The final scene and a new location

thomasnerling — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 21:05:00 +0000

Now that JC is away until mid-March I look to David to help me out.
I already posted previously of our problems with the park location. So the Sunday previously David showed me another park close to our original locations.
What I realised from shooting the other weekend was that this scene or scene require a location that can be seen as a periphery, where the city meets park meets the wild. The other location was only wild with some of the city at the far edge.
This location was more suitable.
The park meets a high street. I can suggest safety for Claire, not just physically, but also from what she fears in her mind.
So we can establish her meeting Nick for the first time in such a place.

Here they must sit and Claire tells Nick how irresponsible Natalie is. It is also the place that they end their relationship too.

An alternative meeting point which has the added value of including the next location in the background.

The park meets the wild, with the city in the background. A great intersection/conjunction.
There are also some lights, which will at least establish the presence or absence of Nick when Claire goes looking for him. He can disappear because we can see so.

And then the wild place, where Claire goes to meet her fears. The final shots take place in there.

I returned to this location this past Saturday and capture a whole series of shots to establish this part of the story.
I also found that finding these locations made to change the story. In this last scene, Claire does not go after Nick to learn if what had happened was real – I always found this idea weak – but rather to confirm what she had always feared, that she was essentially alone. When she goes into the wild it is to face her fear, which has now been well-established earlier in the story.
On Sunday I edited all the new footage together and reworked some of the sound. I will burn a DVD on Tuesday and then it is time for some feedback. More on that…

Workshop complete…just about

thomasnerling — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 12:54:00 +0000

So this past Sunday I finished the workshop, or at least most of it. It was a long day and I had to introduce Emma, who plays Sophie, into a few scenes, and some voice-overs, really phone calls. I also worked with Katrine, who has one scene as Natalie, Claire’s sister.
With Flora we finally filmed scene 18, which was the scene I used to audition everyone. It was strange to do this scene as it felt as if we had already done it. In this scene Claire is awoken in the night by a strange sound. She thinks it may be intruders, but then realises she is really afraid that Natalie has returned. Then she learns that the odd sounds are her neighbour is having a bath. There is great relief.
I took this opportunity to add a new scene, or at least a part to scene 18. From JC‘ s and Fergus’ feedback I was looking for ways to flesh out the relationship between Claire and Nick. So at the end of this scene Claire is seen watching someone from her bedroom window. She goes to the front door of the flat, unlocks the door, and goes back to bed. A short time later Nick comes in. They have started their relationship.
This scene or stub establishes their relationship, shows how Nick has transferred his obsession to Claire, as he has been watching Claire, and makes a connection between the idea of release, which is the focus of the scene, and her taking up this new life via a relationship.
I have more work to do, especially around the park scenes. If all goes well I will shoot those this weekend and finish the edit as well. Then it is time for feedback.

The workshop – where we stand at the 3/4 mark

thomasnerling — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 18:19:00 +0000

In a case of unfortunate timing JC is off to Hong Kong for a month, so I wanted to have come to at least some conclusions this weekend about how we might shoot the film. We still have one day to shoot, and we are missing some other parts, but I have edited what we have already shot, which was quite substantial, and put it onto DVD. JC was set to come over on Saturday so might get an objective look at where we were.
By chance my friend Fergus was in London for the weekend for a shoot. Now Fergus has not been involved in this project at all. If he were around a bit more I would’ve probably asked him to take a look at the script. As it was it a was great opportunity to get some quality, objective feedback.
So after struggling to connect the missing bits, and squint in the too-dark park scenes Fergus gained a pretty clear idea of where we going. His feedback?
Dialogue. Too often the little dialogue there was too loaded and not necessary. Now, I am always very happy to get rid of dialogue but it was great to hear it from someone else. Fergus just felt that so much of what was either clear visually or actually acted to restrict what he thought was happening.
Visual language. That this was strong enough or could be developed enough to more than compensate for what the lack of literal information. So, as I said in my last post, this is something I will develop next week when I meet with David.
Information. That there is too much plot so that the story is weighted down by the dialogue. It is not that important. He suggested an alternative way in which the exposition could unfold, but I am not sure that this would not create an entirely different film. Still, his point is well taken. In the first park scene, where Claire first meets Nick she explains about Natalie and how she has always been irresponsible. But when we shot it, due to the distance from the camera we could not hear what she was saying. Fergus did not miss this dialogue at all.
JC made another good point, something that I had suspected before, that we are missing steps in the relationship between Claire and Nick. We see the beginning and end of their relationship, but not the lead up to it, and not the centre of it. I wondered if we need at least another incidents between them to round out their relationship.
Before JC left we managed to agree that the original idea we had for a shooting style still seemed to be sound. That is the majority of the film is composed by static shots, but that we find those places where might move the camera.

inserts versus codas

thomasnerling — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 08:54:00 +0000

JC has this dislike of inserts and I feel the same. By inserts I think of shots that are there purely for information, as in the actor is looking at their phone. Insert: CU of their phone and we see who is calling. Sometimes you have no choice but when you can…so I managed to get rid of just such an insert.
It was the park scene we shot the previous weekend. Here we see that Claire has made contact with Nick, and enough has transpired between them that we see they are comfortable, even intimate together. The setting, and the weather on this particular shooting day, amplify what Claire has achieved in making this leap to become someone else but starting a relationship with Nick.
But still it is a lie, and it is Sophie’s presence, in the form of a series of phone calls to Claire’s mobile that gives it away.
After we have established Claire and Nick’s relationship and setting I have Claire sneaking away from Nick to check her phone messages.
Then the dastardly insert of Claire’s mobile phone: Missed calls: Sophie (7)
But I realised that what was important in this scene was that Claire had broken away from Nick and in effect the whole construct to check her phone. It was the fact of the lie that was important, not the content of the lie.
And in the next scene we find out who it was who called and the substance of her calls.
The insert is unnecessary.
Now what I don’t mean by inserts are those abstraction you see in an Ozu film or Kieslowski and so many others. I have read these referred to sometimes as codas which made little sense to me at first. I thought of that word in reference to music, the concluding part of the whole piece of music. But coda can refer to something brings to an end the preceding part, not just a whole. If you thought of Ozu and his static shots in The End of Summer you can see how they end and summarise the preceding scene or scenes.
In a coda there may information but there is something more. Kieslowski creates abstractions as a layer of the story’s language. I think of Blue and the scene where Juliette Binoche is having coffee and we cut to a close-up of the sugar cube, held just at the surface of the coffee, absorbing the liquid. What does this mean? It is hardly necessary for information. Do we need to know that the character takes one sugar cube with her coffee? Kieslowski talks about this himself in the DVD extras. He wanted to show how the character was looking inward, in her own world. The lighting, which was high-contrast, and the focus, which was shallow, added to this effect.
And so far this is one of the weaknesses of the Claire part of this project – and I am certain that I have said this in previous posts. I have not developed my codas, or the layer of abstractions sufficiently. So, I need to get on to it.
Next weekend I am planning to work with David to develop just this.

Workshop – the park location

thomasnerling — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:55:00 +0000

This past Sunday Flora, Phil, JC and myself went to Snaresbrook to shoot the park segments of the workhop.
The day started out well as you can see. As I was waiting for the others to show up I did some thinking. I deleted two shots and added one.
This is a still from this new shot. In this part of the story Claire has joined up with Nick, her sister’s boyfriend. Here, in this place, they have managed to create a level of intimacy. The story has opened outwards, at many others enjoying this day, looks up at the trees and the sky, and down at the grass and the water.
But it can not be sustained. Claire sneaks away at one point to check her phone. We don’t find out until the next scene why, but we know that somehow the truth has not been told.

Later we moved to another location where we worked on the other park scenes.
There is one, where Claire first meets Nick, and another where they end it.
And there is the final scene, where Claire realises that she is not able to change, and can find no answer for it anywhere.
Here we found it difficult. First, the location was not ideal. We could not stitch together all that we needed to create the scenes.
And second as we struggled to put it together it became too dark to find a solution.
We hacked something together for the workshop video, but we clearly have more work to do.

If I close my eyes perhaps he’ll just go away.
Photos by JC.

Workshop

thomasnerling — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 08:39:00 +0000

As always, the more I have to say the less time I have to say it.
I have been busy, these few weeks work shopping the script.
Two weeks ago I worked with my lead, Flora, shooting a number of scenes where she is by herself.
Last Sunday I had both Flora and Phil together for the first time. You always worry how people will get along but as it turned out everything was great fun.
Now looking back on it perhaps I should have done it the other way around? How would Flora have approached those scenes after she had a chance to be Claire first working with Nick? In the end it doesn’t matter. The whole point of working this way is that we are able to go back and change and alter and rethink what we have done.
JC joined us this past Sunday, experimenting with a variety of ideas. This way the story, the acting, and the shooting style can all grow together. Unfortunately he is off to Hong Kong at the end of February, for one month, so we need to have done a lot of thinking between now and then.
This Sunday, weather permitting, we are planning to shoot all the scenes that take place in the park. I think we have one more day after that, to pick up the odd scenes, and then we have shot the whole story. I have already begun to edit the video, so I should begin to have rough edits of the workshop video in two weeks. Then it is time to call in friends and neighbours for feedback.

Workshop preparation…

thomasnerling — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 13:25:00 +0000

So I am now in the process of preparing for the workshops. They will take place on weekend days and evenings throughout February.
Part of the preparation was creating a shot list and then a storyboard, drawing out what I imagined each shot would contained.
I realised that this was essential process for myself because I tend to come up with a series of shots intuitively. I then need a way to work through what they really mean because I will have a DOP coming up with his own ideas, and then locations that will not quite be the way I imagined them to be. What is the essential elements of a scene? That way JC could make his own suggestions, and we will know what to compromise on a location?
Here are the two shots for scene 5. In scene 4, Natalie, Claire’s sister calls very late. She must see Claire immediately. We cut to a medium shot of Natalie at Claire’s front door. 5a. We stay on Natalie. She won’t come in. She goes on and on. Claire is barely able to say anything. Her relationship, her boyfriend, Nick, it is too intense. Claire wouldn’t know what it is like.

Finally she goes, after handing Claire the keys to her flat and asking to take care of the plants and check everything is okay.
Claire is left there on the doorstep. 5b. Wondering what has just happened. She looks out into the night, and then shuts the door.

So this is the way I imagined it. Natalie in the open street, free, Claire framed in the doorway of the flat, encumbered. Why?
Natalie is free. She pays a price, she is frightened, but that is how she prefers it. Claire, on the other hand, is comfortable. She got out of a warm bed and can shut the door and return to it. But is also trapped.
So when Natalie is gone Claire takes a quick look out into this world. The great, frightening world that Natalie floats about in is the place that Claire will enter in the story.
So these are the essentials that JC and everyone else needs to understand. Perhaps we will shoot it just like this, perhaps JC will come up with something better, or perhaps the locations will dictate something entirely different, or we will find something there that adds on top of it.
More to come as I begin shooting the workshop.

Update – Claire

thomasnerling — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 21:10:00 +0000

So, an update.
First I managed to finish a new draft of the Paul section of the script. Or nearly finished. I feel there are some parts that need some more thought but I need some time for it to cook. So I am putting this aside for now. This means I can now focus on the Claire section.
And I am ready to begin the workshop. I have begun a rough breakdown of the scenes per shot, and all that remains is to schedule in the actors. I can’t remember in all these posts whether I have detailed my plan, but it is worth repeating. Like the short film Reconciliation, I am shooting the whole film on DV, editing it, and then getting feedback. And then repeating the workshop/DV shoot as required until we are satisfied.
So when can I expect that the DV version of to be complete? Well, ideally at the end of February, so the weather will improve and we will be ready to shoot for real.
More on the workshop as it progresses.

A new Paul

thomasnerling — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 12:05:00 +0000

I wrote previously that I had begun to rewrite the Paul section of Tidal Barrier.
I had to begin by thinking what his story is really about.

Paul is in a failed relationship. Claire cannot commit, is not really there.
Paul feels a sense of injustice/unfairness. What were the chances that he would end up with Claire instead of someone else, like…? Well, Sophie.
He decides Sophie is the one, and makes a play for her.
But it seems Sophie is with someone else.
Paul rails against the universe, the unfairness of it all.

Looking back over what I had in the previous versions of he script, the first and last elements were clear by the action of the story. But the middle? ‘He decides Sophie is the one, and makes a play for her.’ What I had didn’t ring true for some reason, and I couldn’t think why. This was a fundamental weakness.
I thought if Paul felt that chance was against him in how he ended up with Claire, then he needed to find a way to create a chance with Sophie. I did not mean the stuff of romantic comedy, the protagonist feigning some interest, or fabricating a position or history. This was about simple circumstance, putting himself in a position where he could encounter Sophie.
This suggested he needed to create a chance meeting, so I came up with the idea that one day he discovers where Sophie works, and that approximately the same time each day she goes through street x to street y. Paul needed to create his own path where he could meet her, going from street z to street y. Of course Sophie’s time will vary, so to meet her Paul would need to repeat his movements. He needed to game the universe.
So I had the construct, but now I needed to think how I might represent this on film. I thought that we needed to see a good part of this place, so the camera needed to be at a distance. In some ways this position is a view of one part of the universe. Each throw of the die was to be seen from position, at the same time each day. How would we know it was the same time? At first I thought Paul might look at his watch, or come out of the a building somewhere according to a clock on the wall. All of this seemed crude, disconnected from the action. Ideally time would be a part of the scene, so we might see a clock on the corner of a pub, or an unknown actor making their way through this part of the universe at the same time each day. The man in the yellow jacket. The weather may change, but the man in the yellow jacket would go through the edge of the scene at the same time, Paul would go from street z to street y at the same time, and Sophie would go from street x to street y at a slight variation. In some throws Paul would be behind her, some throws ahead of her, but if he repeats it enough times one day he would run into her, and he does, except on this day she is with someone. Despite Paul’s attempt to contain the game there are always too many variables.
This breaks him.
While I was away at Christmas I have managed to roughly outline the circumstances of this new version. I will give myself a week or so to finish, and then I can concentrate on the Claire section.

Claire and the park

thomasnerling — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 23:57:00 +0000

My friend David, lives close-by the Epping Forest. He actually spends a lot of time running there, so knows it fairly well. So last Sunday advantage of his knowledge and followed along behind him. He ran, I was on a bicycle.
I was looking for locations for Claire, revolving around parks. Come to think of it, Paul’s story, which I am rewriting at the same time, has a number of park scenes as well.
There are three scenes in the story to do with parks.

15. Out of focus, at a distance, the coloured lights of people and life. A pub or restaurant at night.
Claire on a park bench. Nearby, Nick. He listens, betraying nothing. He is neutral, or defensive.

So this requires a park close-by a roadway with shops and a bar or pub or restaurant. I was going to say that I couldn’t find a location like this on Sunday but actually I never even looked for such a place. It will have to wait until after Christmas.

18. A bed of flowers. Brilliant sunshine. Kew Gardens. A rush of leaves above, a set of trees around a pond.
Claire on her back, eyes closed, taking this in. A weekend of sun is a rarity in London. A great aid to the fabrication.
She looks to her right. Nick is there, a blank expression on his face.

So this scenes requires one location, by the water, and abundant flowers and trees nearby.
I did not have to go far to find something suitable.

Or something more idyllic?

The next scene requires something slightly different.

19. Nick in the distance. By the Thames. He turns and smiles at Claire. She forces a smile in return

You can see Claire on a slights rise, looking down towards Nick.
He is close to the water we saw at the edge of the frame in the previous scene.

So it would not be difficult to create the impression of the best London weekend.

Now a very different scene.

27 She runs across the street and goes into the park.
Once past the trees there is a slight rise and paths go out in three different directions. From this vantage point one can see quite a distance. She looks for him, to confirm he was there, but she can see no one, on any of the paths.

Now imagined something different for this scene. I suppose I thought the park might be more manicured. More paved pathways than these mud paths, but I really don’t know why, or if it was important.

Well, this is only the beginning. I need to go back and find that other location. And there a few other things too. More after Christmas.