YEAR’S END

This is my Bolex camera. It shoots 16mm film. It’s still loaded in fact. I came across it in the back of my closet, buried behind several boxes of old puppets. I shot The Lady of Names with this camera. The last frame it ever exposed was on November 9, 2009 (I kept good hand written notes back then) It’s heavy, its design is not very ergonomic and some might say it’s not much to look at but I love this camera in the same way people love old cars. I’ll never use it again (advances in film technology rendered it obsolete a long time ago) but I’ll never get rid of it. One day, when I have a little more space and my filming days are over, I will sit it on a shelf where I can see it, a piece of art from a time long past. Happy New Year everyone.

QUIET ON THE SET

After dozens of lighting adjustments and several green screen tests, FILTH-015-001 is in the can and the cameras are rolling again which means, it’s prediction time. Surprisingly, the scene inside this room is made up of only 33 shots before the action moves to the balcony. I’m hoping to finish those shots by the first week of February, spin the table and be outside before March. Sounds reasonable. It feels good to be animating again. I picked a nice easy shot to start with. It helps build the confidence for the action to come. These pictures are NOT of the shot but illustrate what I finally settled on in terms of lighting and background. I’ve always been a fan of before and after stills so I thought I’d post one myself.

ALMOST THERE

I still need to adjust the lighting but the set is more or less ready. All the set dressing needs to be glued down and there are still a few minor pieces to be added but all in all things are looking good. It’s taken a month to get to this point which is what I was hoping for in terms of time frame. The background city was built in photoshop and keyed into this test frame. Not bad. A few more tests and I’ll be ready to start shooting again.

THE LITTLE THINGS

Building the guts of a set is the easy part. The walls, the floor, even the bed and the dresser … no problem, it’s the details that make it come alive. Before this set is finished it needs to be dressed with empty pizza boxes, beer cans or bottles, stains on the mattress, a pillow, some newspapers scattered around, wire or hooks on the wall, a torn poster, peeling wallpaper, an old phone, an end table, torn curtains, some milk crates…etc. So while it may look good right now, it’s not yet lived in.

TAKE ME HOME

Work continues on the new set. I’ve roughed out the lighting and things are moving quickly. The city was added with photoshop (it’s not my work … yet) and I think this test gives you a pretty good idea of the look I’m going for. This scene takes place both in the room and out on the balcony so I’m building the set so that once I’m done filming inside I can simply spin the table and continue shooting outside. January is looking very likely.

FILTH TURNS ONE

On November 27, 2016 the first draft of FILTH was completed. In my eyes that’s the day FILTH was born. A lot has happened over the course of the first year of production, most of it good, some of it bad (remember the foam rubber fiasco?) but I would have to say that this has been an especially smooth production so far. Adversity my build character and make for good reading but if the second year proves as uneventful as the first that would be just fine with me. FILTH was meant as a change of pace for me and it’s proving to be a very good decision. I’ve said it a number of times but it’s worth repeating, I’ve never made a film like this and I’m very curious to see how it is received. BTW … the next major set is now under construction with early January being the target for animation.