British Film Review - American Honey

One of the films playing at the London Film Festival was American Honey, by Fish Tank director Andrea Arnold. The film is an interesting depiction of life in the Southern American states. It follows the life of Star, an 18 year old who joins a band of merry teenagers living in a state of constant motion as they move from suburb to suburb selling magazine subscriptions.

The premise doesn’t sound particularly interesting but the reality pays off well. The handheld shots in 4:3 aspect ratio mean that the audience feels very much like they are in the cramped minivan with the characters and they get to know them at the same rate as Star does, something which is rare in this era of fast-paced action films. The film is long, 2 hours and 43 minutes, but that time allows the audience to connect with the characters, even if at times the plot feels slow. There are outstanding performances from Sasha Lane and Shia LaBeouf, the former as a scared but defiant 18 year old and the latter as the seemly nice and caring man who recruits her. This film was the first time acting for Lane, and this gives her a rough edge which really works with the hyper realistic tone of the film. Lane's character, Star, is frustrating, she doesn't just play along to what those around her want. This allows her to be more complex than perhaps a typical female character would be, which is something that Arnold seems to excel at, as also shown by the character of Mia in Fish Tank.

Overall, the film is rare insight into the lives of working class people in America and I think an important insight, given the wide divisions opening up in global society.

 

Short Film Review - Curmudgeons

"Curmudgeons" is a short film directed by Danny DeVito which was featured at the London Film Festival. It tells the story of Ralph, a grumpy old man who lives by himself in an assisted living building and, despite the facade he presents, he is a very lonely character. All this changes, though, with the arrival of his visiting granddaughter and the special surprise she brings. In one of the first shots of the film, the corridor  inside the assisted living home is dark and bland but by the end light and plants fill the space, showing the growth and hope in the relationships between not only the two leads but also those around them. It's a film full of affectionate swearing and is a representation of the elderly that is not often shown, as complex people who aren't just grumpy or endearing. "Curmudgeons" is the final piece of work that actor David Margulies was in before he passed away away earlier this year and he and Danny DeVito play off each other in a delightfully funny and sweet way. 
Overall, I enjoyed the film. It was a rare glimpse into the lives of the people in society that get forgotten most and a sweet vignette that kept me smiling even after the credits had rolled. 

Curmudgeons from Jersey 2nd Avenue on Vimeo.

World Film Review- The Way He Looks

The Way He Looks is a 2014 Brazilian romantic drama, directed by Daniel Ribiero. The main character Leo, played by Ghilherme Lobo, is a blind teenager who finds himself falling in love with the new boy at the school, Gabriel. The film explores the themes of friendships and first love, all with the gorgeous backdrop of the Brazilian summer.

The film has a light feeling to it which is so uncommonly found in LGBT films, all too often these films end in tragedy but this was the exception. The teenage characters feel grounded, which is helped by the youth of the cast, something often missed in coming of age films, as they navigate growing up and the lows and highs of being teenagers. Pierre de Kerchove's cinematography is simple and understated but works well with the tone of the film, not big and bold but real.

My only issue with the film is that the main character isn't played by a blind actor, despite being blind. This highlights the issues with ableism in the film industry that aren't being addressed. But other than this, Lobo carries the film beautifully and whilst it isn't gripping all the way through, there are moments which stay with the audience, even after the credits roll. The bike riding scenes are the film in a nutshell, romantic and freeing.

 

The Screening

The next task after we had finished our films was to organise a screening at the BFI for friends and family. We first had a talk from Muffin Hix about how to organise screenings and then we delegated roles for everyone in the group.

We also discussed what kind of refreshments we would like to have so that the catering team to go on to order food.
Much of the organising for the screening was done through the private Facebook group, as each team kept everyone else updated on what was going on.

Finally, the day arrived and we showed the films, with a two question Q&A in between each one. The audience seemed to enjoy our film, they especially liked the drawings and the fact it had 3 shorter narratives.

Here's the finished film!

The Post Production Whirlwind

2nd November
We had an editing masterclass with Nuru in using Adobe Premiere Pro. It was exciting to see what the programme was capable of, since I'm used to working with much less powerful software. We also looked over our footage and Iona, the editor, began to assemble a rough cut of the film.

5-19 November
During this time we completed the edit of our film. Iona worked from the rough cut to refine the film and I gave feedback as the director. We used Trello to upload each edit at the end of a session, which was a helpful backup and meant anyone with the footage could access the edit and review where we were up to. It was also helpful when we needed to pass a copy of the picture-locked edit to Matthew and Michael to do sound design.

The post production Trello board

A challenge that we faced whilst editing was that the wires had to be removed from the shots in the hallucination section. This meant that Iona and myself had to learn After Effects. Although the process of removing wires is simple, it was time consuming. Something that I will take forward is that it is far easier to remove wires when they are straight, so ensure they are straight on set!

Here is one of the shots after we removed the wires

Another error that was made on set that had to be fixed in post was that the lighting was dramatically different in two different shots in the final scene. The difference can be seen below.

Nuru taught us how to colour correct and then reduce noise so that the shots matched better than they had before. Whilst we were doing this, Matthew and Michael were working on the sound design of the film, including adding footsteps and atmosphere to the 2nd scene, as well as the sounds of the Thames in the final scene. Matthew also composed some music for the piece. We mostly communicated using Trello and a Facebook Messenger group chat that meant we could all see where we were up to.

Exporting the finished film!

Overall, I have found the post-production process fun as I have learnt a lot but also stressful as we had to get the film finished by the deadline. I think we were effective as a team in post as we were able to divide up roles and tasks. For example, myself and Iona worked on the picture edit, Matthew and Michael on the sound and Murray and Matt worked on the credits.

Shooting Week - 24th-28th October

Monday 24th October

Today we went over the final version of the script that Matthew had written and storyboarded all day. Matt, as producer, also sent out some casting calls as we have quite a racially diverse cast, which is more of a challenge to cast but worth it.
Mozart copyright and health and safety

Here is the final script:

Here are some of the storyboards:

Tuesday 25th October

Today we did production paperwork and casting calls. I posted a call to the Film London Talent Connect Facebook group, which was answered by a couple of actors, so I have been emailing back and forth with them to sort that out.

Iona and Matt worked on the call sheets for all 3 shooting days. Here is an example of half of one of them:

We also set up the Trello, which enables us to keep in touch and share important documents in a clearly set out way. This should make the production process much easier.

Wednesday 26th October

1st day of shooting - Classical music scene and bolex
Here are our photos of our first day of shooting, we mostly stuck to the shot list but as the classical music scene was the only thing we had to film today we were able to spend a bit more time discussing ideas on set. I feel we worked really well together and now we'll be more cohesive as a team by tomorrow, when we work with outside actors. Here are the photos of the day:

Thursday 27th October

2nd day of shooting - Date scene with Taj Atwal and Erin

Today was our second day of shooting and we had decided prior to today to shoot at 'magic hour' as the lighting would be nicest at this point, which would have a romantic feel to it, working nicely with the date scene. Today was also the first day where we worked with actors outside of our group so as director I had to ensure that they were happy as the shoot progressed and had to build a relationship with them, as well as making sure we were on track and getting the shots we needed. Unfortunately, the decision to shoot at magic hour was a mistake as it was cloudy so although there was a lovely sunset, the lighting was not what we wanted and it disappeared fast. This means that some of our shots are much darker than others. However, overall it was a very enjoyable shoot and I'm pleased with what we got. Taj Atwal, one of our actors, said that we were a very professional crew, which was nice to hear and I agree as everyone did their jobs really efficiently and well so we got the best footage we could. Here are the photos from the day:

Friday 28th October

Final day of shooting - Lucy scene

Today was our final day of shooting. This was also the first day where we had to dress a set so under the guidance of Production Designer Michael we all got to work setting up LS2 to look like a classroom in which one would have a hallucination. Here's the photos from that:

Shooting in this space was really interesting and different to what we had shot so far as we were able to experiment with lighting in a way that we hadn't been able to do on the outside shoots. We also spent some time after the actresses had left just shooting in the empty room, to make sure we had enough footage to get the quick cuts that we wanted. 

That's a wrap! This has been a really good week and I've learnt a lot about directing and both pre production and production. 

Script Editing and Location Scouting

In today's session, we spent the day going over the treatment that Matthew had written and building the narratives around the core ideas that he had created. It was a really interesting day as we were all able to think about how to get an idea across in the best way without making it over complicated. We also had a scout around the Southbank area for locations.

Matthew is now going to write up the script, ready for production week that begins on Monday!