The making of COLD - a short film

2007-01-10T12:23:00.000-08:00

"Sometimes the end ....feels like the beginning"

Ok. It’s taken a long time for me to get to writing this post. I’ve been putting it off for a while because I just havn’t been in the mood to face it. The reason is because just before Christmas I had to CALL THE SHOOT OFF AND PUT THE FILM ON HOLD because we just didn’t have enough money.

Going back to mid December this was a completely crazy time. I was so busy trying to organize everything, find the last locations, rehearse with the actors and go over the sets with Michael the DOP. The rehearsals were awesome and put a huge smile on my face. Max and Claus are really great. This makes it even harder now that the film isn’t going ahead at this time.

So basically in the last few days before the Christmas break we got our final deal back from Bavaria Film and it wasn’t quite as low as we had hoped. On top of this, our last chance for financial support, 13th Street, decided not to back us. I weighed everything and after much consideration decided I would put 20,000 Euros of my own (and borrowed) money into the film. In the end, even this was not enough.

A last minute glimmer of hope had us scrambling around between Christmas and New Year trying to see if we could make it work but eventually we had to face up to the fact that it was not completely prepared and yes, we didn’t have enough money. So we called everyone and told them it wasn’t going to happen at this time. I felt the worst for Michael because when I rang him he had just spent the entire day going over the locations with his gaffer. I’m really sorry Michael.

Anyway there is way more behind the story but I can’t be bothered to go into it. I’d rather just move on.

If things had gone to plan we would be shooting right now and as it turns out the weather is no good anyway. I wanted snow and it is 11 degrees C at the moment and also has been raining. The weather would have been crap for the film. So that makes me feel a bit better.

The new plan. Try and shoot it next winter in March or April. We have another year to prepare and find some different finance possibilities (if there are any) and I’m going to try and do some more writing in the meantime.

On a positive note. I had drinks with a producer from Ratpack Filmproduktion last night and got chatting to him about writing and eventually the short. He said he’d like to read it so I’m sending the script to him tonight. A great contact to have in the future whatever happens.

So… on a final note (for now) and not that anyone from the crew actually reads this blog but I just want to say a HUGE thankyou to everyone who jumped on board this crazy film. It’s a real shame it didn’t work out for this time but thank you all so much for all the time and effort you all put into it. It really was amazing for me to have had the opportunity to meet and work with you all and I hope that we can all regroup again when the time comes. Cheers!!

..and Happy New Year!

2006-12-16T14:05:00.000-08:00

Thursday
Got up early and Basti picked me up and drove us to Bavaria Film to look at the sets on the lot. Jean-Luc met us there with Jake, Jeremy and our new production designer Tobi. We looked at all the rooms and decided on two that would work for us. Then we went over to the Make-up Academy and talked with the girls that will be on set for make up. They had a few questions about some of the scenes and we went through it all.

We also got the news this day that 13th Street and Acte would not be supporting our project. This means we have absolutely zero $ in support for the film. Quite a depressing day.

In the evening I had a costume check with Constanze who had several outfits she borrowed from the Bavaria Film costume department. She also explained to me that the Diesel support was not quite what we expected and they didn't send us anything that we can actually use. Also dissapointing.

During this evening I thought a lot about the funding situation and eventually came to the decision that I will invest my own money into the film. I will have to borrow half of it but I think it will be worth the risk. I can manage 20,000 Euros. It still might not be enough.

Friday
I met with Tobi for lunch and briefed him on the style of the film and what I was after in terms of Roberts apartment which we would be set dressing at Bavaria Film.

Saturday
I met with Michael the DOP and we talked about some of the locations and individual shots in some of the scenes. I also explained to him the situation with the funding and that I will be paying for the film. He said I was crazy :) I said I know but I really believe in this film and where it might take us. People wouldn't bat an eyelid if you told them you borrowed 20,000 to buy a car, when you look at it like this it's not so bad. Worst case scenario, it doesn't win any money and I don't get any directing work from it, then I spend a couple of years paying it off. I can live with that.
We talked about shooting smarter and tighter and then eventually decided we might go HD. Something I've been holding back on for as long as possible but he showed me some other stuff he had shot on HD and it looks pretty good. It will still be a really nice looking film. So we are probably going HD.
We didn't get through all the scenes and had to wrap it up because I had to prepare for our first rehearsal.
Max and Claus arrived with Jean-Luc and Jake and we rehearsed until around 4:30pm. It was a good rehearsal and we talked about a lot of stuff and they had some good ideas and seemed to generally have a good feel for who their characters were. It was quite fun I have to say. Such a nice change from all the producing stuff that keeps pounding my brain on a daily basis. Once again we didn't get through it all before Constanze arrived and tried a few costumes on Claus and Max. We sorted out Clause but there wasn't too much for Max because of the Diesel problem. Max might just use some of his own stuff.

The fait of the film now rests on a few quotes for HD equipment and a blow up, and finding and securing a couple of locations.

After speaking with Simon we proposed Tuesday as the day we must decide if we can actually go on and make this film. Tuesday is D-Day.

2006-12-13T12:55:00.000-08:00

Monday

Had lunch with Jean-Luc and a DOP. Michael Praun. He is a really great DOP and is also a steadicam operator. He was a nice guy and really likes the script. We arranged to meet on Tuesday night after my work to go over the locations together.

In the evening we had a meeting with a Sound Designer who was cool and he showed me his work. Nice stuff but not sure if we can use him unless we get some funding. Also, Jeremy came along with his friend Rafael who is interested in helping on the film and trying to get us some sponsorship from his dads company Gruppe 3 who hire out equipment.

Tuesday

Met with Michael after work and we went to every location and I walked him through all the scenes. He made notes and we talked about shots and some logistical stuff. He is very professional and I wants to do everything properly, naturally. He is fantastic but I might have to try and dial him back a bit into indie, low budget mode. He mentioned two cameras, 8 gaffers and that 20 cans of film might not even be enough. I'm scared. $$$ He is going to go over everything and then we will sit down again and discuss it all. It was a very long day because I was up at 7 to get to a physio appointment and back at home around 10:30.

Regrouping

2006-12-10T12:50:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Simon was in Munich and staying at Jean-Luc’s so we all got together and tried to figure out plan B.  Actually we started first with plan C.  Plan C was worst case scenario we have absolutely no money and would have to shoot on HD.  I thought about this a lot while we were discussing it and decided that we are definitely going to shoot on film no matter what.  Basically I decided I will put quite a bit of my own money into the film so we can still shoot 16mm and have a beautiful looking picture.  I know its generally a rule to never use your own money, but I believe in this film and maybe it’s my last short (hopefully) so it might be my last chance to shoot a ‘film’.
We made plans to approach other production companies for support and we are still waiting on 13th Street for their answer about co-producing.  After much discussion, a family size pizza and a bottle of wine we had worked out a few different plans and were back on track. (I think)
At 7:30 we met Sebastian Stalzer at my work in the city.  He was a great guy and very keen to help us out as our Production Manager.  He is now on board and will take care of the location permits.
After this meeting we decided to walk around the Old Munich city area to check out some alleys that Max suggested for us.  Eventually we stumbled across a parking garage that was 6 stories high and is perfect for one of the scenes and two other locations we needed from high on top of buildings.  3 for 1!  Perfect!
Next we headed to Harras and the restaurant I had liked a week or so ago.  The owner had been a bit unsupportive of no-budget film making but we decided to try and talk him around.  Eventually we offered him 400 Euros for two days shooting in his restaurant.  He was offended.  He wanted 1000 and wouldn’t budge.  Eventually we gave up and told him to forget about it.  We left a card and told him if he changes his mind to give us a call.  It’s a shame because now it is the only location that we don’t have and my mind would have been so much more at ease if we had gotten it.  Damn!
It was a good productive day but by the time I got home it was 3AM.

Plan B

2006-12-07T14:43:00.000-08:00

Well…. That’s disappointing. We got the decision from the FFF today and it was NO. I can’t believe it. I was 100% convinced in my mind we would get it. We now have no funding for our film. I feel like I just lost 25,000 Euros at the casino. After hearing the news and sharing the disappointment with Jean-Luc and Simon it was a pretty sad day. You can’t help but think about all the reasons why it might not have been chosen but in the end it’s pointless. It was hard to be motivated to do much tonight but eventually I’m starting to feel better about it and now we have to get focused on figuring out plan B. Simon is coming to Munich this evening and will stay at Jean-Luc’s. We’ll get together on the weekend and try to figure out our new strategy.

2006-12-06T14:56:00.000-08:00

I thought we would find out about the FFF decision today....

I was wrong. We didn't. Hopefully tomorrow.

Tonight I was supposed to meet with Max Lichnter who is helping us with locations and Kerstin Grund the production designer. Kerstin rang today and sadly is pulling out of the project. So this evening Jean-Luc and I met with Max and he showed us some suggestions for locations and we chatted about other potential spots. I told him what we still need and he is going to check out some more places this week and get back to me. He also will feed Jean-Luc some more contacts for possible crew. Max was a really great guy. It's a shame he isn't available to be our Production Designer.

1 day till we find out about the FFF......again!

2006-12-05T14:52:00.000-08:00

Tonight I was scheduled to meet another DOP who was also a steadicam operator. He phoned during the day and canceled. He won't be able to do the film because something else came up. So I went shopping and bought a jacket. The shoot is going to be very cold.

Tomorrow we find out about the FFF funding application!

3 days!

2006-12-03T12:33:00.000-08:00

This weekend I met with two Cinematographers who were both really great guys. In the next couple of days I will need to make a decision on the DOP, final cast for all roles and some of the locations that are not 100%.

I spent most of today reading through the script and making some notes on the performances. In two weeks we hope to rehearse with Max and Claus so I need to be prepared.

3 days until the FFF decision.

2006-11-30T13:27:00.000-08:00

This weekend I spent a few hours with Tatjana showing her the locations I have and talking about the ones we need. This was no fun at all because my slipped disc was irritating me the entire time as we needed to drive a lot in the car.

Tatjana has since contacted a bunch of people about these locations and started organising things. She also recruited a young guy, Jeremy, who actually auditioned for Hilmar but was very enthusiastic about helping on the project in any way. So now he is location scouting! This is all great but unfortunately Tatjana has another project that pushed their dates and she has had to jump ship. A short but productive stint. We are meeting again to run over everything she has so far and hand over to Jean-Luc and I.

I went for a walk in Haras on Sunday and found a really great restaurant that would definately work. Tatjana met the owner on Tuesday night but he was not really interested in supporting low budget film making. He wanted to know how much he could get out of us so it's probably not going to work out. It's such a shame because that night I was already planning a few shots in my head having now seen what the restaurant would look like. Damn!

We've had two more casting sessions with actresses for the role of the waitress. It's a small role with a few lines. I think I have a favourite but I'm going to think about it over the weekend (if I have time!) I also met Constanz who is going to be our Costume Designer. She was very nice and showed me samples of the looks she thought might be good for Robert and Hilmar. This was great because they were exactly what I had in mind.

Simon got sponsorship from Diesel clothing. Subway, BMW and Audi unfortunately turned us down. Simon also found us a great Production Designer/Art Director. Her name is Kersten.
He also found us a stunt guy who would be perfect to double for Claus and do his stunts, plus he can play the role of the bartender. He's interested but he is in the Bavaria Film Stunt Show so it could be tricky for the time off. We'll see.

Jean-Luc met with the head of the Make-up Akademy at Bavaria Film last Friday, her name is Rory. They are totally in and she will find us two artists as well as personally supervise one of the more difficult make-up/blood scenes. Jean-Luc told me tonight that she finally read the script and that she loves it. Cool!

I'm meeting with a potential DOP tomorrow and we are going to contact a few more guys from the crew-united website. I browsed through them yesterday and made a short list because I'm biting my nails not having a DOP locked in at this late stage. Watched a reel tonight that was quite good so that's slightly comforting.

Only six days until we find out the FFF decision.

2006-11-22T23:14:00.000-08:00

Hilmar!

I’m writing this at 7am in the moring because lately I am having trouble sleeping. My mind keeps ticking over hundreds of details about the film. There is so much to think about.

Yesterday Simon managed to get sponsorship from Puma. I think some shoes and a bit of cash. Not sure how much but every little bit will help. He has also been searching for crew and has managed to find 2 specialFX guys for the practical stuff, a loader, costume designer and maybe a sound design guy. All of which are willing to help out for free at this stage. If we get more sponsorship we can start to pay the crew which would be very nice.

On Monday night Jean-Luc and I met with another producer called Tatjana. She has quite a lot of experience with location scouting and managing and is coming on board to do just that. I’m meeting with her again tonight to show her the locations I already have in mind and talk about the ones she needs to help us find.

The big news this week though is that after seeing about 8 guys for the role of Hilmar we finally found our man, his name is Max. I finally got that great feeling in my gut when he did a reading with Jean-Luc. It’s the same feeling I had with Claus who is playing Robert. ‘Yep, that guy is Hilmar’ is what my stomach was telling me…or maybe I was just hungry. Anyway, that’s great news. I feel really sorry for all the other guys that tried out because they all were really great too and I feel humbled that they were all so keen to play the role. Hopefully I can try and use them in the future for other projects. So, Max is checking his schedule and if everything lines up then we have our man. Great!

I want to get Max and Claus together soon to go over the script for the first time and then later on do a proper rehearsal. I’ve been so busy I havn’t even had a chance to go through and make my own notes about the script. I wrote it almost a year ago now so I need it fresh again in my head before going through it with the actors. Things are getting really busy.

We have contacted a few DOP’s and hopefully will lock one in soon.

DOP's, Scheduling and stuff

2006-11-18T00:42:00.000-08:00

Jean-Luc and I  met on Thursday night to meet a potential DOP.  Oh, first of all I heard from Denson and he informed me that he can’t do the film now.  He is shooting a feature in Australia with Toni Collette which starts during our shoot week.  Damn! (but great for Denson) Was disappointed that I won’t get the chance to work with Denson but as they say, the show must go on.  Fortunately Jean-Luc and Simon seem to know quite a few people and we have a few good guys in mind already.

So, was supposed to meet one on Thursday night but his shoot ran long so it never happened.  It was a good chance for Jean-Luc and I to go over a few things though now that we are getting closer to the shoot dates.  7  or so weeks away.  I’m not scared, honest…ok maybe a bit.

We discussed and decided that Jean-Luc will 1st AD during the shoot and Simon will take on a Production Co-ordinator role.  I’m happy with this.  In the next month our goals are to lock in the cast, locations and crew.  I’m spending time this weekend doing more storyboards and trying to rough out a shooting schedule.  During the week I went through my shotlist and roughly timed out how long I think it will take to shoot, assigning 10, 15, or 20mins, etc to each shot then adding it all up.  Came to 42hrs not including breaks or transport time for all the exterior/location stuff.  We only allowed 4 nights to shoot this stuff so it might be a bit tight.  This works out to at least 10.5 hours a day and we will start around 5pm so that puts us wrapping each day around 3am or so.  Gulp!  We are considering adding an extra day for these ext/location scenes.

Simon has been contacting more potential sponsors.  Puma will receive the script this week and hopefully be thinking about chipping in.

2006-11-11T02:08:00.000-08:00

Apologies for not writing more often but as expected I seem to have little time for the blog. I'll try and write shorter and more often in future.

So in the last couple of weeks many things seem to have happened. First of all I slipped a disc in my back which made it difficult to go to work because I could not sit without much discomfort and pain. On the plus side while I lay in bed for almost two weeks I could write a few things for the application. While Simon and Jean-Luc were busy working with Jochen and Jutta on the budget for the film I wrote character profiles, a directors statement and compiled a list of festivals that we plan to enter. Along with a few storyboards I had already done, CV's of all the key people, a rough post-production plan, letter's of intent for support from Bavaria Film, Trixter and others, Evan's beautiful artwork and letters from some actors, we had a pretty nice little package together that we handed in during the week. There were only 7 applications for funding so I think we have a good chance. Fingers crossed!

The casting has continued also and I have seen two more older actors for 'Robert' and four young guys for the role of 'Hilmar'. So far they are all very good actors but I am going to see a couple more before I make my decision.

Simon has contacted BMW and Coke to see if they will sponsor the film and they are taking a look at the script. We also sent it to '13th Street' which is an organisation that runs a film festival called Shocking Shorts but they also co-produce shorts sometimes. They havn't read the script yet but hopefully we will find out something this week.

Finally, yesterday Jean-Luc found the agent for the 'Big Star' we were hoping for earlier on. In a last attempt Simon gave them a call and eventually was able to send the script to his secretary who said they will read it. We cross our fingers for that too. We're running out of fingers!!!

Now that the application is out of the way I can concentrate more on the directing side. There is only about 7 weeks until we plan to shoot so I need to start nutting out the details.

2006-10-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

Budgets, Funding and Casting

Last week was incredibly busy. On Wednesday we had a final meeting with Jutta and her boss to see how much we could chop out of the budget. It went well and we managed to get it to almost half the original calculation.

Simon has been taking calls and arranging the casting. On Thursday night I met with an actor who was interested in playing one of the two main characters. He wanted to meet me first and talk about the script which we did and afterwards he said he was still interested. So I turned on the camera and we went through a couple of scenes. He was awesome! It was fantastic to see the words I had written coming to life through an actor. Afterwards he said he is definately interested and I thought he was really great so whatever happens we now have a really great actor for 'Robert'. This also helps us with our application to the FFF because he is quite well known. I am meeting with another potential 'Robert' tomorrow night and our first potential 'Hilmar'. Simon received phone calls from 3 of the actors we approached to play 'Hilmar' and they are all interested. So far everyone likes the script which is nice.

After not being able to sleep much from excitement in finding a great ‘Robert’ I went to the FFF on Friday morning with Simon. We met with Julia Rappold who will be pitching the project to the board for us once we have our application together. She was concerned about one technicality which could make me ineligible for applying. I have to find my reports of the subjects I studied during my diploma or arts to see if I studied directing. I called my Mum in Australia and she found them straight away. There are no subjects for directing in the reports so fingers crossed. Apart from that she seemed to really like the script.
It’s Sunday now and I spent all of today writing character profiles for Robert and Hilmar to include in the application package. Yesterday I was mapping out their emotional journeys through the film and spent half the day on the internet looking up film festival sites to create a Festival Strategy – also for the package. The more stuff that is in there and the more it looks like you are pretty much ready to shoot the better. If we got funding help it would be amazing!

2006-10-17T01:26:00.000-07:00

A lot has happened in the last week. Good stuff.

Firstly I met with the other producer who was interested in the film. His name is Jean-Luc. He has a lot of experience and we get along well so he is now on board. He is also pursuing a directing career but thought it would be interesting to help produce a film that isn't one of his own.

We decided to all get together with Jutta so we could all meet each other and Jutta could hand over everything she had so far. Simon caught the train down from Ilmenau (3hours north by car-train took 7 hours! That's commitment, I like it). Jutta and her boss also did the budget calculation and it came to 109,000 Euros. Hmmm... I thought this was a low budget film. Anyway they are doing a cut down version as well which we will use for an application to the FFF for funding. I'm interested to see how that one turns out.

Simon contacted most of the actors I had chosen as my first preferences for the two major roles. Most of them are quite experienced and to my pleasant surprise most of them are interested in the film and at least want to read the script. I always say it can never hurt to ask people if they are interested in your project even if they are somewhat famous. If they like your script you never know. Two are meeting with me this week to talk about the film and perhaps do a screen test. Last night I wrote a rough character profile for the role so they can see where the character comes from if they want to know. Personally I don't think it's all that necessary to know that stuff as long as the character comes through on the day, but I'm not an actor. If it's how they work and what they need then I want them to have it. So, better to be prepared.

On the weekend I found a brilliant location for one of my scenes. It is by the river near the city and has spectacular scenery. I was really happy to come across it and it made me happy to find and put in place one more piece of this huge jigsaw puzzle that is a pre-producing a film. How many more pieces to go?

2006-10-08T08:46:00.000-07:00

I have a new producer! His name is Simon and he replied to the ad I posted on the crew-united website. I spoke with him on the phone and he sounds enthusiastic and motivated and he likes the script. He is now on board and so far I'm pretty impressed. I did get another bite as well but I havn't heard back from this other guy so I'm not sure if he is interested. Simon is cool, but he doesn't live in Munich so we decided to look for another producer that is Munich based that can sort out things that require more local attention. The search continues but I am very happy to have Simon on board.

Last weekend I moved into a new flat with my girlfriend so things have been very crazy and working on the film has been on a slight hold. Yesterday was a nightmare. An Ikea nightmare. Things are now pretty much sorted and most of the furniture is put together including my new desk which I am working from right now.

Today I drove around all afternoon taking snaps of potential locations. I visited a restaurant that Markus told me about. It was quite spacious and not exactly what I was picturing in my head. I'll keep looking but it could work if I can't find something better. Finding locations is also not fun. So far I only have 3 locations that I'm really happy with. I might search on crew-united for a location scout :)

2006-09-28T15:35:00.000-07:00

Jutta texted me today and said she will be able to do the budget for the film on the 14th of October. This is such great news! I'm stoked. With a proper budget we can approach the FFF (Film Fernseh Fonds - Film and TV Funds) for some funding. I still need a new producer though and today I emailed 4 production companies in Munich seeking help. I'm burning dvd's of my previous two shorts as I write this so I can send them off to them tomorrow. They are taking forever. It's 12:30am.
Yawn...

2006-09-27T13:46:00.000-07:00

I really need a producer! Yesterday Jutta told me that she can no longer produce the film. She is far too busy at her work and then she is leaving the country.
After a mild panic attack and mini depression I jumped on the phone and rang Markus from Bavaria Film. He suggested I talk to a woman named Sandra who works in production somewhere also in BF. She was busy at the time and told me to write her an email and she'll call me tomorrow. The second call was to the Hochschule fur Film und Fernseh. Munich Film School. The guy there, I forget his name (sorry), he told me to pin an ad on their notice boards and pointed me at www.crew-united.com which is a German film crew etc site. I placed an ad in here looking for a producer. Now I wait. On Sunday (after moving house) I will get together with Jutta and she will go over everything she has and has done, then hand it over to me. I'm really dissappointed that Jutta can't continue because I thought she was really great and I appreciate everything she did to help the film so far. Thanks Jutta.....and goodbye. Sob! Sob!

This stuff is just not fun. I wish I could just be thinking about my shots and doing storyboards.

On the weekend I looked through a bunch of casting sites and made a first list casting preferences for my two main characters. I also jotted down a bunch of production companies in Munich that I might approach to see if anyone is interested in producing the film.

2006-09-18T13:10:00.000-07:00

I got up early this morning so I could call Denson in Sydney and have a chat about what camera equipment and lights he wants for the shoot. I want to shoot the film in 2.35:1 ratio so we decided we will probably shoot in 3 perf so we don't have to use anamorphic lenses. Denson explained to me that this means we are also using 25% less film. Sounds good to me. He gave me an 'ideal' list of what he wants. Hopefully we can make it happen if we get some funding.

I found a couple of great websites today. One is the FFF (Film Fernseher Fonds) and Film Commission of Bavaria site. This was awesome and exactly what I needed. Lots of helpful information and pretty much everything you need to know about shooting in Munich. Huge lists of services and contacts...and it was in English! Great! Yesterday I also stumbled on regie.de and this was also good. Regie is the German word for Director. I posted an ad in the classifieds that I am looking for a producer. No bites yet.

2006-09-16T05:09:00.000-07:00

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……

2006-09-10T10:37:00.000-07:00

GOING IN COLD
Hi, I'm not really sure if this is going to work but a good friend suggested that I make a blog of my endeavors in making my next short film. So...here it is. By the way that same friend also did some fantastic artwork for the film of which I have used one piece as the banner for the blog. Thanks again Ev! I'm hoping I will have enough time to write bits and pieces as often as I can and more likely whenever anything interesting happens in the progress of making the film. At the moment I am in pre-production and getting a bit stressed already even though I'm not planning to shoot until January! I'll write more soon with some background about the film and more details of where it's at.