Just before the Christmas break I met up with an exciting new producer who was about to set up a new production company and talent agency based in Poland and representing filmmakers across Europe. I was hugely impressed with what was on offer, not to mention the number of exciting people already involved. The company represents not just directors, but Director of Photography, Composers, Editors, Producers, Colourists and so on. It’s a hive of exciting creative energy!

As both talent agency and production company, we nurture talent and create top-calibre content for the screens of the world.

Check out the website and have a look at what’s on offer!

http://www.creativebench.tv/

I would urge anyone thinking about applying next year to definitely do so. The access you get to industry professionals is amazing and it’s a way to get your name noticed.

Here’s a little blurb about what was involved from the TSD website:

TSD will encourage its filmmakers to think strategically, working with them to develop a personal project plan. Participants will meet with course leaders and industry guests in 121s before and during the training week and six months after. Participants receive Associate Delegate accreditation for The 56th BFI London Film Festival and membership of The Hospital Club for the duration of the LFF.

Previous TSD speakers have included Ted Hope, Stephen Frears, Atom Egoyan, Tessa Ross, Christine Langan, Penny Woolcock, Mia Bays, Duncan Jones, Stuart Till, Kerry Fox, Ronan Bennett, plus executives from companies including BFI Film Fund, BBC Films, Film London, Creative England, Lionsgate, Warp Films, Film4, Optimum Releasing, Artificial Eye, Soda Pictures, Momentum, DNA, Icon and Revolution Films. Case study films have included Snowtown, Moon, Strawberry Fields, Weekend, Dreams of a Life, Africa United, Skeletons, Shifty and London to Brighton.

Producers: Sahil Gill and Jessica Turner
Production Managers: Leia Ladfors and Neigeme Glasgow-Maeda
1st AD: Leonardo Machado
Script Supervisor: Victoria Gegenbauer
Casting Director: Kharmel Cochrane

Director of Photography: Matthew Cooke
Additional Photography: Malte Rosenfeld
Focus Puller: Alexandru Grigoras
Gaffer: Ray Cook
Spark: Camil Liberto

Sound Recordist: Hayden Anyasi

Costume Designer: Nikkie Alsford
Make Up & Hair: Solo James and Catherine Edwards

Armourer: Ezra Bristow-Smith

Runners: Stephanie Rodgers, Alex Hyndman, Kizzy Dhaliwal and Marcus Parker

Editor: Sahil Gill
Sound Design: Anna Bertmark
Colourist: James Willett
VFX: Jan Daube

Sirhan: Tariq Jordan
Walker: Nigel Barber
CIA Men: Kenneth Stamp and Tony Parkin
Suited Guard: Brian Eastty
Security Officer/Interrogator: Mat Betteridge
Security Officer/Interrogator: Daniel Swain
Glamorous Woman/Stenographer: Emma Francis
Bobby Kennedy: Howard Corlett
Kennedy Supporters: Richard Duncombe, Fran Sala, Helder ‘Edy’ Soares, Phelim Kelly, Julie Isard-Brown, Goldie Green, Daniela Hirsch, Anthony Williams, Bobbie Oliver

After seven weeks, Project ARTICHOKE my short film entry for this year’s Virgin Media Shorts competition is finally complete. If you haven’t had a chance to see it yet, you can check it out here on the Virgin Media Shorts website: http://www.virginmediashorts.co.uk/film/3321/project-artichoke.

The film was quite a challenge to put together considering the ambitious nature of having to recreate the assassination of Bobby Kennedy, but I had a great cast and crew around me and I couldn’t have asked for any better.

The Virgin Media competition is being judged and the finalist stage will be selected early September so keep those fingers crossed! Thanks to everyone so far who has liked the film on Facebook, tweeted, Google Plussed and shared it to friends and family. I really appreciate the support and great feedback.

There’ll be an HD version of the film up on my site soon, which will have credits on, but in the meantime here’s the full list of everyone involved.

Scroll to the bottom of the page to also check out some behind-the-scenes stills.

Producers: Sahil Gill and Jessica Turner
Production Managers: Leia Ladfors and Neigeme Glasgow-Maeda
1st AD: Leonardo Machado
Script Supervisor: Victoria Gegenbauer
Casting Director: Kharmel Cochrane

Director of Photography: Matthew Cooke
Additional Photography: Malte Rosenfeld
Focus Puller: Alexandru Grigoras
Gaffer: Ray Cook
Spark: Camil Liberto

Sound Recordist: Hayden Anyasi

Costume Designer: Nikkie Alsford
Make Up & Hair: Solo James and Catherine Edwards

Armourer: Ezra Bristow-Smith

Runners: Stephanie Rodgers, Alex Hyndman, Kizzy Dhaliwal and Marcus Parker

Editor: Sahil Gill
Sound Design: Anna Bertmark
Colourist: James Willett
VFX: Jan Daube

Sirhan: Tariq Jordan
Walker: Nigel Barber
CIA Men: Kenneth Stamp and Tony Parkin
Suited Guard: Brian Eastty
Security Officer/Interrogator: Mat Betteridge
Security Officer/Interrogator: Daniel Swain
Glamorous Woman/Stenographer: Emma Francis
Bobby Kennedy: Howard Corlett
Kennedy Supporters: Richard Duncombe, Fran Sala, Helder ‘Edy’ Soares, Phelim Kelly, Julie Isard-Brown, Goldie Green, Daniela Hirsch, Anthony Williams, Bobbie Oliver

Shooting on RED, the first thing we had to do was convert the footage from the camera into a usable format for Final Cut Pro. Unless you have a souped up machine this process takes a LONG time. So almost like the days of shooting on film we only converted the takes that I was happy with (like ‘printing’ 35mm film!). Even that process took nine hours, which was the majority of our first day of post-production. To pass the time we watched Star Trek,Up and had take away Thai food. It’s a hard life…

But then the hard work did begin. We had to make sure we had a finished cut to send to the sound designer the next day. I always knew that sound design was going to be a hugely important part of the film and giving the designer Anna Bertmark of Attic Sound plenty of time to create the surreal soundscape I wanted.

Myself and editor and co-producer Sahil Gill edited from 9pm till 9am. 12 hours straight through. By the end of it, we were both taking what felt like twenty second naps and having to wake each other up. I’ve done all-nighters before, but after a three day shoot – that was pretty intense!

As the film was heavily storyboarded and the shots were pretty much like jigsaw pieces, the initial rough cut was a fairly easy process. Putting the pieces together essentially. No matter what budget you’re working at, I always believe that having an editor is much, much better than editing yourself. You want someone to see it with a different view point to your own, and find things that I hadn’t thought of – or noticed in the footage we got. This is absolutely invaluable and I would suggest to every director out there who still edits their own work.

The hardest part of editing was getting it down to the running time of 2:20 which was the main stipulation of the competition. Our rough cut came to about three minutes, which doesn’t sound like a huge amount more, but as everything was so inter-connected it was a very tough job of finding what we could cut out. It literally became an issue of frames!

Ultimately we managed to do it – as you’ll see once it goes online, and I’m extremely happy with the finished result.

Next step was the sound design. Once we handed over the locked off cut to Anna, she had a day to herself to start putting the sound together. By the end of that day, she sent over a rough version of which I could give notes to. It’s a really great feeling when you say that you need something surreal happening in the transition sequence for example, but what exactly does that mean? I gave references to Anna of the feeling of waking up from a dream, of how sounds from the real world can seep into your dreams as you slowly wake up. Also the idea that the characters world is falling and crumbling around him. Some of the film references I suggested were Inception, Black Swan, as well as Sunshine which has amazing sound design.

The following day, I spent it down in Brighton at the Attic Sound studios where Anna and myself went through all the final elements. I remember there was one shot that always felt ‘empty’ for me and that’s when Sirhan cocks the gun and we rack focus and reveal the target board. There wasn’t much else happening in the shot and it felt slow watching it back. We didn’t have the time to go back to the edit – nor the option to choose anything else if we did have the time. So the solution came in sound. In the opening shot I’d suggested hearing a train pass. This came purely from seeing the shot in the edit and thinking the girders that are in the frame looked a little like it was a train yard. This helped the narrative too, as you can imagine this secret training area happening somewhere away from the public eye.

I suddenly remembered the scene from the Godfather where Michael Corleone commits his first killing in the restaurant. The camera is tracking into his face, and we hear trains passing the background. It increases the tension of the scene in such a simple way and if you’re going to steal, steal from the best! We placed another train passing sound when Sirhan cocks the gun, and as we rack focus, we hear the train horn blaring. It’s such a subtle thing, but it brings the shot together into the whole sequence and amps up the tension!

I was also really impressed with how Anna interpreted my reference of the character’s world falling apart around him. She used the sound of wood creaking and breaking, like a ship tearing itself apart. Mix that with some distorted metallic groans and I had exactly what I wanted.

The film also needs to played LOUD, so when you get a chance to watch, as soon as it’s up online, don’t forget to turn those speakers up – or use some good headphones!

Colourist James Willett puts the finishing touches to the film

The final stage of post-production, which we completed tonight, was the grade. Colourist James Willett, whom I’ve worked with before on The Marionette Unit Trailer and The Find has done an amazing job once again. We were very fortunate in having a lot of time to spend on the film, which was a whole day, which is a luxury you wouldn’t get on a feature or TV show – a whole day for 2 minutes 20 seconds.

Now to upload the film to the Virgin Media Shorts website!!

It was great to have him on set and help us out and he did a fantastic job of picking up where Matt had to finish off. One of the first things we shot, before getting headway into the transition sequence were some of the shots that take place before Sirhan fires his gun, such as opening the briefcase and having a look at the gun. The main reason we left that to today was because of the big turnaround on set. We shot the majority of shots shooting one way down the length of the room, and today was turning around and shooting the other way (well as much as possible. Due to cast availability it meant we didn’t always have that choice!).

Shooting an insert of the gun in the briefcase

Once we got the small inserts out the way, including the plates for the VFX we moved onto the main bulk of the transition sequence. This is where shooting digital really helps, as we had to reference back to the shots we’d done in the kitchen to make sure they matched up to how Tariq would be moving around the space. It also helped Malte from a lighting point of view to make sure everything matched up with what Matt had done.

I also really enjoyed shooting the sequence where Sirhan shoots the gun. We had one tracking shot that dollies in on his profile, ending just as he fires, then another extreme close up of the gun firing. Now for the ECU shot, because we were in so close, we had to maintain the position of the gun in frame and the best way to do that was to place a stand under the hand to stabilise it. It’s great when the simplest tricks work out!

Tariq steadies his hand on a stand for the close up of the gun

The crew watches the track in shot to the gun firing scene

For a shoot like this it was important to have someone very skilled as Continuity and Script Supervisor. With us was Victoria Gegenbauer who did an amazing job of helping me make sure that shots that would appear next to each other in the cut, but were jumping from location to location matched up. It was essentially important to match the speed of movement, hand placement, where the gun was and so on.

It’s at times like this that I am glad we pulled out all the stops and made sure we had enough crew members on set, doing specific roles, rather than a fewer amount sharing job responsibilities. It’s been such a technically demanding job and having great crew around me makes me a better director.

As you’ll see from the storyboards there was much more sequences during the transition, for example, Sirhan has his arm grabbed by someone whilst in the warehouse still and after he pulls away there’s no one stood there. That was supposed to represent a brief moment from what’s really happening in the kitchen. Unfortunately, as is almost always the case, I had to trim down on shots and that meant removing small sequences like that.

I just had to make sure that the continuity of action still made sense and that meant a lot of editing in my head whilst shooting. You have to always trust your instincts in situations like this and once you’ve made the decision, stick with it and move on.

Ultimately we got everything that I needed to tell the story and I’m so pleased with the crew that was on board this film!

Now onto post-production!

Shooting the opening sequence. Myself and Additional DP Malte Rosenfeld

Discussing storyboards with Malte Rosenfeld and Script Supervisor Victoria Gegenbauer

Emma Francis shoots her scene

Directing Emma Francis as she 'falls' into shot

The morning began by shooting the CIA office scene after which we would move onto the interrogation room. The reason for this was purely practical, as the location had a lot of furniture that we weren’t using, so by shooting these scenes first we could then move all the extraneous furniture away into these side areas and free up the main space.

As the idea had changed from being a two-way mirror in the interrogation room to one where Walker and his men were listening in, I had to work out exactly how to shoot it this morning. I put a limit on only shooting a maximum of three shots, partly because at this point in the story I wanted the pace to slow down, so I knew I wouldn’t be doing many cuts in the edit, but also from a scheduling point of view. We couldn’t afford to spend ages on this one scene!

Planning out how I would place the actors and set dressing in the scene

Storyboarding how I would shoot the scene

Once I had a good idea of where to place the actors, it was then about storyboarding. I wanted to make sure that I would get the most information across in the minimum number of shots. So we needed to see Walker listening to the recording, whilst seeing the Stenographer behind him typing it up.

As he steps out, it’s then that we reveal he’s sat with his other two CIA men all along. I really like it when you reveal information step by step, and not just give everything away in one opening wide shot.

When it did actually come to shooting though, myself and Matt the DP made a few changes to the positioning of the table and Walker. But essentially the storyboards remained the same in terms of storytelling.

Monitor showing the actors relaxing between takes

I'm directing the actors before going for a take

Our next set up was for the interrogation scene. Again, as it was towards the end of the film, I wanted to keep it as simple as possible in terms of set up and pacing. I knew that I wasn’t going to use any more than I needed to in the edit, so there’s no point in doing numerous shots.

The only real issue we had with this scene was the dolly tracks that we had hired. Unfortunately the hire company screwed us slightly and gave us the cheapest doorway dolly with plastic tracks — when we specifically had asked for a doorway dolly with metal tracks. What this meant is that every creak and shake was magnified. Especially as we were on wooden floorboards. We had to rehearse over and over, but the camera crew did a fantastic job in minimising any shake we got.

Then we were onto the bulk of the shoot. The main sequence where Sirhan enters the warehouse and is met by the CIA guys led by Walker. The first, most important thing to do is block out the entire action of the scene (even the shots that are going to be shot tomorrow) so everyone knows exactly how it will all play out. This takes a little time to get right, and it’s not about nailing any type of performance. It’s just to make sure everyone knows where their marks are and when to hit them.

Specifically it’s important for camera as Matt needs to know what will happen throughout the scene so he knows how to light it. We began with the widest shot which was of Walker and his CIA men waiting for Sirhan to arrive. This shot set the mood and atmosphere of the lighting for the rest of the scene. Lighting for the widest shot always takes the most amount of time, but once that is set the rest moves forwards pretty quickly.

The rest of the day went pretty smoothly. Tomorrow we’re shooting the whole transition sequence and then we’re done!

Setting up for a close up of Walker and his CIA men

Directing Nigel Barber who plays Walker

Setting up for the shot where Sirhan opens the briefcase

Producer Sahil Gill and Nigel Barber

Watching the monitor during a take

Discussing the scene