The Story So Far…
In September 2005 I arrived in Munich and immediately thought it would be great to make a short here and make the most of the beautiful European backdrop. An Australian film set in Europe. How cool would that be? Then a couple of months later it started snowing and my initial thought that it would be great to make a short changed. Now I was thinking, I HAVE to make a short here in Munich while it’s snowing. It’s just too beautiful to pass up this opportunity. So over the next month I started thinking about ideas.
My previous shorts have been quite light hearted and comedic. For this next one I wanted to do something a bit darker and a little more dramatic. I decided it would be nice to do a spy thriller as I couldn’t imagine ever doing one in Australia because it just wouldn’t feel authentic but Munich is perfect for such a film and it’s very appealing to me to make a spy thriller. So my mind got thinking about it and one night when I couldn’t sleep I came up with a basic idea and wrote it down. I’ve always loved the graphic novel Button Man – The Killing Game by John Wagner and Arthur Ranson and I had recently watched Heat and Spy Game. I think these 3 things were my main inspiration. The idea was a bit convoluted and wasn’t quite working immediately. I spent about a month just thinking about it before writing anything else down. Any time I had a spare moment I would think about it, mostly on the bus and train on the way to work, trying to piece it all together.
Eventually one day it all clicked into place in my head and I started typing. Unfortunately I still have to work my day job so it took a couple of weekends and nights to have a 20 page 1st draft in hand. I showed it to a few people and they seemed to like it and naturally had a few comments. I thought hard about their comments and made a few changes that I liked and discarded some other ideas. It’s difficult with feedback sometimes because I think the most important thing is to identify which comments are actually better for the story and which are just things that a particular person would personally prefer to happen. So after several weeks and some more rewrites I had a 6th and fairly final draft.
My intention in the beginning was to shoot the film in German so that it feels even more authentic. At the moment I’m still undecided on that point but leaning more towards German with subtitles. Anyway a friend at work knew a writer, Dieter, who translated the script dialogue into Deutsch. Cool!
Now I was wondering how I am going to actually make this film. I decided that my only option was to shoot on HDV and I had been looking at the relatively new Sony HVR-A1 cameras. It would cost me 2500 Euros. A big chunk of my savings but I figured it was time to take a risk and I have ALWAYS wanted a camera. Now was the time. I looked into it and found that buying one from Singapore was my cheapest option because they were only just beginning to be available in a few stores in Germany. I got one and after a few little test shoots I was pretty happy with how the images were looking but slightly worried about shooting at night. How am I going to light it?
Now that I had a camera I started thinking about locations. Some I already had in mind because I had seen them while walking to work but others I still had to find. I started getting a bit worried about organizing these locations and getting permissions, who to talk to etc. I needed a producer. Someone who spoke Deutsch and could handle this sort of thing. I knew that the girlfriend of my friend Holger worked for Bavaria Film as an assistant producer. Perfect. I asked her if she wanted to help out and after reading the script she said yes. Jutta was now my producer. It was now April and the snow was starting to disappear. The plan was to try and shoot in the coming weekends and hope that the snow would stick around long enough.
We had a little meeting and talked about the film and what we needed. Jutta knows a lot of contacts so that’s great. She already had a bagful of pistols that we could probably use in the film. I had started to really stress out about the film because nothing was locked down and the snow was starting to disappear. We were rushing it. At the meeting I told Jutta that I think we should forget about shooting the film this year and wait until next winter. It made more sense. We would have 6 or 7 months to prepare for it rather than a couple of weeks and we both agreed that the script deserved better. Immediately I felt a weight lift off my shoulders. We’re going to do it properly.
After the meeting we decided to watch a German film called Barfus with Jutta’s flatmate, Ernie, who also worked with me at Trixter. The whole time I was watching I was thinking how cool one of the actors would be for one of my characters. I mentioned it. Ernie casually said. Simone knows him, you should give her the script and get her to give it to him. Holy crap!! Awesome! Simone is our boss so I spoke to her and she said she would do it. I won’t mention who this guy is but he’s a pretty big name in Germany and if he happened to be interested it would not only make things a lot easier to find funding but also boost the profile of the film. At this point I was starting to wonder how much it was all going to cost and whether it’s going to be possible. I started banking on our big star. If we have him, we can make the film. If not, who knows.
I started doing a few story boards of a few key scenes that I could include in a presentation package for our star. I also went over the script again a few times and improved some of the dialogue. It’s amazing how your dialogue can sound a bit corny when you read it again a few weeks later. Evan had emailed and asked how the film was going. I showed him the script when I finished the first draft and he really liked it. I asked him if he wanted to paint up a few pieces of promo art for the film that I could use for my presentation package. He said he was keen. By the time I finished my 3 scenes storyboarded a couple of weeks later Ev sent me the two images. I was blown away! They were great. I made professional prints and compiled them with the script and storyboards and handed the neat little package to my boss. Now we just had to wait.
Around this time I was reading Rebel Without a Crew by Robert Rodriguez. It was such an inspiring story and really got me fired up about the film. Great book! It’s amazing when you have a really positive attitude and are feeling really pumped about something that doors just seem to open. I spent weekends watching relevant films for ideas and doing storyboards and one night my girlfriend was browsing the Bavaria Film website. She found a page that mentioned the Kurzfilm Portal (Short film portal). A program where they support 4 or 5 shorts each year. Jutta found out who we needed to talk to and handed him the script directly. His name is Markus. Markus really liked the script and set up a meeting for the three of us to have a chat. He said the project was also attractive because we want to shoot it in the middle of winter when production is generally a bit quieter all round. At the meeting he explained that BF could help us with a camera, 16mm or proHD, grip, lighting, costumes, make-up, props, access to the BF street sets on their lot and post production including lab work. I couldn’t believe it. They’re handing me my film on a plate. My boss had mentioned that she might be able to arrange a 35mm camera from ARRI. Their building is just around the corner from our work. I asked Markus if they would still help out with the post if I could find a 35mm camera and shoot on 35. He said it’s no problem. Holy crap again! My mind was boggling. I’m not even German and I can get this kind of support. I love it. This is unheard of in Australia. So Markus said to make a list of all the equipment we will need and come up with a budget.
I read through the script and timed out a shotlist at 380 shots. That seems like a lot but it is a 15-20minute film. It’s probably actually only about 200 setups and I estimated 5-7 days shooting. It’s a bit scary.
Now if we’re going to shoot on film we will need a DOP because I’ve never shot on film before and I’m not really wanting this to be my chance to experiment and learn. This time around I’ll just learn from watching someone else who knows what they are doing. So I asked my buddy Denson who is an accredited cinematographer from Sydney if he wants to shoot the film. He liked the script and wants to shoot it but he might be shooting a feature around the same time so he’ll have to get back to me. Later he said it looks like it will work out. Cool. I’ll fly him over to shoot the film.
My boss’s ARRI contact didn’t work out with the 35mm camera but there may be other avenues. I have been really excited about the prospect of shooting on 35 and how the film will look and now that it might not be a possibility I’m finding it hard to accept going back to 16 or HD even though both would still be infinitely better than HDV. Crazy! I downloaded a pricelist from ARRI to see how much it is to hire a 35 camera for a week. 2400 Euros. Hmmm….If they could give me a pretty big discount I could probably afford it. But what about film?
I calculated a 6:1 shooting ratio, that’s 130mins, that’s 12000ft of film or 27-30 rolls of 400ft. Roughly 3500 Euros. That’s too much and it’s only the shooting stock. I’m not sure what the deal is with BF and if they will front the lab film costs. Have to get clarification on that. Jutta rang Kodak to see if they can cut us a deal and there might be some possibilities.
We’re still waiting to hear back from our star, I’m starting to think about casting for the rest of the film and I’m now looking for another producer to help out because Jutta is extremely busy with her job and I really need someone to help me with locations.
That’s pretty much where the film is at……
In September 2005 I arrived in Munich and immediately thought it would be great to make a short here and make the most of the beautiful European backdrop. An Australian film set in Europe. How cool would that be? Then a couple of months later it started snowing and my initial thought that it would be great to make a short changed. Now I was thinking, I HAVE to make a short here in Munich while it’s snowing. It’s just too beautiful to pass up this opportunity. So over the next month I started thinking about ideas.
My previous shorts have been quite light hearted and comedic. For this next one I wanted to do something a bit darker and a little more dramatic. I decided it would be nice to do a spy thriller as I couldn’t imagine ever doing one in Australia because it just wouldn’t feel authentic but Munich is perfect for such a film and it’s very appealing to me to make a spy thriller. So my mind got thinking about it and one night when I couldn’t sleep I came up with a basic idea and wrote it down. I’ve always loved the graphic novel Button Man – The Killing Game by John Wagner and Arthur Ranson and I had recently watched Heat and Spy Game. I think these 3 things were my main inspiration. The idea was a bit convoluted and wasn’t quite working immediately. I spent about a month just thinking about it before writing anything else down. Any time I had a spare moment I would think about it, mostly on the bus and train on the way to work, trying to piece it all together.
Eventually one day it all clicked into place in my head and I started typing. Unfortunately I still have to work my day job so it took a couple of weekends and nights to have a 20 page 1st draft in hand. I showed it to a few people and they seemed to like it and naturally had a few comments. I thought hard about their comments and made a few changes that I liked and discarded some other ideas. It’s difficult with feedback sometimes because I think the most important thing is to identify which comments are actually better for the story and which are just things that a particular person would personally prefer to happen. So after several weeks and some more rewrites I had a 6th and fairly final draft.
My intention in the beginning was to shoot the film in German so that it feels even more authentic. At the moment I’m still undecided on that point but leaning more towards German with subtitles. Anyway a friend at work knew a writer, Dieter, who translated the script dialogue into Deutsch. Cool!
Now I was wondering how I am going to actually make this film. I decided that my only option was to shoot on HDV and I had been looking at the relatively new Sony HVR-A1 cameras. It would cost me 2500 Euros. A big chunk of my savings but I figured it was time to take a risk and I have ALWAYS wanted a camera. Now was the time. I looked into it and found that buying one from Singapore was my cheapest option because they were only just beginning to be available in a few stores in Germany. I got one and after a few little test shoots I was pretty happy with how the images were looking but slightly worried about shooting at night. How am I going to light it?
Now that I had a camera I started thinking about locations. Some I already had in mind because I had seen them while walking to work but others I still had to find. I started getting a bit worried about organizing these locations and getting permissions, who to talk to etc. I needed a producer. Someone who spoke Deutsch and could handle this sort of thing. I knew that the girlfriend of my friend Holger worked for Bavaria Film as an assistant producer. Perfect. I asked her if she wanted to help out and after reading the script she said yes. Jutta was now my producer. It was now April and the snow was starting to disappear. The plan was to try and shoot in the coming weekends and hope that the snow would stick around long enough.
We had a little meeting and talked about the film and what we needed. Jutta knows a lot of contacts so that’s great. She already had a bagful of pistols that we could probably use in the film. I had started to really stress out about the film because nothing was locked down and the snow was starting to disappear. We were rushing it. At the meeting I told Jutta that I think we should forget about shooting the film this year and wait until next winter. It made more sense. We would have 6 or 7 months to prepare for it rather than a couple of weeks and we both agreed that the script deserved better. Immediately I felt a weight lift off my shoulders. We’re going to do it properly.
After the meeting we decided to watch a German film called Barfus with Jutta’s flatmate, Ernie, who also worked with me at Trixter. The whole time I was watching I was thinking how cool one of the actors would be for one of my characters. I mentioned it. Ernie casually said. Simone knows him, you should give her the script and get her to give it to him. Holy crap!! Awesome! Simone is our boss so I spoke to her and she said she would do it. I won’t mention who this guy is but he’s a pretty big name in Germany and if he happened to be interested it would not only make things a lot easier to find funding but also boost the profile of the film. At this point I was starting to wonder how much it was all going to cost and whether it’s going to be possible. I started banking on our big star. If we have him, we can make the film. If not, who knows.
I started doing a few story boards of a few key scenes that I could include in a presentation package for our star. I also went over the script again a few times and improved some of the dialogue. It’s amazing how your dialogue can sound a bit corny when you read it again a few weeks later. Evan had emailed and asked how the film was going. I showed him the script when I finished the first draft and he really liked it. I asked him if he wanted to paint up a few pieces of promo art for the film that I could use for my presentation package. He said he was keen. By the time I finished my 3 scenes storyboarded a couple of weeks later Ev sent me the two images. I was blown away! They were great. I made professional prints and compiled them with the script and storyboards and handed the neat little package to my boss. Now we just had to wait.
Around this time I was reading Rebel Without a Crew by Robert Rodriguez. It was such an inspiring story and really got me fired up about the film. Great book! It’s amazing when you have a really positive attitude and are feeling really pumped about something that doors just seem to open. I spent weekends watching relevant films for ideas and doing storyboards and one night my girlfriend was browsing the Bavaria Film website. She found a page that mentioned the Kurzfilm Portal (Short film portal). A program where they support 4 or 5 shorts each year. Jutta found out who we needed to talk to and handed him the script directly. His name is Markus. Markus really liked the script and set up a meeting for the three of us to have a chat. He said the project was also attractive because we want to shoot it in the middle of winter when production is generally a bit quieter all round. At the meeting he explained that BF could help us with a camera, 16mm or proHD, grip, lighting, costumes, make-up, props, access to the BF street sets on their lot and post production including lab work. I couldn’t believe it. They’re handing me my film on a plate. My boss had mentioned that she might be able to arrange a 35mm camera from ARRI. Their building is just around the corner from our work. I asked Markus if they would still help out with the post if I could find a 35mm camera and shoot on 35. He said it’s no problem. Holy crap again! My mind was boggling. I’m not even German and I can get this kind of support. I love it. This is unheard of in Australia. So Markus said to make a list of all the equipment we will need and come up with a budget.
I read through the script and timed out a shotlist at 380 shots. That seems like a lot but it is a 15-20minute film. It’s probably actually only about 200 setups and I estimated 5-7 days shooting. It’s a bit scary.
Now if we’re going to shoot on film we will need a DOP because I’ve never shot on film before and I’m not really wanting this to be my chance to experiment and learn. This time around I’ll just learn from watching someone else who knows what they are doing. So I asked my buddy Denson who is an accredited cinematographer from Sydney if he wants to shoot the film. He liked the script and wants to shoot it but he might be shooting a feature around the same time so he’ll have to get back to me. Later he said it looks like it will work out. Cool. I’ll fly him over to shoot the film.
My boss’s ARRI contact didn’t work out with the 35mm camera but there may be other avenues. I have been really excited about the prospect of shooting on 35 and how the film will look and now that it might not be a possibility I’m finding it hard to accept going back to 16 or HD even though both would still be infinitely better than HDV. Crazy! I downloaded a pricelist from ARRI to see how much it is to hire a 35 camera for a week. 2400 Euros. Hmmm….If they could give me a pretty big discount I could probably afford it. But what about film?
I calculated a 6:1 shooting ratio, that’s 130mins, that’s 12000ft of film or 27-30 rolls of 400ft. Roughly 3500 Euros. That’s too much and it’s only the shooting stock. I’m not sure what the deal is with BF and if they will front the lab film costs. Have to get clarification on that. Jutta rang Kodak to see if they can cut us a deal and there might be some possibilities.
We’re still waiting to hear back from our star, I’m starting to think about casting for the rest of the film and I’m now looking for another producer to help out because Jutta is extremely busy with her job and I really need someone to help me with locations.
That’s pretty much where the film is at……
posted by Nate at 5:09 AM
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