It’s taken me three days to go through two camera’s worth of footage and select the usable clips for ONE scene. One two minute (at the most) scene. I still haven’t made a single edit, just taking the usable parts and putting them onto a timeline. It’s 47minutes long (but this is double because most of the shots are TWO cameras) and now I need to cut those 47 (94) minutes into less than 2 minutes of magic.

It’s a scene with Kate and Kristine in Brooklyn’s Apartment.

Crazy times.

A NIGHT FOR DYING TIGERS Vancouver premiere is tomorrow at 9:15pm, Granville 7 theatre. Get your tickets now at viff.org.

I have no idea what to call this new film.

I think it’s probably day TWENTY-SOMETHING.

KRISTINE COFSKY is BROOKLYN

Had a great day yesterday doing some talking head stuff extras (probably end credits or DVD extras, maybe in the film somehow).

The day before that was the BOAT (thanks Matt for the boat!).

Before that…something else…I can’t remember, but I think maybe we were at Kristine’s apartment?

It’s been a long crazy ride, and we’re still not finished. We’ll have to shoot another week or more when we’re back from TIFF.

It’s going to take a prolonged editing trip to get this thing ready for viewing. This will be the most difficult editing project I’ve ever undertaken (strictly from a footage point of view). SO MUCH to log and watch, two cameras, film-within-the-film, etc…

Looking forward to TIFF and Tiger time. It will be nice to take a break from production for a while. I’m really missing writing, and can’t wait to get back to the new script.

Editing and Writing will be everything until after Christmas.

KRISTINE COFSKY

CASEY MANDERSON

GAELLE JEGO

PRISCILLA FAIA

PAUL MENDEL, GAELLE JEGO, AND I

DAN RICHARDSON and WES SALTER

ROB LEICKNER

I suspect there will be more DREAM TEAM photos to come (including team members like Rob C., Michelle, Tristan, etc…!)

DAY TWENTY

We shot at Chloe Angus’s dress shop yesterday. VERY NICE location. Gaelle and I had our cameras set to different colour temps (the first time we didn’t look at our LCDs side by side before shooting). Still, the actually lighting in the shop was somewhere between Tungsten and Daylight (actually a bit closer to Tungsten). So, I may be able to blend the footage if performance dictates (although the HVX does not handle any colour correction particularly well at 720p). No big deal, it’s documentary style!

MY STYLE

Shooting in this style requires constant vigilance against the trappings and phrasing of traditional motion picture photography.

I don’t want to finish the scene and then “block the next scene” before lunch. This is anathema to creating something completely different and natural. This is also why I avoid using Final Draft to prepare these scripts. The “scriptment” feels different than the usual, and that helps ease the cast into a different approach…something just feels different…

THIS IS NOT THAT

I will, of course, continue to make films in a more traditional way as well. I love filmmaking and I have respect for the way professionals (Europeans in particular) make films.

But this is not that.

So, we avoid shooting out of sequence.

So, we avoid big crews.

So, we (try to) avoid long days (we try to keep every day between 2 and 8 hours MAX).

So, we use natural and practical lighting (a Chinese Lantern and a LOT of practical bulbs on standby for the occasional darkness in the eyes).

So, we avoid booms and use wireless mics (not quite as nice as a PROFESSIONAL Boom Op and Mixer, but the intimacy is worth the trade off when shooting this way).

So, we avoid wrapping cast and extras before the last scene (just in case inspiration hits or a story point gets added, or we need to reshoot an earlier angle).

So, we don’t “block” anything before I have a camera in my hand ready to roll, and ready to shoot the entire scene.

So, we don’t rehearse. I don’t want to see the scene played or the action blocked until I’m filming the scene (if we need to adjust the lighting, etc…then we’ll have to do it all again, but if we don’t need to make any technical adjustments, that FIRST MOMENT is captured on camera, and it feels different from each take that follows).

So, we try to avoid all of the trapping and phrasing and tropes that make a traditional set feel like a traditional set, and we try to create something unique and different, with energy and style and spark.

I think this is the most difficult part of the process, avoiding the usual.

Because I actually love the usual too!

But this is not that.

Here we go.

Now we’re making a movie (within a movie).

Here is a shot from DAY ONE. No spoilers from DAY SEVEN!

KRISTINE COFSKY is BROOKLYN (again) in Life is Still Good