After a few months in the post production oven…VAMLET is almost ready to be unleashed on the world…

Look for VAMLET in FILM FESTIVALS in 2012!

“Jesus Christ, Alison, he doesn’t look remotely Swedish!”

FIRST RESHOOT required. A little out of focus action means a quick reshoot. Should only take an hour or two, only one main character involved. If you have to do a reshoot, this is the type you want.

EDITING

Editing is getting tough. No end to the chaos. No end to the footage. I have SO MUCH writing I need to do, and it’s impossible with all of this editing to get done.

This is the most editing I’ve ever had to do on a film. This is the “roughest” audio, the “roughest” picture, the “roughest” everything. This just means the film has a long way to go. I’ll get it there, for sure, but it’s going to take a LOT of time and work.

I may have to take a break from the edit and run away for a week or so to write. This writing needs to be done!

TIGERS

No word on anything on the tigers front as far as distribution, etc…but we’re hopeful something will come through soon.

RENEE ST CYR is THE CATERPILLAR in VAMLET

This picture we’re currently calling VAMLET is wrapped as far as principal photography goes. It’s so funny to use terms like “principal photography” to describe what just happened, but technically, that is what it was. When you run and gun and make films for no money, it’s kind of funny to discuss those films in traditional industry terms. But, hey, it’s a movie and production is over!

NOW PLAYING (classic)

On an unrelated note, it’s interesting that, as far as North American English language works go, the best writing and most accomplished storytelling continues to appear on television rather than on the big screen. Dramas like Mad Men, Friday Night Lights, Breaking Bad, and Boardwalk Empire deliver so much more than their watered-down, made by committee, theatrical counterparts. The same is true of comedy (perhaps even more so). Yet, filmmakers working outside of North America continue to deliver theatrical work that equals, or in many cases, transcends the best television has to offer. It would be nice to see a shift back from shit to shine in North American cinema.

IT’S OUR LAST SCHEDULED DAY OF SHOOTING ON “VAMLET”

Whew. It’s been a long time since we hopped into Katie’s car and shot that first day. We’ve seen Dan, we’ve been to TIFF, CIFF, VIFF, and I’ve been sitting in front of this screen editing as much as possible. I’ve made it through 27 minutes up to this point. Normally I would have cut the film as we shot, but with two cameras that just wasn’t possible. Syncing and plowing through all that footage each night after shooting wasn’t possible.

THE NEW. THE NEXT.

There’s something happening, it’s going to be a lot of work and it’s going to take a lot of “attention,” but it could be a big deal after a while. We’re still working out the logistics, but it’s probably the biggest thing you could attempt in the world of entertainment with no money and a dream. It will start “smallish” and grow. More news very soon.

TIJANA POPOVIC is TINA

“Pet your power animal.”

It was great to see Tijana again. She is one of the very best!

Things got pretty crazy with all of that healing. Everybody was really great yesterday. It was a pretty light scriptment day, and everybody contributed a little something extra.

I’m mixing Dying Tigers, and my shoulder and back are very grateful for the rest. Shooting an entire film handheld, with a great deal of improvisation seemed like a great idea, but it’s been a bit tougher than I thought. The HVX weighs more than the DVX, and it’s been a few years.

Sill, I can’t wait to get back to work with this cast in a few days!

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.

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.

PAUL MENDEL (Dylan Murphy)

DAY NINE, or is it? It is officially our “shooting DAY NINE,” however, it is actually Day Eleven, I believe.

I will, from this point forward, stop counting editing days as “DAYS.” I only have two or three editing days in this 29 day schedule, so that won’t be much of a problem!

Last night we shot the Acting Class scene. We had a great location, but there was a hum with the lights and IT WAS HOT. Fucking batshit crazy cat on a hot tin roof hot. Sweat pouring from my face as I tried to keep the camera steady. Actors so sweaty we had to incorporate that sweat into the story.

It took a while to get going because of the heat.

Glen Schaefer came down to talk about making films. Glen brought his daughter Rachel, who was really cool.

We shot for seven hours or so, but it felt like fifteen.

Today we shot in Stanley Park (thanks Sidney for the help!). Tonight we shot on Priscilla’s roof (thanks P!). Some good stuff, I think. I like the way the HVX looks at 1080 for the film-within-the-film and 720 for the film proper. This resolution difference, along with a slightly different cine-gamma, feels like it gives me enough of a different look (rather than shoot DSLR for the film-within-the-film).