Calls From The Führerbunker

A true story (continued).

7th November 2008, 3.00 am, the wind is back, so it is less misty than the day before, but still damp and grey. Nobody in the wood, not even one rabbit. The fox must be around. Susanne and Jason are walking round the wood and speaking about the candle from the day before. Rufus sniffs the ground with great interest. They come nearer to the point where they found the candle, cross the little wooden bridge, then the raised wooden walk-way and suddenly half way there, Rufus starts to bark! Susanne jumps, slips and find herself on the wet ground. Jason helps her to get up. Rufus is completely still with his ears raised. Jason looks around. Is anybody there? Maybe the fox. They wait for a moment and listen, but there is only the wind which moves the leaves between the trees. A few meters further on they find the place, but it is empty. There is only the little birch tree. The red plastic cup which held the candle should still be there. Somebody was here and took it away. Susanne says that people usually buy these candles on All Saints' Day to put them on the graves, but that was already six days ago. They continue their walk. Could there be a grave here, in this place? Could there be somebody who comes back every year at the beginning of November?
 
Michael Anthony Horrigan said:
Looks like The Watchman & CFTFB have both been accepted to a local Film Festival coming up later this month.
I'm going to try and get the entire cast from each film to show up. Should be a lot of fun!

Pretty excited about seeing both of these films in front of a live audience. :)
Hopefully the reactions will be good.

Cheers,

Mike
Click to expand...

Nice! Congratulations, Mike! :beer:
 
Michael Anthony Horrigan said:
Looks like The Watchman & CFTFB have both been accepted to a local Film Festival coming up later this month.
I'm going to try and get the entire cast from each film to show up. Should be a lot of fun!

Pretty excited about seeing both of these films in front of a live audience. :)
Hopefully the reactions will be good.

Cheers,

Mike
Click to expand...


Congrats!! :)
 
Michael Anthony Horrigan said:
Looks like The Watchman & CFTFB have both been accepted to a local Film Festival coming up later this month.
I'm going to try and get the entire cast from each film to show up. Should be a lot of fun!

Pretty excited about seeing both of these films in front of a live audience. :)
Hopefully the reactions will be good.

Cheers,

Mike
Click to expand...

This sounds really good. To have also a filmmaker life outside of dvxuser seems very mature. Congratulations!:beer:
Recently I looked which filmfest there are in Germany and I found a lot from April to November, but filmmakers have to ask for the entry for April until more ore less of the end of December. What means very much time before. I saw that they also take international entries! :happy: I can perfectly imagination something like: 'Micheal Anthony Horrigan, Canadian fimmaker, rewrite the German SWW history. The mythus is still alive'. :Drogar-Love(DBG):

Susanne
 
All of the reviews.... I'm a little late to the party, but here goes. I liked the film a hell of a lot. Definitely one of my top 5 in the fest. It was handled succinctly and told very well both in story and in terms of cinema, so I have little choice but to like it.

One scene that did throw me off was with the guard in the bathroom. That kind of threw me off there since I had assumed by this point that he was alone in the bunker. Establishing the guard earlier, even with a shot would have helped that scene... either that or an alternate without the guard in it. I'm sure we'll see the full thing in the DC, but as it stands that's just confusing.

Other than that (and him stating the obvious) It was a very solid entry. All the way Twilight, all the way excellent.

Thanks for sharing with us, cuz this film ROCKS.
 
Ok, this is one of my favorites and here's an in depth review:

First of all, I have to relate an amusing incident: The very first time I watched this in depth was at my computer in our production office. I had a separate window open where I had been listening to KFI 640 a.m. Bill Handel in the morning. I had the volume muted in that window and had forgotten about it. So, I was watching "Calls" and somehow shortly into the film the mute in that other window turned off and it happened to be in the middle of the Rush Limbaugh show. So, here I am watching "Calls" and listening to the wonderful score to suddenly have Rush Limbaugh ranting. I had seen the opening date of 1968 and I thought, "WTF? Is this some sort of dimensional rift where Rush Limbaugh is broadcasting back to 1968?"

Ok, now to my review.

I absolutely love this score. The opening scene of the guardhouse is supberb. Very nice setup with the young guard. I do wish you had an older actor to open with a bit more gravitas, but that's an insignificant quibble.

The floor-level dolly is awesome. By this point the combination of score and camera work have me completely hooked.

Johni Keyworth is absolutely perfect. What a great face and he really fills the role spot-on. Teaming him up with Ian was brilliant. I love how natural Ian is and his expressions make the piece.

I think I mentioned before that the "whatever you do, don't flush the third toilet" is one of my top three scenes in the whole fest of the ones I've watched. Love the ECU on Shoe's left eye! Ian's WTF???? expression as he's relating this is priceless!

The location is such a star for this piece. Shooting it B&W was absolutely a great choice. Not only does it sell 1968, it really works well for the mood. The pause/dissolve in the cafeteria as Ian is mopping works very well to sell passage of time and, thus, escalate the tension arc in such a short film. I don't know how long its been since I've heard a theramin (actual or sampled) ... Herman rules!!!!! I hope he gives some info on the technical aspects of the score.

Great sound design. Phone ring needs to be bumped up IMHO, but otherwise its all more than good.

You really have great camera work, Mike. You make the most out of the old analog panels and the crane-up at 3:00 is the sh*t.

Extremely tight scripting for the German conversation. I loved the subtle setup with Ian's name tag establishing him to be German. As mentioned before, the only way this works is to have a strong and natural actor carrying it with his expressions and movements.

I hope people really appreciate the accomplishment of doing all of this yourself, man. The setups are beautiful.

At 4:05 I'm a little bugged by the light glow on the right. He's got a pretty predominant shadow coming from the other direction at 3:54 that seems different when we cut to this wider view. Not sure what's going on there with the bright spot and shadow but it took me out a little. Its the only lighting quibble I have in the whole film.

Have you expounded on the book with the photo of Misch - telephone switchboard operator in the bunker. Was that for real? Did you find that book and develop the story or do the story and find the book? Awesome in all respects.

For your festival run I assume you'll add a little more space for your ending. It's so nicely done, but will benefit from even 10 or 15 seconds to open up the reveal and reaction.

I think I've said this is about as classic Zone as you get. More importantly, its a beautifully produced piece of work that shines on all aspects. Great job and much success to you, sir. Definitely should be in the top 3 in my opinion.
 
puckthemad said:
All of the reviews.... I'm a little late to the party, but here goes. I liked the film a hell of a lot. Definitely one of my top 5 in the fest. It was handled succinctly and told very well both in story and in terms of cinema, so I have little choice but to like it.

One scene that did throw me off was with the guard in the bathroom. That kind of threw me off there since I had assumed by this point that he was alone in the bunker. Establishing the guard earlier, even with a shot would have helped that scene... either that or an alternate without the guard in it. I'm sure we'll see the full thing in the DC, but as it stands that's just confusing.

Other than that (and him stating the obvious) It was a very solid entry. All the way Twilight, all the way excellent.

Thanks for sharing with us, cuz this film ROCKS.
Click to expand...
Top 5... in this fest! I'll take it. :)
Thanks. I really appreciate that. :thumbup:

I have to say that I chuckle a little bit at the guard comments now since that seems to be the one common criticism.
I opened the movie with a guard and it is a military base... so it wouldn't be left completely unguarded, even at night.

Still, I think the opening conversation may have given some people the impression of complete isolation so I understand where the critique is coming from.

You mentioned the DC, that will definitely clear up any guard issue. For a sneak peek, check out THIS link in my signature.
There will be more of him besides this as well. The sound is also temporary.

Thanks again, man. I dig your work so thanks for taking the time.

Mike
 
Mark! Thanks, dude! I'm thrilled that you liked it so much.
My comments and answers to your questions are in yellow below.


Mark Johnson said:
Ok, this is one of my favorites and here's an in depth review:

First of all, I have to relate an amusing incident: The very first time I watched this in depth was at my computer in our production office. I had a separate window open where I had been listening to KFI 640 a.m. Bill Handel in the morning. I had the volume muted in that window and had forgotten about it. So, I was watching "Calls" and somehow shortly into the film the mute in that other window turned off and it happened to be in the middle of the Rush Limbaugh show. So, here I am watching "Calls" and listening to the wonderful score to suddenly have Rush Limbaugh ranting. I had seen the opening date of 1968 and I thought, "WTF? Is this some sort of dimensional rift where Rush Limbaugh is broadcasting back to 1968?"

Love it! Probably helped to set the mood quite appropriately.

Ok, now to my review.

I absolutely love this score. The opening scene of the guardhouse is superb. Very nice setup with the young guard. I do wish you had an older actor to open with a bit more gravitas, but that's an insignificant quibble.

The floor-level dolly is awesome. By this point the combination of score and camera work have me completely hooked.

Thanks.

Johni Keyworth is absolutely perfect. What a great face and he really fills the role spot-on. Teaming him up with Ian was brilliant. I love how natural Ian is and his expressions make the piece.

I think I mentioned before that the "whatever you do, don't flush the third toilet" is one of my top three scenes in the whole fest of the ones I've watched. Love the ECU on Shoe's left eye! Ian's WTF???? expression as he's relating this is priceless!

Two great actors and a pleasure to work with. Glad the closeup worked for you.

The location is such a star for this piece. Shooting it B&W was absolutely a great choice. Not only does it sell 1968, it really works well for the mood. The pause/dissolve in the cafeteria as Ian is mopping works very well to sell passage of time and, thus, escalate the tension arc in such a short film. I don't know how long its been since I've heard a theramin (actual or sampled) ... Herman rules!!!!! I hope he gives some info on the technical aspects of the score.

Herman is the real deal. He has actually sent me his method for scoring CFTFB and I will be posting it in my ongoing "Making of" postings. The score segment will go up later tonight.

Great sound design. Phone ring needs to be bumped up IMHO, but otherwise its all more than good.

Thanks! Rutger did a great sound design mix. The 5.1 mix.... wow!

You really have great camera work, Mike. You make the most out of the old analog panels and the crane-up at 3:00 is the sh*t.

First time using a crane, I wanted to get it right. Thanks.
The little HV20 can.

Extremely tight scripting for the German conversation. I loved the subtle setup with Ian's name tag establishing him to be German. As mentioned before, the only way this works is to have a strong and natural actor carrying it with his expressions and movements.

I hope people really appreciate the accomplishment of doing all of this yourself, man. The setups are beautiful.

This part REALLY means a lot to me. Our time at the bunker consisted of three 3 hour shoots, max! 9 hours. That meant I was running around like mad to light, sound test, direct and shoot this puppy. All the while having to lug the gear from floor to floor in this huge underground bunker. I would have killed for either a full day, or better yet, a weekend. No dice.

At 4:05 I'm a little bugged by the light glow on the right. He's got a pretty predominant shadow coming from the other direction at 3:54 that seems different when we cut to this wider view. Not sure what's going on there with the bright spot and shadow but it took me out a little. Its the only lighting quibble I have in the whole film.

There's an old lamp that is actually out of frame on the right but you can see it's shadow on the wall. I think that's what you are talking about. As for any lighting differences. The lighting didn't change the entire time. Unless the natural light (Patio doors on the left out of frame) changed. It was a pretty overcast day.

Have you expounded on the book with the photo of Misch - telephone switchboard operator in the bunker. Was that for real? Did you find that book and develop the story or do the story and find the book? Awesome in all respects.

I did a ton of research on the Internet while I was writing this.
Developed the story first, and then went to old book stores and finally found something of use. Glad you liked it.

For your festival run I assume you'll add a little more space for your ending. It's so nicely done, but will benefit from even 10 or 15 seconds to open up the reveal and reaction.

Agreed! It will end the same but the pacing will change. You will also see a little more of Ian's reaction which is priceless! I'm fooling around with adding a long shot that I have of Andrew Shoe walking down a long tunnel towards the exit. What do you think?

I think I've said this is about as classic Zone as you get. More importantly, its a beautifully produced piece of work that shines on all aspects. Great job and much success to you, sir. Definitely should be in the top 3 in my opinion.

Top 3! One can hope.
Click to expand...

I really appreciate this, Mark. Fat Monster is a force to be reckoned with and I really appreciate the glowing review, as well as the invaluable feedback. :beer:

Cheers,

Mike
 
The making of: Calls From The Führerbunker

...continued

You can check out the previous segments here....

LOCATION
WRITING
CASTING
DIRECTING
LIGHTING
CINEMATOGRAPHY
EDITING

Now on to the next segment, written by Herman Witkam
SCORE

 [FONT=&quot]When I first saw the film I was very intrigued by what I saw, and I almost instantly knew what I wanted to do with it. The film really breathed that classic Twilight Zone atmosphere, and I wanted to accent that by composing music that is a homage to the music of great composers like Bernard Herrmann, Elmer Bernstein and Jerry Goldsmith, composers who have influenced my musical development so much. The orchestral setting was a logical choice. I decided to use the theremin as a solo instrument, because it reflects these great old horror and sci-fi scores, and it has a timbre comparable to a soprano voice, without literally referring to the human voice itself. The theme playing during the telephone scenes is the first thing I came up with, playing around with the theremin sound. I created the rhythmic patterns of the celli and basses under it, and the theme was born. [/FONT]

 [FONT=&quot]I used relatively few winds and brass, so the orchestral palette became rather an ensemble of strings and mallets (vibraphone, xylophone) and of course the spooky sounding theremin. So, the idiom and instrumentation I used were based on Twilight Zone and other scores of that era, and I wanted it to at least partly resemble a Twilight Zone score aesthetically. The most important tools I used were: pauses, thin instrumentation to create suspense, and dynamics. Using short pauses in the score, the viewer is thrown back and forth through reality all the time (music representing the artificial, and no music representing reality), and thin instrumentation combined with soft dynamics can really help the viewer to get used to soft sound, to suddenly strike with very loud score and sound design when needed, making use of full dynamic range. Rutger and I made sure that this would still work in the 5.1 surround mix that we did. [/FONT]

 [FONT=&quot]The biggest challenge was to get a solid buildup up to the moment where we get the reveals of Misch's picture in the book, and the final scene. Because of the 6 minute limit, it was hard to give it a proper ending that wouldn't feel rushed, so I did my best to prevent that. Would this film ever become adapted into a feature film, I would still have enough ideas for it in the back of my mind that I was unable to apply because of the short length of the film.[/FONT]

 [FONT=&quot]-Herman

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Special thanks to Herman for writing this up. Quite the insight on scoring a short film.
Sound is half the film, and CFTFB would be nothing without his brilliant score.

Mike
[/FONT]
 
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Michael Anthony Horrigan said:
The making of: Calls From The Führerbunker

...continued

You can check out the previous segments here....

LOCATION
WRITING
CASTING
DIRECTING
LIGHTING
CINEMATOGRAPHY
EDITING

Now on to the next segment, written by Herman Witkam
SCORE

 [FONT=&quot]When I first saw the film I was very intrigued by what I saw, and I almost instantly knew what I wanted to do with it. The film really breathed that classic Twilight Zone atmosphere, and I wanted to accent that by composing music that is a homage to the music of great composers like Bernard Herrmann, Elmer Bernstein and Jerry Goldsmith, composers who have influenced my musical development so much. The orchestral setting was a logical choice. I decided to use the theremin as a solo instrument, because it reflects these great old horror and sci-fi scores, and it has a timbre comparable to a soprano voice, without literally referring to the human voice itself. The theme playing during the telephone scenes is the first thing I came up with, playing around with the theremin sound. I created the rhythmic patterns of the celli and basses under it, and the theme was born. [/FONT]

 [FONT=&quot]I used relatively few winds and brass, so the orchestral palette became rather an ensemble of strings and mallets (vibraphone, xylophone) and of course the spooky sounding theremin. So, the idiom and instrumentation I used were based on Twilight Zone and other scores of that era, and I wanted it to at least partly resemble a Twilight Zone score aesthetically. The most important tools I used were: pauses, thin instrumentation to create suspense, and dynamics. Using short pauses in the score, the viewer is thrown back and forth through reality all the time (music representing the artificial, and no music representing reality), and thin instrumentation combined with soft dynamics can really help the viewer to get used to soft sound, to suddenly strike with very loud score and sound design when needed, making use of full dynamic range. Rutger and I made sure that this would still work in the 5.1 surround mix that we did. [/FONT]

 [FONT=&quot]The biggest challenge was to get a solid buildup up to the moment where we get the reveals of Misch's picture in the book, and the final scene. Because of the 6 minute limit, it was hard to give it a proper ending that wouldn't feel rushed, so I did my best to prevent that. Would this film ever become adapted into a feature film, I would still have enough ideas for it in the back of my mind that I was unable to apply because of the short length of the film.[/FONT]

 [FONT=&quot]-Herman[/FONT]
Click to expand...

Wonderful write up Herman! Very informative on your writing process.. I was like... "waaa...."

Thanks for sharing. (and mike of course for posting his bts'ssss

/j
 
Michael Anthony Horrigan said:
The making of: Calls From The Führerbunker

...continued

You can check out the previous segments here....

LOCATION
WRITING
CASTING
DIRECTING
LIGHTING
CINEMATOGRAPHY
EDITING

Now on to the next segment, written by Herman Witkam

SCORE

[FONT=&quot]When I first saw the film I was very intrigued by what I saw, and I almost instantly knew what I wanted to do with it. The film really breathed that classic Twilight Zone atmosphere, and I wanted to accent that by composing music that is a homage to the music of great composers like Bernard Herrmann, Elmer Bernstein and Jerry Goldsmith, composers who have influenced my musical development so much. The orchestral setting was a logical choice. I decided to use the theremin as a solo instrument, because it reflects these great old horror and sci-fi scores, and it has a timbre comparable to a soprano voice, without literally referring to the human voice itself. The theme playing during the telephone scenes is the first thing I came up with, playing around with the theremin sound. I created the rhythmic patterns of the celli and basses under it, and the theme was born. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]I used relatively few winds and brass, so the orchestral palette became rather an ensemble of strings and mallets (vibraphone, xylophone) and of course the spooky sounding theremin. So, the idiom and instrumentation I used were based on Twilight Zone and other scores of that era, and I wanted it to at least partly resemble a Twilight Zone score aesthetically. The most important tools I used were: pauses, thin instrumentation to create suspense, and dynamics. Using short pauses in the score, the viewer is thrown back and forth through reality all the time (music representing the artificial, and no music representing reality), and thin instrumentation combined with soft dynamics can really help the viewer to get used to soft sound, to suddenly strike with very loud score and sound design when needed, making use of full dynamic range. Rutger and I made sure that this would still work in the 5.1 surround mix that we did. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]The biggest challenge was to get a solid buildup up to the moment where we get the reveals of Misch's picture in the book, and the final scene. Because of the 6 minute limit, it was hard to give it a proper ending that wouldn't feel rushed, so I did my best to prevent that. Would this film ever become adapted into a feature film, I would still have enough ideas for it in the back of my mind that I was unable to apply because of the short length of the film.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]-Herman[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]-----------------------------------------------------------------[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Special thanks to Herman for writing this up. Quite the insight on scoring a short film.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Sound is half the film, and CFTFB would be nothing without his brilliant score.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Mike[/FONT]
Click to expand...

The score matchs perfectly the moment of Misch's picture in the book. This is an important moment of the story and one of my prefered parts (including the music)of the film. As I too feel to have done a little part of this film, I am very glad that especially you Herman has made the score. It is a wonderful score - thank you for done it! :)

Susanne
 
Mark Johnson said:
Ok, this is one of my favorites and here's an in depth review:

First of all, I have to relate an amusing incident: The very first time I watched this in depth was at my computer in our production office. I had a separate window open where I had been listening to KFI 640 a.m. Bill Handel in the morning. I had the volume muted in that window and had forgotten about it. So, I was watching "Calls" and somehow shortly into the film the mute in that other window turned off and it happened to be in the middle of the Rush Limbaugh show. So, here I am watching "Calls" and listening to the wonderful score to suddenly have Rush Limbaugh ranting. I had seen the opening date of 1968 and I thought, "WTF? Is this some sort of dimensional rift where Rush Limbaugh is broadcasting back to 1968?"
Click to expand...

Mark,

Same thing happened to me with another film on here before.

I was watching a film, and behind that window was ANOTHER film playing but I didn't know..

So I watch this film and all of a sudden there's like a suspense sequence of a murderer chasing a person in a house pretty much.....All of a sudden, some christmas music comes on, and it matched it perfectly. It gave it a more creepy look. But still, there was that "doesn't make sense" feeling.

I watch this for about 10 minutes, and some mishaps and other sounds still occur, surprisingly matching the movie I was watching.

It wasn't until AFTER I closed this movie, and I found the other one sitting there, and I said, OMG! So I listened to THAT movie and it all came together.

Very twilighty. :)

Robbie
 
Hey Mike, just read your "casting" notes... very cool stuff.

Susanne, it was wonderful of you to help out in the way that you did getting the German voices cast. I thought the German part was great in this. It had that needed sense of urgency required by the story.
 
Tom Marshall said:
Hey Mike, just read your "casting" notes... very cool stuff.

Susanne, it was wonderful of you to help out in the way that you did getting the German voices cast. I thought the German part was great in this. It had that needed sense of urgency required by the story.
Click to expand...

:dankk2::dankk2::dankk2:
I am enjoying very much the comment :bath:
BTW - do you know some German or is it only the sound of the German language?

Susanne
 
Robbie Comeau said:
Mark,

Same thing happened to me with another film on here before.

I was watching a film, and behind that window was ANOTHER film playing but I didn't know..

So I watch this film and all of a sudden there's like a suspense sequence of a murderer chasing a person in a house pretty much.....All of a sudden, some christmas music comes on, and it matched it perfectly. It gave it a more creepy look. But still, there was that "doesn't make sense" feeling.

I watch this for about 10 minutes, and some mishaps and other sounds still occur, surprisingly matching the movie I was watching.

It wasn't until AFTER I closed this movie, and I found the other one sitting there, and I said, OMG! So I listened to THAT movie and it all came together.

Very twilighty. :)

Robbie
Click to expand...
Welcome to... the Twilight Zone. :eek:
Cue music....

Tom Marshall said:
Hey Mike, just read your "casting" notes... very cool stuff.

Susanne, it was wonderful of you to help out in the way that you did getting the German voices cast. I thought the German part was great in this. It had that needed sense of urgency required by the story.
Click to expand...

Glad you enjoyed the casting segment!
I sent the script off to Jason and Susanne and they did a wonderful job seeing that it was translated perfectly. Especially the tone.

The German language is quite a lot like French actually, the masculine rules and whatnot. At least that's the sense I got from talking things over with Jason.

Both were very helpful in the process. Couldn't have done it without them.

Mike
 
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Michael Anthony Horrigan said:
The German language is quite a lot like French actually, the masculine rules and whatnot. At least that's the sense I got from talking things over with Jason.
Click to expand...

I rather think that this makes me seem like an expert on German - which I am most definitely NOT!! My German is embarassingly awful to non-existent depending on whose opinion you take. (Susanne is the one responsible for putting the phone calls into German and directing the actor's voices, I just twiddled with the levels and edited it all together.) Unfortunately, German is not really that much like French - grammatically it is nearer to Latin. Yes, it has gender like French, Italian and Spanish, but it also has cases (dative, accusative etc.) like Latin :Drogar-Thinking(DBG :Drogar-BlackEye(DBG :Drogar-KnockedOut(D.

By the way, Mike, we've just watched your first film with the doctor. It may surprise you, but we were actually laughing a lot. :thumbup:
Jason
 
Horncastle said:
I rather think that this makes me seem like an expert on German - which I am most definitely NOT!! My German is embarassingly awful to non-existent depending on whose opinion you take. (Susanne is the one responsible for putting the phone calls into German and directing the actor's voices, I just twiddled with the levels and edited it all together.) Unfortunately, German is not really that much like French - grammatically it is nearer to Latin. Yes, it has gender like French, Italian and Spanish, but it also has cases (dative, accusative etc.) like Latin :Drogar-Thinking(DBG :Drogar-BlackEye(DBG :Drogar-KnockedOut(D.
Click to expand...
Yes, I meant in respect to gender. French is the only other language that I personally could compare it to. I don't know Latin. :)

I should have mentioned that Susanne is the German expert. :thumbup:

Thanks for clearing that up!
 
Dick Campbell said:
didn't see the end and just liked everything about it, one of my favorites. I do think the theremin was a bit cliche.
Click to expand...
Thanks! Theremin may be cliché today, but not by episodes of TZ standards from days gone by. Which was exactly what we were going for. :thumbup:

Thanks for watching and commenting. Glad it's one of your faves.

Mike
 
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