Phil Peel

I frequently find that I seem to be working at the extreme ends of the filmmaking production process  … simultaneously.

…and trying to decide which should take priority. It’s probably not very clear exactly what I’m talking about, but to explain..

Over the last few days, two tasks have made it to the top of my on-line “To Do” list. One task is complete the script breakdown and  arrange the auditions for my next short  film. …enticing titled John Lennon’s Turd .  (more to come on that in a later post)

Actually I realise that’s two tasks, but in my mind it’s sort of one, as it’s one project.  So in my mind I see them as one task.

Anyway the task at the other end of the filmmaking spectrum is to enter my short film “Love” into some film festivals.  It’s some while since I personally entered a film, as I’ve been working on other peoples films, so haven’t had the delight of doing it recently.

I  far prefer to do the preproduction. I find that working towards making a film is far more pleasurable and exciting and I’ve been putting off doing the film festival applications for ages now.   It’s probably my subconscious ..the fear of rejection … so if I don’t enter  …then I won’t get rejected.

I’ve set myself a deadline of 1st June to finish filming John Lennon’s Turd  (JLT from now one), so I really do need to get a move on. I’ve shortlisted the actors  and just to need to audition them.  But I decided to temporarily call a halt on that ..and hit the festival entry processes.

Gosh it’s a slog ..isn’t it?  Uploading files in the right format, stills, CV’s, filmography, checking everybody’s name is spelt right  etc. etc.

They want a poster?     Oh dear I better design one.   Two days it took me  …well in between Facebooking,  a bit of hedge trimming, celebrating Lucy V.Hay’s feedback on one of my feature scripts “Excellent ” she said  ..watching In the House  by  Francois Ozon. Fascinating film …all about writing.  Sorry I digress.

The poster ..  I wanted images of the sinister man (Lula) and the young girl (Holly) ..with the title “Love”

But the problem was how could I combine those elements without it appearing to be some sort of film about a weird relationship between and older man and a young girl?  I think  I finally managed to get the right look.

Here it is.

What do you think? I’m quite pleased with it. Though I’m not 100% sure about the tagline “Can one word stop him”

I got  a nice comment and questions from  Jan Hawranke in Canada about my recent Buble Magic Video.

“I just love the images and style of this piece! It really grabbed me. Looked like it was shot on film. Not sure why I felt this. Was the sound recorded live, or done in post? Any image adjustments you care to share? Brilliant! Thanks for this.”

Audio..

First off, the sound was prerecorded for this video. So it was recorded to give the best quality and then Steve sang along with the playback during each take.

If you want to record a live session …and only have one camera, then record the whole of the performance, preferably onto a separate recorder, then replay back from this audio recording as the singer/musician sings/plays along with it, as you film the other angles.

In editing I linked and lined up the 20 (!) shots we filmed for the first number. Easy and automatic with FCPX multicam feature. So I then had 21 tracks ( including the prerecorded music track) to intercut. We had far fewer tracks on the later numbers,as we were limited for time.

The film look..

“It looks like it was shot on film”  Well this may have been because of a variety of techniques.

24P

I shot on the PanasonicGH2 at  24 fps progressive, which I haven’t used much before. I have usually shot 1080 interlaced, as I’ve been wary of the potential for flicker in moving camera/subjects. ( I used to shoot a lot of 16mm film) So this will have certainly reproduced the same effect as film.

Lighting

I also lit it with strong back lighting. So as I filmed from the right,  we keep the left light brighter and reduced the right. Moving to filming from the left, then the left light is reduced and the right increased.

This can be difficult though if the camera moves. We were filming using a moving jib, which as it moved in, tracked from the right hand side to the left hand side. So what had been a strong dramatic back light became a flattening front light.

This limited the amount of movement I could use. We also had the problem that as soon as we arrived, the rain stopped, the sun came out and was clearly visible through the curtains on the left  hand side of the studio. So I had to shoot most of the performances from the front or left hand side.

Editing – Image adjustments

It was edited in Final Cut Pro X.  After editing I also used Crumplepop plugin Tonegrade on the first two songs and  Finisher on the final song.

The Tonegrade plugin produces a sort of HDR effect.  It simulates the properties of high dynamic range (HDR) photography,  with an expanded range of detail in both highlights and shadows creating the dramatic stylised image I wanted.

The final song  had a different treatment. It was heavily desaturated

So it all seems to worked out well. Copies of  video DVD are now with promoters down in the warm Greek Islands.

As previously announced, Fujifilm has stopped production of the majority of Motion Picture Film products by March, 2013.
We would like to thank you very much for your patronage during the long history of manufacture, sales and marketing of these products which will continue to be available until the inventory is exhausted. Please contact our worldwide distributors for availability information.

http://www.fujifilm.com/news/n130402.html

How long before Kodak does the same ?

We filmed a studio session last week with Steve Wood to promote his Michael Buble act, which he’s taking to the Greek Islands this week (lucky him, it’s a lot warmer there)

..and it was nice to be working indoors for a change. We shot four numbers in 6 hours. ..but we spent 2 hours of that rigging the jib and lights. In the end we only used three songs in the final edit.

In this sort of video, it’s not selling the music or the track, so I believe there’s no need to have any sort of story line or exotic location shots. It’s designed to sell the performer ..to show their personality and performance skills.

Here’s the video.

I think if you don’t have a big budget, then less is more effective, so we filmed in a blacked out studio with strongly dramatic backlighting.

Roy Perkins shot with his GH2 as second camera, Jude was rigger and lighting and Rachel Stephens was production assistant. ..and photographer.

She got some good shots as we worked.

Steve was really pleased with the results and he’s off with the results to Rhodes in two days time. …lucky him. 🙂

Technical stuff:   more details here 

We used a simple set up with three lights and Jude handholding the fill light. We were using a 12 foot jib and found that we got shadows on Steve’s face with a fixed fill light, so Jude dodged around the jib with a battery LED light.

I shot on my Panasonic GH2. I had concerns about having to use autofocus on the jib, but the focusing of 14 -140 lens worked perfectly.  You have to use autofocus on a jib, unless you have full remote focussing.

In addition to the Panasonic zoom I also used my Pentax 50 mm 1.8,  and my new SLR Magic 12mm 1.6 lens and the Lumix 14mm 2.8 when I did a few Steadicam shots.

I was surprised that the 14mm Lumix produced an annoying strange intense green flare spot when shooting into the lights,  but I  took the green out of it in FCPX.

I used some fairly extreme grades in the FCPX colour grading as I wanted to go for the dramatic look.