Bluebottle
New member
TORRENT
G'day!
About a year ago I wrote and shot an interesting little arthouse piece called Torrent. I put it into a few festivals but nowhere further and its since just been sitting an waiting; so then after falling in love with this forum and all the invaluable information and experiences posted here and which have REALLY taught me so much in the technical ways of cameras and filmmaking, I though i ought to post my two cents as to what I've gotten up to which what has come to be my favourite prosumer camera IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD, the Panasonic HPX170 (or 172 as it is here in Australia). I'm quite proud of what it's accomplished for me in the way of visuals and Torrent is my first film in which I've tried to test the limits of what you can get out of this thing. And you know what else… IT LOOKS KINDA LIKE FILM!!!!
So without further ado, let me tell you a bit about this short.
As for what it's about, the entire plot is subjective and open to the viewer's own interpretation. There is no dialogue (except for a single foreign line) as I strove to communicate everything through visuals and sound alone.
But the production of this piece is what may interest you more, as not only did we shoot this entire thing in a single day (except for the piano shot, which was an hour or two at a later date) but that trench you see in the film--WE DUG THE WHOLE BLOODY THING OURSELVES!!!!!
I spend the most part of two months prior perfecting the script from an idea I had originally jotted down about a year earlier. Something about this idea really had me interested. The short-but-sweetness of it, the bleakness, the crypticness of its message. I wanted to create something which you'd want to watch over and over to try and figure out its meaning (which I also encourage you to do).
Then I had to get together some people who could actually help me MAKE the damn thing. I had contacts from other shorts which I'd worked on and gained wicked friendships from and so that had my basing settled (be it one or two people), then I got in contact with an old friend of mine who's music I newly listened to and was amazing by it, riddled with feeling and sombreness. And I instantly knew THERE was the person to generate the melancholic yet soft soundtrack for this piece.
So then came a secondary boost in determination to MAKE this thing and so I immediately posted onto forums and casting sites looking for cast and crew who (unfortunately) would have to work for free, though I definitely stated with raw enthusiasm that this would be a piece made for the sake of ART and simply the fun and experience of the creation of film with a kickass team!
So I managed to acquire a co-producer, 1st Ad and makeup artist who would all work for free (YAY!!) and then got in touch with a few actors of whom the lead, funnily enough, I never even met in person until the the day of the shoot since he lived several hundred miles away (and I've never been more satisfied with who I got).
As for directing and DOP I took that upon myself as I new it would be most efficient as I wouldn't have to communicate my every thought across to another to work the camera and get the shots exactly as I wanted.
Then, after sorting out rental of the camera and buying some old military gear cheap from army surplus stores (plus then incorporating two ex-military 1942 Lee Endfields which i myself owned and had bought earlier mostly for this purpose) came the task of finding the LOCATION. I thought about it… then after getting into a muddled thought I eventually came to the conclusion of… "could we DIG our OWN trench???" moreso than that however, "could we cheat it and dig this trench IN SOMEONE'S BACKYARD AND GET AWAY WITH IT ON CAMERA, let alone get permission to destroy a chunk of private property???"
Seemingly like magic, about a week later after trying one property to find the ground was near impossible to dig through, I just popped into a mates house because I thought, "screw it," and asked his mother if we could dig a 10m long, 6ft deep trench in her backyard… AND SHE SAID YES!!!! We organised details and secured the location. (They lived on a couple acre property so it wasn't TOO intrusive an idea.)
So everything got organised and then the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday afternoons before the Saturday shoot we set ourselves the goal of then digging one MOTHER of a trench. Now NONE of us had much experience in digging and we had no idea what we would dig up as we got lower, but simply prayed that we didn't end up hitting bloody rock, ending out efforts and totally stuffing up the schedule. All hands were on deck, including one of the actors who volunteered to come one afternoon and help. Then I acquired some sandbags and we decorated the scene. And it turned out AWESOME considering we'd never dug a trench before (and got some great exercise and aching muscles out of it). My endless thanks to all the randoms who showed up to help on a moment's notice.
Anyway, so to keep things brief, the day came, we all showed up (me having to get a lift with a mate since I'M NOT LICENCED TO DRIVE!! Something I'm more and more realising is a dire necessity to a filmmaker), makeup got ready (did a FABULOUS JOB with the dirt and grime on faces) and we got right into it.
As tends to sometimes be, the shotlist almost immediately went right out the window and I just set about shooting all manner of angles and movements so I'd have the maximum selection when it came to the edit (did I mention I personally edited and coloured graded the thing as well [never again].
The actors and crew all did a kickass job and I made special mention of that in the credits.
From memory the complete list of equipment used for the shoot was:
Panasonic HPX172
Shovels
White sheet
Crazy, but that's all I'm pretty sure we used behind the scenes that day. We draped a white sheet over a large section of the trench over the actor as it was mostly a sunny day (which sucked) and we had to create an overcast feel as best we could--however in some earlier shots you can plain as day see the sunlight in the trench behind the soldier. Lighting was probably the biggest flunk of the day.
As another note, for the "explosions", yes we just had 3 or 4 crew shovelling showers of dirt into the hole. Some showers I thought looked totally legit however!
Now, as for the piano scene, that was shot the following weekend--we hooked up a couple of cheap mics inside a piano (gave a cheap sound also) and had our composer play live in front of the camera.
Now the camera that we used for this shot was completely a different story.
It was a Canon HV20 with a JAG35 adapter I'd ordered from California months earlier. Gave a very different effect which seemed appropriate for the dream-like piano scene. A good day it was.
Then came the tragic edit (by "tragic" I mean the zombie-like state I'd constantly emerge from the editing suite room every couple of intense hours to stare at distant objects for a while. Was edited and coloured in Premiere Pro CS4, which I swore I'd never use again for a film project due to the weirdest errors and setbacks occurring. Now I happily use Final Cut Pro!
Oh, and then there was the SOUND. Since we shot no audio on set but that which the internal mic picked up, the majority of ALL SFX in the film I painstakingly added in myself, sourcing them from many places. THAT was like a whole new edit in itself! BUT IT GOT DONE!!!
Anyway, so there is a condense summary of the film process. It goes to show that even on ZERO budget you an still make a decent product if you have a good idea and the dedication of yourself and others.
I hope you enjoy watching. Feel free to ask me any questions you like.
I LOVE this forum.
Luke
hollowpoint308@hotmail.com
WEBSITE: lukeayers.byethost22.com