BELLADONNA THE MOVIE

WINNER OF A DOUBLE PASS THE PREMIERE!

2010-11-02T14:21:00.003+11:00

Yes we are announcing the winner half an hour before the RACE that STOPS the NATION For those of you who live outside AUSTRALIA its a horse race! If you're into horse racing then its a very exciting event, and if you're not ( like me) I love the great effort that everyone makes to look their best!

So, drum roll..... please.... the WINNER of our great race called the BELLADONNA Premiere is Sumitra Phoenix! Congratulations Sumitra!! See you at CINEMA COMO on the night.

If you are interested in our great bash! tickets are selling fast and Kate Kendall will be going on the TV show THE CIRCLE next week so don't leave it to the last moment or you could miss out. For more information and to purchase tickets go to
http://www.palacecinemas.com.au/movies/belladonna/
or www.belladonnathemovie.com

Warmest Wishes ANNIKA

BELLADONNA release in AUSTRALIA

2010-09-20T13:50:00.004+10:00

Hello Everyone!! Yes finally it is happening!! We are releasing BELLADONNA in Australia starting in MELBOURNE in NOVEMBER. Our PREMIERE GALA night will be on the 10th of NOVEMBER at Cinema Como followed by a release commencing the 18th of NOVEMBER at KINO and COMO cinema. At the beginning of October we will be revealing out new BELLADONNA poster and website where you''ll able to purchase tickets to the PREMIERE. Its going to be a fantastic night with live performances by BOBBY FLYNN and LAMPLIGHT as well as champagne, cast crew and the works. Stay tuned and see you there!
ANNIKA

BELLADONNA: Behind the scenes HOT HOT HOT

2010-06-29T17:19:00.001+10:00

Where or where have we been? yes well!! would you believe POLAND ohh yes... An amazing opportunity came up for us to cross the continents and shoot another feature film by the title BUNNY. It was an extraordinary experience and now we are back to release BELLADONNA here in Australia HOORAY!! We have had meetings with PR people and are gathering a super team of humans!! Now here is EPISODE number 5. It really should be named WHO IS CRAZY ENOUGH TO SHOOT A FILM IN JANUARY IN AUSTRALIA? Hope you enjoy it! Create and be happy
ANNIKA

EPISODE 4. So you think driving in movies is easy?

2010-03-28T03:10:00.003+11:00

Bonjour!!

Here is our Episode 4 from behind the scenes of BELLADONNA as we get closer to the Australian release.... its all about driving.... how to do it without shutting the whole city down... ie Steve Spielberg style!!

Enjoy!!

BELLADONNA US Interview

2010-03-01T16:39:00.005+11:00

Hello Bonjour and Dziendobry!!

Yes we have become a little international! ouu la la...
I did an interview with a wonderful man called Brian Mercer from THE AUTHOR MAGAZINE in the US about the whole process of writing and making of BELLADONNA as we prepare for its unveiling this year!!!... he had seen the film prior to the interview and wanted to talk about particular scenes which stayed with him...
A great interviewer with an enthusiastic filmmaker.

I hope you enjoy it and stay tuned in for details of then release... the first one in POLAND

http://www.authormagazine.org/interviews/interview_page_glac.htm

Warm Wishes

ANNIKA

2010 BELLADONNA comes of age!

2009-12-22T12:37:00.018+11:00

Seasons Greetings from Marcus and I at the BELLADONNA land!
2009 WOW what a year, and her we go 2010!

Firstly thank you so much for supporting us, it has been very special and it means alot to us, and here we are, the first entry of 2010. So lets begin!
Some of you may have read some doom and gloom stories about the film industry and I guess the world, and yes things are somewhat crumbling as the 'old set up patterns' become unstable yet as things crumble new things grow. So here we have been growing BELLADONNA
(not literally the plant, although that is a great idea) but rather the lightness of vision and the independent ways of achievement and success! it may take longer but we are in it for the long run.SO many wonderful opportunities have come our way, and few tricky decisions along the way (which some industry people would have questioned) usually about the interface between the 'old and the new' I see the picture of the dinosaurs dying out, while the little creature are moving with ease... creating new worlds, independently with other little creatures!! 2009 saw the completion of our festival circuit at the INDIAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL in Goa which was just amazing (some photos below)
So what now? well now we are preparing for the release here in AUSTRALIA and the US with the assistant of our US Sales Agent.

Here are just a few of the places we have been this year

The warmest of wishes the coolest of people. May your year be filled with splendour!
ANNIKA

1. Medine and Ronaldo Bertubin another filmmaker with a film in the competition!!
2. Radio Interview in India aired nationally the next day.
3. INDIAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL Medine and I at of of the many extraordinary parties and just after the PREMIERE to 900 people at the KALA Cinema in GOA.

4..FESTIVAL DE ANTIPODESin St TROPEZ BELLADONNA was one of the 6 films in Competition KASIA MAZUREK (who plays the role of Jadwiga) was invited and attended the festival with TOMASZ BORKOWSKI in St Tropez
5..Bernard Bories the artistic Director of the festival, Anthony La Paglia one of the Jury members.

Belladonna was the opening Australian film at the Shanghai International Film festival 2009

CANNES FILM FESTIVAL and the MARKET where we found our Sales Agent
POLAND with the Polish Producer Malgosia Corvalan and Pawel Smagala who plays Pawel in BELLADONNA.
at the Premiere Off Camera film festival in Krakow Poland

BECOME A FACEBOOK FAN!

2009-11-19T13:54:00.002+11:00

Hello dear BELLADONIANS!!
With only 5 days until I depart for INDIA as BELLADONNA is in the INDIAN INTERNATIONAL FILM COMPETITION you might want to join us on facebook by becoming a fan and have a sneak peak of news and photos straight from the festival!

See you there

Hooray ANNIKA

Annika Glac is a fan of

BELLADONNA the movie

Create your Fan Badge

Second BELLADONNA past life film competition winner!!

2009-10-14T14:18:00.005+11:00

There are many ways to express the same idea!! I'd like to really thank Marcella McMahon from the US who has made a film for our BELLADONNA competition!! Congratulations!! and deep thanks.. I hope you all enjoy it.

ANNIKA

First BELLADONNA past life film competition winner!!

2009-10-05T17:04:00.004+11:00

Dear Belladonnians

We have had a wonderful response to the "who were you in a past life" Competition. And we have chosen two very different films.. So the first winning entry comes form Julie Wougn from Canada..CONGRATULATIONS JULIE!!!!
Thank you to everyone who sent in their entries and tomorrow we will announce winning entry number 2.
There is lots of news happening here so stay tuned!!

Cherio ANNIKA

BELLADONNA COMPETITION NEW DEADLINE!

2009-09-03T12:08:00.004+10:00

Greeting!! We have had requests from some wonderful creative people asking to extend the deadline which we have to the
20th of September!

Cherio ANNIKA

P.S For all the details see the below entry.

WIN actual film frames from BELLADONNA

2009-08-19T14:20:00.004+10:00

Hello everyone!!
I have been somewhat busy, as we are = closer to BELLADONNAS World Wide introduction. We have just signed a deal with a US based SALES Agent (they are great) which gives us the opportunity to focus our efforts in Australia and Poland!!
I wanted to mark the week of BELLADONNA'S exciting deal,with something very unique -especially for you. A COMPETITION! yes can you believe it? We have sections of a 35mm film print of BELLADONNA, which we would like to give away as prizes,they are precious 'one off' hand selected strips of 11 frames, before the official release of the film! (I have a frame of 'Singing in the Rain' hanging on my window which I really love)
HOW DO YOU WIN ONE? well all you have to do is make a 1 minute video, (as straight to camera or artistic as you like) sharing any feeling or thoughts as to who you 'may' have been in a past life?.... and the most inspirational.. funny.. committed wins! and gets posted on the BELLADONNA the movie website and FACEBOOK page ( only if you like to ) So please e-mail me your wonderful creations to info@glasskingdom.com.au. I can't wait to watch them, and thank you for your wonderful wishes ANNIKA

BELLADONNA at the SHANGHAI FILM FESTIVAL

2009-06-30T14:29:00.015+10:00

Wow what a thrill and a breath of fresh air!!

Sometimes a situation becomes clearer by the experience of its opposite. It took 11,000m amongst the clouds of China for me to wake up to the full bodied experience that was CANNES.
Cannes for us was about navigating our way around all the doom gloom panic that underpinned alot the film industry/the market ,I guess a reflection of the world financial situation and a feeling that something is changing in the whole belly of the beast.
Glamorous, traditional ( bordering on conservative) beautiful and sometimes very ugly... intense, sweet...
Paolo Coelho has recently written a book about the Cannes festival called "The winner stands alone" If you'd like to read a free chapter you can go to his website http://www.paulocoelho.com. I was too scared to read the book before Cannes just in case it coloured my experience, now I think I'm too scared to read it just in case it confirms the feeling. For BELLADONNA the whole experience was necessary and positive as it gained International interest and as received exposure which is now leading us into interesting territories.. more on that later.
When I look back on the most talented people I have known who chose not to pursue their creative expression, and I reflect on the reasons why there are so few second time filmmaker (especially in Australia) it would have to relate this very situation.
The mix of money power and glamour is certainly a heady one. It makes humans forget the very essence of their being.It becomes a game of dark magic not light creativity which you either choose to play or not, and thus the exit sign for alot of artist who simply can't see themselves in this environment.
So when the opportunity to have the Asian premiere of BELLADONNA in Shanghai came along I was excited for the film but unsure of what that meant for me.... Well.... it was a gift... and enormous amount of fun. I feel honoured, and my Spirits are restored both for humanity and creativity. I, like many, had reservations about what to expect from China, but our whole experience was met by gentle, open, wise people who were at a turning point in their lives.

After BELLADONNA'S opening, we had the Q & A where the audience asked wonderful, insightful and brave questions about the theme of the movie. "Do you think you can really have images from other lives come through your dreams?"
One of the most poignant moments for me was when our interpreter (a young woman Cici) was telling us how much she enjoyed the film, and her favourite line was ....( pause as she though of it) " That somehow we are all profoundly linked to one another"...

Shanghai is a huge festival and one of the biggest in Asia. The Jury consisted of Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire), Andy MacDowell, Xavier Koller, Jianxin Huang etc
Alots the European countries had huge delegations of Sales Agents, Film Funding representatives.Their Embassies throwing impressive occasionsto foster the Chinese and build international relationship (we attended the German who which was impressive to say the least) There is a feeling, kind of like champagne bubbles where anything is possible... how exciting.
A big thank you to the Australian Consulate especially Tom Conner, Dene Yeaman, and the Australian Trade Commission for throwing a wonderful party for us, and the other filmmakers whose films featured in the festival.
Finally...just as it took us to go to Poland to meet a Producer who lives around the corner from us, it took a trip to Shanghai to meet w fellow independent filmmaker ( who also lives around the corner) Pene Patrick who has made a film called Playing for Charlie, coming out soon.... Thank you and keep visiting here as it is all unfolding beautifully!! ANNIKA

BELLADONNA and the wrap from Cannes!!

2009-06-11T16:50:00.013+10:00

Hi Everyone!! We have returned from Cannes... yes and almost recovered! what an extravaganza! The Festival and the Market was an event to behold and very good for BELLADONNA. We met some wonderful people had great meetings and are getting very close to the films release! I'll report more on the ins and out of whats happening at Cannes and the state of the Film world a little later for now you will have to enjoy Marcus's starring role in his own movie.. this is what happens on day 8 of the market when things become somewhat delirious!!

Also the very exciting news is that on Saturday we are off to SHANGHAI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL as BELLADONNA is opening the Australian representation! A red carpet affair...we are very excited! as our little film is having its Asian PREMIERE!!

Over and out for now! Annika

BELLADONNA Epsiode 3 Casting for Stars

2009-05-07T08:36:00.006+10:00

Yes its true!!

We are off to the wonderous place Called Europe.... Antwerp, Germany Paris and Cannes... lots of meetings and great amount of fun!

Here is our 3rd episode of BELLADONNA land I hope you enjoy it!!!

Loads of great wishes
ANNIKA and MARCUS

BELLADONNA Episode no 2 Film Secrets

2009-04-08T16:22:00.006+10:00

Hello Lovely People!!

Yes we are off on our O/S adventure very very soon!! Cannes here we come!! Lots of people to meet at the market.... no no not the fruit market the FILM MARKET... we will have videos of our adventure so stay tuned!!! I will be on TWITTER with all the up to date details!

So... here is the Second Episode with BOBBY FLYNN the wonderful artist who has contributed some music to the film soundtrack if you want to find out more about him go to www.bobbyflynn.com.

We are a small team here at the BELLADONNA LAND and if you would like to help, these are something you could do!
1. Let other people know about the film...and encourage them to register with us at http://www.belladonnathemovie.com, as there are 'internal goodies on offer'
2. If you are on FACEBOOK invite others to join us there!! and maybe join yourself
3. Be Happy and do what you love to do!!
4. Suggest ways of letting the whole world knowing about the film.

Over and out from the BELLADONNA LAND
Annika

BELLADONNA Episode no 1. FIlm secrets!

2009-02-23T10:43:00.003+11:00

LAUNCHING!!! Yes.... here we go!!
Episode 1. CAN YOU HEAR THE KISS?

BELLADONNA the creative process

2009-02-11T19:26:00.011+11:00

I couldn't resist this..inspirational.. for all. Please watch it
ANNIKA

Filmmakers Independents Independence

2009-02-07T15:42:00.005+11:00

Change is a constant in life, but the rate of change sure is variable. In the last year changes seem to have reached a crescendo. Climate, Economic, Political, Technological and Social changes seem to be interacting in a kind of maelstrom. With no time to fully integrate new things into any system, a new kind of constant adaptability becomes the way situations are addressed and solved. Todays solution is only valid for today, tomorrow the context will be different.
One of the victims of this is the illusion of certainty.
The challenge for the independent filmmaker in extracting every drop of value from a budget is to make use of this changing landscape. Digital image / sound capture and post production are one of the most obvious areas for increased accessibility and cost saving. The path previously to a high quality image included film, processing, one light prints for editing, etc etc, all of which had high unit costs and specific hardware and arcane skills that were the domain of specialists. Digital democratisation means the computer you write the script on can in a pinch , be your edit station and post house. Relatively affordable cameras like the Red one with slr lenses are one of the main missing pieces in this puzzle.
It is finally feasible for an independent filmmaker to own all the machinery of production (Sounds like the beginning of a Marxist analysis), not just to make a film but a seamlessly high quality one. Owning the the tools doesn't make you an instant expert , but allows unbelievable flexibility in choosing options and a kind of unstoppable ability, with a small team, to get a project finished.
This is a new kind of immersive full contact filmmaking, its not perfect for every project but makes new kinds of projects possible. The upside is control and the ability to experiment and tweak, the downside is constant education and long long hours. ( incidentally not really downsides if you love what your doing, which is the only reason I can imagine for being a filmmaker.)
So its a kind of revolution, a revolution of possibilities in a world of uncertainties. In a world of change there are no shortage of interesting and relevant stories. And then there is the internet and the possible future of independent online distribution.
Bring it on.
Get to it.

BELLADONNA how does it all happen?

2009-02-05T14:14:00.011+11:00

Hi All Happy 2009!!

How amazing that it is already February, here in BELLADONNA land its go go go, and we have some really wonderful stories lined up. Over the last few months I've received many e-mail about the whole 'creative process' how do you do it?... what are the practical steps but also starting to talk about the 'magic' of creativity. How a thought can become manifest... I 'm really passionate about this because it extends to everything we create from our a cake to a film to your life. Also filmmakers WATCH OUT FOR THE ORANGE TEXT this is directly to do with information about the technical do's and don't (well from my perspective) and GREEN as Marcus Blogs about his experience with the RED CAMERA. Also we have made some wonderful creative friends along the way which I want to introduce to you, they are wild, collaborative and fabulous in their intent and how it is expressed in the world. First thing is first few of you have asked about the rehearsal process.. . here is a list of why I think its vitally important to rehearse.

1.Actors , no matter how famous ,are humans who have particular ways of working... some love to rehearse and block the action for hours and some don't. The rehearsal process is a time where you get to know how bring out the best qualities forward.
2. ON SET everything is very much heightened.. time of precious.. everything must go to a schedule.. everyone is standing by... it is rarely a time where things can be explored and beautiful moments found.. if an actor doesn't feel safe you'll see it and feel it.
3. This I think is a key one... some actors get better with every take... while others get it on the first or second take and then start to feel frustrated.The rehearsal period is the time to find that out, and find a way to work around it.
4. Personally I think one of the most wonderful ways to work with is to paraphrase. It means that they use their own words instead of the scripted words... that way it becomes very clear for both actor and director when the intention of the scene is really understood. Questions such as: how can we make this clearer.? does it need to be re written? or understood in a wider context.?
5. I like to work with physical exercises at the beginning to get the body moving. Yoga.. voice.. breathing... relaxation...
6. Finally, rehearsal is a time where you can discover, play, make mistakes.. and build trust.. which is essential...because once you 're on set... surrounded by people expecting you to "GET IT' make up artist powdering.. sound people pealing back the layers of your clothing to attach the mics , lights and extras, it is tricky to find your centre the bubble of trust that allows the magic to happen.
7. If as a Producer or Director you're not convinced or sure just put yourself in the actors shoes...and then remind yourself that the film relies on the actors ability to convey the character authentically...and that authenticity I think can only blossom when there is respect flowing both ways. Take the time.

BELLADONNA more then just a Movie

2008-12-17T16:52:00.011+11:00

Dearest All

The trailer for BELLADONNA is almost ready hooray!!! it has been somewhat tricky (as I have mentioned before) Marcus is colour grading it and and is doing a fabulous job! As I have been reflecting on the last 2 years I came across this lecture which I wanted to share with you(below) because it dares to ask a really interesting question. What would you give your last lecture on?( I know 'tiss a season to be jolly' but stay with me) because I think ultimately refining the really important impulses in our lives is what brings focus joy and purpose. So I asked myself Annika what would your last lecture be about? It would be about the utter goodness of humans, courage,and the personal and social contract that we all are a part of.
The Making of BELLADONNA really was an experiment, in what humans can do together. The film is shot on a modest budget and alot of what you'll see on the screen is literally given in form of creativity, knowledge, time, effort and skills. So much intensely hard work went into this project and it was a collective effort. A truly collective effort filled with goodness. Yes at the end of the day we have a beautiful film but what an honour having experienced it first hand.

BELLADONNA what's in a name?

2008-12-02T10:31:00.010+11:00

Greetings friends!!

People often ask me about the name BELLADONNA why? what does it mean where did it come from? Well once upon a time in a land far far away..(or at least 2 years ago) I was refining thescreenplay in which the 16th Century lead character Jadwiga,is a herbalist, and back then it wasn't so easy to be one as they were considered to be witches. So I researched the commonly used herbs back in the 16th Century and here are just a few:
Butterfly weed, Lady’s Mantle, St. John's Wort, Foxglove, Belladonna, Dwarf Iris
Evening Primrose and many more....
Can you imagine a film called "Dwarf Iris"? or Lady's Mantle? or St. John's Wort? (that could be a nice dark sort of children's fairytale about St John)so I did come to the conclusion that BELLADONNA was pretty good... Lily of the Valley was the second favourite.

In the past, it was believed that witches used a mixture of belladonna, opium poppy, and other plants, typically poisonous (such as monkshood and poison hemlock) in flying ointment they applied to help them fly to gatherings with other witches... Ohh dear imagination and all that fear.. and all those women who were drowned and burnt because of their relationships with nature.

The common name BELLADONNA originates from its historic use by women - Bella Donna is Italian for beautiful lady. Drops prepared from the belladonna plant were used to dilate women's pupils, an effect considered attractive, but also incredibly dangerous as the dose between beauty and death was unknown.

Belladonna is one of the most toxic plants found in the Western hemisphere. All parts of the plant contain tropane alkaloids. When we arrived in Poland in April to shoot the 16th Century part we wanted to find the actual plant with flowers as it is fareasier easier to use the real instead of making each flower individually. We missed the flowering season my 6 weeks, and had to make each individual flower by hand. The Production Designer and the Art department made them out of rose petals..(as they had to be eatable) hand painting every flower with purple food dye.
Have a look some of the photos below.

Annika

P.S Belladonna the movie is now on FACEBOOK, and if you are a fan here please join us there we are new and would love some company.

Katia Mazurek who plays Jadwiga was incredibly wonderful this day.. as most of the day she had to sit in the cold ditch eating the flowers..this shot was particularly tricky as it involved a descending camera, snow and perfect timing of all action.

BELLADONNA bee hive

2008-11-17T14:45:00.003+11:00

Greetings friends!!

You may be asking what's happening now at the Belladonna Beehive?
Well lots and lots..

1. We are in the middle of cutting the trailer
2. Editing our webisodes for UTUBE
3. Planning the Strategies for World Release
4. Creating a campaign the AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE.
And doing lots of reading and listening to Podcasts about film distribution. From people who work for the Hollywood Studios to Sales Agents, distributors and film makers... so so interesting!!
5 And much much more which will all be revealed very soon.

Have a look at this add... I think it's great...somehow appropriate for any venture that requires everything.

Cherio Annika

The world has changed

2008-11-10T22:30:00.004+11:00

Greetings again so soon!!

I found a great link which I wanted to share with you, because I believe things have shifted towards a better world, more conscious kind and wise. Truly wonderful and deeply miraculous!!

HOW TO BE A BELLADONNA SPY

2008-11-10T18:50:00.005+11:00

Greetings friends!! As promised part 3 to sound design. A most of you know this is our first feature film and never before having followed the process to the end of post production many of the steps literally brand new. I think perhaps the "sound boys' very a little surprised when they realised that we did not in fact have a post production sound supervisor, and they'd have to deal director and cinematographer. Luckily Marcus had the technical know how and in our down time would teach me the finer points and " boys tech talk" . FUNNY LIFE FUNNY MOMENTS DURING SOUND POST PRODUCTION.
1. Our first meeting with the Sound designer..."What sort of sound would you like there" Annika answers "For it to sound like the subconscious" (there was a good reason for it as Luke gets hypnotised) a blank look ... ohh subconsicous ......then off we went to deep discussion about film that just get made for the film festivals versus films that are made for people!! (more on that later).
2. One sunny afternoon Annika discovers a strange lump on her behind.... what could it be? A TICK... yes a tick not just any but a special stream of Polish tick....which meant I had to get tested in Poland... see if limes disease was on the cards... and then another 3 weeks to get the results (all clear!!) just another test... as I have a paralytic fear of blood tests!!
3. Sound mixing is a pretty intense expensive step in the process. During that particular period we worked from 6pm to midnight.... no buses after midnight..."what about taxis I hear you say" not so easy... because a taxi is not a taxi is not a taxi... and how many ways can one get shafted? well many really.. so a few times Marcus and I resorted to walking home in the middle of the night or catching the really really bad bus... the broken people with broken dreams bus... avec police!!
4. Then the trip home... we knew the owner of the apartment where we had been living had the keys....and knew that she had been visiting the apartment when we were at work. So Marcus drew on his best tricks form HOW TO BE A SPY book and we would insert clear pieces of plastic in the front door to see if we had visitors. This might sound rather paranoid but at this stage, almost at the end of the 3 months we had 16 500 gig drives with the complete film, all the files. music, camera, equipment, computers...our whole 18 months of work.

BELLADONNA NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

2008-10-29T12:02:00.006+11:00

Ohh yes some what embarrassing!!! How long has it been? where is part 3 you may ask?

Well we have been literally around the world in the last month. We had a wonderful screening of BELLADONNA in Krakow which is a stunning city where 18th Century architecture and 21st Century life meet with total grace, I don't mean to sound like a travel agent but it's so worth visiting.
So much has happened that hard to know where to start.
Firstly it was really amazing to sit amongst an audience watching the movie. Previously we had 6 test screenings of the film but somehow this was different. It is a fine line between absolute ecstasy and total pain. I read somewhere when G. Lucas first screened Star Wars he was so nervous that he spent his time in the bathroom vomiting. It really is a heightened experience. All that time effort and great among of work converge into this moment. After the screening we had a question and answer session which was great then a couple of TV interviews one for Canal + a french TV station and the other for a Polish TV station. There was lots of wonderful conversations with friends, family, industry people and the Polish actors.
After Krakow we travelled to Warsaw where we orgenised a photo shoot with Kasia Mazurek for the poster.
During ourprevious post production time in Warsaw we took some photos which have a lovely 'light feel' as an alternative we decided to take thesame sort of photo, this time in Autumn.
The image is only half the poster as we plan to shoot the other half in Australia soon. I'll post the photos soon.

and yes part 3 is coming up!!
Cherio

AnnikaMalgosia Corvalan Belladonna's Polish Producer with actor Pawel Smagala (who plays Pawel in Belladonna) and actress/director Lauma

My interview for canal +

above:
Marcus doing an interview
below:
Annika Marcus Di and Lucille in Krakow

Can you hear me? Belladonna calling

2008-09-04T18:01:00.009+10:00

Greetings! Part 2 Sound

I recently read an article by Walter Murch a wonderfully talented film and sound Editor, I think of him as a poet able to group ideas feelings into succinct lines of thoughts. He talked about the mind set of the director when on set,who has to live in 3 different spaces, the past the present and the future. You really realise how true that is when you're in post production.
The PAST: Any creative, financial, practical decision you make has a profound effect on the way the shooting of the film goes and beyond that, what ramification it will have in the editing process and post production. What seems like a short cut often comes and bites you later!!!

THE PRESENT: When your're on set you have to be present with the actors and crew to feel what they need on that day, that hour and how best to help them.
THE FUTURE: ANY DECISION that's made, is made pretty much made forever. Unless there is a budget for re shoots and major pick up's it is pretty much it. So as we were sitting on the sound stage working with Kacper and Marcin all the decisions that you wish were made differently you see or hear over and over again. You see the shirt that you wish you could change, or the shot you wished you could have improved, the dynamics, colour on and on..on!! But at the end of the day, art, whether its film, theatre or architecture evolves, it would be easy to fall under the spell of perfectionism rather then learning and engaging those lessons in the next project. and the one after. One of the major learning curves with sound was that when we were shooting the Polish Part of the film because of the remote location and other colourful reasons we were not able to watch the rushes or hear the sound. Can you imagine our surprise, horror when we review the footage and realised that some of the scenes had almost no sound!! (This is I think every directors/Producers nightmare) So thank God that we could do ADR with Daryl who plays Jan here in Australia and Kasia and Pawel when we arrived in Poland. Part 3 coming up!!!

Below is what happens when the people in the Kindgom go a bit MAD!!

Annika talks with Kasia ( this is a beautiful scene in the film)

Belladonna's fabulous sound design

2008-08-27T16:18:00.006+10:00

Part One:

The moment we finished colour grading the picture we moved straight onto sound. Over the years I have heard people talk about the tendency of producers and filmmakers in general to lean their budget towards the picture, the look, the feel the executing and let the sound somehow “take care of itself” I must admit that I made this mistake with one of my short films and vowed never to repeat it. So Malgosia Corvalan (Co -producer) and I went with a company called Dream sound in Warsaw, their quote was much higher then many of the other ones but as it turned out absolutely worth every penny. I never expected to learn from this process as much as I did. Not only the really technical aspects about sound but also about collaboration. I think the most important aspects about art or any collaboration is as I call it ’ The care factor’. You can’t make somebody care, and I think in fact you can’t pay somebody to care. Caring for a project is to make a personal investment in it to take pride in your work and try to really achieve the best result. and that is definitely what happened with Tomek, Marcin, and Kacper. Caring also translates into moment by moment decisions. Its like building a house of cards each move depends of the previous one, that every decision is the ground work for the next. If you make 'poor cutting corner choices' that will eventually influence the whole process. (I digress).
Having invested really an enormous amount of everything in Belladonna it was such a relief to know that the sound was in great hands, from the recording of few of the key music tracks, to the music mix, to sound mixing, and foley. I knew this was going to be the case from the moment we arrived and meet the boys at WFDIF a Warsaw version of Hollywood. They were working on foley and wanted us to approve their sounds. At this stage we had just finished editing the film and the idea of watching the film in detail AGAIN was almost overwhelming, kind of like torture, I had to get over myself pretty quickly. (We have shot some footage for behind the scenes for the making of Belladonna, it is really funny a little like the world of Being John Malkovich)

Let there be Colour

2008-06-03T20:17:00.013+10:00

So we started colour grading! Wow the film is re born for my eyes again. Having spent so much time looking at the film over and over the colour grade is making the film look new for a moment. It is stating the obvious, but colour determines the way you feel...and in a way asking exactly the same sort of questions as when we first startedproject. 'what is this scene about, what is the intention, the mood.' After hours of staring at the screen you cease to see the actual picture. ( is a bit like life) you loose perspective, and no longer can say if something really does look too yellow or too green.There is a word for it being 'metamesmorised.' I guess you can be metamesmorised by too much information, by living in thesame city for your whole life and no longer really being able to 'see it' So our colour grading answer is to look at white walls or to go outside to reset the eye, or more precisely the brain.
Here is a little bit of really interesting information about colour perception.

' The objects that we see usually reflect/emit a very wide spectrum of light, with different frequencies emitting at different intensities. Essentially, our take on the colour of the object is done with a three-point sample. We miss a lot of the complexity of the true “colour”.
What this means, is that you can have two objects that reflect wildly different spectra, that will, none the less, appear as exactly the same colour to us because of the sampling errors of our eyes. This is called metamerism. It’s only really a factor when you create a representation of that colour - for example, a painting, a photo, or an image on a screen. To us, it looks like a good representation of the original object, but in fact, it’s lousy - it would look ridiculously wrong to someone who had, say, four or five colour receptors in their eyes (even if their colour sensors didn’t extend into UV or IR) instead of the three we have.'

So as we spend days sitting in the dark, yesterday Marcus made a funny comment and said it was like being in a casino. You sit in a dark room, with no perception of time spending large amounts of money. The unfortunate effect is that I want to colour grade my dreams, maybe lift the highlights, make the sky a little bluer, make a vigniette around the face. Likely we are working great people at PAY a post production company in Poland and a fabulous colour grader who drives the Quantel and machine with ease and great skill. See photos below.
Annika

What time(code) is it ?

2008-05-26T23:25:00.002+10:00

Long time no Blog . No sleep till Warsaw.
Well the last month in Australia before we relocated to Poland for Post production was mad.Mountains of things to render and a fixed departure date.
It's always interesting how the ramifications of simple descisions ripple through something as complex as digital post. In this case its all about shooting at 25 fps instead of the regular 24 fps.
Since we have shot in two Pal countries where digital post is really easy in 25 frames per second we have had a really straightforward time editing , synching etc the offline edit. The path for the HDACM footage we shot in Poland has been simple. The problem we ran into has been with the footage from the red camera. The RED one produces files in a raw format that you then process using RED supplied software, in our case REDCINE into files that can be colourgraded. Well since everything with RED is still in development the current REDCINE software has a small bug in it that makes it uncertain if it is writing the correct 25 fps timecode into the DPX files. (DPX files are 10 bit ,to allow maximum use of the red footages amazing grading latitude ie you can do some pretty extreme colour corrections and it still holds up without banding.)
So without the certainly that each frame of the film has the right timecode embedded in it , it is pretty scary to relocate the 8 500 gig hard drives of files to Poland to Conform ( reassemble digitally the hi res version of the film ) not knowing if the offline edit will match the assembled hi res online.This was a problem that had to be solved
This is where the excitement of bleeding edge post production occurs. Using the REDUSER.net resource we found two pieces of software that solved the problem. These are CRIMSON workflow and GLUETOOLS . These two programs are developed by what appears to be one man shows. Both solve problems beautifully and are at the moment indispensible. Both also are in development continuously. The of the guys behind these solutions offer a level of support that I have never seen before, I was just emailing them sometimes daily with questions and they patiently responded, night day , weekends. Updates arrive as they write them. great stuff. Our film is only ,say 4 months behind the first features shot on RED so its pretty exciting ( sometimes puzzling/stressful ) to be working in a complex emerging workflow situation that you have to get right.
Any way the timecode is now right and later this week we do the conform at PAY studios in Warsaw on their Quantel Pablo. Then 2 weeks of colour grading , one of my favourite parts of the whole film making process.

BACK IN POLAND FOR BELLADONNA POST

2008-05-21T18:51:00.007+10:00

Here we are again a year later back in Warsaw, Poland this time for post production. So far it has been a heddy mix of jet lag miracles and lots of cigarette smoke.
Our apartment is close to the centre of Warsaw and judging by the furniture and the general personal touches must belong to a middle aged lady, layers soft toys on tops of cupboards (maybe she has a grandaughter) probably by this stage you're wondering why I'm mentioning these details. You see as we ran out of time in Australia and didn't finish mixing the music tracks we needed to buy a keyboard with a midi input to make it work (not really a standard piece of equipment) As we begin to unpack Marcus opens one of the cupboards and there stands a 4 octive keyboard a MIRACLE!!! How, why does this woman have this particular keyboard?
Traveling with terrabites of information stacked on an enormous amount of drives was certainly interesting, and ultimately successful, as the drives have been tested and are all OK. It's a scary process as our whole project lives as information, its not like a physical print you literally carry and feel like your last 2 years can be attached to something tangible, with the RED camera its just data, information in boxes. We transported the drives (as they are very sensitive to bumping and static) as hand luggage. Our first obstacle at Melbourne airport. Our carry on suitcase was weighed almost at immigration and was over the limit, so the kind chaps told us to just remove the drives, camera, computer, from the bag and carry them in our shoulder bags. It seemed odd but it worked. Phwee!!! We decided to wrap the drives in bubble wrap and ribbon, pink to be exact, which proved to be a very handy trick as the luggage inspectors thought we were carrying layers of cake, and it seems that all you have to say is "its a Movie please be careful". So far we have had a couple of meeting with the Sound designer and the Colour Grading Company and are about to do few test prints from the Quantal to 35 mm film. Photos are coming up. Annika

MOVIE BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ

2008-03-14T16:35:00.005+11:00

Wow! I have to say that I have fully recovered from the shoot which really was a miraculous process not in that 'everything is so peaceful and lovely' but wow we're doing this...this is what we have dreamed about and there is just so much pressure to capture the vision the 'ambiance' of the movie.
So where are we now? well... 1. We have started cutting the film and the footage looks fabulous... 2. W are also re designing our website adding the images the 21st Century 3. The music for the film is being written... we are integrating some classical music with really cool contemporary creations from Bobby Flynn, Lamplight and many more exciting new artist. 4. Marcus is really pioneering a new 'Post pathway'... using the red camera has been an educational experience and we are literally on the cutting edge of this new technology. 5.Now that my days are mostly spent in a dark room, I plan to write much more to keep you posted on how we're going and introduce to you our wonderful cast. 6. We will be completing post production in Poland in Warsaw and Lodz in the not too distant future. 7. Ohh yes I have also started cutting the making off Belladonna, which is really interesting, all the days events the dramas, expectations, interviews with the cast from all over the world. We are eventually going to host it on the Belladonna site for a free download....stay tuned!! I think that's it for now...Annika

Up the Post production Path

2008-03-11T21:39:00.003+11:00

Post Production is a world of decisions. From the frame for each edit to the colour of the sky. Currently we are at the point where we have to decide the exact path the digital image files will take. Essentially the choice we have is between 2K dpx files and HD (10 bit uncompressed Quicktimes). Th 2k dpx files have more resolution and colour grading flexibility but come at the cost of Larger file sizes and more convoluted work flow. The HD files are easier
to work with and are better suited to getting things done on a tighter budget, also only one Master has to be created as essentially the same master files can be used for the Printing to film as the masters for Broadcast and DVD's.
The question is really how much better is the result using the 2k dpx files. In a week or so the first film out tests
from Artlogic in Warsaw should be back and a decision can be made.

Red reflections 1

2008-02-23T10:50:00.003+11:00

So principal photography is done and it's time to reflect upon the red cameras performance. The first thing I noticed about using the camera is how quickly you become used to things, how yesterdays innovation becomes the norm and the question of how things ever got done without it arises.
Little things like shooting and then transferring the files straight into the computer for syncing. We were shooting without a slate, relying on a lockit timecode box on the camera to jamsync to the audio recorders timecode ( time of day code). This worked flawlessly. To sync up at the end of the day we just loaded the files
( each time you press record it starts a new file) from the camera, and then the audio from a CF card straight from the audio recorder (onto duplicate and seperated raid arrays), popped them into Final cut using the redcode proxies of the picture, arranged them into scene folders , ordered the clips by start time and bingo the picture and sound pairs arrange themselves in order and merged clips are swiftly made. Synced double system sound in minutes.
The camera , despite being in the early group that have all been sent back to be reworked , was pretty trouble free. Only twice did we encounter it not booting up on start up, which was cured by the pumping of the on off switch with the battery removed, why this works is a mystery to me. The red drive arrived halfway through the shoot and proved indispensible. Unfortunately most of the scenes involving long takes had already been done, these were pretty tricky when working on the 4.5 minute restriction of the CF cards.
So how does the picture look. It's not film and it's not video , its something else. It's also extremely gradeable with pretty amazing shadow detail.
I'll post some grabs soon.
Marcus

Thank You to the Cast and Crew

2008-02-18T14:55:00.013+11:00

Well, its is really hard to believe how much time has passed since our last communication but at thesame time it is also amazing how many things have been achieved. Yes we have finished shooting Belladonna. And yes we did have a wrap party but unfortunately after half a glass of champagne on an exhausted empty stomach I was unable to make the thank you speech that really should have been made, so here it is: Belladonna has been with me for almost 3 years now, and each stage of its conception has given me the opportunity to not only learn practical skills but also to live with the question of what it is that life means to me? and how do I make it count? This question sat quietly beside me during the solitary writing stage. The quite moments, of wondering what the character will say next, while having a cup of tea and being delighted by the silence. The preproduction part although a little different because of the huge responsibility of making that vision come to life through practical application of money, people, deals, time, was still a pretty solitary time as Marcus and I did most of the planning. Then comes the production where that solo vision that has meant everything is handed over to the collective ie cast and crew. It is incredibly scary because it means so much but also incredibly exhilirating because it means so much. And in a way the film makes itself. No matter how much control and ultimate planning comes into play the momentum takes over and the skills of all the people involved come together to make the work. I really understand why Hitchcock was so obsessive about shot lists and left nothing to chance, as wonderful as the idea of that ultimate control sounds to me the magic moments are the once that are not planned, that slip between the lines of conventions. It is that space between breaths, where there is that gap. That delicious gap that transforms the daily lives we bring to set into the moment where action is called, and the image is forever created by that exact moment. And just like in an orchestra where every instrument is equally important, where the violin being slightly out of tune has such a profound effect on the music or the timpany player suddenly increases the tempo of the piece. I think film making is the most beautiful and painful experience one can have. I feel eternally grateful to all the cast,crew, support team and the extras who came on this journey with us .Who dedicated their time, effort and especially intention to make this film. It really is the highest and finest quality that we as humans have and my faith in the ultimate goodness in humans has once again been demonstrated. This experience is deeply etched in my being and gives me the energy and passion to continue to bring together 'families' of people who want to make something together. To participate in the field of creativity where there is freedom to imprint maybe just very 'very softly' a new way of doing things and thinking about life.
Annika

seeing Red

2007-12-23T16:15:00.000+11:00

The relationship between the virtual and the real is at the heart of contemporary life. We believe things we see in the media, it persuades us to believe things of which we have no personal experience. If seeing is believing then on what level do we accept the things we see on TV and on the net as real. With this in mind after reading hundreds of online pages about the revolutionary Red camera it was interesting to see and test one first hand.
It actually is pretty much as has been described, a digital camera with a computer welded to it. It appears rugged and a little stockier than I expected with avery un arri easthetic of its own.
After dynamic range testing using widely varying exposures on a gray card adjacent to a black and white card I have come to the conclusion that the ISO is 320 as stated. Using the old Ansel Adams zone system things fits beautifully. With middle gray at zone V at 320, the last tone with detail is zone IX with zone X being pure with ( actually zone IX 1/2 seems to be pure white too) . Interestingly zone O is the last shadow exposure with tonal difference from black, however I'm going to say It's zone I and allow a little latitude.
Actually I'd be pretty happy shooting at 640 iso giving you detail from zone I to X with acceptable grain. This would be great with night scenes allowing a little more highlight detail in lights in frame etc.
This was tested under tungsten light fully corrected with an 80A (blue filter), actually slightly more than corrected as the native sensor setting is 5000K not the standard 5500K. I additionally tested it without the 80A to see how this affected noise. Well without the filter the blacks are definitly noisier as the blue channel ( the traditionally noisiest channel) obviously needs to be driven up out of being underexposed to regain neutral gray. This produces a non organic yellow / green digital shadow grain not fatal but not great. This issue isn't widely discussed because you generally need more exposure when shooting under tungsten and no one wants to loose 2 stops with an 80a. My compromise that I tested is to use an 82c which is closer to 2/3 of a stop and seems to be pretty close to the shadow grain of the fully corrected version. Now this is on a first generation camera number 65? from the farsighted and helpful Lemac in Melbourne, I'm guessing I'll have to test speed, noise and dynamic range with the new version of the camera which may or may not arrive while we are shooting. Any way the camera we have is pretty great.
My only current reservation is with the record times on the CF cards, a whole 4 1/2 minutes each. this is pretty hard to get used to after 45mins per tape on HDCAM or DVCAM or even 10 mins on a 400ft 16mm mag. When we are out on location we are going to back up onto a pair of Nexto Ultra back up units. These are basically laptop drives in a tiny case with a CF card reader 3 line screen and one button to backup and verify.
Actually there is another odd thing about the camera , when shooting the fan runs down to very quiet, but not silent, also the LCD monitor emits a quiet high pitched whistle , stangely onto from its back , I'm interested to hear the opinion of Chris Roland our sound recordist.
The camera is actually pretty easy to use , the menus are not like the labrynthine Sony Hdcam menus, with much of the image decision making occuring in post, it really means the camera just has the basic essentials,
speed, shutter timecode playback formatting etc. For the money nothing comes close.
The best part about comprehensive testing is that once its done you don't have to think about the science of things so much, just start looking at how things actually look, which situations create those intangibly better or more interesting looking images. More testing next week. Then shooting in 2 weeks. Busy times.
Marcus

WONDER TWINS POWER - Activate

2007-11-19T18:22:00.000+11:00

You might have been wondering, where have they been? we have they been up to.? So I thought I might start by saying that this is an amazing, thrilling scary, adventure where all the parts of the process have to come together for those unique 4 weeks in January 2008 called the shoot. We are literally in the thick of it all. At the moment we are who will embody LUKE? the voice of BELLADONNA.
So because so many things are happening its almost hard to know where to start.
So here is my last weeks to do list.

Write a confirmation letter to the church (one of our our locations) letting them know when we will be shooting
Write another confirmation letter to the Naturopath for their location and negotiate the rate
Find where we're going to shoot the hypnotherapist room
Find the hypnotherapist
Cast Mrs Jones
Organise the schedule
Find the extras
Arrange all the details for them, where to go, and for how long, what to wear etc
Calculate and discuss contracts with actors agents
Have meetings with Make up department, with costume and production department.
Find a bar and an Chinese restaurant, negotiate the fee
Re do the budget so all things balance
Ask my wonderful friend for the use of her car
Walk though all the locations to see what the look like at the time of day where we are going to be shooting
Make sure there is enough parking for everyone, at all locations
Organise food, where, who, how, when...dairy free.? vegetarians?
Project that it might be 37 degrees when we shoot and what impact will that have on actors crew equipment.
Drive through all the driving scenes and see what can come up, eg. The road is too busy... looks bad at certain times of the day... get day passes if the road is a paid road.
Call all the actors that are not suited for role.
Say thank you to all the lovely souls that are helping.

Marcus has also been very busy building his steady cam and vest, which is looking mighty fine...he almost agreed for me to film him so stay tuned to see him being fabulous. Will be back very shortly. Cherio

CREATING A NEW WAY

2007-10-24T13:03:00.000+10:00

I guess when you start a project, whether it's making a cake or painting a house, you expect a certain result, and the real surprise is what you find along the way. The swatch may not match your final colour, the eggs are a little smaller and so final product becomes something slightly different, a surprise. Part of the wonder that is creativity is to trust the process. It is driven by the intention for the highest, ie. you have to put in the hard yards but there is a great amount of divine, universal influence over the adventure. There is no room for rigid outlook, creativity can't be moulded into a pre-conceived notions of what it 'should' be.
So, things at BELLADONNA central are really heating up... casting, location hunting negotiating, but more importantly we are setting up new structures for the way we would like to work at GLASS KINGDOM and BELLADONNA is our 'seed' project where we have the chance to use tools and philosophies that Marcus and I have collected along the way.
Making a film is a collaborative process, you need someone at the helm who will guide it but ultimately its about people working together, respecting each others energy and not using
'its not my department' as an excuse not to work together.We are collecting the most fabulous group of people both crew and actors whose intention and energy is just wonderful.
A couple of years ago Marcus and I happened to be in Copenhagen at (Lars Von Triers) company for a 9am production meeting which they have every week. Firstly we were warmly greeted by the companies director Peter Aalbaek... he then proceeded to join two other men sitting at the piano and the double bass in the middle of this warehouse space. Later we found out that it was the companies lawyer, on the piano and the director on the drums. Within half an hour the room was almost full and everyone opened their Danish hymn books and started singing together. Marcus and I sat and couldn't believe our eyes, there was a sense of community beyond separation and desperation for funds and fame. Then they proceeded to discuss all the things they have achieved that week,what they wanted to eat for Christmas dinner and where their common vision was heading. A couple of 17 year olds who were supported by Zentropa to make some films stood up to let everyone know about their premiere and after applauding Peter gave then a glass of champagne to celebrate.
Lars and Peter have created this most amazing company, which has made films like Dancer in the Dark, Breaking the Waves, Zentropa. They worked completely outside the system of funding bodies sourcing funds from around Europe to build a community where filmmakers, could have a voice. Now they have programs from internships where you get to work in all areas of production over 3 years, all the way to creating your own company at 'filmtown' and films. This is exactly where we are heading with Glass Kingdom. Building new structures, from financing all the to the way to the way we work on set, this is both exciting and challenging. We are meeting some opposition (more on that later) from pockets of the film world that may see a new way as the 'wrong' because the pathway has always been followed must always stay thesame. But in my opinion something is not working, Australia is producing film that the rest of the world doesn't want to see, and most of the seem to look and be practically about thesame topic.( more on that later )
W have started with a very strong foundation a great accountant, and lawyer some very high ideals and years of practical experience.
If the cells in the human body which are all so different can co-exist and work in harmony to provide life why can't we? So this adventure continues to unfold in amazing and surprising ways. I look forward to sharing more of the ins and outs when we are out of production.
For us onwards and upwards.!!!

Some of the places and times where Marcus and I have talked about our vision for creating Glass Kindgom and Belladonna.(Poland)

DANCING STAR

2007-10-08T17:46:00.000+10:00

"One Must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star"
Frederich Nietzsche

The shoot in Poland Part One.

2007-10-04T09:45:00.000+10:00

So the Poland story continues!!
We had 5 days to shoot the whole 15th century and no contingency days. The budget didn't allow for more as all the crew, equipment trucks etc. had to travel to the very south of Poland and be accommodated for that period of time. We thought that 5 days would be OK until the realisation dawned on us that we had no contingency days. What would happen if it rained and the trucks were not able to travel up the muddy road to the location of the forest, what if in the "sad forest" it was sunny - what if we just didn't get the shots? A deep cold shiver ran up all our spines. As we were refining the schedule making sure that there was a 12 hour turn around, and heard all other limitation that came with that it all stated looking rather grim. We came to Poland to get the beautiful shots and now were in a situation where the machine of the production was OK ie everyone was going to be employed accommodated and fed but the shots and the actual film was going to be potentially compromised. When you have alot of people working on the film ie. 30 something, it takes much longer to feed them and to move all the trucks from one location to the other... if we were to shoot at the speed we needed to, in order to make a great film it had to be fast ... that was our main concern. The day before Daryl Marcus and I were leaving for the location (allowing us a day before everyone else arrived), we had a crisis meeting.
This is the sort of meeting that you have to have at least once...as far as the production was concerned they were happy because all the boxes were ticked but nobody at the end of the day remembers the problems, they just see the final product. Either it works or not... our shooting schedule was not going to work. This was mainly because we had a very tricky descending and ascending camera shot and also needed dawns and dusk's which meant not enough turn around hours. we all sat in silence look at the schedule and hoping something would just jump out as a solution. On a film shoot there are people for whom its just a job they get paid for and leave, for others they extend their concern for the process, vision and the whole, and this was the moment where the seas parted. Suddenly Marta (the production wiz 2nd assistant director) who was under a tremendous amount of pressure, came up with an alternative shooting schedule. She understood our point of view and the need to the creative process to be followed through and also making sure that the production machine was still working well. Hallelujah!!!
Next day, after not much sleep we left Warsaw and travelled to Krakow and then to Sanok, not knowing that this was going to be one of the most difficult days on the production.

The Dreaded Mud as some of the crew are using plastic bags on their feet before entering the car.

Looking for the magic schedule answer. Sometimes the answers are on the floor.

Full steam ahead at Glass Kingdom

2007-09-24T16:41:00.000+10:00

So things in the 21st Century part of the film are moving forward very quickly.
The other day I realised that there is a finite amount of things to do before we shoot in January - here is a brief update of where we're up to.

Isadora Suite and Matthiou Pollier who are working with me on the production design and costumes are currently negotiating with Australian Fashion Designers to dress our 21st Century stars. This is wonderful and very exciting.
The initial casting is on the way, and just as we did the main character in Poland we are going to do here, we will cast LUKE first, and then match the other 2 main women around him. It's an interesting alchemical process, I have a very strong feeling about what Luke's energy might be like, but someone quite opposite might turn up and be perfect for the role.
Clearing copyright, and licencing for some of the music in the film. Although most of it will be written especially for the film there are some tracks which we will be buying, and at this stage we can't reveal who that might be but its very exciting!!
Final tweaking of the script is taking place, and also am writing down notes for the cut aways that might be important in the gluing of the scenes together. There are a couple of aspects that get left behind when the heat of the moment during shooting takes over, these are stills (ie photos for and of the film) and cutaways.
Location hunting. Sounds ease doesn't it. Just get into the car and look for locations. There are about 30 locations in Belladonna, and while some locations may be perfect they might not be perfect for shooting or lighting. Interiors always need to be bigger then they appear in the film. All that chunky film equipment takes so much space. This is going to be a challenge especially for the scenes at the Naturopaths office. (They tends to be rather small)
We are also starting to round up the crew and all the people who could help us, luckily I am surrounded by wonderful friends with abundant heart.

This whole adventure really is an astonishing process. Belladonna is the Glass Kingdoms first feature and although along the way we have collected many of the skills required, now is our opportunity to use all of them together and gather a bunch of new ones.
You certainly have to nerves of steel and learn to trust. Because we are also Co - Producers on this movie so many legal aspects have to be tied and finalised before we shoot. It allows me to really refine my left and right brain skills and realise that all things are equally important.
www.glasskingdom.com.au

What Colour is that?

2007-09-17T11:36:00.000+10:00

BELLADONNA as you may have gathered by now is being shot in two seperate shoots, one in Poland and the other in Australia. We are currently in the gap between the two, so we're in post and pre production at the same time. One of the things that we are working on is a couple of simple effects shots for the 15th century section of the film. I'm working on on one of these currently using a combination of Terragen (landscape generating software) and Shake (compositing software).
The shot I'm working on at the moment is an establishing shot of Jadwiga and Jan's house which intercuts with the rest of the sequence shot in Sanok. Even though we are not doing the final DI grade till we get to Poland next year, to complete the post production we would like to do a test grade now of a few shots, for our own reference and to allow us to match the effects shots too. Now this is the first time we have worked on a DI ( digital intermediate, essentially colour correcting the film digitally rather than the traditional process on film), so we are currently trying to find a cost effective way to be able to calibrate the colour, brightness, gamma and contrast we see on our monitor to match what the image will look like once it is transfered to film.
With HD and SD this is easy all you need is a calibrated trustworthy monitor, with a DI the process is not so straight forward. The path these particular images will take is HDCAM (HD gamma YUV) to 1080P rgb 8 bit quicktime files to 2k dpx files to a film recorder outputing to neg stock (processing variations) then printed and projected , crikey! what a twisted alphabet soup path of potential confusion . Now each of these stages inevitably involves changes to the way the image looks, so the solution is to know how the image you are looking at at each stage relates to the final projected image. This is achieved through the use of files called 3D LUT's. These are essentially a calibrated correction the program you are using to view the image uses to correct the image to appear as it will in the finished projected image. The LUT doesn't actually change the file, just how it appears.
The Two solutions for generating these 3D LUT files that we are currently investigating are Cinespace 2.5 from Rising Sun research and 3D LUT cube builder from Digital praxis.
Another use for these 3D Lut files will be in the monitoring of the image from the RED camera. We are going to use of 3D lut 's loaded into a Blackmagic design HDlink pro to view the red camera output on an Apple 23" lcd. This should allow us to monitor onset how the final image will appear. Throught the use of different 3D LUT's we should also be able to view differnt grading options live.
So what colour is it really is really all very relative. One of the things that is immediately apparent is that almost endless digital options invite constant (time consuming ) experimentation, that doesn't necessarily lead to the detailed and instinctive image making control knowledge that can come from using one film emulsion for a long time.

Are we all making thesame film?

2007-09-11T14:29:00.000+10:00

www.belladonnathemovie.com
One of the most important aspect of making a cohesive movie is to make sure everyone is making the same film. That sound really obvious but not often the case. As you can imagine there are alot of interpretations of the past. There is the beautiful almost overbearing world of 'The Girl with the Pearl Earring' or the grittiness of Polanski's Macbeth, and everyone who comes to work on a film brings a whole lot of personal references of those periods. One of the most valuable lessons that came my way was to 'never assume anything' and when someone says "it's not a problem" begin to worry. So at the beginning I had shown the heads of department all the critical visual references, including the colour palette for BELLADONNA as a starting point for discussion and further development. To ensure that everyone understood we were not trying to re-create the most perfect 15th century location, but capture the essence of time before running water. The way I like to work is to start of with the visual references and then see what the heads of department come up with...ideas, inspirations and improvements, to feel they have a creative investment in this collaborative process. But never assume....come costume time and I'm presented with bright purple tights and a 1920's riding jacket, yes the perfect colour just the wrong era. So what happened?

I hear that Poland is bountiful with autocratic directors who don't entertain the idea of collaboration and apparently love to yell. So when this young director comes along and asks for their creative input, it must have been interpreted as 'anything goes,' or just get the job done. Well, a very tense meeting followed. I guess every country has a historical, culture foundation and what seems 'normal' in one is not in another. Polands whole shift from Communism to Democracy has had deep ramification on the patterns and attitudes of people lives. Interestingly these' misunderstanding occurred only with crew over 50 years of age.
(not all but most)
Regarding ' its not a problem' this is one of the most misunderstood, vague and unhelpful terms you can possibly hear when you're in a foreign country, there is a lot of money involved and enormous amount of work has to be done within a relatively short period of time. what does it mean? "Don't worry I'm taking care of my department everything is going to be OK." But I've seen the bright purple tights so I'm beginning to feel sick in the stomach.
Or does it mean I haven't done my work and by saying "No problem" you wont push me on it, or, there really isn't a problem and I'm a cool cowboy.
So now my responses are. "Please elaborate" "I know there is no problem but how have you solved this?" or " Show me where you're up to, see how I can help"
This sounds really obvious but beware of vagueness.

BELLADONNA WEBSITE GOES LIVE

2007-09-04T14:05:00.000+10:00

Tonight our website goes live
For those of you who have found the blog through www.belladonnathemovie.com I invite you to read the previous entires, keep in mind we're still hopping from the shoot Poland, to all the pre-production stuff that's happening now in Australia. For those of you who have been tracking our progress have a look at our website www.belladonnathemovie.com

Casting the actors

2007-09-03T14:58:00.000+10:00

I knew that one of the first things on arrival in Poland I wanted to get done was to cast the actors. By now another location hunt has been organised this time to the other side of Poland, so with that on the horizon we started the actor search. Before we arrived in Poland the casting director had already chosen few actors to attend the audition, and we had our eye on a very particular actress who I was sure was going to play JADWIGA ( the lead character in the 15th century). When we arrived it turned out that the casting director did not feel comfortable speaking English so the baton was passed onto Marta and me. Casting for me is a love, hate experience. I really enjoy doing the initial part of the casting where you choose the actors from their photos and videos. Its like choosing the right colours for a painting. We made the decision to fly Daryl from Australia to play 15th Century JAN. (Below you'll see some before and after photos of him, lucky he looks good as a blond). Daryl has a very earthy energy I always imagined that Jadwiga would be ethereal. So the actress who we imagined would play Jadwiga did the audition and was great, but she had to come back for another audition against the actor who was going to play PAWEL.
The actresses in Poland are pretty amazing. The down fall of casting in Poland is that acting in film is perceived by far an inferior activity compared to acting in the theatre (which we later find out through a very unfortunate example).
So just as we think we can finish the female casting in walks Katarzyna Mazurek. At first I thought she was too young for Daryl and somehow too small. But as soon as she started acting something absolutely magical happened. One of the things I got them to do was just to chop some herbs ( as Jadwiga does that alot in the film) and my direction was to 'just chop, and not act' Much harder then it appears. She just did it... and then when I asked her to paraphrase the scene with her own words, and she was so present.
Now we had a choice on our hands, but I knew that situation like this always resolve themselves as they very soon did. Malgosia (our Polish Co-producer) warned me that good looking male actors in Poland very rare, but I was pleasantly surprised. As always in audition you get a couple of actors who turn out to be really inappropriate for the role, and as soon as they walk into the room you know, firstly they don't look anything like their photo and secondly they all want to be Robert De Nero. So Robert, after Robert, came in, there were a few Al Pacino's, and then in walked Pawel. Instantly I knew he was right for the part, I was so deeply hoping that he could act. The actors take their craft so seriously they really care which is a breath of fresh air. So he was great and when we matched him up with the women, the choice was obvious. It was obvious because Katarzyna was able to forget about her apperance and just be, and able to listen. Perhaps the beauty of the perviously prefered actress provented her from being 'present' and 'real'. Katarzyna had quite a task of asking her theatre headmaster for time off, to shoot the film. You would think that in your final year of acting, just before you enter the 'real world' the teachers would encourage outside work, especially when its' an International Feature Film.
She ended up crawling on her knees, as he sat in his office chair, with his hands crossed over his fat stomach enjoying the the spectacle of a young actress praying for his forgivess, as she dared to step into the filthy world of film making. Ohhh life!!!

What's it all about grasshopper?

2007-08-28T14:42:00.000+10:00

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.

Know Thyself

2007-08-27T15:10:00.000+10:00

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.

Pre Production for the 21st Century Begins

2007-08-20T12:54:00.000+10:00

Today you might notice that the text appears in BLUE, this is to help identify my "travel in time" kind of blog. The black text has referred to our time shooting the 15th Century in Poland and the blue the 21st Century. At the moment we are in pre and post production. So far we have seen the most magnificent footage from Poland and are now rolling ahead with the rest, being 80% of the film, which is set in Melbourne Australia. Our beautiful website www.belladonnathemovie.com is almost finished, I've just seen the designs for the Belladonna logo and they are fabulous, now we have to make a decision on which one best represents the film. We want to use a logo that ties the 15th Century and the 21st without being too olde worlde. Here are some of the choices. The ones which most likely we will use we ares still refining. Annika

Attention, a Female Director

2007-08-19T15:13:00.000+10:00

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

A rough technical overview.

2007-08-16T17:28:00.000+10:00

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 .

Meet the Crew

2007-08-14T12:02:00.000+10:00

So we arrive in Warsaw the capitol of Poland and within few days we are whisked away to our first production meeting. Our production office is at Poland's version of Hollywood, or film town. Many films have been made here and the particular building in which we have our production office used to be the production centre for Schindler's list. We hope this is a good omen. Malgosia was a little embarrased about the look od the tin shed but her production manager told her to say it has a Kieslowki flovour. Which of course worked on me because he's one of my favourite film makers. It actually was quite confronting to walk into an office with lots of people, not having spoken much Polish for a a fair few years. Needless to say I resorted to English as I talked about the film and tried to convey its essence.(It seems that most Poles speak English) I think that making a film is like conducting an orchestra. Each department has to do their best in order to make a beautiful well tuned piece of music. I found out over the shooting period, that my perception of collaboration and theirs seemed at times worlds apart. We lived in an apartment on the outskirts of Warsaw near a beautiful park, it was summer and a glorious time to be there, we were very excited about looking for the location and finding the actors and getting to know all our crew. I pretty much knew instantly as we walked into the production office that the two young women Marta and Magda were going to make everything OK. Which, in the deepest darkest part of this process turned out to be true. Just as the Country of Poland has changed and morphed into its version of the West so have a lot of Poles, some of them are the most remarkable humans able to do anything, under any strain, other are broken by the process. We shot some footage like a diary log and hope to have it up on U-Tube soon.

Marta and Magda in the production office. D.O.P and the Girls

The making of the movie begins

2007-08-12T15:57:00.001+10:00

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

Manifesto for this Blog

2007-08-07T13:03:00.001+10:00

I guess 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