon, by the ever changing season, the weather, and the work commitments of our cast and crew.So we have a "fun" week ahead of us as we plan to go
back to the TREE. One thing we know is that we will not have
available to us the size of crew we had on the main shoot.
What spurs us on however is that the footage we have so far, even in it
ungraded stage, looks stunning.
Beth
Winslet (Copyright Slinky Pictures 2006. All Rights Reserved)
Read more:Rough
Photos Added 2006-10-15 01:10:40 I've added some production photos to my previouse posts. Hope they give you a flavour of the shoot.
DAY THREE 2006-10-13 14:07:51 "Red sky in the morning, Shepherd's warning!"Thursday October 5thAs we all assembled early round the catering truck to get a bacon and egg sarny the clouds were already rolling in. Up at the TREE location it was dark and grey, in complete contrast to the previous days.
DP Peter Ellmore
We are not going to be able to shoot everything that is outstanding, so I have been through the storyboard to see what shots I could loose or amalgamate. It is not a nice job, and feels a bit like betraying a friend. There are some shots however that we absolutely have to get today or we don't have a film. One is a stunt scene with Beth, and then there is the small matter of the films ending, which we were hoping to try and shoot a few different ways.
Hair & Make Up artist Jo Grover
We start by quickly knocking off some P.O.V's of the tree while Clive and Beth are in make up. Then it is time for Bob our stunt coordinator to set up. Bob's credit list is as long as it is impressive, and h
DAY TWO 2006-10-12 01:02:16 Wednesday October 4th
Clive Brunt enjoys a joke between takes.
The sun is shining again today, but the weather report says rain tomorrow, so we absolutely have to knock through our shots. We can't drop stuff today and expect to pick them up tomorrow. As I mentioned before, you plan diligently for months to get ready for a shoot so that you can move and work as seamlessly as possible as a crew, but there is no getting away from the fact that in the end, it is just a race to get everything done in time. I don't want to misrepresent crew, everyone is working as fast as they can, and capturing some great shots, but there is no doubting that with more time we could do an even better job.
I have given up looking at my watch, time is the enemy and I don't want to look him in the face. Ezra my 1st AD informs me it will soon be time for lunch, but we try to sneak in another set up before we break.
We set the angle, we chose the lens, we prepare to rehearse and then the latch o
EXT. WOODED LANE -- DAY ONE 2006-10-10 23:20:52 Tuesday October 3rd.On longer projects there is usually a ramp up period built into the schedule to allow cast and crew to get up to full production speed. On a short film you don't have that luxury. You have to hit the ground running from the first hour of the first day. No easy feat! Add to that a crew that is new to each other, first day nerves, and a location out in the back of beyond, and you have all the making for a right little disarster. But I think we did pretty well to start shooting our first shot not long after 9pm, which was pretty good going. The sun was shining, spirits were high, and everyone knuckled down to the job at hand.
Being a road location everyone was wearing High Vis Jackets so there was no hiding out presence. This particular piece of road had required obtaining the permission of around 4 separate trusts, councils, and local authorities, but it was worth it, as the location looked great.
As we were only going to be there for one day there were
Transit 2006-10-09 23:23:44 Monday October 2nd was all about logistics. The boring, back breaking side of low budget film making that everyone forgets about - moving kit from one place to another. In our case, 3 vehicles full of signs, cones, props, camera, grip, and lighting gear, all needing to be hauled from one side of London to the the other.For this we had two vans and a truck. The vans were driven and loaded respectively by Peter and myself, and the truck was collected and driven by our wonderful Grip, Mark Morley. I really don't know what we would have done without Mark's help. He was a trouper!
Finished the day by adding final touches of paint to some of the props, then went to bed....then lied awake worrying that I'd forgotten something, but what?
Read more:Transit
3 Days - Blood, Sweat, and Tears 2006-10-08 18:11:38 Over the course of 3 days this past
week we finally committed to celluloid, the images, ideas, and
performances we had been planning, and dreaming about for the past 10
months.
Our wonderful cast: Beth Winslet and
Clive Brunt both did really fantastic work in bring their respective characters to life, in the face of a very tight and demanding schedule.
Also, another of the great things about this past
week was that, as the crew arrived on the first day, the film stopped
being my film, and instead it became our film, as
everyone involved made a litlle bit of it their own.
Myself and Liz would like to thank everyone on the crew who freely
donated there time, talents, and passion to help us shoot the film.
I know we are not finished yet, not by a long way, but a major hurdle
has been leapt, and looking at the rushes this weekend, we have some truly
scrumptious looking shots as reward for everyones hard work.
But Ladies and Gentlemen let me inform you
know, 3 days is a very short Read more:Blood
, Sweat
, Tears
Aging 2006-09-28 00:49:45 Trying to lock down crew for next week at the moment, but its not easy when you are dependent on big favors. People have got to live, and if paying work comes up, then understandably that takes precedence over our film. This means as a few of the crew have dropped out, we call round contacts and refill the positions. Nothing that any other short low budget film faces, but it has still caused more than a few new gray hairs to sprout from the side of my head. As of this moment however, I would say we have 97% of the crew in place.
But that's not the only aging that been happening this week.
Spent most of last weekend trying to make a very new and shiny metal box look very old and rusty, and if you squinted, tilted your head at the right angle it sort of looked ok. But there was still something about the box that looked new. There were no dents! So I took it round to my folks places where there was more room to swing at it with a hammer, in the hope that softening its straight Read more:Aging
Birds Eye View 2006-09-20 23:27:31 Just doing the movement orders at the moment and found our tree on google map. Thought I'd share. Read more:Birds
That's a Wrap 2006-10-24 15:08:32 Sunday October 22nd - PICK UPS DAY TWO
It rained again.
I shouldn't expect anything more of England in October really! But, despite the horrendous conditions, we shot everything we went back to get, so I'm extremely pleased.
Again, Beth and Clive were true professionals, and the crew were fantastic; I can't thank them enough for all their hard work and patience. With these shots we now have a far better ending to our film, and although it rained, at least they will match the shots from the previous shoot.
So that's a wrap for the shooting stage of this film, and believe it or not, I really enjoyed shooting this film. I meet some brilliant new people, and in between down pours, had a lot of fun.
Now the production moves on to the edit, sound design, and post production stage...
...and I'm excited.
Happy Happy Joy Joy. 2006-10-26 10:10:31 People have been ringing me up asking if I'm OK. They have read the blog and are worried I'm depressed. Well I was...for about a day! Sorry if this blog has given you the impression I'm a tortured soul. I'm not.
See, I did enjoy myself.
Reports back from the crew are that they really enjoyed the film too, which is very good to know.
Having watched the rushes from last weekend I am absolutely delighted with the shots and performances we captured. The Tree just looks gorgeous, and the other pick ups add so much to the story. I'm really pleased we got them.
Looking forward now to see what Ralph does with his edit. I'm sure he'll surprise me.
Read more:Happy
Hot Fuzz 2006-11-01 11:33:53 Was watching the enjoyable video blogs on Working Titles website today for a film called Hot Fuzz
.
Its the new film from the Shaun of the Dead team. When I got to Video Diary 10 I had to smile. Its not just a small film like ours that gets washed out by the rain, it happens to the big boys too!
Take a look.
Puritan 2006-11-01 16:17:34 Next Friday, November 10th, in selected theaters around town there is a new film released called PURITAN, a modern noir mystery which I strongly suggest you go see. Why? Well, one reason is that our very own Peter Ellmore was Director of Photography on the film, so it is sure to look the bees knees, and two, its a rather good movie.
Incidentally, Peter is also going write up a little piece for the blog about the camera kit and stock we used on TREE, and give you his D.O.P's view of the production. So look out for that in the coming weeks.
Silence is Golden wins TMC Shorts 2006 2006-11-02 12:24:33 Congratulations to Chris Shepherd, Maria Manton and everyone at Slinky Pictures. Silence is Golden
was named winner of the 2006 Turner Movie Classics Short Film award last night.
You can view the film on the BBC Film Network for a short period. One warning though, the film does contain some strong language.
www.slinkypics.com
Read more:Shorts
East End Film Fest 2006-11-15 16:16:46
Submissions are now open
for the East End Film Festival 19 - 26 April 2007
The deadline for all submissions is 26th January 2007.
The East End Film Festival will be screening at major venues across East London. To download the submission form and guidelines, please visithttp://www.eastendfilmfestival.com
Clive Brunt 2006-11-18 17:54:02 When we were auditioning for Tree we meet with some great actors, and I use that term to encompass both sexes. But after meeting Clive
I had a strong gut feeling he was the right for our character, and now having finished filming I can safely confirm my gut was absolutly right. Clive was so easy to work with, and was always ready to give. He has one of those faces that just photographs so well, but despite his tough looks he is in fact a real teddy bear.
Clive sent an email and asked me to post this for him on the blog:"On my first meeting with Phil and Liz I was impressed by their script and
their attitude. I wanted to be involved in the project at all cost. It was great working with you all on Tree. I've seen a couple of the rushes
and I'm really proud to be part of it. Beth put in a great
performance; a really generous and exciting actor to work with. She has a lot to
be proud of.The crew were so hardworking and professional. Many thanks to everyone. Jo for her work
Rough Cut 02 2006-11-19 17:05:18
This week saw a big leap forward in the editing process of the film. Ralph Foster our editor was able to spend some time cutting, during lunch breaks and after work, to get a more fleshed out edit of the film ready for Friday. It was important to get a cut ready this week because we are applying for some completion funding to help us with the post production of the film and the deadline for submissions was 5:30pm on Friday.
Unfortunately we need extra funding at this stage due to a problem we had during shooting that only came to light after we had wrapped. It appears we had a fault with two pieces of our sound equipment not quite talking to each other in the right way. This means a lot of the location sound that was recorded is unusable. To be fair, even if we had that sound it would still largely only be a guide, due to the fact that when ever we turned over, some man deep in the woods would start his chain saw up at the same time!
The up shot of all this is that, the sound Read more:Rough
Progress 2006-12-05 15:18:31 As was mentioned in my last post, we have a rough cut, which we are now in the process of showing round to a select band of people to help us gauge if the film is working. Are we hitting the right notes for pace and tone? Does the film communicate its theme? Is it entertaining?
From the response we have so far it is very encouraging, but there are one or two story points in the film that need fine tuning.
We are hoping to have a finished cut by the end of December.
So, this just to say things are happening, just very slowly.
Production Photos 2006-12-29 19:32:10 While things are slow here are a few images from the shoot.
Read more:Production
New Title? 2007-01-15 14:13:02 Ain't it always the way, you wait round for ages then two post appear at once!
TREE is the working title of our film, but now is the time to start thinking seriously about finding a more appropriate name to encapsulate our film. It's a problem have been thinking about for months, and was hoping that inspiration would hit. Sadly it has not.
So if anyone has a suggestion - feel free to comment.
It needs to be memorable, poetic, concise, and convey the idea of "crossed paths" without being to on the nose.
Read more:New Title
, Title
Gummy Bear Dance 2007-01-17 15:40:50 Ok bear with me here...
There is a rather infectious/irritating (depending on your point of view) viral animation clip spreading across the Internet at the moment called Gummy Bear Dance
. Its in the crazy frog mold and once you've heard the song it will burrow into you brain like a parasite.
Your humming it already arn't you!
What's this got to do with TREE?
Well my friend Peter Dodd designed and animated the cheeky little bear, that has been seen by some 5 million people at this point. You should check out his site if you have a mo.
Yeah, but what has this to do with TREE?
Oh. Well Mr Dodd is the first person to come up with an alternative title for the film. His suggestion is "WINDFALL" which is not bad at all.
Supporting Cast 2007-01-28 12:09:28 This is Sykes. Cute isn't he!
Sykes was part of our supporting cast on the film It would be fair to say that he was also one of the most experience crew members, having worked on numerous adverts, TV shows and feature films, with some of the biggest names in the biz.
Having never worked with animals before I was a little worried how it would impact on our tight shooting schedule.I'd be lying if I said he didn't effect it, as even at a greatly lower rate than he was used to working for, we still could only afford to have him on location for 2 days, so that meant that the schedule sort of revolved around him.
But like a true star he is, when he was called on to perform, he did his stuff, hit his marks, and made everyone smile.
Now for some sad news.
One of our other supporting cast came crashing down during the high winds that lashed the country last week.
This tree played a small but significant role in the film and it was a real surprise to see it uprooted. It seemed
Beth Winslet 2007-01-29 22:37:53 It is a bit of a cliche to say it, but Beth really does have one of those smiles that lights up a room, which is a real shame as there was not really much call for smiling in our script, quite the opposite in fact.
In the film, Beth plays a woman in a very melancholy state of mind, but she was able to imbue the character with a real vulnerability and compassion. With no dialog to hang the performance on it could have been so easy to over act the part, but Beth delivered an incredibly restrained and understated performance that, because of it, carries a much greater emotional punch. In short, Beth gave us everything we had hope for in the character and more.
Beth kindly wrote this for the blog:
"When I met Phil and Liz for the first time, They put me through a
tricky improv session (my worst kind of audition!) but using the framework of
the script, for the first time ever, I found myself enjoying it. Then
suddenly i got that scary feeling of 'I actually really want to
Title Race 2007-01-29 17:33:32 My team Crystal Palace are languishing mid table in the Championship at the moment, so don't worry, this is not a post about football. No, it is about the ongoing search for a new and more fitting title for the film.
Thanks to everyone who have been racking their brains, offering suggestions. The current runners are as follows:SymbolWindfallThe RewardEnclosureThe TreeHeartwood
Heartwood is the clear favorite at the moment by a furlong, but there is still time for late entries. Read more:Title
The Grade 2007-03-16 18:49:28 On Wednesday, Pete, Liz and myself spend the day in the company of the fantastic Rob Prizzy, who can be found at Soho Images.
As a Digital Colourist, Rob is responsible for grading the film; that is playing with the colours, hues, contrast, and tones that give the film its final look. Rob has graded such recent films as Tideland, Black Book, and Red Road amongst many others, and we were very fortunate they were able to squeeze us in between work on two features.
Before our Grading session Peter and myself had spent an evening in front of Photoshop playing with some images to rough out the look we were after. This proved really useful, as Rob was able to quickly translate that look to our footage with stunning results. (see image above) We where then able to spend the rest of the time being creative with masks, grads, and vignettes.
Being able to grade the film this way means that we now have a very unified look and feel that adds tremendously to the fairy tal Read more:Grade
Time Consuming Titles 2007-04-03 18:56:37 It feels like it has taken forever to complete the end credits to this film. So many names to get right, so many people to thank. In the end we have decided to stick with Tree as the title. Nothing else quite fitted.
So we were at Soho Images last week placing them against our picture. I had pre rendered everything the night before on my old but trusty laptop, so it should have been just a case of handing over the files and placing them into the time-line, which is what we did very successfully until we got to the end roller and I suddenly spotted the typo "Camera Tranees" A quick correction, and a little wait for the file to re-render and we were back on track though.
Its good to know we are not the only film in the final throws of completion, fellow awardee Lizzy, is also racing to finish her film, which I can' t wait to see.
http://newsfromthebog.blogspot.com/
Read more:Titles
A New Banner 2007-04-09 19:17:14 A new banner for the blog, and I'm starting to think about a web site too. Read more:Banner
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