Drool worthy production design

I recently reviewed "Bathory: Countess of Blood" over on my web-channel, Haunting TV, and I enjoyed the production design of the film so much I just wanted to bring some of my thoughts over to you guys here.

First off, if you have never seen "Bathory" here's my review:

Now for the fun stuff,a slew of screen caps and my random thoughts about the film's design for you to enjoy:

The Costume design in this movie was stunning. And the cinematographer's use of lighting and framing to make shots feel like 17th century oil paintings was stunning.

Also, The props department really had their work cut out for them. I mean, just look at this painting! I wonder if they photo-shopped it and then had it printed out on canvas or if they actually hired someone to paint this. I can't imagine someone painting multiples of these though- since this painting goes through a lot in the course of the film which meant they would have needed quite a few duplicates.

And then there were the incredibly iconic wigs. The wool wigs really added a fantastical flare to the style of the characters in this film. I kept finding myself going- how on earth do you make human hair do that?! The answer is, you don't. You make animal hair to it.

Now, let's just admire this carriage and the horses tackle set for a moment. Yep. Pretty well crafted props-work, yet again.

According to the information I've been able to find, the movie was filmed in Slovakia. But you're welcome to correct me if I'm wrong. I do think, wherever they found their locations, they made incredibly good use of them. And really paid attention to hiding modern details.

Look at that chair! Look at the witch's wig! There are so many great combinations of textures and details in the movie. It made for a very rich viewing experience.

This hat. This hat was the painter's solution to painting in the darkness of the cave, and I thought that was such a cool concept. I wonder how worried that actor was about his head catching on fire during filming though...

This was one of very few sets that really felt like a constructed room, or one that was created specifically for the film. But they did such a good job with the construction of it that the only reason I think it might be constructed is because of how free the angles and camera movement were within the room. The camera's movement sort of hinted at walls being moved around... but without asking questions of people who specifically on the film, I can only guess. But I digress. What I did want to point out was how well composed this set it. You have the red of the drying clothing adding life to the edges of the frame and complimenting the blood red water of the Countess's bath, with enough visible light sources to trick the eye into thinking the lighting feels natural.

This movie was such a spectacular looking one, and I'll probably return to it again in the future when I am in need of some production design inspiration.

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If you're interested in seeing more image collections like this, I post a ton a research for projects and reviews over on my Pintrest board.

The Babadook: Crafting it's Reality Through Psychology

I love watching movies with good production design. Not just the ones that fill the world on screen with interesting things and visually stimulating sets. I love to see ones that fill the world with visual subtext and say something deeper about the story. I often feel like that extra layer of depth is left out of people's work, even my own. Especially in indie film, it can be hard to add the details that create that additional layer of character to a space when you have no time and no budget to spare beyond the necessities. So whenever I find a project that actually does it well, I get incredibly excited. I watched the horror movie The Babadook recently and I enjoyed the heck out of it. It was scary, yes, and had some beautiful cinematography, and great performances, but I couldn't stop geeking out over the production design on this movie. If you want a good chuckle you can pop over to my youtube channel to hear my overly-excited review about it:

www.youtube.com/hauntingtelevision

The Babadook is a movie about a single mother who is struggling to take care of her son after the death of her husband. One night her son finds a mysterious and disturbing book about the Babadook and frightening things begin to occur in their lives. The Babdook is an Australian horror movie directed by Jennifer Kent released in 2014 and it created quite the hubub around the horror community. Everything about this film was masterfully done. The direction was spot-on. The score was beautifully woven into the film. And there were some powerful performances that were Oscar-worthy by Elsie Davis, who played the mother Amelia. This movie felt like you were finally seeing something fresh and yet instantly classic from the horror genre. So if you haven't seen it yet. please do. And then come right on back so you can join the conversation about the equally spectacular production design.

**** Spoiler Alert*****

I'm talking specific details here which will absolutely give away too much in the pursuit of scholarly analysis. So if you want to avoid me giving things away, come back after you have watched the movie please.

***Spoiler Alert***

Here, I would like to discuss a little bit further about how well Alex Holmes, the production designer, succeeded in capturing and enhancing the subtext of the film. As I mention in my review, the mother character, Amelia, is suffering from depression after her husband passed away in a car accident the day of her son's birth. And her depression has prevented her from connecting to her son emotionally. The state of being has also crippled her in her day to day life and you can see evidence of that all around her. Her hair is a frizzy unkempt mess, her kitchen always has dishes and food left out on the counter and all of the loving details are missing from her home. 

What do I mean by the loving details? I mean there are no pictures in her room, hardly any knickknacks in the main rooms and so few personal effects in the space she inhabits. It's physically showing how absent she is in her existence. She's there, but she isn't invested or interested in her world. This point is made even stronger when you find out that all of  the things connecting to her late husband have been locked up in the basement. And the only time she reaches out it is to her late husband's violin.

Her depression is made to feel inescapable to the audience and it's conveyed through the masterfully crafted color palette. The rich blues of her home make the darkest moments of this movie seem like Amelia and her son are drowning in this nightmarish dream-reality. The color design ties right into the lead characters as well. The son, Samuel, is dressed in the same grey and blue tones as the house. Which, if viewed through Amelia's eyes it shows that she can barely see him as a person, and instead he kind of fades into the scenery of the world around her. The appearance of the Babadook book marks very clearly in it's garish red hue the moment that their world begins to change. It's the only thing in the entire movie that is so saturated and strong in it's color tone. It practically screams, "Danger!" "Don't touch it!"

This is where the psychology of the production design goes one step beyond mirroring Amelia's mental existence and gets into manipulating the audience's emotions. The blues, grays, and blacks in the house are so oppressive that the audience is drawn into the same mindset of the exhausted Amelia.  And as the lighting in the house gets darker, the moments of set dressing brilliance start to play with the viewer. Because the tension builds for so long, you get to the point where you start expecting the Babadook to start popping out all over the place. Instead there are all of these human shaped blobs of darkness strategically placed all over the house to get your heart pumping. It starts with the clothing pinned up on the wall in the basement, which is an intentional jump scare. But the technique continues. In the kid's bedroom, his wardrobe gapes open revealing a terrifying void. In her bedroom, the mirror keeps revealing movement that draws your eye to the shadows surrounding them and not to mention that disconcerting dress form in the corner of her bedroom. I kept expecting them to replace it with the Babadook every time they cut back in that direction. It was a really great choice to make, because it gets the viewer watching the edges of the frame for the Babadook well before the creature makes a proper appearance.

I would love to see more films that take the time to really flesh out the environments in a more emotional way and I'm certainly going to be keeping these thoughts in mind for my next project.

'Deep in the Darkness' NYC Premiere details

So far I've tracked down one of the theaters showing Deep in the Darkness. 



The NYC premiere will be happening at Cinema Village. The screening time will be at 9pm.

For more information about parking, directions etc you can call up the theater at 212-924-3363 or visit their website at www.cinemavillage.com

Seating's limited, so grab you ticket soon.
Hope to see you there!

Gearing up for this Sunday's shoot

Soooo much to finishing up before this weekend's shoot! Make-up tests to finish, props to shop out, last minute casting holes to fill- I swear we'll get the hang of this eventually...

Deep in the the Darkness is hitting theaters soon!

My next feature is coming soon to a theater near you! Well, if you happen to be lucky enough to live near NYC or LA that is. What do you want? We're still awesomely indie. ;-)

This newest feature I production designed for the Chiller Channel with Synthetic Cinema International. This was an absolute blast to make. We were camped out in Moodus CT- slumming it in some creaking Victorian houses that were starting to show their years of neglect. This is a town who, in real life, has been home to mysterious thunderous sounds booming from inside the ground. But that, really, was just a brilliant coincidence.

Our movie is based on the novel of the same name by Micheal Liamo, which if you're too anxious to wait until the end of the month to find out more about the movie you could skip ahead and read the book: it's currently available to purchase on Amazon

Deep in the Darkness which stars Sean Patrick Thomas, Dean Stockwell, Kristen Bush, and Blanche Baker will be premiering in theaters on April 29 and on the Chiller Channel on May 23. For details on that tune in again soon.

But enough gibber gabber from me. Here's the important part, the link to the trailer on Youtube

Blood, Sweat, and Google Sketch-up

Since you've been such good readers all year I have an early Christmas present for you.

A tale of perseverance, blood shed and Google sketch-up renderings. 

Once upon a time I was the production designer for an amazing little indie project. I had found myself in a position of power on a project that felt like I was heading off to climb mount Everest in a t-shirt. And I wanted to do everything in my power to not only survive, but to conquer the beast.

During this project I was actual able to do some real pre-pro. And I took that to mean make renderings of everything. One of the most important scenes was to take place outdoors, lit by fire and artificial moonlight alone. It was getting down to the last minute to find just the right location for it. And after much hunting we decided on one that had a stone tower set at the top of a cliff. The plan was to shoot this pivotal scene at the top of the tower so the whole world could be seen disappearing into the distance behind the actors.  Epic, right?

I, on my quest to be the overzealous designer, decided that I wanted to do real, honest to goodness renderings of the location, measured out and everything. My researching of the interwebs lead me to the realization that the tower was way too narrow for the scene we had dreamed up. So I grabbed my sketchbook and measuring tape and went to the location on my own to see what could be done about it's short comings.

When I arrived I discovered that the roads to the top of the cliff were all blocked off. But my spirit of adventure was not to be dampened. I packed my purse up, tightened my brand new work boots and started my hike. At first I enjoyed the scenery, the fresh air and sunlight, happily taking a pictures on the way. 

An hour later, my feet already sore, I made it to the top. And the tower's top was, as I'd feared,  too small for our plans. I took more pictures, measured things, noted what few outlets there were, and then headed back down.

It was the most painful walk of my life. 

Remember when I mentioned the brand new work boots? Yeah, they were steel toed work boots. You should never wear steel toe boots while hiking. Ever. By the end of my hike my brand new boots were full of freshly shed blood. And-- to put it lightly-- the heels of my feet were no more.

At any rate the ordeal was not in vain. I got the information I needed to design around the size problem. Below you see the fruit of my labors. Also, I'd like to mention that these were my first attempts at creating organic shapes with Google sketch-up.

ground plan of the area

GP- close-up on the scene

For the next two renderings I printed a screen view of the Sketch-up model to PDF, and then altered it in photoshop for a little lighting enhancement.

google sketch up model

post Photoshop

Google Sketch-up model

post Photoshop

They're not amazing, but I was pretty satisfied at my initial stab at organic Sketch-up shapes. And they more than certainly got the job done.

And yes, my heels grew back no problem. It was a dumb decision to go on that hike, but I'm still glad I went. Because now, when things get rough, I can always think back to that hike and be reminded that no matter how bad it may get, I've already survived worse for the sake of art.

Merry Christmas! May your new shoes remain blood free and your head full of determined creativity.

Brainstorming how to make gunshots for film

First idea: fill your own paintball pellets with dust for dust shots or a teensy bit of gun powder for spark shots.

http://www.hustlepaintball.com/Major-Paintball-Powder-Mine-Fill-4-5-pounds

The Major Paintball Mine-Fill Smoke Simulation Powder. It is used in most mines to simulate the effect of smoke following mine detonation.

Second idea, set of non-launching fireworks or firecrackers remotely:

http://www.predatorpyro.com/

20' of regular slow burning cannon fuse. Burn rate = about 21 seconds per foot. $5.00

Pack comes with 10 connectors. lay fuses inside the grippers, fold it, and you have a solid connection. So all you have to do is light one use and you can have a whole line of things go off. $2.50 a pack.

We could use the fuse and connector with small fireworks, hide them under dirt, and watch them go off as if it were a rain of gunshots hitting the floor.

http://www.hooksettfireworks.com/category/FUSE.html

We could fuse some firecrackers together for some safer sparking action:

$0.25 for a pack of 12

jumping jacks, strip of 100. 6 long strips of jumping jacks. $6.00

Another thought is to add elements in the set that show damage to things, like smoke:

http://www.hustlepaintball.com/Sport-Smoke-PB-200-Smoke-Grenade

The Sport Smoke PB-200 smoke bomb is designed for the paintballer and hobbyist alike. Both compact and affordable, the PB-200 is the most affordable Smoke Bomb, and is ideal for many applications.

Features:

• Fuse ignition: no Haz-Mat shipping charge
• Thick smoke, good hang time
• Easy to handle and carry
• Biodegradable
• "Cool burning" Non-Pyrotechnic Smoke
• Made in the USA
• Fire Mechanism: Fuse
• Smoke Output: 20,000 cubic feet
• Duration: 75 sec
• Dimensions: 2.75"×1.5"
• Weight (lb): .2

*Haz-Mat shipping note: This grenade is NOT subject to a Haz-Mat fee, as it requires an open flame to light it. All other Sport Smoke grenades are subject to Haz-Mat fees. All products with pull ring igniters subject to a $30.00 Haz-Mat fee per box imposed by the carrier plus a $5 handling fee.

I'm going to have to test these thoughts out before we get to set. And I'll certainly be posting the video here once I do :-)

Pre-production vs Mother Nature

My current round of pre-production is based almost entirely in a cabin in the woods. Thick forest, next to a lake, a waterfall nearby, it is picture perfect. On the other hand I get eaten by dreadful swarms of Mosquitos everyday while dripping sweat in the muggy 90 degree weather. This month is most certainly going to end up feeling like summer camp all over again. The intermingled scents of bugspray and sunscreen, arts and crafts, hiking through the woods, battling poison ivy and no running water. Shoots like this make you grateful for the simple comforts of home and air conditioning. But it is going to be totally worth it, this cabin is spectacular! It's going to make for one grand looking horror film :-)

Torches, my how-to research for your viewing pleasure

I've actually done torches before (see "The Word" trailer), it was exhilerating! Well, afterwards, during it was seriously terrifying lighting a whole scene on a windy hill top with 2 small fire extinguishers and some buckets of sand and water to prevent any spread of flamey death. So this time around, I'm doing my safety research and figuring out the best ways to build torches that won't drip jets of flame down their sides.

Also, minimum, 5 full size extinguishers on set at all times. Just in case... Enough worrying. Let's talk fire!

This was the best how-to I found while hunting around the interwebs:
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-torch-for-less-than-a-dollar-%3A-/

I've taken some of my research finds and mashed 'em together into this tutorial:

Step 1: Gather your materials.

1. tiki fluid, or if you want to go full medieval, pig or beef fat
2. 100% cotton cloth- because things made of of plastic not only drip and stay in a burning blob on whatever it drips on, but also release all of those delectable chemicals into your eagerly waiting lungs.
3. hammer
4. staple gun
5. staples
6. chicken wire or baling wire
7. a sturdy stick or stick substitute
8. something to soak the torch end in, half a can, a metal pail, etc.

http://www.instructables.com

Step 2: take that stick and staple fabric onto it.
Step 3: wrap the fabric around tightly and staple it again on the ending edge to secure it.

http://www.instructables.com

Step 4: To keep chunks of burning from falling off the torch, wrap baling wire or chicken wire around the cloth.

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Torches

Step 5: Soak the fabric in tiki fluid
Step 6: let the extra accelerant drip off.
Step 7: Light it up!

"The Word" feature film 2013

Other thoughts for safe(er) torches are:

• Buy the fire breather type torches and texture them to look like a stick.
• Or, buy the fire-breather wicks and then take a small section of a metal rod and hide it in the top of whatever prop styled solution I want. 2x4, stick, goat leg, etc. Then I can light and replace the wicks a lot easier.

http://www.firemecca.com

As for the safety aspect- can I just have a firefighter hang out on set? That'd be awesome.

Back from the twilight of filming

Hello world! I'm back from the land of feature filming again! And as usual it's a total culture shock. It's wonderful to get reconnected to what's going on in the world, see your family and friends, and start eating way less comfort food, but I sure do miss the crew from this film. It was such a blast, everyone had such a great attitude and work ethic. It was also so much fun to see all the special effects make-up work and to take part in my first green screen sequence, and some of our stunts totally made my month. I'm already jonesing for our next project together.

 The good news for the readjustment-to-real-life phase, is that i'm not going to be off set for too long. weekend after next I have my next project popping up. It's a short called the Firefly Jar. And i'm stoked about this one because it's a whole new group of people to work with and a genera i haven't dabbled in for almost a year. This one's a drama, with visual effects and wish jars and magicians. So, rather than let the post-shoot-blues get me down, I'll just keep looking ahead to my next couple projects. Bring it on summer! I'm ready for you.

Getting hired to the art department- portfolio and website

The portfolio.

A visual representation of your work ready to hand off to a potential employer.

Traditionally speaking a portfolio is a sleek little black binder with an eye catching cover and your resume as the first page. Followed by your strongest examples of how amazing you are at the things you create.

In the past I have gone this route. I pick some amazing stills/pictures from past projects- photoshop them together in a collage form so that each set of facing pages is one project.

But when it comes to filmmakers- we like technology, and if we're looking at your work we don't usually have time to physically look through a binder of work. Your first step to getting an employer's attention need to be online.

Here are some examples of some stunning production design and art department crew websites:

Alan Hook; Production Designer for One tree hill and Artistic director for Iron Man 3 (and tons of other projects)
http://www.alanhook.com

Tom Sanders: Production designer for films such as Saving Private Ryan, and Braveheart
http://www.tomsprojects.net

James Merifield: Production designer for Deep Blue Sea, and Brighton Rock.
His website is super sexy, with an amazing reel on the splash page, and a very sleek example of a resume (CV)
http://www.jamesmerifield.com


My website, compare to those, is a sad little bleating lamb with a stomache upset by gorging on rocks. But at least it exists and it's a quick fix to my website problem for the time being. The nice thing about my website it that it was free to create- which on my budget, is a very important trait. I've been using webs.com I get my work out there. It's no hand crafted website, but again I note the free aspect and it is very user friendly. I have my resume, contact info, photographic portfolio divided by project, and a hand dandy video section that will play youtube videos, which is all I really need to show trailers and clips of past projects. Another fun feature webs.com offers? mobile phone formats. So people can easily view your work on whatever device they're using.

I know it's just a start, and I have been planning out how I want my sexy custom website to look and function. But it's a much slower process, since I'm not ready to hire someone to make it happen for me. Until then, I begin my process of collecting clip to use in my reel.

Google Sketch-up renderings

As promised, here are a few screen shots from a Google sketch-up model I did for a project last year. One of the nice features Sketch-up has is you can position the camera anywhere inside the model and then look around the room to set up the shot easily.

I think I'm going to use this in the future to make storyboards for things. Draft it once and then all you have to do is add figures and crop it down to the right aspect ratio.

office ground plan

view towards the door

Over the shoulder view

seating area

Top 10 free apps to make life on set easier

I love my iPad. It has made working on set so incredibly stream lined and I use tons of apps to improve my productivity. And because I am forever on a budget, I use tons of free apps to simplify my life.


Rendering on the go:

Paint gallery: so far this is the best fully free painting/sketching app I have found. No layering capability, but it works quite well for quick sketches.









Concepts: another sketching program. In it's free form it is ok to use, the app design is much more professional than paint gallery. And this app can do layers, like importing a picture to trace, and it has a far greater selection of tools and textures to work with, but to you have to purchase the full app to enjoy all the neat features. It does seem like it would be worth it, so the next time I find paint gallery isn't full-filling my needs I will probably purchase it.

Magic Plan: The coolest drafting app ever! Use your device to take pictures of every corner of the room and it will measure and draft out a ground plan. It works best on empty rooms, but it is such a time saver to use during location scouting. I freakin' LOVE this app. It saved me hours of measuring and made it so easy to import into google sketch-up to do my renderings and ground plans. Plus, I must say, it really made me feel like a tech/art wizard.



Note taking:

Evernote: Evernote is a whole slew of digital products that can all be synced up between devices and is a great way to keep track of the never ending torrent of information you get while working. I use it to take notes during meetings, make to-do lists, costume plots and write stories. And, here's my favorite dumb artist reason to love it- I'm very fond of the logo. Elephants are cool.







Audio memos- free: I like to take voice recordings during meetings, interviews, and when I have a sudden idea. My favorite use of this application is while on set. If I suddenly have a list of things to prep I'll record it so I can play it back as I gather things together. Much quicker than jotting it down.









Film document management:

ibooks: Fun little trick I learned from a wise UPM, open the pdfs of your script, schedues, and other paperwork in safari, and then open it in ibooks. Now you have all of the documents at your fingertips without lugging around a ream or three of paper.







Random helpful apps:
WhatKnot: an app that will tell you what Knots to use and when you should use them. I wish I'd had this during tech class is college.









My Script Calculator: hand write in the equation- even complicated ones involving co-sins ect, and it will solve it. I love this app so much :)









File Sharing:

Dropbox: ah, a classic. share all those lovely files and pictures you've been making while on set.

And last but not least,
Pintrest: my love for whom I have spoken about in a previous posting, but I will say it again; all my research right where I need, it all the time. <3







And there you have it, my top 10 favorite free apps that make my job easier to do.

Script breakdown

Pretend you are a production designer; feels good right ;-)

Anyway, you now have a brand-new script in front of you. What do you do now?

Step one, just read it through. no thinking, no note taking, just read it to experience it.

Good job. Now, go back to page one with either a bunch of highlighters or using Adobe reader's highlighter function and get ready to make your breakdown. Now I said production designer, but this a time honored process for any decision-maker on set. (PD, AD, Artistic Director, Props master, Wardrobe Supervisor, you get the picture.)

Breakdowns are the skeleton you will need to get started on the project ahead of you. I like to pick a different color for each of the following categories as I delve into the script.

1. Scene description- where, time of day, general descriptive notes in the script "INT. Grandma's house, Morning"
2. Weather because sometimes, they want it to rain or be foggy, and you get to rig it up- "rain trickles past the window"
3. Set dressing- highlight any specific set dressing notes "the ancient couch groaned beneath his weight as he sat."
4. Props  (including vehicles) - "He sipped shakily from the chipped blue tea cup"
5. Characters- "JAMES walked into the room"
6. Wardrobe (aka costumes) often have distressing (mud, blood, damage) and I always note that in red, because the continuity of these things is always important to keep track of- "his shirt was soaked with rain and covered in blood, mud coated the cuffs of his jeans"
7. SFX (special effects like monster make-up or wounds)- "He winces as he pours rubbing alcohol over the gash on his shoulder."

Once you've made it through the script it's time to open up a spreadsheet. I tend to use Googledocs- because it's free and accessible anywhere (just make sure to make it offline accessible. there's nothing worse than relying on the cloud for your information and then having no signal). Excel or Evernote works also.

Next make a three sheets in your new workbook. They should be "Wardrobe" [which will have all the wardrobe, character, and SFX/make-up notes], "Props", and "Set Dressing" [which will also be home to any weather notes]. 

Each sheet should be set up as follows: the first column should be scene number, followed by location, followed by the category in question.

Check out the example below:

Ta-da! You just made a breakdown. From here you can make up your budgets, checklists, and track your purchases.