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    FS7: Teaser for feature fiction/doc I have in development

    Six minute teaser for a feature hybrid doc/fiction I've been developing for the past couple of years. The film will tell the true story of two West African economic migrants on their way towards Europe, and star them as themselves.

    The vast majority of the footage in the teaser was shot on our first 'proper' shoot trip to Senegal in January. We had a six-person team plus talent (Dir., DoP, Sound, Producer, AD, Runner). Shot in 4k@23.076 on a pair of Fuji MK cine-zooms. Also used a new PDMovie wireless FF and Atomos Shogun Flame monitor setup for the first time to good effect.

    The teaser is skewed towards the pre-title sequence showing the main character's childhood, as that's most of what we've currently shot (apart from workshops).

    Link: https://vimeo.com/255087348
    Password: lifeenroute

    More info on the film at: http://www.lifeenroutefilm.com

    Any and all comments welcome.

    :-)

    jason
    ----------------
    Freelance Site: www.Opticalism.com/jason
    Company Site: www.Opticalism.com
    Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/jasonbrooks/videos
    Africa Blog: www.Opticalism.com/travels

    Sum Ergo Edo.

    #2
    Love the handheld style you've opted for here Jason. Really suits the subject. Good luck with the project.
    "There is nothing permanent except change."
    Heraclitus

    www.liamhall.net
    TWITTER: @WordsbyLiam
    INSTAGRAM: @picsbyliam

    Comment


      #3
      Really nice stuff Jason. And I'll double down on what Liam said - excellent use of handheld. Not using it for everything, just for shots that need the energy. It's so much more effective for that selectiveness.
      DREAMSMITHS | SHOWREEL | INSTAGRAM
      www.dreamsmiths.com.au

      Comment


        #4
        A great project to take on and the trailer sells it. It's a gamble using dramatisations in documentaries but your scenes seemed incredibly authentic and dramatic. The two characters playing themselves seem very comfortable. Paul Greengrass among others has a great history of doing this and/or using non-actors - Bloody Sunday, Captain Phillips, United 93. It's like neo-neo-realism.

        Your also pictures look good and pacing at least in the trailer is excellent.

        Good luck with getting funding. Netflix obviously have a lot of dough to splash around (their market valuation is an obscene $140 billion) and CEO Hastings says they're committed to spending a big part of it on production - and they're increasingly sensitive to the demands of non-US countries for local product. So you'd think they'd be able to spare you a few coppers.
        ................................
        www.afterglow.net.au
        ................................

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by Liam Hall View Post
          Love the handheld style you've opted for here Jason. Really suits the subject. Good luck with the project.
          Thanks a lot Liam, glad you like the style. It's been a very interesting and challenging learning curve for me to work solely as director and have to communicate with a DoP on this project, but we have very similar visions and he's very receptive to my input, so things have been moving in a positive direction (so far at least)!

          Cheers,

          jason
          ----------------
          Freelance Site: www.Opticalism.com/jason
          Company Site: www.Opticalism.com
          Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/jasonbrooks/videos
          Africa Blog: www.Opticalism.com/travels

          Sum Ergo Edo.

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by Grug View Post
            Really nice stuff Jason. And I'll double down on what Liam said - excellent use of handheld. Not using it for everything, just for shots that need the energy. It's so much more effective for that selectiveness.

            Nice one, thanks for your kind words Grug. I'm hoping to continue developing the synergy between the HH and sticks work, trying to allow the two to weave seamlessly, making it feel like a 'slick' feature, but sprinkled evenly with the grit that conveys it's documentary reality. Onwards and upwards! :-)

            jason
            ----------------
            Freelance Site: www.Opticalism.com/jason
            Company Site: www.Opticalism.com
            Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/jasonbrooks/videos
            Africa Blog: www.Opticalism.com/travels

            Sum Ergo Edo.

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by Afterglow View Post
              A great project to take on and the trailer sells it. It's a gamble using dramatisations in documentaries but your scenes seemed incredibly authentic and dramatic. The two characters playing themselves seem very comfortable. Paul Greengrass among others has a great history of doing this and/or using non-actors - Bloody Sunday, Captain Phillips, United 93. It's like neo-neo-realism.

              Your also pictures look good and pacing at least in the trailer is excellent.

              Good luck with getting funding. Netflix obviously have a lot of dough to splash around (their market valuation is an obscene $140 billion) and CEO Hastings says they're committed to spending a big part of it on production - and they're increasingly sensitive to the demands of non-US countries for local product. So you'd think they'd be able to spare you a few coppers.
              Thanks Afterglow, it means a lot to read your support, as it's really challenging to 'keep the faith' when you've been developing a project for so long and still haven't found funding. I can't wait to be able to start shooting the real meat of the story, which covers some pretty dramatic ground from Mauritania, through Mali, and up to the mediterranean shore.

              At the moment we're focusing on more traditional film funding routes (BFI, doc funds, etc), but it might well be a good idea to start the process of getting in touch with Netflix. Seems to me that they have a number of industry 'gatekeepers' with whom they will discuss projects, so I guess it's time to start contacting them (or people who know them!).

              Cheers,

              jason
              ----------------
              Freelance Site: www.Opticalism.com/jason
              Company Site: www.Opticalism.com
              Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/jasonbrooks/videos
              Africa Blog: www.Opticalism.com/travels

              Sum Ergo Edo.

              Comment


                #8
                Wauw... that's looks really great. Did you just shoot internally in log and just used the Shogun for focus pulling? :o
                Are the night shots also FS7?
                This is come of the nicest looking FS7 footage I've seen in a long time. Also didn't feel docu at all to me, and I mean that in a good way.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by legrevedotcom View Post
                  Wauw... that's looks really great. Did you just shoot internally in log and just used the Shogun for focus pulling? :o
                  Are the night shots also FS7?
                  This is come of the nicest looking FS7 footage I've seen in a long time. Also didn't feel docu at all to me, and I mean that in a good way.
                  Thanks so very much for your kind words and encouragement. It is indeed internal Cine-EI Slog3 footage shot in XACV-I at 4k @23.976p and downscaled to 1080. Night shots are the same, from memory almost all shots were over-exposed by around a stop (maybe even two for the night shots). All graded in DVR.

                  Cheers,

                  jason
                  ----------------
                  Freelance Site: www.Opticalism.com/jason
                  Company Site: www.Opticalism.com
                  Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/jasonbrooks/videos
                  Africa Blog: www.Opticalism.com/travels

                  Sum Ergo Edo.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Looks great, Jason...I left you a comment on Vimeo too.

                    In DaVinci Resolve, did you use a LUT or just tune your own image? Looks nice and organic.

                    Good luck with this project. I'm an FS5 shooter, and it's nice to see some good Sony work, since all the "cool kids" are shooting RED, BMD, etc.
                    Sony FS5, A7RII, Fuji XT-3, MacBook Pro

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Originally posted by David_Manning View Post
                      In DaVinci Resolve, did you use a LUT or just tune your own image? Looks nice and organic. Good luck with this project. I'm an FS5 shooter, and it's nice to see some good Sony work, since all the "cool kids" are shooting RED, BMD, etc.
                      Thanks David - really glad you liked it! In the grade I got a basic look using a set of exposure-compensating LUTs that I created from the widely available LC709A (Low-con 'Alexa' look) LUT using Ben Turley's great "LUTcalc" software (well documented by it's creator @cameramanben on this forum). I then tweaked curves and saturation to taste for each shot/sequence, also desaturating some colours selectively using "Hue vs. Sat" curves in DVR. Overall though, the shifts were mainly to keep the darker skintones looking nice, realistic and readable in strong daylight conditions.

                      Cheers,

                      jason
                      ----------------
                      Freelance Site: www.Opticalism.com/jason
                      Company Site: www.Opticalism.com
                      Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/jasonbrooks/videos
                      Africa Blog: www.Opticalism.com/travels

                      Sum Ergo Edo.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Truly impressive work that had me wanting more.

                        I am pleasantly surprised by what the DP was able to do in low-light with lenses no faster than f/2.8 and being locked into 2000ISO. The candle-lit scenes in particular. I would have thought those scenes would require a fast prime. To what extent were those scenes lit "naturally", with only candle-light and existing practicals? Do you recall if the DP supplemented with any video-production lighting of his own? Whatever the case, the scene looks "un-lit" and natural. Which is the beauty of it and what makes it impressive.
                        Sachtler tripod user for 40+ years.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Originally posted by JPNola View Post
                          Truly impressive work that had me wanting more. I am pleasantly surprised by what the DP was able to do in low-light with lenses no faster than f/2.8 and being locked into 2000ISO. The candle-lit scenes in particular. I would have thought those scenes would require a fast prime. To what extent were those scenes lit "naturally", with only candle-light and existing practicals? Do you recall if the DP supplemented with any video-production lighting of his own? Whatever the case, the scene looks "un-lit" and natural. Which is the beauty of it and what makes it impressive.
                          Hey JP, Thanks for your kind comment, I hope other people (i.e. funders!) want to see more as well! I'm pretty pleased with the night-time ritual setup too. We worked like absolute crazy to light as many candles as possible and stick them onto walls around where our talent is kneeling. There is next-to-none artificial lighting (an existing bare 60w lightbulb about 10ft from the scene for the merest hint of fill). The scene is shot in the main character's real back yard with his mum, where the same ritual actually happened 4 years ago.

                          This is pretty much in line with the methodology we plan to continue throughout the rest of shooting, to work with environments as we find them as much as possible, with the aim of making the whole thing feel like it could be a really nicely shot doc. Given that the story is true, it seems like the best method to pursue!

                          Here's a shot of the scene from behind the camera to give a sense of how many candles there were (though it varied as they kept blowing out and falling to the ground when too much wax melted!) ;-)

                          IMG_2111 (1).jpg

                          Cheers,

                          jason
                          ----------------
                          Freelance Site: www.Opticalism.com/jason
                          Company Site: www.Opticalism.com
                          Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/jasonbrooks/videos
                          Africa Blog: www.Opticalism.com/travels

                          Sum Ergo Edo.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Beautiful images. I'm curious about how you handled sound for this shoot. Did you have lavs and a boom?

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Agree with all positive comments! Best of luck seeing this thru to completion! Keep us posted.

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