More on the new edit and Norway

So a long time since my last post. Everything has been in limbo.
First, there was the Kent vs Norway issue. Could the Kent forest stand in for Norway? Well that question was answered by way of the new edit.
Since the showing at JCs place I have also shown it to David. Beforehand I felt that this edit was truly make or break. If I could not start to make it work now I would be in trouble. So David's response was quite important.
The shots we inserted from the Kent workshop made sense, for the most part, as part of the story, even if Kent didn't look like Norway. But what the new edit made clear was what could work worked, what didn't work was down to a lack of material and development.
Most of this revolved around the ending. Would that long take, of Claire starting in the foreground and climbing the ridge, and then disappearing into the forest, would it now work? I had met the week previously and his comment then was that the shot was in a way a literal representation of the film up until the point. Seeing the shot was not development, but repetition. But when I showed him the edit he felt that perhaps it did work. I could see now that we would be in for some difficult choices, but again this was also part of the process, and a great sign of progress.
The ending is where we will spend most of our effort, and it is also the most exciting part. I would like to do a whole post just around the ending, because think there is so much to say.
I also feel that we can no longer move forward without more development of the sound design, and so to that end, Roland is coming over to see the edit tomorrow. What might we do with sound as part of the ending?
And I am looking for some new test subjects, people who have not seen the film before. More on that.
So yes, we are going out to Norway for a second trip. We will not only fill in the gaps we had identified previously, but also develop other parts. This is tentatively planned for the end of August. We are just waiting to find a Camera Assistant and to be certain that David can come as well, and then I will begin making all the arrangements.
And the next post, soon about the ending.

New edit and more

I finished the latest edit on Sunday. I had already cut in the workshop video we had shot in May and April, and so the past two weeks I had been editing for pace, and patching up the sound. At the end, even though I had trimmed a large number of scenes, with the new material the latest edit was now longer. 98 minutes, versus just over 90 minutes.
I wanted to meet up with JC so that we could look at the Kent footage and make a decision - will it stand in for Norway? So I took the edit over to JC's place so we could watch it on his new projector.
Some conclusions.
Now, as edits do, even though it was longer than the last edit, it seemed shorter. There was a sense of focus, pace and rhythm. It was clearer because it was simpler, and the opportunities were more obvious. That is I could see the gaps, where I needed to do work, and what could work. I think that it was a big improvement on the last edit. I could also see that once I had shot the new material I would come to a point where I could no longer add anything more to the edit. I mean that if it needed to go further then I would need an editor, someone who bring something new to the project. I feel this is progress too.
The other conclusion was that the new material went a long way in addressing the lack of balance in the film. What I still don't though is whether the other new scenes I wrote are necessary. We haven't work-shopped those yet.
As to the Kent question, what gave it away was the lack of inclines and the dirt ground. Our Norway locations were steep and there is stone everywhere.
So I am now thinking of returning to Norway. More on this...

Kent workshop

It seems so long ago, but that is my fault for taking this long to post. So, Flora, JC and myself went out to Ashford to workshop some new scenes and a few new shots. These are meant to fit into the Norway segment of the film. We were looking for a coniferous forest that could stand in for Norway if you didn't look to close. Lucy, who plays Sophie, told us about a forest where her friend Huf worked. So out to Ashford we went.
Now a small disaster, as I had not known that there was an Ashford in Surrey, as well as one in Kent, and Surrey is where we ended up. Aughh! No matter, we managed to turn it around quick enough.
I wanted to add some elements to the Norway segment in response to the feedback I had over the edit back in January. First, there was a lack of clarity in what Claire goes through before her sister Natalie shows up. I wanted to develop these parts. So, what happens when she first arrives? Why does she wait until nightfall to break into the cabin? Well of course, I am not one to provide easy answers, but at least a new scene would be able to ask the question.
I wanted to develop the concept of Claire's relationship to the opaque image near the end, and this is the only part we were not able to finish (we would have made it if I hadn't taken everyone to Surrey first).
Still, if we need to develop that we need to develop that earlier as well, and so we worked this into another scene we needed to develop.
Last weekend I cut this footage into the latest edit and then I began to rework each segment, trying to simplify and clarify. I was especially aware that I had made so much too complicated. I also wanted to repair much of the sound, only in that I needed to test the edits, and having sound click, flip from one channel to another, and jump from level to another made it difficult. So that's where I am.
I have to say that presently I am quite unsure that Kent will be able to stand in for Norway, but I need to test this on a number of people who will be more objective than myself.
More on this subject later.

Back from Cannes

Okay, I am well behind in my posts.
This past weekend I went out to Kent with Flora and JC for another workshop, but I haven't even report back from Cannes yet. First things first.
I went out with my friend Robert, who had a short film there and was trying to set up meetings with various producers and governmental bodies about a feature he is working on. We arrived mid-day and went straight to it, after a drink on the beach in the UK pavilion. I first scoped out the Marche, to see where my intended victims were located. About half of the sales agents I wanted to meet were located there. The other half were scattered about Cannes, mostly in the Grand Hotel. Once we were happy we knew the landscape we gathered up our bags and headed up to our digs, in Mougin.
In the next two days I introduced myself to as many sales agents as I could. I really just wanted to put a name to a face. I did not want to pitch the project to them, and most of them were not interested in hearing a pitch anyway. They had films to sell.
It was easy speaking to those in the Marche as they had booths, and were expecting to receive the public, but with those in hotel rooms it could be awkward. Some of the larger companies had receptionist, but most just had a hotel room. This was a little like cold-calling. But after a few apologies and few questions most were happy to speak for a few minutes.
My other mission was altogether more difficult. All the big festivals send programmers to the festival to see films and this is an ideal way to meet a number of them and begin to sell them the film. Ideally you set up a meeting beforehand, which they would probably refuse, or accept and then cancel, but it is a start. Some of the pavilions set up parties so the programmers could meet a group of people, but I was already on my way home. So no luck there, but again it is a start.
Next step is to follow up with emails to everyone I met. I am sure they won't remember meeting me but...
And soon, an update on the last workshop.

Off to Cannes

Yes, we had the workshop last weekend and it went quite well. I have already managed to edit most of the footage.
But I will wait to tell you all about it, as I am busy preparing for Cannes. This is really my first time there so it is a bit overwhelming. This is really just an opportunity to make contact with sales agents. I will also get a chance to see Lu again, who is now working in Berlin for a film producer.
When I return we are heading out the into forests for Kent to do another workshop.
More on that and everything else when I return next week.

Sound design and non-music

There is a lot to discuss. This coming Saturday I have another workshop. This time I am working on two new scenes between Claire and Sophie. Besides trimming and readjusting the dialogue, I have been continuing to find new ways to approach choosing and setting up shots.
This time I wrote a parallel visual narrative. This is from the viewpoint of what we might know from the outside of the scene, without reference to the dialogue. Then I drew up a storyboard of shots, again trying to think less, and draw with reference to the actors and how they might be set in the frame from an emotional point of view. That is to follow my instincts.

But I know I did say that I would talk about sound and my visit to Roland's new studio.
He has set himself up with a 5.1 surround-sound system. Very sexy in a sound geeky way.
The best part was that he introduced me to what might we have crudely termed sonic experiments. Perhaps non-music would be better? Liminal music? These sounds that sit at the threshold of sound becoming music.They suggest a music that never arrives.
These sounds are created by the interference between sine waves. That is two waves meet and reflect off each other creating a third sound. These can only be heard on a set of speakers. You hear three sounds, left, right and middle, but removing one sound removed the middle sound as well - it could not exist. It was created inside our heads.
A lot of these experiments were developed by the composer Alvin Lucier, but the music Roland played for me was created by a friend who for now is only known as Ashley. So we will shall see where the experiments take us. If we decide we want to try them I will meet up with Ashley and we will go from there.
The effect is disconcerting to say the least. I think these are the sonic equivalent of the Rothko images, those at the edge of perception. I have included them at a number of places throughout. I have almost already dismissed them from the Norway segment. They just don't seem to make sense there. I need to explore their use in the middle segment, but so far they have been most effective in the first segment. I have taken them to be a part of the calling theme, that is the sense that Claire is being affected by something she does not understand. This is part of the idea of looking into, into the opacity of the object.
As you watch you are not certain that you have actually heard the sounds, and then even more strangely you begin to hear the sounds in all sorts of places, even though they are not present. You brain begins to manufacture them on their own accord.
Of course the idea of this music is linked to the Rothko ideas, the liminal image, at the threshold, the edge of perception.
I need to develop their use more, and I integrate more of the other sounds that Roland passed my way. And then there is the workshop on Saturday, so more about that.

The workshop edit

The weekend was rather full, so I can't say I have gone far enough with the edit but perhaps I am just a little closer to I want.
My aesthetics is never to use the same shot twice, that each moment will have it's own shot, but when you are shooting a scene with dialogue? The need to return to the other party as they discourse? Does this become a pointless convention? Well I suppose first you avoid the ping-pong of dialogue, but sometimes...
Next, forget the geometry, and consider how you represent what is actually happening.
Part of the solution is apparent when you watch directors like Antonioni, who defies convention by cutting from one shot to another with out varying the angle, eg. a medium-shot straight on to the subject to a medium close-up of the subject.
I tried this in the workshop. Here we are shooting a scene outside the bar. Paul and Claire have been having a great evening. They come out of the bar and into the street. They are giddy, a little drunk, by mostly giddy fro each other's company.
























Does it work? I cannot say I have the objectivity to be certain as yet. I have an insurance shot to place between the two if this fails, but having tried using it I really dislike the whole idea.
And also I wonder if this is skill? How each shot is framed, the intensity of what is happening...perhaps I just need to dig deeper?
So what I was playing with during the workshop is to vary the angle just slightly, so that as we cut from subject a to subject b, and then return to subject a, the angle has varied slightly and/or the camera has moved in closer. This choice is very much down to serving the scene.
The viewer might not be conscious of the change but it changes the emphasis and creates a form of intensity, eg. the viewer is still forced to learn the new shot, they are kept off balance.











Here Paul begins talking to Claire. Then the waitress interrupts him and I cut a side-on shot.












We return...












Now closer, but also with Paul on the left. I did not considering what this means. As I said I tried not to think too much.
It just felt that we needed to feel off balance. And that he trapped himself.
Now what if I were to cut out the intervening shot, and cut from one to the next directly?












Here is the angle I go to, when the waitress enters.












And later, for this finally words, a slight variation. Looking at it might think of varying this a little more in the shooting, but the idea is there.
Meanwhile I am reading an essay on Robert Bresson, The Rhetoric of Robert Bresson, by P. Adams Sitney:

...he has further emphasised the isolated "take" , or camera set-up, as an independent molecule of narrative, rather than as a facet of an illusory crystal.

This approach might be referred to as linearity, as opposed to geometrical, which is the preference of most formalist filmmakers. Not Bresson.

...he has linearized the metonymic principles by discrete movement of the camera which change carefully set-up long shots to significant close-ups, and vice versa, in an effort to attain maximal economy of means.

So on Saturday I am off to visit Roland in his new sound studio. Very exciting.

Workshop update

Okay, workshop number one is complete.
It was over so quickly, partly because I did succeed in not spending so much time worried about psychology.
I spent very little time talking. I shot and shot, set up the camera quickly, just worried about where the camera was placed, in relation to other shots, and for the most part left the actors to do sort it out themselves. We trimmed the dialogue in parts, mostly to make it less explicit and long-winded, and only spent a little time discussing what it meant. In all I shot over 60 minutes of video.
I have this weekend to edit the scenes together, and I may find out that I have made a mess of it, so we shall see.
I am quite certain that the second scene will be more difficult to judge. This is because it is meant to take place in a bar and I will have very little in the video to suggest this. When I show it, my viewers will really have to use their imagination. I will have to layer it out with sound effects and loud music to suggest the location.
Now to that end I am finally meeting up with Roland in his studio the weekend after next. I am quite excited about this, as he has set up proper studio with a 7.1 sound system, and Dolby encoder. I am thinking of all the possibilities of the sound as part of the edit. But for now, we are just there to play and so more on that later.

Workshop preparation

So we are set for the workshop to take this Saturday. Scheduling issues mean we are focusing on the relationship between Claire and Paul.
The work with Claire's friend Sophie will have to wait.
The three scenes we will devise comprise of the latter part of a day out for Claire and Paul.
We have already see them travelling in the car, and then drinking at an outdoor pub.
But what this is really about is about the nature of their relationship, and in this too, where Claire is at this moment, so that we will know where she started from.
At the same it is also to show how the relationship does work when it does. I have already said that Claire cannot leave this relationship because it is bad.
Finally, it is about adding another layer or texture. Noise. Speed. Volume. Crammed. Crowded. Stuffed.

Now I think I keep saying this, but I would like to try a new way of working.
I am very comfortable speaking from the perspective of psychology. Do I believe in it? No, I just feel like I can play it.
I often write instinctively. When challenged as to the meaning of this or that I find myself rewriting to make sense of it psychologically, and so rationalise it. What comes out is rational, but bloodless too? It has lost something.
So now I wondered if what I need to do is develop this in another way, emotionally, instinctively.
I need to move out of my comfort zone.

How could I start?
Writing in the opacity, that is writing what we see, without including what the character is thinking.
In dialogue, pushing away from the psychology of what is said, and working on the surface. Don't look for what is behind it.
Of course get rid of the spoken word, or even just dialogue.
Leaving the psychology to the actors. Never justify, let them do that, if that's what they do.
And perhaps another experiment? What if I could rewrite this scene, without dialogue, include only what we see from the outside, the way that the light reflects off them, the way they are.
And from here to the way that it is shot? That this instinct must be indistinguishable from the form that records it. This is something I have always wanted, but I know I have not achieved.

Not slice of life

So, while I prepare for the next workshop, sometime in early April, I have a lot of time to think.
I have been studying Bresson again, reading a series of essays edited by James Quandt. In an essay by Amedee Ayfre, The Universe of Robert Bresson, he points out something which seems obvious once you think about it, but I missed.
Yes, Bresson, is the master of the everday, mundane detail. He has stripped his people to their essence, in the activities we observe of them.
L'Argent opens with the main character going about this work, disconnecting the hose from the his fuel truck, placing the cash for the job in a wallet, getting into the cab to do onto the next job, and so on. In A Man Escaped he may show a number of scenes of the men going about their everyday activity, for example doing their daily wash in the shower room. We see Mouchette leaving school, going home to her mother, feeding the baby.
Still you would never say that Bresson is showing a slice of life. Mundane these activities may be, but the way that Bresson treats them is something more. Their activities and these objects and transfigured. Ayfre would say that we glimpse the character's soul.
So, now looking back at all the new scenes I have written how would I treat them? Thinking now I would say that if I were to treat them as slice of life they would not sit comfortably with all the rest, and to be honest I don't think I am that person. Just turn on the camera and see what happens? I don't know how to do that.
No, I think what I am looking to do involves another quality, lighter, brigher, fuller, louder, intense even, but it is not loose. How will I do this? I really don't know. Some more thinking.

Revised script

Well just distracted, that's why I have written lately. When I go into writing mode it is hard to take some of that energy and put into the blog. Besides, what would I say?
I feel as if I have enough now that I can prepare for the workshop. I intend to put in one long day at the end of the month and shoot it on video. I will cut this into a new edit and then...more feedback.
What have I written?
I have added another layer to Claire, as we see her at work, in her neighbourhood, interacting, now affecting, not inert, taking an opinion, having a view. I thought of this as the plateau that she can later throw herself from.
I keep struggling to keep all of these new scenes simple. I spent a lot of the time trying to think of major events but always came to realise that I will succeed in small increments. I do not need to create these seismic situations. I have those already. I need the little things. For example, a scene where Claire goes into the local grocery store. She hears a song she knows being played. She goes home excited to discover it once again, but when she puts it on she is disappointed. It is inadequate. That' s all it needs. No great revelation.
I really need more of these small pieces now, not great ones.
I have also developed her relationship with Paul, extending and developing a day out together.
My one question is around Sophie. Do I have enough? It is hard to know now. I am the point I need to see the edit. I have once again lost objectivity and it is timed to take it out to other people.

More on textures

So I continue thinking through my next steps.
I met with another David on Friday. This is not David the photographer, but David the interaction designer and since I hadn't spoken to him for quite some time I needed to update on the progress of the film. He had an interesting way of putting my dilemna: I am by myself in a dark house at the top of the hill with nothing but a candle.
It helped me recognise the fact that I am still making a film. What I mean is that in an industrial situation once you are in post it is almost as if the process of creation had ended. For this project this is not the case. I
Recently I have been quite taken with the work of Philipe Grandrieux, such as Sombre or Un Lac. I am especially interested in the way that he creates an emotional texture with a series of near abstract shots. These shots might be soft-focus, they might be just slightly oblique to the previous shot, and they invariably involve a moving camera. In no way does he compromise by making a scene, with a number of shots of the action, a theatrical situation, and then cutaways and inserts. The layer of abstraction, is one and the same with what is happening to the characters we are following. His process is organic. Or better there is no form and content. They are one and the same.
I am missing an element, in that we are not able to see Claire as human, or human enough, so that she is difficult to follow. Do I need theatre? Scenes? Not at all. So what am I afraid of? In all of what I am trying to do I am not afraid of what the character feels emotionaly, rather I don't believe that we know that by means of theatrical techniques transposed onto film.
I need to find a way, with my own style, which could not be more different than the style in Sombre or La Vie Nouvelle or Un Lac, where I am able to work in this new layer.

***

I am yet to see Nuri Bilge Ceylan's latest film, Three Monkeys now playing at the BFI Southbank. If you have not seen any of his previous films, such as Climates or Uzak I would highly recommend them.

Dramaturgy

Okay, yes, it has been a while since I've posted.
It is not that I have not been working on the film, just that it has been a slow burn.
So, I have written 5 new scenes.
2 of these involve Sophie, Claire's friend. As the edit stands, it is hard to see what Sophie adds to the story. I had to make a choice, either make it into something important, or cut the character from the story. I still felt that it was important, for our view of this world, that we see Claire with a friend. As I have been putting in my head, Claire must jump of a cliff, but as it stands she is already stepped off. We need to see her on the plateau and then make the choice to jump off.
The gist of these 2 scenes? One, to help us put Claire's attitude to the forest in context, and to show how this might relate to her relationship with Claire. It also allows us to tie together some pieces that were never clear, and became muddier as the process of editing continued. Her relationship to her past, in the way that she carries a box of remembrances with her from Paul's flat, to Natalie's flat, to Norway, where she discards them.
There are three new scenes with Paul. Here to we are able to put into context the gap in their relationship and how Claire sees it, plus we see them together happy. We see how they are good together, so that it might mean something when she throws it away. Basic dramaturgy, yes, but I missed it.
And there is more. These scenes also take the film into London, and so the wider world, and provide another texture, that of sound that is loud and aggressive.
So far I have met with the actors and we are in the process of arranging the workshop. More when that is arranged.

Where to now?

I think I have detailed enough about the comments and my thinking...so now what? How do I respond? I have always said, in the feedback I want to be in position of having too much, to cull, not add. But I think I need to add.
My first reaction was, I should have done in the first place, but this is wrong. First, I could never afford to shoot that way, that is shoot something I was never sure I would need. And then I only know what to create by the edit, by having all those other bits. I can now write scenes that I feel comfortable with because they seem to fit, to come organically.
These past few weeks I have been thinking of adding new scenes, and rewriting others. The characters will even say things, dialogue, something I have avoided. I feel that is just a matter of balance, that the other elements, the visual and sound, will be stronger with more dialogue.
And energy and tone and texture. I have written a new scene 5. Here Claire and Paul visit the pub. In my original it is about the lack of connection between them, the fundamental distance, but I have plenty of that. When do we see what brought them together?
So I have written a new pub scene, this time at night, still no dialogue, but loud music, dancing and drinking, and Paul and Claire can be together for a reason.
I still have more work to do, there are still missing elements so I need to get to them. The next step? Back to the video camera and the workshop. I want to put them on video and cut them into the edit and then do some test screenings before I go out and spend money on film.

Third showing

Now, I already posted about the showing to David. Two weeks ago now - yes, a long time, I know, a lot has happened - I showed it to John, Amelie and Peter.
This was probably the most critical of the showings. First they knew nothing about the film so they were blank slates. David has been part of the process from the beginning.
And second the edit was in good enough shape to judge where it was going to go. What I show Isabella, Sophie and JC was still too rough to judge.
Their conclusions?
Like David they thought it was too long, it too long to get to what I was trying to achieve. And they also had many of the same practical criticisms, that the blackouts were too long, and not necessary, they did not need a rest. They confused the sister, Natalie, with the friend, Sophie. They thought they looked too much alike, but I know this is not the case. I simply have not set it up well enough to make it clear.
They diverged on a few things.
Peter did not feel the friend was necessary and that she could be cut. Amelie did not see the necessity of the friend but still though there would be something missing if she were not in the film.
Peter and Amelie felt that there was enough development to sustain the first two segments, but not in Norway. Not enough happened until Natalie showed up. When she did they all found the scenes with the sister powerful.
But John disagreed. He thought there was enough in Norway to sustain the film.
They all agreed on one thing, and this is the biggest criticism: that right now Claire is too one dimensional. You don't know enough about her to feel for her, or at least understand her. David said the same thing, and JC alluded to much the same.
So that is my biggest problem, and why it has taken me this long to write this. I have never been worried about what I have. It will work its way out, but missing elements, that's a problem. On Saturday I plan to begin writing some new scenes, and rewriting some new scenes. More on this.

Second showing

So this past weekend I had two separate viewings of the latest edit.
On Friday I showed it to David. Since he has been quite involved in the production I wanted to show him the cut by himself.
His response? I will start with the practical.
First, it was clear, on the most basic terms, what was happening. Now I have always been worried about this. I have always been an abstract thinker and I too often assume that people are able to follow me. I need to fill in the gaps.
The biggest gap at this stage was the lack of sound design. It was difficult to know if some of the problems could be solved with the sound, which is so central to what I am trying to do.
He thought that perhaps the first segment was too long, but also wondered if it had to do, to set out the plan of the film. I have to say that there is a lack of texture in the first segment, to set it apart from the second segment. This was a weakness in production along with a few technical problems as well. For example, the pub scene, which added some noise, opened up the story to the outside world, and presented Claire in a human situation, meeting her best-friend, Sophie, I removed from the last edit. First, I could not see their conversation making sense in light of the other changes I have made to the edit. And secondly, the primary shot was soft and so unusable.
He also that the blackouts were too long, and also needed sound (I will talk about this more in the next post).
In Norway, specific repeating shots were quite striking, and others were quite weak.
But I would have to say that his strongest criticism was that it was now too cold, too intellectual, that we are able to see Claire as human.
Now of course this is rather a fundamental problem, but I will for now avoid making any conclusions. I will add another post from the third showing from last Saturday.

First showing

I had the first showing just before Christmas, for my flatmate Sophie and our neighbour, Isabella
The verdict? It was very encouraging. They felt there was a film there.
Clearly the edit is still a mess. There is too much, too many shots. What I wanted to achieve was clear and then there was no development, just repetition.
Why is this encouraging? That I just needed to reveal the film there. It was matter of whittling away what is not and finding what is.
Discouraging? Sometimes they had difficulty understanding some of the simplest things, confusing the sister Natalie with the best friend Sophie, even though they look nothing alike. Here I have probably gone too close to the edge of the minimal with the narrative. This may be my biggest gap, something I may have to solve with some pickups or even some new scenes.
At this point I have not had to make any painful decisions. For the most part it has been about revealing what is there, not about choosing between this option or that option. That will happen soon I am sure.
Still, one question that both JC, Sophie and Isabella brought up: that we really don't know any of the other characters, that is the boyfriends Paul, Nick, the sister Natalie, or the friend Sophie. Now what do they mean? The other night I watched Bresson's Mouchette and there was a comment that we watched for 90 minutes and still didn't know anything about Mouchette. Now what they mean is in the conventional sense of character, actually meaning characteristics, that she likes oranges but not apples, wants to be a nurse when she grows up, etc. The character of Mouchette is revealed in action, and there was plenty of her action. Now I never wanted to show characteristics, I wanted to show action. So what does mean for my film? Is there enough of these people in action to reveal them? If not...?
I have since been busy, made some minor adjustments to the cuts in the first part, conflated some events in the second part, and done two or three reedits of the third segment. The edit I showed last week was 110 minutes. The latest edit is 96 minutes. I feel this is a lot stronger and clearer with a lot less. Now I have to find some new victims.

First cut

On Saturday evening I showed the the first edit to JC. I of course had been avoiding doing this, as I was afraid to look. I knew it would be a telling moment.
Of course I had seen the film in bits and pieces since I began editing back in October. But it is one thing to see bits and pieces on a computer screen, another to see the whole on a large screen.
It was the only way to know if we really have something.
So was it good? I have to say that I am now so close to it I am in no position to say. I think at best I could say it wasn't bad. There was nothing in it that I thought, 'that's no good'.
What was clear was that it is a film. It is one complete piece, this I was happy about.
On the practical level, the cutting worked. The way in which I conceived the edit was successful. I also had done enough work with the sound so that it didn't interfere with the edit. Rough sound can make it difficult to determine if this or that cut worked. The sound design was also fundamental to my concept of the film, so the no edit could ever be complete without at least some crude sound design.
Aesthetically, JC and I were happy that the original concept of the shooting style was very successful. That is, going from the longer to shorter lenses in Norway was very effective. We begin with the 25mm. The world is in fragments, closed and circumscribed. It is almost as if Claire had to fight to put herself together. By the time we come to the final segment, in Norway, we were using the 12mm. It is not that she has been successful in assembling herself, rather that she had given in to nature and dissolution. Here she is within the place, or absent. It doesn't matter one way or another. The view of the world is wide, almost as if the world could drift away.
The few scenes of drama? Dialogue? These worked very well.
And the many scenes of non-drama, where we watch Claire looking, searching? They were interesting, compelling to watch. I have to say that I was very happy with all the actors and their performances.
Less successful, because it still incomplete, was the layer of the story presented visually and with sound. This is the other Claire story. It still needs work and has been my fixation for the past few weeks. It is moving along slowly. Yesterday I was already making tweaks. It is like sculpting. Each day I am paring off one part, and adding another part. I need to shoot more test material and will probably do this over Christmas.
Now JC had some questions and observations. We don't know Claire in the conventional sense. There is little dialogue or drama. JC wondered if there was enough interaction between the characters to get to know them. I would say no, we don't know them this way, but of course I never intended this. I rejected drama, I was always interested in the way that cinema is able to achieve an emotional effect without resorting to tricks from the theatre. But have I accomplished this? If not, this would be my biggest problem.

True black versus Rothko

What a series of tangents this whole project takes me on.
So I have gone back and smoothed out the assembly edit and then reviewed it.
I have already described how I had written into my outline blackouts, breaks in the visual narrative at key moments. In the edit I created these blackouts and then...they didn't work. They broke the narrative, the flow. Did I lose my nerve? I began to think how they might develop the narrative.
First I added sound. I had been working with Roland to create another layer of meaning with the sound and the blackouts seemed to be a logical place to develop the sound design. But I found that sound alone was not adequate.
Then I began to look for means that the blackouts might be see as logical extensions of present images. For example scene 28. Claire is asleep, and is awoken by...? The scene began with a shot her asleep, awakes suddenly and turns on the light. I became interested in the abstraction of the image in the dark.
Then were a few influences.
In October I saw Un Lac, by Phillipe Grandrieux at the London Film Festival. A lot of this film impressed, but specifically the liminal images, inside a cabin in near darkness, the figures and objects just at the edge of perception. I made a literal connection between Claire's darkened bedroom and the idea of a semi-conscious searching or reception of the transcendental.
In November I watched Antonioni's Red Desert. In this Antonioni uses soft-focus to create colour abstractions. Grandrieux also made use of soft-focus extensively.
At the Tate Modern there was the Rothko exhibition. I was especially taken with the the Black-Form paintings, where Rothko layered a series of blacks and different coatings. What happens as you look into these? You might say that you are drawn into them, that they are a void, but they also push outward, they extend beyond the frame. They seem to pulse, move about.
I began to imagine that in these sequences I would develop a series of images from facts, objects in the location, for example Claire's bedroom, which become liminal by way of the lack of light and the soft-focus. I experimented by drawing and painting images in Photoshop, based on top of images from the shoot. So in a long-take of these images there should be sense of searching, grasping for what...always remains out of reach, at the threshold.
Soon it became clear that these sequences had nothing to do with the blackouts.
Now I don't know if I just lose my nerve? Or did I need to find out how the blackouts might work by first discovering how they would not?
However it came to me, I realised that the blackouts did not require sound or any logic, the blacks are true, negation, the absence of sound and image, no extensions to existing image, rather negation of the images. It should be expected that they break the flow. That is what they do. If they failed perhaps they were in the wrong place, or more likely that the place was wrong, that is the edit, the material around it was not strong enough.
I realised that what I had were two different ideas. The true blacks on the one hand and what I called the Rothko sequences on the other.
I don't certainly don't consider the work I did on the Rothko sequences a waste. On the contrary, as I come close to the first version of the edit I have begun to extend the development of these images.
Presently I have developed a language based on three or four colours.
White is an invasion, the exterior coming in, drawing Claire out.
White is images of light entering the flat, or clouds with the sun behind them, over-exposed.
Blue and brown are the interiors, the bedroom at night, they are present but not dynamic like the white images.
Green is the exterior, the location of fear, the world of nature. This past week, as I revised the final segment I began to see how the green images would form a part there.
If the first two segments are about Claire searching trying to construct an identity then the final segment is a realisation that identity in the face of nature is an indulgence. The extinction of identity. Here then I will explore the concept of Claire in the landscape, dissolving, smeared into the pine groves.

Editing continues

So last Tuesday I finished the assembly edit of the film. What I mean is I assembled footage according to my shooting script, or outline really, since I don't use a script. There was no regard for pacing or feel in the assembly edit.
At the finish of the assembly the film looked like this:
Segment 1 = 31 minutes
Segment 2 = 43 minutes
Segment 3 = 36 minutes
Total length = 110 minutes.
(Actually the film is now longer as I have adding more material in the blackouts. See below).
Now I have never thought that shortening a film is any virtue in and of itself. Milos Foreman told a great story about editing one of his films for a studio. He showed them a version at 115 minutes. Too long, make it shorter. He went away and cut 10 minutes out of it. Still too long. He got it down to 95 minutes. Still too long, shorter. Well he didn't know what to do. He couldn't see how he could make any shorter. He went back to the editing suite and thought and thought. He added three minutes to the film and presented it to the studio. Yes, that's better. You see, shorter is better?
So, I am not going about this edit thinking that the film must shorter, I am going about thinking it must simpler and clearer and that may mean making it shorter. At 110 minutes the film is too long.
This past Saturday I started going through the assembly and tried to cut with some sense of pace, and necessity. I have been most happy cutting dialogue from certain scenes, which seems less and less useful when you see all the bits put together. It is almost as if a I have this toy constructed in my hands. It is held together with all sort of bits and pieces and it works, but it would work better without some of those bits. How many bits and pieces can I get rid of? That is what this whole process is about.
Right now the cutting is relatively pain free. Cutting away extra bits has meant that scenes are smoother and make more sense. Other scenes just work better at a certain length. Some scenes were intended to feel a certain pace and cutting brings this out. Some of the dialogue scenes were deliberately extended so that I could decide in the edit parts I wanted to use.
But before long I know this easy bit will be over and some hard decisions will need to made. Is this scene necessary? Is it necessary to explain this or that? Is that character necessary?
Between last Tuesday and last Saturday I have been preoccupied with another problem, the blackouts. I think I have already posted on the subject (http://tidalbarrier.blogspot.com/2007/10/blackouts-and-7th-draft.html) previously. I had decided that I needed to find a relationship between the blackouts and images within the narrative. I would like to post separately on this subject, as I have a lot to talk about. For now suffice to say that I have been very much inspired by Phillipe Grandrieux and his new film, Un Lac, which was part of the London Film Festival (http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/lake). If you have not seen it please call the ICA and nag them to distribute the film.
My other influence has been Rothko, and the exhibit at the Tate Modern. More on all of this soon.

Film geek...

I have successfully avoided the editing up until now and have been busy creating a press pack and other such chores. I plan to start editing this weekend.
In the meantime I thought I might do a how did you do that?
We shots this film on S16, in this case an Aaton LTR54, which was over 2o years old. I purchased this camera over a year ago (http://tidalbarrier.blogspot.com/2007/09/september-update.html).
Now this camera came with 7 primes and a zoom lens but came up with our own aesthetic, which meant we shot the first third of the film a 25mm, the second on 16mm, and the last a 12mm. So as the narrative unfolds we move further back. This practically meant that in the early part we saw the characters and spaces in fragments, while in the last third we saw the characters and space as one. To a certain extent we mirrored that with the film stock. For the first two thirds we used 250 daylight and 250 tungsten film, while in the last third we used 160 daylight. We used Fuji film throughout and I have to say that it was exceptional, especially in low-light conditions. We always had more room and could've gone much further than we did. You always understood why you shot on film and not video.
The film was developed and transferred by iLabs in Soho. It was transferred onto Digibeta and then a DV dub was made of it. The plan is to do the offline edit with the DV dubs, and then finish on Digibeta. A return to film would happen when the film is sold.

Photos...

I have successfully put the editing off this past week. So before I begin again - I will probably start capturing footage tomorrow - a few photos from the last shoot. Courtesy of David.


Scene 11












After an argument Paul goes for a walk in the forest. Claire comes looking for him. He watches her come to him, as if watching her from the outside. It is the end.














In the forest Paul has scratched himself. Claire examines the wound, but from the outside too.


Scene 24












This is a new scene I wrote this autumn. It replaced a scene where Claire first meets Nick, which we had shot in August. I changed it for three reasons. One, it seemed their meeting was redundant. There was already a scene where they meet, and it seemed far more interesting.
Two, that scene also doubled to introduce the concept of the periphery, of Claire moving from the city to the park to the wild. This was important enough to the focus of the scene, rather than the background it was in the original scene.
Finally, the footage from August was fogged. The film tin had been opened, we are not sure how, and the footage was ruined. Sometimes these disasters happen for a reason.














So, in this scene, Claire, having just moved into Natalie's flat, goes out into the neighbourhood, as this new person. Here she has made her way into the park.














At the end of the park the wilderness begins. She looks into the forest, and sees her own fear.

Scene 32












As she begins a relationship with Nick, she begins to wonder if she was right in leaving Paul. Here she has spotted him inside a bar, though at this moment we don't know that.














Before she can decide whether to confront him he comes out.














Claire makes a retreat.


Scene 41/42












With the rough edit I was able to see what worked and what didn't, and especially what needed development.
In this scene Claire decides to confront her fear and makes her way into the forest. We added new events and shots, and re-shot some of the shots from August.

And here we are making it...
Scene 11

























































Roland is wondering if there will ever be any dialogue to record.




















JC sets up. Anna was our focus-puller this time around. She came with us to Norway.














Beth prepares Paul's injuries.














And we are set and begin shooting. Kendra sets out the board. She came with us to Norway as well.

Scene 24












On Wanstead High Street following Claire on the opposite side of the road.














Marc listening in. The sound guys spent most of their time getting atmos tracks.

Now in Shoreditch in front of Lounge Lover.
































Joe Gough was our 1st AD during this shoot.



























































It was sometimes hard to recognise Azahara.

Scene 42












Here Fred and I are wondering if the sun is ever going to cooperate.














In Wanstead setting up the final part of Scene 42. I added this shot to the scene from the edit.
Claire lays herself down.














Anna focuses with Kendra's assistance.














Lara was with us that day. She and Azahara alternated days.














Anna checks the gate.














Now an earlier part of Scene 42, where Claire enters the forest. Here we are just off Wanstead High Street.

I have been putting off writing this.
These past few days I have just been so happy to not worry if it was raining or sunny, or if a tree was the right colour. I need to clean my bedroom, find a job, meet up with the few friends I have left and who I have neglected this past half year, and do anything but worry about making a film.
But I will say that we did it. On Friday I met JC at iLab to see the rushes and there were no problems. It looks very good and we have everything we need for now. I have already been thinking about some new material I want to try, but that will happen down the road.
The big story was the weather which was generally good and bad when we we needed it to be.
On the Saturday it was cold and drizzly but we kept working right until the light was gone. On the way home the rain really opened up so were fortunate because we wouldn't have been able to work in that. This shooting day was the key, as we managed to capture more than we planned and that put us ahead for the rest of the shoot.
The remaining days were not quite as cold and it never rained again. At the same time it was flat and grey, which was called for in the script and also made it easier to match scenes shot over two days. We had an early start, 7:30, but we were generally finished by 3 in the afternoon. This meant we began to rise and sleep like farmers, to bed at 9 and up at 5.
We shot the remaining scenes of the first segment, which mostly involves Paul and their troubled relationship. After an argument, set off when Paul discovers that Claire had a sister he did not know about, Paul goes off into the forest to cool down. Claire searches for him there, and eventually finds him, but now their relationship is essentially over. All that remains is for one of them to leave.
We also reshot the whole of Scene 42 as I mentioned, which included all the new material that I had developed with the video camera and Flora back in September.
So a big thank you to Redbridge and Walthamstow Forest Council for being helpful, kind and generous. And also to the people of Redbridge who were happy to have us there, and were kind, and helpful and generous too.
And a big no thanks to Epping Forest and the City of London who wanted to charge us £1000 for use of the forest, which for a low-budget film is prohibitive. They don't seem to care if you are Batman 4 or a small film just trying to get by, and weren't particularly helpful. They told us they have targets - how can a forest have targets? And what do they spend the money on? Walking about in there you can't help step in the dog shit, or stumble over the remains of parties and men going off into the shrubbery to have sex. They weren't patrolling the park or cleaning up the rubbish.
This reminds me of a story from Carlos Reygadas, when making Battle in Heaven in Mexico City in front of the National Palace. The authorities were happy to let a homeless man live in the square, being loud, abusive and drunk, but you want to make a film? No way! You need permission, you need to pay! This is the National Palace!
I would also like to thank our lab, iLab who have always treated us well, even though we are never going to make them a lot of money out of a small-budget group like us.
Finally two locations that really helped us out.
Lounge Lover in Shoreditch let us use their front entrance for the scene where, late into the second segment Claire spots Paul inside of a bar. Before she can decide whether to confront him he comes out and she turns and goes off. Did she make the right choice?
And then there was the White Hart pub on Stoke Newington High Street. Now they already have let us in back in September when we used the interior to shoot the meeting between Claire and Sophie. This time we made use of their fantastic beer garden, where Paul and Claire go one Sunday.
What next? I am putting off editing until at least after next weekend. I just don't have the taste for it. And when do you begin to think about cutting a trailer? I think that frightens me the most.
I have also been reminded that we need to develop the press package and website. Perhaps I could put my energy into that for the next while?
Below are a few photos, mostly via JC. David's photos will come shortly.



















Anna and Kendra load up.














Anna in front of some Lounge Lover street art.














Azahara in disguise. Some times we just couldn't find her, she was so well covered.














Beth resting on a Lounge Lover lion.




















Always great to get a photo of David.














Anna and JC set up the car for the driving scene.















JC and now Joana, who wrangled the Lounge Lover location.














Marc starts on one of Isabella's sandwiches. Isabella did all the catering for the shoot.
















Once again I am pointing out things to Flora.

Wrapped!

I just want to say briefly that yesterday afternoon we finished the principle shooting of the project. I think it will take some time to sink in...
Much more to come.

Production update

Just a quick note to say that tomorrow morning we begin to shoot the last major part of the film. On Thursday and Friday morning we are indoors, shooting in the flat, and then we are out in the forest for the last 4 days. I can only for good weather. More to come...

Where to start?
I have just begun pre-production for the final phase of the shoot. There are two great pressures. First there is the of course the issue of the time of year, the daylight and the weather. The sun is going down around 6pm, and we are losing around 3 minutes of daylight per day. Scheduling this means I have a lot less time to play with and 4 day shoot in August is now a 6 day shoot in October. On top of this is the weather question. Now, I know that there isn't a month where you can't assume rain here in London but those risks are increased when you combine it with the lack of daylight. If I have to cancel a day because of rain then when do we pick it up? The days are not getting any longer or warmer.
A more interesting issue is what the edit has thrown up. I have already written about how I have added detail with video, and now I have to plan to shoot these new sequences on film. This means a complete re-shoot of scene 42 so that the weather and light matches together. This scene follows on from Claire's break-up with Nick, and details her entrance into the forest and her confrontation with her fears. It precedes the Norway segment and at this stage is one of the most important scenes in the film.
And then there is the edit. So much to say. David saw some of the segments last weekend and had a lot of comments and suggestions, which to me was very positive. I felt there is so much work to do, but we have something to work on. What I showed hung together.
Which brings us to sound. I have just begun to really play with the sound as another dimension.
It was especially interesting to hear David's comments regarding the long blackouts I included in second segment. Now I had arbitrarily set these to be 20 seconds long which I thought might seem like an eternity, but in the viewing felt like 2 seconds. To be fully developed they can be a minute long. How to develop them? That is what is so much fun. I have begun sampling sounds from other parts of the film, voice, odd sounds that happened in by accident, pushed the volume down and chopped off the top and middle frequencies and then mixed them with some of the atmos tracks that Roland recorded. It is fantastically suggestive. Now I can't say what I am getting at yet, and I wondered if I need to know. Could I just approach this idea instinctively? We'll see...

Whew! I've done it

Yes, a long time since I posted, but I really wanted to have something to report.
And what I have managed to do it finish an assembly edit of all the material to date. So that means what we have shot for the first segment (we plan to shoot the missing bits at the end of October), one edit of the second segment, and two edits of the third and final segment in Norway.
The second segment includes the additional material I shot with Flora in Wanstead last week. I already said that when edited this part first and immediately felt that the final scene lacked development. There just wasn't the detail there to suggest the relationship between Claire and the landscape. Now there are a number of scenes still missing in both this segment and the first, that also add detail to this theme and I suspect that at the end I will have too much, but I would rather be in that position than not have enough material.
So I have cut this video into the film, or rather the DV dubs of the film, and when JC returns he can see what I have, and we can go from there.
It was also time for Roland to begin playing with the sound design, so he came by and took away an earlier version of this second segment with the idea of creating some play material for me. I really do not want the sound design to be slapped on to a finished edit. Instead I want the sound design to change the edit itself.
Once I finished the second segment I went onto the third segment. Now this is the part where I need to do the most worrying. What can I do if I am missing some key material? Not only is there the expense, but there is a real winter in Norway. The earliest you shoot again is in April.
I realise there is a contradiction in what I am trying to achieve. On the one hand the shots of the landscape have above Claire's story. The exist outside of her. But at the same time they are meant to create a unified whole to this segment, to be the final part of the arc of her story. How to do both at the same time?
So I am at this moment burning DVDs of the these editing sequences. I have invited David over to watch them on the big screen where I hope I will find some objectivity and some useful feedback. Is there a concept here? And if not, some other ideas? So news from Monday...

Editing begins

I have been putting writing this post, probably because the beginning of this process is filled with such ups and downs.
When it goes well you just want to continue editing. When it goes badly the last thing you want to do is write about it.
What has been done?
First the tedious but necessary task of capturing all the material. Of course I have not finished shooting yet so there is more to come, but so far there are 8 DV tapes worth of material, equating to around 8 hours of footage. Logging and capturing this material took around 5 days.
Then the editing starts. I have divided the project into three logical segments. Segment 1, which is for the most part incomplete focuses on Claire's life with Paul. Segment 2 begins when Claire moves into her sister's place and her relationship with Nick. Segment 3 consists of the Norway section.
Once the footage was captured then I had to face the question in the room, how do I edit this? What is the strategy? Where do I start? And then there was the urgency of the upcoming October shoot: what might be missing that I could pickup in October?
For this reason I began by editing the second segment. If there was the need I could do some rewrites and pick up the new material or reshoot material that didn't turn out. On the other hand if I was missing something from Norway I wouldn't be able to do anything about it until the spring.
Where to start? Well the most critical parts of the second segment, the end, where Claire overcomes her fear and makes her way into the forest. I assembled this roughly and I quickly found that I did not have the material to fully develop these scenes. Essentially there is not enough detail. So, tomorrow I off to the forest again with the video camera to shoot some test segments which I will be able to incorporate into the edit. When we begin shooting in October I should have a pretty clear idea about what else we need to pick up.
So I finished the second segment on Friday morning and started the Norway segment in the afternoon. Now this gave me a sleepless night. As I roughed it out I was most worried that we did not have the footage we needed for the long coda segments, that is the those shots of the landscape that stood above and behind Claire's story. When we were there I struggled to think how they might be structured and now I was seeing the results. At the time we simply went out and shot as much material as possible, and also repeated some of the same shots at different times of the day, thinking that in all that some concept will make itself apparent. But this morning after some long thoughts I came up with a possible solution which seems the most obvious, but that the structure must be simply the relationship of each shot as part of a location, eg. a series of shots around the beach, around the mountain, etc. So link together the shots that were geographically linked. I am not sure if this solves the problem but at least this afternoon there seemed to be some coherence to the sequences.
I have also found some other segments that are missing detail, for example the scene where Claire's goes swimming. The idea, that she is immersing herself in the environment does not come across. Can I cheat some new shots here in London and insert them into the edit?

David's photos from the Dalston shoot

And now some photos of the last shoot, most of which took place in and around Dalston.













Here Sophie (Lucy Richards) visits Claire in the flat she shares with Paul.
She has never been invited here before.














With a little help...This time around I had Joana as a production manager and Will as a 1st AD. This meant that pre-production and production went a lot more smoothly and I could spend some time actually thinking about the story. Here I took advantage of some extra time and wrote a number of new small scenes. Here Claire is in the back garden, looking up to the trees and then into the house. Is Paul waiting there? Perhaps. I have not decided where this scene will sit or even if I will use it. I have repeated the image of the treetops here.














Then one day Claire watches Paul leave for work...














She washes the sheets. He won't find her odour here that night.














And not only does she remove her clothes, but she rearranges his so that it is as if she were never there...














...and closes this chapter.














In the latest outline Sophie makes a number of appearances throughout the story. Here, late in the second segment Claire and Sophie visit an art gallery where the work of her favourite photographer is being displayed. Of course these photos are David's, from a project entitled Nationale 7.














But they have a different reaction to what they see. Just as their relationship will end shortly.

And then some us in action...













A comfortable chair, a moment to myself.














Azahara and Lara give the walls a touch-up, to give it that white-walled gallery look.














David had the added stress of hanging his photos, and then...I guess JC must have taken this one.














Rob sets up the camera for the series of shots along the wall. Here Sophie and Claire go over the photos in the gallery.














Fabiano prepares Lucy. He stood in for Beth who could only make the Monday.














Joana and Fabiano.














And now the photos are mounted, the wall is painted and we are ready to shoot.


And in Dalston...












How many of us can you get in a bedroom? Cameron on the right, prepares the wardrobe for the scene.




















Rob being overlooked by Monica.
















































One moment one when Will wasn't moving us along.














Marc, in the background, tries to keep the boom out of JC's frame.

What was done...and not

So, finally a report on this past week.
A small disaster. Flora became ill and we had to cancel the first three days of the planned shoot. As she is in every scene there was not a lot we could do without her.
When she recovered we managed to juggle a few things and shot approximately 2 1/2 days. We covered all the scenes which include the character of Sophie.
Most of this involved shooting in my flat, which stood in for Paul and Claire's flat. As days are getting shorter and with some delays that meant JC was doing a small amount of lighting here, something we try to avoid.
Besides the flat we also had a few locations to cover as well.
Towards the end of the second segment Claire and her friend Sophie visit a gallery as part of Sophie's birthday. Here David did double duty. He was there to take photographs of the production, but the character's also came to see his own photographs. I didn't want to have the characters go to a gallery and just see whatever happened to be on display there. We found a place where we could do a little hanging and painting and put up something that would add another layer of meaning.
David did a project a number of years ago titled Nationale 7 - Le route bleue. Nationale 7 or Highway 7 used to be the main highway from Paris to the south. In August millions of Parisians would embark on road to begin their holidays, but now the road has been bypassed. Now the culture along the highway is crumbling. What I became interested in these photographs was the sense of loss.
http://www.davidboulogne.com/photoproject.html
We also went back to our Holloway Road location. Sophie drives Claire back to Natalie's flat, where she is staying. We were trying to capture the end of the relationship, with two shots, one inside the car, a strained and empty conversation about nothing, and then the car pulling up and Claire stepping out and waving goodbye to Sophie. Sophie's part is small, but I wanted her role to be more than a support for Claire. She has her own journey which is similar and contrasts with Claire's. What could see in her as she watches Claire step out of the car and wave goodbye? Well, all our work was for nought as we found we could not see her face clearly through the windscreen. We were left with a vague shape in the windscreen and the indicators on the car. This might work. If not, we will need to rethink the scene.
We ended the shoot at the pub The White Hart on Stoke Newington High Street (http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/43/4360/White_Hart/Stoke_Newington). This takes places at the end of the first segment. Claire has just come from seeing Natalie's flat for the first time and meets up with Sophie to tell her about it. Sophie, here already has an inkling that her relationship is falling apart and is not much interested and has trouble following what Claire is talking about.
I also introduced another actor to the production, Fred, who will play Paul. We shot one scene with Paul, Natalie, and Claire. Here Paul discovers Natalie, the sister that Claire has never spoken about.
Where are we left? We have to shoot all the scenes with Paul, plus a few new scenes I just wrote. This will all have to wait for October, as JC just left for China for six weeks.
Next, David's photos...

Pre-production - Dalston

Well it's actually more than just Dalston, but this is the final push. We have 5 days scheduled next week, in Dalston, Shoreditch, and Wanstead.
This includes all the first part of the story, starting with Paul, and how Claire comes to leave her. And we meet Sophie, Claire's friend. Here Paul meets Natalie, Claire's sister for the first time.
Do I think it will complete a week this Sunday? No, just that there will be enough to begin the edit and the end of September. In seeing this edits I am would be surprised that we don't decide that we need something more or something different. In principle though, this is it. I am finding the whole idea of finishing it rather frightening. While we were workshopping or as we had only shot this or that part it seemed that there were still possibilities. Now, thinking of completing the principle shooting we will have to make a decision. This is it.
More on this next week...

Wanstead - photos

Here they are, David's photos from the Wanstead shoot in August.
Starting with the production photos...













Claire arranges to meet Nick, ostensibly to tell him about Natalie.














In the middle of their relationship, they are out for breakfast one morning. He leaves her without telling her where he's going, suggesting he is seeing someone else. The truth is far more mundane.













They share an intimate moment one weekend morning.















It's all over, and Nick is at a loss for once.















Once it is all over, Claire has moment of realisation: she confirms to herself that she is alone.














She has the courage to enter the forest...














...and lays herself down.


And the us in action...














On Wanstead High Street at the Caesar Palace Cafe where Claire and Nick have breakfast.














And Hu and JC's view on the scene.














Here in the park across the street Beth applies some touches to Flora.














The Sunday morning in Epping Forest, Marc listens in on the scene.














Once the rain was done then we had the sun in our way. Hu tells me about the magic hour.














JC gives me a good talking to.














Sunday night the rain is done and we shoot the final shot of the middle segment, the iconic look. I have my eye to the camera (unusually) and we must have done 20 takes, and expect to redo this anyway, to get it right.

Wanstead/Dalston

So, another segment done. And it all went very well. Mostly the weather, where we managed to squeeze between Saturday, with its steady drizzle, and Tuesday, with it's torrential downpour. It was especially critical for Scene 33/34 in which Nick and Claire spend an idyllic day in the park. Now the other days I think I would have preferred them to be gray and dull, but there was nothing else for 33/34.
On Sunday night our luck ran out, at least temporarily. Up to that point we were ahead of the game, behind in some shots, then ahead in others. We spent the morning in Epping Forest, then the afternoon in Wantead. In the evening we returned to forest to film Scene 41/42, where Claire breaks with Nick, and then makes her way into the forest (that is the Scene 42). Now to me these scenes were critical and difficult at the same time. Here was where we planned to move the camera, as I said previously, not a small thing in a film where the camera is essentially static throughout. So we get in the cars and head back to the forest and there is downpour, a monsoon-effective rain burst. We are separated, a misunderstanding, and the only way to reconnect is to trudge about in the muck, through the downpour.
We managed to find each other but the rain did not look it was going to let itself up. What's more the ground was naturally soaking wet and Flora was required to lay herself down in the grass. Not pleasant. We considered postponing the whole Scene for the morning, but then a break. Suddenly the clouds broke and the sun came out. Everyone was happy except JC, who now thought there was too much sun. He had a point: it was meant to be dusk.
We managed nearly all of ours shots but one. This we returned for in the morning. The tilt and pan across the gray, slate sky.
The two critical shots were a pan from left to right, in which Claire enters the forest right to left. We thought moving the camera here was justified in that this moment was a breakthrough, where Claire has accepted that she is alone, and confronts her fear, in the forest. She enters, and lays herself down, looking up to the gray, slate sky, looking for an opening.
There is none. And in close-up, looking up at the sky, she contains all of this realisation in a look from the sky to the lense. She sees us and tells us.
The next afternoon we were in Wanstead again, this time at the Caesar Palace Cafe where we shot a breakfast meet between Claire and Nick. Ozbek and everyone at the cafe were so kind to us, as was everyone we met on the street. As is always the case in location shoots it always takes longer than you imagine, and why is that? One of the customer's in the cafe said, 'there is sure a lot of faffing about. No wonder it's so expensive'.
Later in the afternoon we shot the the continuation of this scene, where Claire spy's Nick waiting on the street for the bus. Now he was meant to leave her with as sense of mystery, which turns out to be a long wait for public transportation. She is disappointed that his act was nothing but a game so badly played.
Then finally the scene where they meet for the first time. This was Scene 26.
And we were done except for a nice dinner in the pub on the high street. We were missing a few shots, and Flora and I were certain we may end up re-shooting that final shot in Scene 42, but all a success. I dropped the film this morning and the lab should have it done tomorrow. And I met David and he passed his photos on to me already. So more to come.

Pre-production - Wanstead

Just a quick update to say that we are now preparing to shoot in Wanstead this coming Sunday and Monday. This part of the story revolves around Nick and his first meetings with Claire, and then when they break up. There are some interesting scenes here, as they set up the Norway sequence. In one we are even planning to move the camera!
On Friday evening we are shooting Scene 13 and Scene 14. These are the scenes we did for the test back in April, but were unsuccessful due to street noise and a problem with one of the mags (the mag created a nasty scratch on the far right of the negative). So we are re-shooting these scenes indoors on Friday evening.
More to come...

Norway IV - David's Photos

Finally I am uploading David's photos from Norway. These are just a sample, but you can divide them into photos of us working, production photos, and photos of the landscape.

All photos by David Boulogne.

Some of us caught working. I think he has flatter us with these, in black and white.














There is something almost primeval in the landscape in black and white, and this gives an almost epic quality to us working here.




















































































































To see this again from the outside, after the intensity of the experience of being so inside...















What we came for. A few scenes as David saw them.













Claire caught in the forest, as she explores in the dusk.













Claire in defeat: she runs into a couple in the wilderness but cannot face them. She hides.













Natalie arrives. She can tell: someone is here.













Claire and Natalie out for a stroll. But Claire won't allow Natalie to own this place. She marches on, leaving Natalie behind.













Claire wonders why Natalie has come to Norway: she listens in on her phone conversation and learns she is here for a liason with a married man.













Claire, now reconciled with her sister, and her past, making her way up the ridge. She has found an equilibrium.













The final scene, Claire working her way into the landscape. She has a part in it.


























She finds the top of the ridge and then works her way into the forest and disappears.

Now some of the location itself, without Claire or a film crew.
All these places exists with out Claire. Have their own life.

Norway III

We had been lucky with the weather. Other than the rain the day we arrived, and a lot of wind the next evening it was generally quite warm, and the sky was mixed with clouds and sun. So my one main worry I had about shooting out of sequence, that there would of different weather as each story day progressed did not come to pass.
That was until the Friday morning when I awoke to hear the rain. Lu and I quickly rescheduled. We had a plan that in such a situation we would black out the cabin and shoot the evening scenes, but now that it was Friday we had shot most of those them. We also needed sun for some of the scenes we had planned to shoot that Friday, and the weather was forecast to be sunny and clear on Saturday. Our original plan was to shoot the travelling day on Saturday, when Claire travels to the cabin. Now it made sense to shoot all of these scenes in the rain. She would arrive on a gloomy and wet day, just like we did. And then the weather would change for her, like it did for us.
So it was out onto the boat, then into the car, with a minimal crew and out onto the highway we had come in on. Since our space was limited we could only take Flora, the actor, Roland for sound, and JC and Ania to deal with the camera. Lu had to stay at the cabin and fret. This day involved a number of sequences, Claire stopped in the car, reading some road signs, stopped at a bridge, watching the river passing by, then a man loading the boat. That had to be me, unfortunately, as we were quickly running out of crew members to put in the film.
Then a few sequences on the boat, of Claire seeing her destination come into view, and the spray off the bow. We left Flora at the cabin to finish a few other sequences in the car, where she was not required, her baggage rattling about on the floor of the car, then the landscape out of the car window. We drove onto the island we had called home, on a small, rough road. Ania and JC set themselves in the back of the car and I had thought to make this shot quite short, but every time I called cut JC and Ania would shout back, 'No! No! This is beautiful. We have to get this. '
By the time we had come to this scene the rain had stopped and the weather was clearing up. This was great as we were scheduled another scene with Katrine, on the deck, after they had come back from a day of hiking. The weather was meant to be clear, and by 4 that afternoon it was.
The oddest thing about this day was David leaving in the afternoon. He had some work on Saturday and we took him to the bus station on the highway as we didn't have the time to take him to the airport. He had such a part of the whole experience it seemed so odd that he wasn't there when we had finished.
We had more evening scenes to shoot Friday, the final scene between Claire and Natalie, and we waited a long time into the evening for the light to go down sufficiently. We needed to shoot out the windows.
There was still one sequence from that travelling day to shoot, when Claire goes into a Norwegian shop and buys some groceries. We had to do that on Saturday morning because Ronny had arranged with the Kiwi shop to do it then. As it turned out the manager there that morning had heard nothing about it, but he let us shoot anyway. I don't think that would've happened in London. So we had a little Norwegian flavour in this shop, Claire at a distance in this new place due to the language.
That Saturday morning it was also rather sad as Katrine and Ania both were leaving, like David both had work, Katrine in Britain, Ania in Poland. After such an intense experience it was hard to imagine not having all these people around when we finished on Saturday afternoon.
But we go on...this time to the beach where we made our second attempt to shoot the swimming sequence. It was beautiful day, and probably due to the tides, and the position of the beach the jellyfish kept their distance. It took a lot of convincing but I finally manged to get Flora into the cold water to complete the sequence. This is with myself up to my waist, and JC and Kendra, who now was in charge of the camera now that Ania had gone, in the water too, with the camera. It had to be to get the shot we wanted.
We finished the afternoon retaking some of the coda sequences, an idea of David's, to think about the same place at different times of the day. Then a return to the cabin to shoot the last of the evening scenes. This one I decided could be done without shooting out the window so that we could do by blacking out the windows.
And so we are ahead of schedule, which means we are free to do whatever we needed, and this had to be going out onto the trail near the cabin and trying to shoot again the final scene, 68, which I described earlier. JC was happier with the weather as there were large clouds which allowed us to play with chance, that in the middle of the scene the light would change. So I walk through the scene again with Flora, climbing up onto the rocks with her, up onto the ridge, through the trees, discussing what we want, how to change the pace, include humour, decisions, chance, an enjoyment at the physical exertion of climbing, the rough textures of the tree bark, the stone, the view from up there.
So we are all happy and Flora does it again. It is better than when we did it previously but it still didn't feel like we were finished. So one more time. And this time it is everything. Flora has captured it, she has I had imagined it, and for JC the clouds cooperate, and we move, 3/4 of the way through the sequence from cloud to sun, but gradually, so that after Flora has disappeared in the trees I don't yet call cut, but watch as the sun comes out and slowly glows on the leaves, and it goes on and on, and the sound of the place seems to increase too, and just when it seemed the scene should be over the roll in the camera was done, it ran out.
That was a wrap. Fantastic, so happy at how it all had gone. Only sad that not everyone was there to share it. We had the evening to think about what we had accomplished.
We had asked Anton to build a BBQ down near the shore, and they had gone into Risor earlier to try to buy some wine. And they came back in shock at the cost of alcohol in Norway. The government wine store was already shut so all they could buy was beer, and the £50 I had given them only bought them 18 tins of beer.
So we had sausage and burgers down on the rocks near the fjord. The weather could not have been better and the smoke seemed to keep the midges away so JC and Roland could relax. For me, with so little sleep and a few glasses of wine in me, I managed to fall asleep right down there, with a glass of wine on my stomach, snoring away, or so I'm told, on the rocks. There is even a photo as evidence.
There is a whole story about Sunday, sending off our first group to the airport, the rest of remaining behind to clean the cabin, then loading the car, Beth driving back, Lu, JC and Roland in the back, sleeping, me in the passenger seat, also sleeping. And then on the plane, all of us sleeping again, and then the cab back from Stansted, JC, Roland and I sharing a cab, caught in a traffic jam at 12pm, again sleeping through most of it. And we are done.
So some photos of everyone from JC. (I am going to save the last post of David's photos alone).













Ania













Anton













Azahara













Beth














Camera girls














David














Flora














Katrine














Katrine and Kendra














Kendra














Lu














Roland














It's a wrap. Flora and Roland at our BBQ the final day.














It's all too much. I can finally catch up on some sleep.

Norway II

Our first shooting day began with a rehearsal of a key scene, 61. This includes a difficult confrontation between Claire and her sister, Natalie. It involved a lot of business (I remembered too late why you avoid scenes involving food), and some throwing of objects. All of us were concerned for a number of things, getting a performance level that was also believable, and still safe. If Flora were to throw things we have to believe them, but she has to have enough control to ensure the safety of Katerine and everyone else on the crew.
In the meantime Lu continued battling the schedule, while Roland went to the airport early to pick up the rest of the crew. I was worried about them as I had cruelly put them on the early flight, which left London at 6:30am. They would have had to get up at 3am to get to the airport and would be coming quite tired, not ideal for an afternoon and evening of shooting. I had asked Lu if it were possible to switch the evening shoot for a rehearsal we had scheduled but she found this was not possible. They had a very long day.
We began by shooting some simple scenes in the cabin, and then in late afternoon hiked to a series of locations near what we called the beach. Here, we began by shooting a scene where Claire and Natalie go out hiking, Claire leaving Natalie behind when she cannot keep up. As we scrambled about in the brush for a shooting position we managed to loose the eye cup for the camera. This was a blow as we imagined trying to put our eyes up against the sharp metal end of the eyepiece for the rest of the week. This was the first and certainly not the only time that Anton became a hero. Later, while we were waiting for the sun to go down he dug up in the brush and found the thing. Anton had come along to help Azahara with the art direction but he also did work shooting making of video, carrying loads up and down the hills, clearing jellyfish from one of our swimming locations, and finally building a BBQ down by the water for our wrap dinner.
We stayed at the beach through the evening. David was back at the cabin and set us dinner by boat. We shot a number of shots, without actors, and then finished the evening by a series of shots of Claire in the forest at night. This was one of three shots where we moved the camera in the film, a tilt down from high in the treetops to Claire at the base of the tree, looking up. Probably the most difficult part were the midges which were attacking everyone but me. As JC tilted the camera down Ania was blowing the midges off his hands.
What else did we find out there? Midges, which made Roland and JC their special victims. Each evening it was good to sidle up to either of them as the midges would leave you for their more delicious flesh. A few mosquitoes, but also ticks. Roland find a one big one on his leg. Lu also found a few on her legs, after she decided to abandon the outdoor toilet for the grass. There mice in the toilet and a few of the girls preferred the outdoors. Now Flora was especially concerned for the jellyfish as of course she was meant to swim in the fjord. They were everywhere, particularly when the tide shifted in certain directions.
The next morning we began shooting Scene 60, where Natalie arrives at the cabin unexpectedly. We had to shoot this scene on the Wednesday, as Ronny, my former flatmate, and the owner of the cabin was leaving that day. He played the Norwegian boatman who delivers Natalie to the cabin.
That evening we did the difficult Scene 61, the confrontation between Claire and Natalie. Flora got up to a performance level and threw a number of things without hurting anyone, while still be believable. And we saw some interesting things in Natalie too. I found finishing this scene a great relief.
I found the next few days a blur. I remember shooting scenes, but cannot place them on days. We spent one afternoon climbing into a valley near the centre of the island we were on. Here we found a number of locations, including the scene where Claire hides from a couple she runs into out on a walk. I had asked Anton to get some video of all of us climbing up the hill and went up on a ridge and captured us, ala Aquirre style, in a long row carrying equipment and provisions.
When we were finished with Flora a small crew stayed behind and we staked out what we called codas. These were stills of the landscape that I have a vague plan to use. The idea has been to create a place that is beyond the world that Claire inhabits, but which she has a part in. This meant we needed to show this world sometimes with her in it, and sometimes without her. It is as if this world has its own story and even its film and were shooting part of it.
We also shot Scene 68, the final shot, in which Claire stands in, moves about in, and finally dissolves into the landscape. This was a critical shot and when we were done I was not convinced we had captured it yet.
We spent evening shooting more interior scenes, scenes between Natalie and Claire, in which they do some actually speaking!
What day was this? I really not sure. Probably Lu could tell us.
Everything was going to schedule until I woke once again far too early on Friday morning. It was raining hard and we had planned to shoot a number of key outdoor scenes. Before we even had breakfast Lu had rescheduled.
More on that in the next post, but a few photos from Beth, who not only did make-up but managed to capture these at the same time. I will save David's photos for a final Norway post.














Katrine, and Flora on their way to the location. Roland fills up the car.
















Our location, with required Norwegian flag.


















I think this was our first shot. Natalie goes through some childhood toys and books.

















JC and Ania, our first camera assistant.
















The location we named the beach. We shot a number of scenes here and nearby.














Flora and David, with Ania in the background, on their way back from the beach on the first day of shooting.














Anton and Roland in the boat wrangling the jellyfish. After an hour there still more coming and we had to rethink how we would shoot this scene. JC, Ania and myself discuss shots that would never be.
















In the location we called the valley. Lu stands by ready to organise us. Kendra, the 2nd camera assistant waits for me and JC to make up our minds.

Norway location - I

We returned late last night from Norway.
It all seem so strange, almost surreal to be back here in London after such an intense week. I am not sure when it will sink in, perhaps tomorrow when I meet JC at iLab to see the rushes.
It couldn't have gone any better.
First the location was magnificent. Arriving, I could only worry. As we were loading the car at Torp Airport the skys opened up and in continued to rain off and on during the drive to Risor and throughout Sunday. Ronny met us in the Kiwi shop, which featured later in the week, and led us down to the small marina where we loaded up the small fishing boat to take us to the cabin. It was an experience sitting on that small boat, puttering down the fjord, the low cloud hanging down in the distance. As we unloaded the boat an omen. The plastic buckle on the transport tube decided it had enough and gave way just as Roland was passing it onto the dock. Suddenly the tall legs and head were in the fijord and miraculously floated there long enough for us to fish them out. The new sound barney also bobbed about there before Ronny noticed it next to the boat.
So after warming up a bit, and having a little lunch we began to scout the area, Ronny leading the way down Barmen Island, along a small ridge, where they had cut the trees to make way for the electricity lines. JC and I stopped constantly, looking down our viewfinders, thinking how this might do for that. We ended up near a small beach, next to a small grove of trees. We had seen these locations on the video that Ronny had made up for us in May. We agreed that this area had a lot of potential.
We went back where we came, past the cabin, on the same trail in the other direction, this time heading back towards Risor. We find a lot of interesting locations here too, but because this part of the trail makes its way over part of the small mountain that make up the island, it was quite treacherous. Tricky enough in the wet, really difficult when carrying camera kit. We returned, now thoroughly soaked and hungry. It wasn't just the rain, but the tall grass, which drenched your trouser legs, and filled your shoes with water.
That night Ronny started a fire and we attempted to dry our sodden trousers, socks, boots and jackets. We had bought plenty of whisky at the duty-free, and began to discuss what we might do.
We had most of the next day to return to these same locations. We had also decided to climb up into another valley that led further into the island, which we had seen on our return journey.
I was awoken by a light being shone into the cabin window behind my head at 5 in the morning. This was the sun, just coming through the clouds which had begun to clear. It was very windy, but we were lucky, as the rain had stopped. Roland took up his sound kit and went off on his own, while David, JC, and I returned to the beach, then into the valley. David would go ahead, while JC and I would discuss various possibilities. It was great way to work, with David able to stand back, not concerned with practical matters, just offering ideas, and also taking a lot of photographs at the same time.
That afternoon Roland, with a few boat lessons from Ronny, went to pick up Lu, our 1st Ad, who was going to keep us on track through the week. We stood on the deck watching the boats come down the fjord. Was that them coming now? We couldn't tell as the water was so rough all you could see was the spray. Settled in, I laid out what we had decided so far to her, while David made us a Spaghetti Bolognese. She had a tough job. I had created a schedule before we left that basically worked in the scene order. I wanted the days to match in light and weather, and with the long Norwegian days this was very possible, but this plan didn't account for the half hour treks over rough terrain which were required now that we had settled on some locations. The next morning she locked herself in one of the rooms and sweated over a new schedule.
That night Roland returned to the airport to pick up Beth, make-up, and the two actors, Flora (as Claire), and Katrine (as Natalie). We were quite worried as it was still very windy and there plane came in quite late. As the evening passed we hadn't heard from them and it was now dark. Finally Flora called from Roland's phone. They were just getting on the boat and said it was all very exciting. JC and I went down to the dock with the torches and tried to indicate the way by flashing them into the dark fjord. There were no lights on the boat or on the dock. Finally we saw them and they all landed safely. It was nearly one o'clock and we had a rehearsal first thing in the morning while the rest of the crew arrived. We retired. It was going to be a long day. More on that, plus some photos to come...

Just more pre-production...

What can you say about pre-production? Well, I feel that we are lot more organised than when we went into Holloway Road. Principally that is because we have Lu and Rob running around like mad trying to sort everything out for Norway. This includes tasks such as sorting out a shower for the cabin, sleeping bags, finding out where the nearest hospital is, and so on.
I am trying to stay from this stuff, as I do have the directing/writing bit to do. In the past, when I went without any help with pre-production I ended up a complete wreck by the time we started the first day of shooting. Not good.
Yesterday evening JC and I sat in the garden and worked on the shot list. Lu is keen for us to get on with it so she can sort out a finalised schedule, but we are still working out the visual language of this segment. How do we shoot this part? How is different? The same? This question goes back to my first post in this blog, oh, so long ago.
A lot of work, but the rehearsals and this part have been the most satisfying part of the process.
I will post again before we depart...

Pre-production/Norway - update

I haven't had a lot of time to breathe since we finished our first location on Holloway Road. I had a free weekend and then I was off to Cannes. I had never been before and spent most of time figuring which cinema was which.
Then I was back into pre-production for Norway. Shooting is scheduled from June 22-29th. JC, Roland, and I will travel out on the 22nd and do some scouting of the location. Rob will probably join us to help get everything set up. The actors will join us Monday evening and we will rehearse Tuesday. Shooting starts on the Wednesday morning, with an extremely tight schedule, beginning at 9am, finishing every night at 10:30pm.
Conditions will be challenging, as there is no shower, so we will have construct one of our own. The cabin only sleeps 7 and we will probably be 11, so a few of us will be sleeping in tents. We will have to share the cooking duties in the evening, and if we are lucky should manage to BBQ a few nights.
We have a new crew member on board, Lu, who came and helped us one day in Holloway Road. She will take over 1st AD duties from Rob who will not be able to be with us the whole time.
In the meantime preparations continue. Yesterday I spend the day with Flora and Katrine going over parts of the latest script. Today Azahara met up with Katrine to buy costumes, while Lara spent the day trying to find props. In the afternoon I met Rob, Lu, JC and Hu for a production meeting.
Very exciting, I have to say. One photo of our location.