GREYSCALE - feature film - OFFICIAL THREAD

Brandon Rice

Brandon Rice

Distributed Producer
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GREYSCALE is a Neo-Noir Thriller in the tradition of Brick, Memento, Unknown, Lucky Number Slevin, and the 1950 classic D.O.A.

SYNOPSIS:

When his wife JULIA is killed in an explosion at a Mob warehouse, the world of artist OLIVER ALLEN literally turns gray.

Oliver, a painter who had hoped to trade a checkered past for a new life with Julia, suffers grief-induced Achromatopsia – the inability to see any color – a condition that plunges him into a world of black and white and shades of gray.

It’s the least of his problems.

The Mob is after him. GAVIN CALHOUN (Tim Russ), is intent on two things: avenging the death of the mobster-boss son, who also died at the warehouse; and finding out what Oliver knows about a dead undercover cop who penetrated the Family – a cop who happened to be Julia’s father (Anthony Tyler Quinn).

So Oliver abandons his witness-protection safe house in Denver, one step ahead of Calhoun’s murderous lieutenant, JAMISON (Doug Jones), and seeks refuge in the old hometown of his idyllic university days with Julia. Amidst a swirl of flashbacks, he enlists the help of BLAKE, his eccentric college roommate, and WINSTON, a techno-geek with an arsenal of tricked out toys that go bang. Into the mix comes RACHEL SOREN, a stunning and mysterious woman whose request for an art commission in return for answers to his shaded past sends him on a desperate quest to discover the reasons behind the spiral of violence.

Oliver descends into the netherworld, mining the streets and alleys and last-chance churches for any detail about a mob database and the decryption key that might unlock it. His search brings him face to face with the two DONNELLY BROTHERS, crime-family thugs sent to find him, and a lead pipe. Now Oliver’s world turns black.

But Oliver wakes up in a speeding car driven by his wife, the very-much ALIVE Julia.

His tempestuous reunion with Julia catapults Oliver into a web of betrayal – in which no one seems to be who they are, where loyalties are tested, and allegiances broken, giving him a last chance to make peace with the past and a new shot at a future.

CAST (incomplete)​


Ryan Dunlap - Oliver Allen
Doug Jones - Jamison
Tim Russ - Gavin Calhoun
Anthony Tyler Quinn - Jonathon Cole
Brian Shoop - Gabe
Marisa Draeger - Rachel Soren
Jason Knight - Blake Sullivan
Sarah Dunlap - Julia Allen
Mark Gullickson - Winston
Steve Tommey - Alex Farrel
Mary Neff - Millie
Doug Bauer - Dan Canton
Aaron Kruse - Roger Canton​

CREW (incomplete list)​

Writer/Director
Ryan Dunlap

Producers
Ryan Dunlap
Calix Lewis Reneau
Joseph Cincotti

Associate Producers
Sheri Reeves
Lee Rudnicki
Mark Gullickson
Gloria Roundtree

Director of Photography
John Barnett II​

MORE INFORMATION:

GREYSCALE is being shot on the HVX-200 with Brevis lens adapter. and features several recognizable actors, including Doug Jones (Hellboy, Fantastic Four, Pan's Labyrinth), Tim Russ (Samantha Who, Star Trek: Voyager) and Anthony Tyler Quinn (Boy Meets World, Melrose Place, No Greater Love)

I've had the privilege of helping writer/director Ryan Dunlap behind the scenes on this film, in respect to the casting of some of the "names". When Ryan pitched me the story and I read the script I was immediately excited about the idea... and I can tell you the story and script are strong, and from what I've seen the cast has done an excellent job of bringing it to life.

Ryan is also a member here on DVXuser and will be popping in the thread on occasion for questions and answers...

We also have a website in the works, and a teaser trailer on the way soon... principle photography will be wrapping up mid-December.

Please continue checking back in on the thread for updates...
 
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Production Diary

Production Diary

GREYSCALE Production Diary as told by Writer/Director Ryan Dunlap

Chapter 1 - (Embarrassingly) Humble Beginnings

After leaving college with a minor in film studies, I realized I was very much alone as all 95% of my regular cast/crew that I pulled together during college had vacated the state. I was newly married, bought a house and .5 kids (kitten). I had it in my mind that I would invest in an HVX200 and begin producing small projects with my wife. After winning a very large corporate film festival on someone else's borrowed HVX, I had the scratch to begin purchasing my basic gear.

Picked up the HVX and shot a little project in December. Didn't have much come of it, but I was still convinced I wouldn't even attempt a feature until I was 30 or so when I had the resources to pull something off. My friend with the HVX had just finished his film, Treasure Blind (in which I got to play a moderately sized supporting role), and I realized it was possible to pull together enough gear and people to make a movie in Tulsa, but I didn't have the clout to do it quite yet.

1.1 - Big Ideas
I decided it would be a good idea to network with local filmmakers, and found a group called the Oklahoma MovieMakers that met weekly. I went to the first meeting where a (now) friend of mine, Nathan Ashton, was pitching an idea for having a big annual film festival in Tulsa. Then the thought hit me, why not try to make a film for that?

Let me preface by saying I am incredibly scope-shy... my biggest project in college (55 page script) collapsed when a major location pulled out on me entirely. Since then, when anyone pitches an idea, my mind immediately races to how can this be done. Feasibility is a major issue for me, and I was limited on resources, but I wanted to make a movie.

1.2 - Work with what you've got
I've seen many indie filmmakers and college students get grandiose ideas of screenplays or exciting action sequences only to see them fall horribly flat when they tried to execute them. Their pen was bigger than their reach, so to speak, and I didn't want to fall prey to that myself. So, I took stock of what assets I had available to me: actors, crew, equipment.

With what I have around me, what kind of movie can I make?

If I'm the only one making this movie, what kind of movie can I make?

I thought the latter was the more appropriate question, and so I began penning Greyscale back in February. The title of the movie popped in my head as I was taking stock of my personal strengths and weaknesses. I had a personal conversation like this...

"So Ryan, what can you do?"
"Well, I can write, shoot, edit, act..."
"How are you on lighting..."
"..."
"That's what I thought. How can this become feasible for you to light?"
"Easy, take color temperatures out of the equation and play in a genre that allows for non-nuanced lighting."
"So, noir. You love noir. Your first major project was pretty neo-noir in subject..."

And I was off! Needless to say the project has grown exponentially since then, and this was my first draft idea of how to pull off a feature with limited resources... The plan changed and I was able to land an amazing DP, a hard working AC, a cracker jack sound engineer/art director, and more people from my past that I even forgot I knew that came out of the woodwork when I announced I was making a movie.

</Chapter 1>
 
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Hey Brandon, thanks so much for the major plug for Greyscale! We're about 60% in production and are looking forward to having Tim Russ fly in a few days to shoot all of his scenes.

Yep, Daros Films is the production company that is putting the movie together.

I'll try to keep you guys up to date as we move along. The day after Tim arrives we're shooting the main climax of the movie... bringing on extra crew and equipment for it. We're incredibly excited.

-Ryan
 
Yes and no... There will be plenty of times where color will bleed in from memory (it actually is the key to saving the main character's neck at one point) but there's one character who will have the blue eyes (and sometimes be the only one in color).

That's a shot from the teaser I put together to shop at AFM, and I may or may not choose to go that direction with the eye coloration for the main character.

I guess that's the beauty of shooting color and moving it to b/w... I get to make a lot of attempts at making the image pop with a little color... it just takes forever in roto. ;)

Right now the way the script works is that when a flashback/memory is about to play out, there's something (usually small or mundane like a coffee cup or a leaf blowing by) alone in color that shoots the MC into the color world to delve into the backstory a little, and then he usually gets jerked out of that and back in the b/w world.

The color scenes were shot in a much softer way and the dark present has a much harder contrast-y style. We're aiming for a few steps back from Sin City, and more toward Memento (personal favorite), just flipped in the ratio of b&w/color.
 
taormina said:
Very nice - you're always working on something, aren't you, Rice?

Good for you!
Click to expand...

I try to :) gotta keep busy...

And actually on this one I am just glad to be involved in the small way I am... Ryan is doing the work on this, and I just get to see everything :) He's doing a great job though... very impressed. :beer:
 
Hey everybody, I thought I would try to start something of a mini "production blog" going back in time to Feb '08 when everything started, and how we got to the point where we were able to land people like Doug, Tim, and Anthony. So, here goes.

Chapter 1 - (Embarrassingly) Humble Beginnings

After leaving college with a minor in film studies, I realized I was very much alone as all 95% of my regular cast/crew that I pulled together during college had vacated the state. I was newly married, bought a house and .25 kids (kitten). I had it in my mind that I would invest in an HVX200 and begin producing small projects with my wife. After winning a very large corporate film festival on someone else's borrowed HVX, I had the scratch to begin purchasing my basic gear.

Picked up the HVX and shot a little project in December. Didn't have much come of it, but I was still convinced I wouldn't even attempt a feature until I was 30 or so when I had the resources to pull something off. My friend with the HVX had just finished his film, Treasure Blind (in which I got to play a moderately sized supporting role), and I realized it was possible to pull together enough gear and people to make a movie in Tulsa, but I didn't have the clout to do it quite yet.

1.1 - Big Ideas
I decided it would be a good idea to network with local filmmakers, and found a group called the Oklahoma MovieMakers that met weekly. I went to the first meeting where a (now) friend of mine, Nathan Ashton, was pitching an idea for having a big annual film festival in Tulsa. Then the thought hit me, why not try to make a film for that?

Let me preface by saying I am incredibly scope-shy... my biggest project in college (55 page script) collapsed when a major location pulled out on me entirely. Since then, when anyone pitches an idea, my mind immediately races to how can this be done. Feasibility is a major issue for me, and I was limited on resources, but I wanted to make a movie.

1.2 - Work with what you've got
I've seen many indie filmmakers and college students get grandiose ideas of screenplays or exciting action sequences only to see them fall horribly flat when they tried to execute them. Their pen was bigger than their reach, so to speak, and I didn't want to fall prey to that myself. So, I took stock of what assets I had available to me: actors, crew, equipment.

With what I have around me, what kind of movie can I make?

If I'm the only one making this movie, what kind of movie can I make?

I thought the latter was the more appropriate question, and so I began penning Greyscale back in February. The title of the movie popped in my head as I was taking stock of my personal strengths and weaknesses. I had a personal conversation like this...

"So Ryan, what can you do?"
"Well, I can write, shoot, edit, act..."
"How are you on lighting..."
"..."
"That's what I thought. How can this become feasible for you to light?"
"Easy, take color temperatures out of the equation and play in a genre that allows for non-nuanced lighting."
"So, noir. You love noir. Your first major project was pretty neo-noir in subject..."

And I was off! Needless to say the project has grown exponentially since then, and this was my first draft idea of how to pull off a feature with limited resources... The plan changed and I was able to land an amazing DP, a hard working AD, a cracker jack sound engineer/art director, and more people from my past that I even forgot I knew that came out of the woodwork when I announced I was making a movie.

</Chapter 1>

I'll keep updating this as regularly as I can, as it's been an incredible ride thus far to go from "how can I make this by myself," to being on the phone with Doug Jones' manager and landing him for a major supporting role.

I'll make an attempt at getting Chapter 2 up tomorrow (or this evening if there's time), but 2 of my LA producers are flying in tomorrow evening and Tim Russ is coming in on Saturday, so I may not be able to come up for air until Tuesday.

-R

P.S. Just be glad that I didn't go into the very first idea (pre-noir) about the world having lost its color...
 
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Whoa! This looks great and sounds really interesting :)

I am really looking forward to Chapter 2!

So you started in February this year with literally nothing?!
 
I'm keeping the first post updated with Ryan's production diary as well, for those who want to have a central place to view them!

Thanks!
 
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