raindrops are falling on my head

Clearly, raindrops are now falling outside Eve's window. Or is it a mish-mash of snow and rain? No one really knows with the swedish weather. After all isn't that how death feels like, like rain? 

sky replacement

When Eve dreams, she's definitely not in Kansas anymore! Today's work: sky replacement in AE.

bits and pieces

The production of This Too Shall Pass has admittedly come to a halt at the moment. There are some shooting dates coming up, but the time is limited and the crew's availability, and cast, as well. Meanwhile composers and dancers are working on music and choreographies. Certain scenes get a completely new face with some music, I had a sample song by my main composer Berni Law which is melancholic, piano which builds up and become a dramatic almost action-packed angsty explosion, which, when put as backdrop for the cemetery scene, was quite an interesting viewing.

On another note I'm very excited to work with a fellow swedish student from the Screen Academy, who'll be my DoP for the scenes to be shot here. One of our locations is a salt lake outside of Rockingham, which I'm very excited to have discovered.

Meanwhile, here's just a little preview of a scene and how it works out with the new voices for the characters. All dialogue in the film has been replaced with ADR of Australian actors, which is another time-consuming process. On top of that we've had the most mysterious issues with Soundtrack Pro and the computers in the voice-over suites and how they decide to distribute the saved files and the super-sexy robotic tone recorded through the microphones unless recorded in mono.

auditions

Auditions are piling up. One week-end, seventeen auditions. After the workshop with Nadia Tass back in Melbourne I have decided to use the audition as a screen/camera test and record the whole audition as well. Once two girls are picked (the one for the dream alter-ego of Eve and  one for Celia's voice) its time to put the post-production wagon behind and get back into production again!

scene ten

Scene ten - check. Scene eleven - check. Scene twelve - under progress.

Oh, don't you worry! The pants... will stay on!

While my access card is sorted out, allowing me access to the editing suites, studio, building 3 & 6 after hours and the postgrad room, I work on some more editing at home on the laptop. Not the ideal screen or built in audio, but it works. Today I'm putting together the second scene which is when Celia arrives and talks frantically about everything and nothing. I have parts of this scene re-shot at night-time, but to start with I'm cutting together a daylight-to-dusk time of the day before attempting putting together an evening scene. To match the continuity on that might take more time than expected... Meanwhile, I'm marveling at the art-direction and am quite happy with how the plasma got replaced by the budget-choice - a newspaper.

In one way the post-production phase has started. I have 60-65% of the film covered, what remains now are the dream sequences. For that I need new actors - more specifically a new girl to play the dream-version of Eve. I met up with two 3rd year students from WAAPA, but I have a feeling (since they haven't gotten back to me yet) that I'll have to continue my search.

It also hit me that I need to make up my mind about what sort of soundtrack I intend to have. On top of finding a composer to co-work with, I need a sound engineer/designer which hopefully will kick ass when coming to the ADR-phase. The guy I had in mind had relocated to Melbourne. Meanwhile, I'm hoping to get a rough cut together by the end of next week with what I've got. 

when things stop turning out the way you plan

The fact that shooting has been taking up all my time and I haven't been able to update should be a good sign, right? Not so much in fact. Yes, the shoot in Sweden is over. Yes, the bags are packed and I'm leaving a quarter to midnight for Australia. But no, I didn't get everything that I need. I had to re-shoot one of the scenes, and that went well. Joakim got sick, so the tree scene , although we ended up doing an improvised version of it without him will most likely be re-shot in Oz. Kalle had to take Joakim's scenes, so in one way those scenes are covered, but not as I planned.

The show-piece that is meant to sparkle up the film is a major let-down as well as 1) it turned out the only show available was a 60's musical that 2) did not have that much showy dance moments and 3) I only have it from one angle as 4) it got cancelled due to lead actor getting sick on the day I was supposed to go back and get more footage, which 5) also meant I do not have enough behind-the-scenes-at-the-theater footage either. Seems like a rewrite of the script will be needed...

art direction fail

So for tomorrows scene there's this tree, with photographs hanging from every branch. I have successfully tied threads through 110 holes in 110 photos. Wouldn't want to do that finger-work once there, freezing. So ready we go on our little trip, a 20 minute walk in the snow, out on a field, after dark, with a ladder and flashlights. All good. Except it's windy and -14°C. So the five hanging photos soon ended up tangled beyond salvation. Note to self: calculate potential wind when planning epicness.

When it comes to weather, I've had the most amazing luck. Today for instance, we headed out to Söderköping to shoot a short scene 11, at the top of the Ramunder Mountain (feels weird spelling it out as that, to me it will always be Ramunderberget), and it was a clear and sunny afternoon. Bliss. Imagine how it would've looked if it was cloudy and gloomy. So far this is my favorite scene I've shot for this film, it's just such an amazing location. And today we've officially shot half of the scenes that need to be shot here in Sweden. One more week to go.

The stills have my suggested color grade, but I know it will change by the time I'm done in June.

scene 7 rushes stills

the production that turned into a horror film

You know when there's one thing in the whole world that is not supposed to happen? That's right. It has happened. As of this morning, my camera isn't working. Perfect timing, just as I'm getting into my shooting week and have less than two weeks left.

my own private snow machine

The weather lately has easily been described as "melting away". My winter wonderland has slowly been replaced with ice that melts, rather than soft snow. Some fields are frozen soil, while some fields still have a white blanket. But they all kept melting away. So I am stoked that it's been snowing for four hours straight this morning. Exactly what I needed!

I've stocked up on umbrellas (to cover the camera), flashlights and candles. We're lighting up the cemetery tonight and I'm paying everyone with home baked sweets and coffee and tea.

rehearsal

I had a word with darling Anders today, the janitor/technician at the theater about using some of the lights. As the whole theater stage is going through a heavy construction (they are taking out all electrical wires to restore the stage to it's previous state) all the spotlights and lights are lined up on the floor and unplugged. The sockets upstairs where I'm filming would only take one of them (equivalent to a Blonde I assume) so we're gonna have a look at some other lights tomorrow or Thursday that could be the key-lights (night-time). Meanwhile we had a rehearsal (Eve & Celia) with the available lights, and as the stills show it was rather dark. Although the lighting isn't flat, it's too dark and results in a whole lot of grain. But I love the texture on the walls, such a relief to not have to work with a 'flat' surface considering I don't have much to fill the walls with besides photos.

Oh, and finally one more exciting thing (after a serious breakdown when scheduling the shoots, I tell you it's about time I get some good news!) we finally found ourselves Eve's father. He's going to be played by Tino Wallentin. Sounds like a movie star already.

the many faces of Adam

The character Adam changes appearance quite a lot throughout the film. It's starting to get a little bit like The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. With other words, one character is played by several different people that in one way or another look sort of similar. They're all brunettes for instance. They will have the same hairstyle, similar (if not the same) clothes. Adam simply changes his appearance depending on the dream. He's just an imagination, and sometimes he feels like changing his looks. Sounds confusing? That's surrealism for you.

I met up with Joakim today, someone suggested by a friend, and it now looks like I have my two Adams locked in for the shoots in Sweden. He's the only out of the three that has some film experience, the others are from a theatrical background.

a humble beginning - ACTION!

At last, the shooting begins. We began with the scene where Eve's best friend Celia is dragging her out in the real world after being locked up in her bedroom for Gods know how long. It was a very nice soft start I guess, just to get a vibe of how the girls would work together and how the three of them would potentially look on screen. At the end of the shoot the sun hid behind the houses so I was getting worried about the light continuity. The lack of a dolly or glidecam was obvious when I'm walking backwards with my boom operator over the bridge when getting a MS of the girls. It looks all right with the hand-held as I go through the dailies, but I'm suspicious it won't on a big screen.

the bedroom

The redocaration has begun. It's not finished, obviously, but there's some stuff we found within the many walls and labyrinthic corridors of the theatre. Now I need to throw plenty of girly clothes all over the place to make it messy, get flowers, bed-sheet´s, photos all over the walls and dirty plates with food around the bed. Oh and change that dreadful carpet...

more bad news

Just got the word in from my leading lady that she has an overload of assignments to finish between 7th Feb- 13th of Feb. Pretty much in the middle of the shooting week. There's no words describing how stressed I feel at the moment. I have to sort this out. I have to work around that. I will try to put everything with the father and the best-friend during those days so I don't end up being behind too much, we're having such a late start as it is!

test shoot - Eve's bedroom

I have chosen to redecorate one corner/wall of this spacious room to be the main characters', a teenage girl, bedroom. It has a window with a window seat, which is exactly what I imagined the room to have. It is also to my advantage that I am not limited to tiny space within four walls, but am only using a part of the room so I can freely move equipment and lighting around and conveniently stay on the right side of the 180° axis. The fact that the walls are this shade of blue will work both for a more depressed and darker color palette (and texture!), as well as the opposite and since the mood of the character is such a crucial part of the film I will have to reflect this through the cinematography.

test shoot - the kitchen and the living-room

The kitchen is the new extension to the hallway-scripted scenes. In the doorway you can see the living-room, and vice versa, which gives a spatial closure to the location. Initially, I thought I would have the kitchen/living-room/bedroom on three separate locations, which would logically result in more travel time to and from locations. By having all three of them at the same location I can now shoot several scenes at one go during one shooting day. Saves time and also allows rehearsals to take place on the set. I'll start the art direction and the removal of stuff during the weekend. It needs to look like someone lives there, and I need to get a TV screen (preferably a flat one) to have in the living-room.

test shoot - the third changing room

I like this room because it feels a little bit like a cave - a secret, underground hangout. Even though it has the same color walls as the second changing room, there's also old brick and black walls in the corner adding a darker, more musky atmosphere.

The three last stills demonstrate firstly the "original" look, then two different filters which I intend to use. It reminds me of the look of Jeun-Pierre Jeunets golden sepia toned Delicatessen, shot by Darius Khondji (although that look was achieved through a bleach bypass process on the film stock).

test shoot - the second changing room

Even though I already made the decision not to use this particular room, it might be useful to document it as something that didn't make the cut. Mainly the room itself is too small and inconvenient structure-wise with a pillar in the middle of the room blocking potential angles. The colors turn out very soft with all the light bouncing off the white clothes, which I'm aware, wouldn't be there once set properly. I want the theater to be vibrant and cozy.

test shoot - the first changing room

I headed out to the theatre last week to get an idea of what has changed over the years, how the natural lighting conditions would look on camera and simply figure out how much art direction would be needed. Firstly I found out that they are re-decorating the whole stage, so that plan kind of went down the drain. Now I have to get really creative with how the side-stage will be used (if even that). The show itself is performed in a different city, Motala, premiering on the 5th of February so I will head up and have a look before I shoot that.

Naturally, as the theatre itself is closed for reconstruction, the make-up rooms and changing rooms are a hollow ghost of what they used to be. There are three different rooms like these, each with a different color tone (walls and lights). The whole lot of the test footage is shot on ATW, only differing in exposure when needed. I will most likely have to rely more on natural light than I'd like, so it's better to get to now the location and what it has to offer. The first room surprised me looking more green than expected, in reality it's quite yellow. Lastly I went back and did a skin color test, but it turned out rather dark.

the messenger

GOOD NEWS! I have a girl locked in for the lead role! Being without one for this long has seriously stressed me out and delayed so much. It's been rather frustrating as it's been out of my hands as well! I put up and handed out audition-posters on 3 schools and even had one school e-mail it out to all the student e-mails.

MORE GOOD NEWS! I also have a girl to play the ditzy best-friend.

BAD NEWS! The girl is in Spain at the moment as gets back on the 5th of February.

with sweet wine on your lips

Being a perfectionist comes with the territory as a filmmaker I assume. Although I am still without actors at the moment, I am already over-analyzing the cut-aways and close-ups of body parts that might feel a little out of place, yet capture the feeling. I found this perfect piece of film full of intimacy and kisses. Love it. Want it, badly. I should just make a film where everyone kiss instead. There's two scenes where the characters kiss in my film, one is a passionate rather steamy moment at the theatre during a performance, the other is within a dream, but more fragile and sensitive. I ran into my once lead actress yesterday, we talked about her boyfriend wanting to give the acting a go. She admitted she didn't like the idea of him planting kisses on other girls lips. I guess that's the difference between people and actors. I kept thinking of a way to explain, and all I could come up with afterward is that it's like performing dance. The costumes you were for the performance is not something you wear everyday, it enhances your performance but once they're off they are off. Life on stage is not life itself. But what's the point convincing someone that isn't aware of this from the start - it's pretty much an invitation for trouble.

optical flow

Canon 60D 1000fps using Apple Motion instead of Twixtor from CrumplePop on Vimeo.

Something I want to incorporate and experiment with is layering and pushing the optical flow, as demonstrated in this video. I will not be filming on a 5D or 7D, but I'm hoping I will be able to achieve similar results with a Z1. It would work really well as a means of time passage when transporting oneself in dream, when walking at a distance and coming closer to the camera.

On another note, I spoke to Sebastian yesterday about being cast as Adam in one of the dreams. He's a theater actor and explained that the more emotional piece, the better he would perform. I was thinking the last dream, the final goodbye. Then again, maybe he would work well as a recurring version of Adam.

The only person standing in your way is you

One might think starting watching Darren Aronofsky's latest, Black Swan, with beautiful Natalie Portman and stunning Mila Kunis, at four in the morning might ruin the viewing experience. It didn't. After obsessing all year over Matthew Libatique's photography (Iron Man, The Fountain and Requiem for a dream) I knew I had to see this film, beside it being another collaboration of Libatique and Aronofsky. Furthermore it dealt with a subject close to my heart, dance. I was literally sitting with goosebumps as Nina dances as the Black Swan in the end, not only because of Portman's performance both as a ballerina and an actress, but because of the orchestrated use of sound effects of bird wings. This Too Shall Pass, with its dream sequences, must be more than just location-sound and beautiful soundtrack, it must be so much more than that. I'm thinking eerie, I'm thinking haunting. There will be winds. Winds

sneaking in through the muffled barrier of a window.

I wasn't completely satisfied with Black Swan however. While locations served the life of the characters, I was let down by the lack of colors in them. It was a very bleak and fragile world of a ballet dancer. I love seeing Mila Kunis in anything outside of That 70's Show, she is a pleasure to watch. While both actresses are pretty faces to admire, one simply couldn't constantly be blowned away by Portman's emotional portrayal of Nina. I hate the characteristics of dancers like Nina, so humble, so modest and insecure, always apologizing, but wow was it heart-wrenching to watch. Finally, I always take apart performance scenes on a stage. The camera-work (how will I manage without a handycam?) through the dancers, circling them, or the effective lensflares of stage-lights. It could be an overwhelming task to lit a stage for a performance number, but I have Alex Waern as my light technician. It will be amazing, I'm sure of it.