They say that the world is a refection of your expectation and self. Well that's interesting and very true. As we were slowly progressing towards production certain things just started to slowly come unhinged. It was very fortunate that I spoke and understood Polish well enough to know when the translations were not quite accurate, poor Marcus was involved in conversations quite often crucial ones about the right equipment locations etc. not really knowing what the intricacies of the decisions were. Up to this point we only had to fire one person. This was the props man who had the best of intentions but wasn't guided well by the head of the department and continuously made controversial, expensive and wild decisions about the 15th Century props. In one of the scenes JAN brings home a dead small bird, like a sparrow. How hard can that be you ask? We suggested that maybe calling the Zoo for dead birds and freezing them a couple of days before the shoot would be the way to go. He had other ideas, some which included turning the small bird into an owl. Do you know how big and owl is compared to a sparrow? I hear myself asking. It was so ridiculous that it became funny. Or the final straw was that he bought a pink feather boa to make the dead bird out of. Wow.... if he is a reflection for my inner state am I insane or is this a lesson of letting people go. He was the first person I have ever had to fire.
Few night later at a Polish Film Industry Party I end up having an interesting conversation with a wise woman who asked me "Why do you want to make films". This is a questions that really comes up often and certainly did through the Polish adventure where sometimes the answers were not clear. It is and can me the most rewarding and the most devastation experience. I have been touched my many films that have had a deep impact of the way I look at my life and value the qualities in it. It is the most beautiful opportunity to connect, uplift, inspire, unite and provoke. We all are connected through the commonality of our experiences. The process of making a film involves collaboration and when most of the people involved care it is the most exciting experience of unity, family togetherness feeling there is a reason, and a purpose for the effort and for the life. The down side is that film making is a business, with lots for money involved, and such a public affair. It takes a long time, it has a period of pre production production editing and marketing, and can get railroaded anytime along they. I love film, and thing that it as a medium is so powerful and can be harnessed for goodness, as it often is. Some of the films that really have made in impact were written and directed by a couple of Poles. Kieslowski and Piesiewicz. Three could trilogy and the Decalogue. If Belladonna comes anywhere near the strength, bravery and spirituality as theirs did I'll be over then moon.
In Australia they say it takes between 5 to 10 years to make a feature film. That view has always been very puzzling for me. Who's says? is it a time frame that someone pulled out of thin air? is it a statistic? or a way of making filmmakers feel despondent?
If you break it down it really only is a collection of decision, maybe you can even get that collection down to a number such as 8 or 10. Why should it take that long? I think the whole process of creating a world that audiences want to engage with is more about the journey of getting to know yourself. I can think of a couple of directors who are also producers of their films (a big no, no in some countries) who get a project up within a couple of years. What makes them different, is it because they have a track record? but that can't be because there are many second and third time directors who have given up or are still working on their 'love' project. So what is it? is it similar to people who have a terminal illness and decided that they will with they mind 'cure themselves' either my changing their thought patterns or simply adoption an alternative lifestyle, versus those who just sit and wait for the illness to 'get them' or be eradicated through traditions means.
Having been through the process thus far I really think its to do with belief systems and expectations. Along the way of making a feature film there are so many compromise that have to be made, on practical, or creative or financial levels. There are many people who either hate or love your ideas, and why do we mostly believe the 'bad' feedback. There is very strong undercurrent of belief that if the government says 'yes ' to your project suddenly it exist and is somehow more worthwhile. As a very wise person once called it ' a funding nipple'. You get a bit, get hooked and they forever want to be attached because its satisflying and affirming. We have been very fortunate with this film because it has been partially funded by the government and partially by private investors. Trusting yourself and yet at the same time being able to listen to others is a real skill.
The one particular director I can think of had no duality. He doesn't compromise, always listens to himself over the opinions of his producer and trusts his ability to know what the audience wants and how to deliver it . He is cocky, brave and overbearing but gets the job done.He is famous and prolific. Maybe the whole journey is to find out how far one has to bend? how far to compromise?
Once very clear example of that was, when we were looking for the 15th Century location in Poland the Production Designer visited few 'Skansens' (re-created old villages) there are lots of them in Poland. He found one that was close to Warsaw, which would have been convenient and was 'good enough' . So one very early morning we drove a couple of hours to see this place. Everyone had really hope this would be it. The director of the recreated village were lovely, it was flat land ( so still ok for trucks even if it had poured) the forest was close and the house OK. We reached the chosen potential location and everyone piled into this tiny house. So 10 crew and the directors, and the production designer who just kept telling me how fantastic it was. This was the moment. I literally could hear the thought of "please let this be the one, so we can wrap this up and go back"
Thank God Marta must have noticed and asked everyone to leave so Marcus and I could stand in the space and sense it. Firstly it was way too small, because we needed tracks and it just wasn't right. I knew that looking for more location would cost money and time (which in film making is money) but I recognised this was the moment, of knowing how to and when to bend to make thing easier and when to stand strong. It was a no, and we drove back.
Rarely do I think about being a female, and that somehow it would have a negative impact on the perception of my ability to direct a film. Over the first few weeks in Poland I managed to collect a number of publications about film and the information about the crew. Over the 50 films that have been financed in Poland in the last year there were 3 directed by a women and even less Produced. Wow, here we are, Belladonna is Produced and Directed by women, is this going to be a problem? I realised how much resilience and guts it must take for a women to want to produce here, and sometimes why they are perceived to be tough... that's because they have to be, in order to survive and make projects come to reality. I tend to be rather a positive person who assumes (or should I say assumed) that all things are equal, all you have to do is prove yourself. Then as the weeks progressed and we moved into the period of searching for locations and casting, things seemed to go a little pear shape. As I mentioned before we had made a trailer of Belladonna in order to attract the funding and not many of the Polish crew had seen it, so we brought it in, and Marcus was congratulated on his great work."Ok, he did do a magnificent job and ultimately who cares let's just move on" I thought to myself. But the next incident was a little trickier to reconcile. A particular core member of the crew who insisted on directing all his questions about creative aspects of the film to Marcus. Once again I though "don't be a sensitive flower let it go" until on one occasion Marcus turned to him and said" She is the boss" and he replied "And that's the problem" Oppsy... I think we might have a problem. This incident was one of the turning points in the process, I realised that my main mission was to make the best film that I could, and Marcus and I spent hours talking and planning the film and that I really had to reevaluate which battles to fight and which just to live with. The main question was how was I going to inspire this person, and then what turned out to be a mostly a male crew? I never really thought of myself as a feminist because as a said I rarely think about the way I may be perceived. I contemplated dying my hair darker, changing the way I dress...etc and then where does that end?
I do believe that our bodies are like costumes that we choose for the particular life, and there must be a good reason why I look like a woman by have the steely determination of a man. As Queen Elizabeth once said "I may look like a woman but I have the heart and stomach of a man" Annika
It's no news to film makers everywhere that digital acquisition and post production is currently in a whirlwind of change, revolutionizing how films (how long can they be called that?) are shot, cut, manipulated and delivered. With Belladonna we're going the fully digital path. Shooting on a combination of HDCAM and 2k redcode on the RED one camera. It will be edited in Final Cut and graded in Apples still buggy and unfriendly Color. The resulting 2k dpx files will be transfered in Warsaw. Sound will be taking a much more conventional and well trodden path through (mostly wirelessly transmitted analog) time code synced double system sound , through Pro tools and on to a Dolby Mix.The sections of the film that take place in the 15th Century have already been shot on HDCAM on a SONY hdw 900r ( with Panavision Hd zooms , ) from Panavision Warsaw. The current plan for shooting the remaining 80% of the film set in contemporary Australia will be to shoot on the RED one with the Birger EOS lens mount and Canon still autofocus lenses. Exciting since the first cameras with this configuration are about to be released in a couple of weeks and real world testing will reveal just how good this camera is. We're planning on shooting to CF cards. This I suspect is going to feel extremely odd, the whole crew working as normal and at the end of the day all you have to show for it are a bunch of tiny cards that you can slip into a pocket. No mags of film unloaded into the iconic film cans going off to the lab. At least with HDCAM you can see their labeled spines. Data centric workflows have all the tangible satisfaction of mp3s compared to reels of filmshaving vinyl LP's prescence. The images just disappear into the drives , where are they really?An obvious advantage of the data being files rather than on tape is the ease of making multiple backups. Before leaving Poland we had the camera tapes cloned and then the masters had to endure the endless xraying of international travel, Now I 've never heard any stories of digital / magnetic media being corrupted by xrays but all the years of attempting to bring unprocessed film safely through airports leaves me with the feeling that there must be some risk involved. Any way the tapes are fine. Digitised into Final cut through a Blackmagic DecklinkHDpro card onto a 10 disc Macgurus Burly Raid as 8 bit Uncompressed . I should mention we're going 25P to simplify things, and indeed so far timecode has been our obedient friend .
We have just returned from O/S Poland, where we were shooting the 15th century part of Belladonna and are currently preparing to shoot the 21st century part in Australia.
century part of the film which shows that the world really is getting smaller and that looking at alternative ways and countries to fund projects has become a real possibility. So we landed in Poland and were met by So, for a little while it may seem rather odd that I'm going back in time to Poland and forward to where we are now, eventually I'll catch up.
Firstly it is such an enormous surprise that the Ministry of Culture (which is a film funding body in Poland) contributed to the budget, and the15th part of the Movie. Malgosia Corvalan who is the Polish Co - Producer, it was our first meeting face to face, so kind of like a first date but a pretty big date because there was a substantial amount of money and reputations on the line. Thank God she was, and is a wonderful producer with high ethics and morals, it was a sigh a great relief. (More on that later) Marcus, who is the other director of Glass Kingdom and I decided to make a trailer for Belladonna in order to attract the funding. We found that the decision to do that some consideration. Questions like, why don't I just make the movie? how much will it cost? will it serve its purpose?...we decided to go ahead. Marcus and I are used to shooting with small crews and really enjoy the freedom, pure creativity, that comes from working quickly and lightly.
So we cast the actors found the location, gathered the crew and worked over two weekends to capture the essence of the film. The 3 minute trailer looks great, and it attracted funds from private investors and the Polish Government - soon we'll post it on U-Tube.
Marcus and I are both of the opinion that anything is possible. Vision, persistence, and ability to cope with frustration are the keys to creating what you want. Certainly up to now all those qualities have really been challenged, sometimes I think we have both felt like giving up and just having a nice life. But our love for cinema is great, and Belladonna is a really special story for me, so I feel strongly about it.
I love this quote.
"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mystical. It is the source of all true Art and Science" Albert Einstein
I g
uess this really is the beginning, even thought our journey with this feature film started a couple of years ago. its the beginning because we have decided to make our process of making Belladonna a public adventure. Our film company Glass Kingdom which you can find under www.glasskingdom.com.au has many projects under various stages of development. Our main aim is to improve things, to make stories that are meaningful and that can contribute in a positive way to this wonderful life. Part of our reason to make this whole process as helpful and transparent as possible is because as a company that is working with an 'alternative model of film making' it has been challenging to follow pathways that are usually private or non existent. There must be many film makers, writers producers, out there who are looking at alternative models to fund, make and distribute their films and this is the connection point and a way of tracking this process. We will be hosting all sorts of information form the whole funding phenomenon, to making the film, shooting on the exciting new camera RED and its work flow, to distribution and and general topics related to Belladonna. So I hope our adventure is helpful, exciting and that it offers some insight into the changing world of film making,
Annika
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