Ricardo Uhagón Vivas' "Dark Matters" Blog
by Ricardo Uhagón Vivas
originally posted at http://www.darkmattersfilm.com
| Shooting Dark Matters Pt. 1 | ||
| Monday, November 28, 2011 | ||
| "The only way to get rid of my fears is to make films about them." -Alfred Hitchcock - So this is the post were I recount the adventures and vicissitudes of shooting the film. Ok, here we go, this is the story of the filming of "Dark Matters" Part 1: First of all let's do some quick math to understand what we were up to. We had 5 days to shoot a 17 page script. If we take to account that one script page equals one minute of onscreen film time and on average you can shoot 3 pages a day working 12 hour days, doing the math you could say that we were one day short. Ideally we would have needed 6 days to shoot the film but that was not a possibility due to budget constrains. We knew it was going to be tough to achieve everything in 5 days and we prepared for it as much as we could, we worked very hard on pre-production to have every detail under control. But... no way. I don't know what it is, if it's Murphy or the curse of Ed Wood, but no matter how much you prepare you always run into problems. Here's a sneak peak from the behind the scenes documentary courtesy of the bold and fearless Alberto Triano. Enjoy! DAY 1 Our first two shooting days were at The Cleary house in 237 W. State Street, Pasadena. The first day was pretty manageable, only three scenes, 4 1/2 pages. We didn't want to run down the crew on the first day. It's good to start off with the right foot. Give the crew some breather so they can mingle and get to know each other. Will Hemminger our first assistant director, Captain Will from now on, gathered the crew in the backyard for a safety meeting. There were some words of thanks and appreciation to the team. "Every single one of us is important to make this film" I told the crew. Round of applause and without further ado we all got to work. With all hands on deck we were ready for the first shot pretty soon. The first scene we shot was the breakfast scene with David Weil and Steven Culp. The kitchen looked amazing, art department had done a great job covering the dull white walls with a brownish patterned wallpaper and the morning light coming through the window was beautiful. All departments were working as a synchronized unit. I sat down in front of the monitor and had this thrilling rush of adrenaline as I saw the first shot of the movie in front of my eyes. All this months of writing, re-writing, pre-production were becoming a reality. The story was about to unfold. I remember discussing with Lyn, the cinematographer, how this single image had a very powerful stylized comic book feel. It suddenly became an old super-hero movie. We smiled, we weren't expecting this to happen but we liked the idea and decided to embrace this aspect for the rest of shoot. It really had that nostalgic element from the early 80's Science Fiction that we were looking for. The day continued with another scene with Jeremy and his father, this time in the living room of the house. Apart from a lighting dilemma and some blocking issues it went pretty smooth. The last scene of the day was up in the attic. We had a smoke machine to create a dusty environment and an amazing dim lighting. I was really excited to see the classic flashlight flares as Jeremy pulled down the old drawing stairs. We made it through the first day, we were making a movie. DAY 2 The second day at the house was the worst day of the shoot. At least for me. We scheduled a long day from the beginning, we had the 3 most important performance scenes and on top of that we had hired a jib arm for some high-angle moving shots outside the house. The money shots. It was planned as a split day, half-day half-night, so call time was noon. We had to rush through the day to make the most out of our daylight. I wanted to shoot a scene with Bridget in the backyard at twilight. Magic hour is tricky because you run out of light very quickly and continuity can be a real issue later on if you don't edit in strict shooting order. Right after sunset we were already exhausted and we still had to deal with some of the most difficult performance scenes. The first one between David and Pamela Gray was supposed to be done in 2 hours, and it took me 3 and a half to get it right. After that everything was madness. It suddenly started to rain out of the blue and we had to cover our equipment and lights, we had a skunk invading our set, raccoons... and the worst part was that we were way behind schedule. I had to cut down shots and scenes to make the day and we ended up using the very expensive jib arm for only one shot. It was a 14 hour day and the crew was not all shits and giggles anymore. Now we were really making a movie.
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| Celestial Bodies | ||
| Monday, October 24, 2011 | ||
| "You must carry a chaos inside you to give birth to a dancing star." - Nietzsche - It's a wrap! Yes, believe it or not, we are done shooting Dark Matters. A long part of the journey has already been traveled. It's been a tough and exciting odyssey, by far the biggest project I have ever done. I feel like a film director for the very first time in my career. And it feels good. But I don't want to rush into details just now, first I wanted to write about the casting process and working with actors. I promise I will let you guys know every detail about the production very soon. There is so much to write about to describe, it's been a five day shoot full of highlights, low-lights and anecdotes. But as I said, first things first. A few days before the shoot I had prepared this post about actors which I am posting today. So here it goes... Do you ever wonder why we call famous actors or celebrities stars? I believe the term was first used in early 20th century in the Music Halls of Great Britain. It was the name given to entertainers who were highly popular and exceptionally talented. So what do these performers have in common with those remote luminous points in the night sky that we admire from the distance? Maybe one of the reasons we called them stars is because when we watch them perform in the darkness of a theater we wonder: Could I be like them, experience their emotions, live their adventures? We are connected to them, but at the same time we are so far away. Like stars they are just reflections of light that travel to our retinas but are not even present the moment we are watching. And we just look at them in awe and let them shine. Finding the stars for Dark Matters was not an easy process, we hired a casting director and did a couple of days of auditions, specially for Jeremy's role. Finding the right person means that most of the work is already done. It's a beautiful process to see how the characters you imagined come to life, how the people that portray them add layers and details you didn't expect.
Please let me introduce you the stars of "Dark Matters:" DAVID WEIL will be playing the main role of the film, Jeremy Cleary. David is a young and extremely talented theater actor from New York that had just arrived to LA the day he auditioned for "Dark Matters". As soon as David left the room I knew he was the perfect choice for Jeremy. Knowing there wouldn't be much time to rehearse before the shoot, I needed someone that could portray an introspective weirdo but at the same time a teenager that the audience could empathize with. David had that quality and an honest look in his eerie eyes that was perfect for the role. I am sure he will play a super-hero someday. He is one. STEVEN CULP will be playing Michael Cleary, Jeremy's father. Steven is best known for his role as Rex Van de Kamp in the television comedy-drama "Desperate Housewives". I had seen Steven portraying a similar father role in one of my cousin's plays, "Doctor Cerberus". I really enjoyed his performance and loved his work on "Desperate Housewives" so I asked my cousin Roberto to send him the script. He really liked it and we got together for coffee and to talk about the project. We hit it off right away. Steven had very interesting suggestions about the character and was really interested in detail and back-story.
PAMELA GRAY plays Bridget Cleary, Jeremy's missing mom. My cousin Roberto strongly recommended offering Pamela the role. She had already worked with Steven and she is a wonderful actress and a very funny and loopy woman. We had a great time with her and made us all laugh many times. We talked on the phone and I watched her recent episodes of "Son of Anarchy" and "Bones". Her feature-film credits include "Michael Clayton" and "The Devil's Advocate". EILEEN DIETZ plays the mysterious Angela. We were auditioning for Angela's role and my casting director forwarded me the info of a creepy woman that had played The Devil's face of Evil in the original "Exorcist". How cool was that? She is a celebrity in the Horror film world so I didn't really know if she would be interested in my script. We sent her the script and she called me right away. She loved it and to my surprise she was the really sweet on the phone. I offered her the role immediately. |
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| Locations, Locations, Locations. | ||
| Monday, September 19, 2011 | ||
| "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." - H.P. Lovecraft - Locations, Locations, Locations. This words have been pounding in my head for the last few weeks. When it comes to maximizing your student film budget everyone has an opinion. Some people say if you have a good script, most of the work is done. Totally true. Others say your cast is the most important aspect of the film. I agree. But what about the sound, a good sound design can make the difference between an amateurish student project and a quality picture. And camera movement, this is an essential tool in the craft of visual narrative. Production design, it's paramount to achieve a look that will immerse the audience in your story, etc, etc. Basically, in filmmaking you have to pay attention to every single detail, because every little aspect of the film counts. I learned a very important lesson on this pre-production process: Good locations are extremely difficult to find and consolidate. Specially if you are on a tight budget and schedule. I was very specific about the locations I had envisioned for "Dark Matters" and finding such specific sites has been a real ordeal. We probably should have started scouting months ago. For my next film I would definitely like to approach a more organic process and write my script with a specific location in mind. I already have some ideas... Fortunately I have to announce that we have locked down our key locations for "Dark Matters". And guess what, they are great. It's been a time-consuming process and wouldn't have been possible without the help of our location manager and scout: Jesse Ehman. So without further ado let me show you the locations of the film: The Cleary House This location will be a classic suburban house in the city of Pasadena. The city has the quintessential suburban Americana look that we've seen in classic films like "Nightmare on Elm Street", "Halloween", "Back To The Future" or even TV shows like "Beverly Hills 90210". All of this films have houses that were filmed in Pasadena. The Cleary house is part of the Caltrans 710 Corridor, a stretch of land cutting through portions of the area were they planned to build the 710 highway. Most of the houses in the 710 corridor are state own property and empty. Perfect for our Art Department to work their magic. A few days ago I went with Lucas to scout the house at night, it was so creepy we didn't even make it to the front yard. I guess that's a good sign. Fred C. Nells Youth Correctional Facility We will be shooting 3 different locations in the complex: Jeremy's classroom, suburban neighborhood and St. Jovians Hospital. The correctional is the oldest juvenile facility in the state and closed its gates in 2004. Now it's mainly used as a backlot for television and motion pictures. This location is a regular for the TV show "Prison Break" and films like "Blow" or Kevin Smith's latest "Red State" were shot at the complex. |
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| The Film Dilemma | ||
| Monday, September 12, 2011 | ||
| "As children tremble and fear everything in the blind darkness, so we in the light sometimes fear what is no more to be feared than the things children in the dark hold in terror..." - Lucretius - On The Nature Of Things (ca. 60 B.C.) Hi everyone, we have kept you in the dark for the past two weeks since I started writing this blog entry. Sorry about that, but nothing excited happened and I was hoping to follow up with some interesting news. Now we are back, ready to tell you some stories about the making of "Dark Matters". So let me shine some light on the subject and introduce everyone to Lucas de la Rua, my friend, partner and producer of the film. Or as I like to call him, The Magician. Because that's what good producers do: Magic. Not with cards, not with hats but with numbers and dates. They are the masters of scheduling and budgeting. And let me tell you something, this is not an easy task, specially in low-budget student films. For the past couple of weeks Lucas and myself have been involved in a nerve-racking roller coaster ride called pre-production. This is the part of the process of filmmaking were you have to find all the pieces of the puzzle and make them fit together nice and perfect in order to make your script become a reality. We have been casting actors, scouting for locations, hiring crew members, having discussions about how the film should look and constantly re-writing the script. All pieces are equally important and must fit perfectly within the time and money. In filmmaking, some people call the director an illusionist, but producers, they are the true magicians. On today's blog I'm going to get a little technical and talk about cameras and recording formats. This week we've had to face reality and give up the prestigious Panavision New Filmmaker's grant because unfortunately shooting film is just too expensive. "Dark Matters" is set in the 1980's and our goal was to be as truthful to that era as possible. To achieve that look we wanted to use the same equipment and techniques they would have used back in the day. A beautiful and romantic idea but unfortunately not a possibility. We were awarded with the Panavision grant, which means we had free access to a 35mm Panaflex package and student rates on Fuji Film stock. On top of that we had the Fotokem lab grant for the processing of the film. Well, even with all this benefits and aids shooting film is still twice as expensive as shooting digital video. So finally we decided to shoot digital with the RED MX camera. Might as well put that money into something that will actually be featured on the screen like locations and production design. Nowadays you can achieve outstanding quality with digital cameras. David Fincher, Peter Jackson, Michael Mann, Steven Sodebergh... they all shoot digital. And it looks great, but if you ask me there is something magical about film, something I can't quite fully understand or explain. But that's just me. |
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| Lights & Shadows | ||
| Monday, August 29, 2011 | ||
| "Only when it's dark enough can you see the stars" - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. - Hi everyone, my name is Ricardo and I am the director of the short film "Dark Matters". This is my first post on the film's blog and I would like to welcome everyone and encourage you to follow us through the process of making this film. Making a film is always a great undertaking, a journey full of lights and shadows that we thought might be interesting sharing with all of you. In our case it's a small journey, it's just a short film but hey, this is our first journey and we are equally excited and terrified. Like when climbing a huge mountain or navigating a ship across a fearsome ocean we know we will be facing some dark moments but quoting Dr. MLK, it's only in those dark moments that you are able to see the stars. And I truly believe that is what filmmaking is all about. The alluring combination of lights and shadows. Because like our own lives, we need the darkness in order to cherish the bright moments. On this first blog I want to start from the beginning and explain how everything started. The seed that seduced me to put all my senses and efforts into this particular story. The first step in the process of making a movie is the script, yes, but before the script you need to have an idea and not just any idea. It must be something that you feel close to your heart and means something to you. After all you're going to be stuck with it for a very long time. It was about two years ago that I started grad school at Art Center College in Pasadena. In my first term at school I sign up for a Cinematography class with master cinematographer Allen Daviau ASC. On the fourth week of class Allen projected one of his masterpieces, Spielberg's "E.T.". I had seen the movie hundreds of times as a kid but this time it was different, something happened to me. The film took me back to a place I had forgotten. I was hoping no-one would notice my tears when the lights came on. I was so excited that I went back home and watched it again. Curiously enough, that same week I received a package with a few graphic novels and plays that my cousin Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa had written. I am a big fan of his work, he was responsible for turning me into a comic book geek as a kid. I still remember how fascinated I was to see his boxes full of Marvels and DCs. But this time it was one of his plays that caught my attention, it was "Dark Matters", the story of an only child that believes in otherworldly beings and the relationship with his parents. I felt strongly connected to the material. I am an only child and have been fascinated with early 1980s science fiction films all my life, all those Spielberg gems have something different to films you watch today. Maybe it's nostalgia but I truly believe those films had a certain emotion and honesty that made them instant classics. This is it I said. This is my story. This is what I want to do. So two years after this day, working on and off on it and 24 versions of the script later I can proudly say that we have our final draft of the script and we are moving forward into full pre-production. I want to thank my cousin Roberto for all his help and support. So this is it for today's post. Join us on this journey and support the project on-line. |
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Unless otherwise noted, all captures were made by me from videos from various sources. All shows and photos belong to their respective owners.
NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED!
© 2004-2022 SConTV.com and Steven-Culp.com