Red reflections 1

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

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

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

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

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

"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.

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

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?

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?

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

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

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?

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

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

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