Location Scout photo by genius FIRST AD Bryan Knight.

Week three of PREP on RECOIL is in the books.

We go to camera on the 18th. Wow.

Working all weekend to get my preliminary shotlist looking more like a realistic shotlist. More meetings on Sunday.

I’m excited to get shooting!

Yesterday I took a break from writing to grab lunch and I remembered an email somebody sent a while back. It pissed me off all over again.

This person said they were inspired by the way I just went out and made WHEN LIFE WAS GOOD with myself as the only crew, how I just decided to make a film and then went out and made it. I replied to the message with a thank you and a brief “all you need to do is decide to make a film and then…you make it” message of inspiration.

Then I received a further message, pretty much asking for my help making their film, because, they said, unlike me, not everybody can just go out and make a film.

They pretty much wanted me to take their script and make their movie for them.

THAT IS SO WEAK

Something I learned very early on when making music transferred perfectly to film:

There will always be better filmmakers.

There will always be more talented filmmakers.

There will always be luckier filmmakers.

There will NEVER be a filmmaker who works harder than I do.

It was the only thing I could control, so I decided to control it.

SO, PLEASE

Don’t be a lazy fuck and expect people to create for you.

If you need equipment, find a way to buy it.

If you need actors, find them.

If you need a script, write one, get a friend to write one, remake The Tempest in a high school and shoot it on your iPhone, anything.

If things aren’t working out for you, if you’re not “getting the breaks,” if you’re not working on a new script because, even though nobody’s rushing to make the ONE script you have, you know it’s the greatest thing since Matrix Reloaded…if you spend more time talking about what you’re going to do or reading books and magazines and blogs about what you want to be doing, then you’re not doing anything.

All you really need to do is…something.

Now, I’m going to stop playing around on this blog and get back to writing.

Oh, and I procrastinate EVERY day. I find the secret to good procrastination is to switch back and forth between projects rather than the dishes, playstation, online “research,” etc…

American film tends to be sentimental and rarely depicts the soul of its citizens. And if the film doesn’t have guns, it isn’t an action film. But for me, the real turnoff is in the final scenes. The experience is often wrapped up in a pretty consumer package guaranteed to show us that life is good and people finally see the light. Foreign films tend not to have this denouement. The chips fall and lay dead and buried if need be. Think of Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia, Ingmar Berman’s great films Fanny and Alexander and Cries and Whispers, or Fellini’s 8 1/2. The stories are not skewed for the happy ending. The studio system is geared to make money, not to tell stories. American films generally cost too much to make and cost millions more to advertise so that the product can open as many pockets as possible.

-Irvin Kershner

Another couple of shooting days in the books.

Spent the night shooting, logging, and editing instead of attending red carpet events and parties for VIFF. I’m hoping to get out a bit tomorrow!

We’ve been shooting a lot of “Pathos” lately, having tackled most of the overtly funny stuff early on, however, even within the dramatic part of the story, I’m trying to “sprinkle” a few laughs, every now and then. Priscilla brought some funny stuff last night and today!

It’s a comedy, but, just like the first film, I think we need to experience something of the drama of relationships. I think the comedy is bigger and better here, and the characters and relationships more complex. This is all assuming that I can handle the ridiculously large amount of footage!

Even with all of this footage, some scenes just don’t have enough coverage (or light) and some scenes have way too much footage (and light). But that’s making movies!

Kelly is really supportive and keeping the doggies fed and happy at home.

Kristine is really doing a great job (as an actor and producer).

Casey continues to deliver the goods.

Gaelle continues to be French.

We’re making a movie!

Also, Gaelle is amazing!

Back home in Vancouver.

It’s nice to be back home with Kelly and the doggies.

It will also be nice to get the new film in the can! Finally!

Wow. It feels like it’s been a long shoot. Shooting out of sequence has been really tough, but with no money (and so many characters) there’s no other way.

VANCOUVER FILM FESTIVAL - Premiere

A NIGHT FOR DYING TIGERS premieres this Monday (Oct 4th).

Still so much to do with A Night for Dying Tigers AND When Life Was Good (which premieres on Super Channel on October 7th). Details HERE

Calgary was fantastic. I’m really looking forward to VIFF so I can check out some great films and see some great friends.

After the festival madness it will be nonstop editing and writing until June 2011 with at least one other film ready to shoot in Summer (I’m really looking forward to shooting that one).

Shot some great stuff with Kate and Dan yesterday in Gillian’s bedroom (thanks G!).

PRISCILLA FAIA and KRISTINE COFSKY (Tasha & Brooklyn).

Doesn’t this photo look like it should have a “Clubzone” logo on it?

We’re back at the production studio (Vada) for a couple of scenes.

We’ve trimmed back the schedule (thanks Kristine!) in order to minimize the mental and physical damage before we head off to Toronto. We’ll get the rest of it done as soon as we’re back in Vancouver, energized!

I managed to get something rough together for a small scene (2nd in the film). We shot SO MANY HOURS for three tiny shots under 30 seconds. And still, I don’t have enough coverage to let it linger as long as I’d like.

I’ll find a way to get it to work. Some scenes are like this.

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.

KRISTINE COFSKY is BROOKLYN

DAY SIXTEEN

I think it’s day sixteen.

Dan’s first day was fantastic. REALLY busy. Everybody did great. I finally got to show the cast a bit of what we’ve been doing (the small amounts I’ve been able to edit and the big opening sequence of the film within the film).

This is really what it’s about, I think, this style of filmmaking. Not knowing everything that’s going to happen. Not having the people or the time to do what those other films do. I love walking into a room with a scriptment, no shotlist, and the actors, and then…it’s just…go!

It’s a scramble everyday to try and remember everything, the art dept stuff, the gear, the schedule, etc…but it’s rewarding when the cast and Gaelle and I laugh.

It’s a mad rush to get it all in before we leave to promote A NIGHT FOR DYING TIGERS at TIFF, but if the first sixteen days are any indication, this is going to be a pretty fun movie.

TASHA and CASEY (PRISCILLA FAIA and CASEY MANDERSON)

DAY TEN

More film-within-the-film action. Michael Hamper is over from the island and Kristine has procured a great location.

The first scene from yesterday is some of the best looking stuff I’ve ever shot/cut. It’s from the film-within-the-film. I can’t wait. Kristine and Paul were fantastic and Sidney was a tremendous help!

I had a lot of Tigers stuff to do today, so I couldn’t edit.

Dan is coming in from England in two days!

Time to head out for the shoot.

Is this day four?

As I’m typing this I can’t remember if I did this already.

I suspect not, but I can’t be sure.

Shot our “Nice Restaurant” scene today. It was the first scene with Tristan, and he did a fantastic job. Gaelle brought two lovely French girls, Michelle Kim and Gillian Cofsky showed up, and it looks like a restaurant where people eat. This shit is real!

We had some colour temperature issues (all will be fine) and some shadow issues with the halogen lights, but, overall, it’s going to look pretty great, I think.

The amount of footage coming in with two cameras (and no timecode) is…good, but problematic if you feel like editing as you shoot (which I love to do).

I need to make some playback stuff for tomorrow and take a look at the scenes.

Priscilla’s first day!