Diary of a Director – Behind the Scenes

” Experience is what you get right after you need it.”

Wow, it’s been quite a while since we started shooting ANTE back on the 27th March and we’ve only just recently finished the reshoot (this film demanded revolving tracks so I had to deliver…don’t hold it against me guys, just wait until the film’s finished and you’ll know what I mean!).

Deep down, when I have to blame someone, it most often isn’t myself so on this particular occasion I’m going with Paul Thomas. If he hadn’t come to me with such a brilliant script he’d written, I’d be well-slept and doing something relaxing like trying to discover a new hobby. Seriously, if you’re one of the lucky few who have read the script, keep it to yourselves, because the rest of you will not guess what’s going to happen by the end of this bad boy. All I’m saying is that a candlestick may be involved, in the Library, and Professor Plum is not above suspicion.

Paul mentioned to me early on that this was an easy enough film to make as it’s all set in a single location. Personally that always sounds like a bit of a cop out to me, but you always deal with it and know deep down it’s all about the performances involved. After reading the script, I agreed that the story and drama were sufficient for a single location and decided to make the picture on the spot.
So, as is my masochistic way, I set about planning hundreds of different ways to shoot one conversation in one room. I had read somewhere how hard Michael Mann planned that great cinematic moment in HEAT where two legends, Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro, meet face to face on screen for the first time. He shot it from above, close up, side on and even POV but in the end just used the over shoulder shot and side on shot. Well, I didn’t plan on just having three shots in my entire film…well, because he didn’t stick to just the three for his entire film, did he?

Of course, what he said makes sense to me now, just shoot the great acting and the rest will work…true enough, but I wanted to amplify their emotions and the tension of the situation and add a little of my own flair – check out the trailer for a small taste of how the film will work stylistically. I’m trying for a new approach, a sort of toned down Tony Scott. It makes me feel a little like a traitor since it has always been his brother, Ridley Scott, I’ve looked up to, but the camera techniques and editing styles that are Tony Scott’s signature were just so much more suitable for this particular film. Also, just as a little piece of trivia, the song in the teaser by Nine Inch Nails is called ‘The Mark Has Been Made’. Pretty appropriate, huh?

The ANTE teaser is available on the Flux main page.

The most fulfilling day for the crew, and I think also for the actors, was the second night when we didn’t play around with angles, we just put up a three camera set up, two over shoulder shots of Raymond and Tom and a medium close up of Pierson, leaving the cameras running and allowing the actors to perform the scene chronologically without many breaks. It enabled the cast to really get immersed into their parts, it was amazing to watch, and I got my simple shots and I got my performances. Being the director has its drawbacks, but one of the big pluses is being able to make everyone do it again and again until it looks so awesome. We all felt like we were watching the film that night, rather than making it.

Anyhoo, I got my rotation tracking shots(insert evil grin) because I’m a stubborn bastard, you can see some of them in the opening of the Behind the Scenes video with this entry. Pay particular attention to the interviews and notice how much the sleep deprivation really takes its toll as the film goes on. I imagine the boys and girls that helped me make ANTE were still suffering from sleep deprivation days later, but they did me proud. Big shout out to Anna Heath who did the last three nights of makeup but didn’t want to be filmed so isn’t be in the video as she’s shhhhhhy but she deserves a mention here for the great job she did making the actors all sweaty and afraid for their lives(insert second evil grin). Seriously, I could spend pages thanking people on here but I don’t want one of those Academy Awards situation (not that I’m comparing) where you forget to thank someone important like your mum and its does more damage than good. So thank you to… you. You know who you are!

The whole point of this post was to release the Behind the Scenes video I’ve been working on for the past two days. What I really hate about this video is how it creates the impression we were having so much fun on location. In reality I just combined four days worth of rare comedic moments, brought on by the light-headed euphoria of chronic sleep deprivation. That doesn’t sound too much fun if you think about it, but it does demonstrate the effect of long night shoots…they get you.