Tagged: film making

Expanding

I’ve enjoyed keeping a website for some years now. It’s mainly shown photos, but recently I’ve started a new section showing films.

At the moment, the section has two films: Nod, a short I made some years ago that played at a few festivals;

and a scene from Fluid, my first feature film, which I completed last year and is currently being entered to festivals.

https://vimeo.com/162731955

More soon…

Radical!

I remember watching Lindsay Anderson‘s “If….” at the old Cornerhouse cinema in Manchester on a Saturday afternoon in the early 90s. I didn’t know much about the film, beyond its influence from Jean Vigo’s Zero de Conduite (still one of my favourite films) and that it starred Malcolm McDowell. By the time the closing credits rolled, I was stunned by what I had seen. I couldn’t move from my seat until the lights came up.

Since then, however, I had seen little of Anderson’s work, beyond some free cinema screenings at the ICA and a TV broadcast screening of “Oh Lucky Man”, so it was with pleasure and enthusiasm that I accepted an invitation from a friend to attend a seniors free talk on Lindsay Anderson at the BFI.

LindsayAnderson

A five man panel, including film critic David Robinson, film makers Mammon Hassan and Kevin Brownlow, producer Andrew Eaton  and writer Charles Drain, entertained the audience with anecdotes about Anderson’s work, interspersed with clips of documentaries and films by Anderson. The portrait that emerged was of a radical, revolutionary director who didn’t suffer fools, but inspired loyalty and some great film making from his colleagues.

An extraordinary moment occurred when the floor was opened to questions from the audience: more colleagues showed themselves. Old friends, collaborators, actors, relatives of crew members, critics… a plethora of individuals, all with their own view of Anderson and his work. They talked with such warmth and detail that I couldn’t help but want to turn to some of Anderson’s work in future.

More time-lapse

Editing on the film continues: I’m near the end of the second cut. I shot a number of time lapse sequences; here’s one I rejected for a number of reasons:

  • The climate wan’t too good; this was supposed to go with a late-Summer’s day… No.
  • Again, there was a slight shifting of position: very noticeable in time-lapse; the tripod has to be super-steady!
  • The time between shots was about two minutes. Pre-visualisation’s the thing: for sequences I’ve been using in the film, I’ve been shooting one image a minute. I may shoot some more with an image every 30 seconds.

Time consuming as they are, I’ve really enjoyed shooting time-lapse. In a way, they’re a symbol of the production process on this film so far: lots of little, steady steps; insignificant in themselves, but adding up to show real change. On with the second cut.

I shot a film

I’ve been away for a while.

Shortly after my last blog entry, I left my day job. I had been working in my particular job for ten years, on a rotating 24 hour shift pattern, with people I really enjoyed being around.

Despite the pay and benefits, I found that I was unable to do what I was yearning to do, so with some planning and some savings I did something that I never thought I’d do… or would advise anyone else to do: I resigned.

In the months since the big day, I’ve had insomnia, anxiety, huge amounts of fun, larger amounts of doubt and one or two worrying illness symptoms. That said, I wouldn’t change this experience for anything, mainly because right now I find myself editing my first feature film.

The shoot taught me a lot: preparation is key; choose your collaborators well; trust your actors. The main thing I learned from this shoot is that I want to shoot more: I’m writing as many ideas as I can come up with to make my next film. There are many other things I learned about equipment, directing actors and crew, locations, photography. I’m still learning.

One thing I realised is how little I know, about films, art, music, editing… I need to learn more, so right now, I feel like I’ve just begun school. I’m reading a lot more, watching a lot more, writing and photographing a lot more, listening more. I’m drawing and playing music regularly. I’m filling myself up.

In the mean time, I’m editing the first cut. All being good, the film should be complete in six months; a long way to go. We shall see…