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.

Red Curtains

When my supervisor Keith commented on the theatre scene(s) in the script with "All of a sudden there's this vibrant Baz Luhrmann sequence", little did he know how much he was spot on. In all honesty I have dreamed of re-using the Arbis theater in Sweden, where I once worked as a revue show-girl, since I came to Australia. Quite ironic, knowing you have such a great location with make-up, red curtain stage, spotlights and an endless warehouse of costumes at your disposal, if you were back in Sweden. If. I do not have enough fingers to count how many times during film projects I've sighed "See, if we were in Sweden I'd have access to this for free..." Being a film student low-budget is the key.


It was a little bit of a risk including the theater scenes in the script. It demanded some higher production value, adding quite a variety of locations (stage, side-stage, dance-studio, make-up rooms and locker-rooms not to mention costumes). For the past few days, before I had any confirmation that I may use these locations, I just started imagining what a nightmare it would be trying to pin down alternate locations. I admit, I was hopeful from the very start that I wouldn't be denied. Thank God for Arbis! It is a pearl of a place indeed and I am convinced it will look more than amazing as a location. So now it feels like a big weight have been lifted off my shoulders for securing this superb location, however, two days ago my lead actress politely pulled out. I am coming to fear the casting process...

A New Hope

The production blog is alive!