Some Stills From The Footage

  

The Research and the Film, and the Perception of Separation

We have focused for prolonged periods of time on the film exclusively, as its own separate entity, as opposed to an element practice-based research. That is the truth. And before that, we focused exclusively on the research end of the project for even longer periods, without any idea what were doing for a film. There has been a long-standing theme in our project feedback that the two seem like separate entities, that there is not enough of a link between them. This is our fault, as we did not dedicate time to communicate the truth instead of further promoting this miscommunication. The truth is that both are intricately related. I will attempt to describe this relationship and correct this issue here…

The film is built upon the research topic. This has been the case since the very beginning, even when Jamie was drafting narrative ideas never mind scripts. This is how the structure of the narrative was designed around the three central action scene types; chase, hand-to-hand combat and firefight (although what we got shot in the end did not encompass all these strictly speaking, that was always the goal). While we chose these types of action sequences based on conventions within the action genre and our own personal interests, crucially how we chose the style of each was from the results of our questionnaire. Visual style is a key element of action, moreso than most other film genres, so this influence on the film was significant. 

This was the only real tie between the research and the film that was communicated in our demo presentations, and therefore the dismay of the lecturers who did not see any more connection is understandable and in hindsight, unsurprising. The ties go much deeper. Throughout the months leading up to production, all members of the deep were conducting in-depth textual analysis, which fed back into valid research and our inspirations for the film. We looked at a very extensive array of films of a range of genres, although of course action was the most prevalent. As with any genre as wide ranging as ‘action’, there are several sub-genres within it, and most action films could be catagorised under something else (e.g. The Matrix could be labeled as sci-fi, Full Metal Jacket as war/drama etc.). All these films fed back into both our research and the film, as we attempted to take what we saw as the best techniques used and emulate them within our own film.

Only after deconstructing successful action sequences in detail could we accurately analyse what made them successful. In many cases, such as our oft-mentioned Bourne fight scene, the edit is clearly the key element. In most however, there is an intricately balanced combination of filmmaking tools at play between sound design, score, stunts and performance, visual effects and of course camera movement and composition. We know, and have always acknowledged (even if we have not communicated this acknowledgement as well as we should have), that camera movement is only one part of what makes an action sequence engaging to an audience. We simply choose to focus on this element and analyse what different techniques can produce and contribute to scenes overall. And this brings us back to our film.

Having done all this textual analysis (and its worth mentioning in case this post is being read out of context of the rest of our research that our textual analysis goes way beyond films; books, games, articles etc.) we began testing our own camera movement techniques. We conducted several test shoots, attempting in practice established camera movements designed to work either in conjunction with stunts or to create the illusion of impacts by hiding the absence of impacts. Such techniques include the ‘Long-lens stunt’, the ‘Matching motion’ technique, and the ‘Wall drop’. Some of these we ended up incorporating into our own action sequences, some we were glad to test and discard. Having used the initial research to feed into the test shoots and practiced some of the techniques ourselves, we also discussed some of the technical aspects with renowned DP PJ Dillon, who advised us of many of the pros and cons of DSLR. The issue of shooting with DSLR was something I myself researched extensively, as it is well documented that it is not ideal in many ways for shooting action.

As cinematographer a key part of the shoot was prepping equipment and test shooting with our light setups. As part of all this I did my own Steadicam training for a few days, and this in itself all feeds back into the research data needed for the final dissertation. My experience in practice both during this stage and of course during production is a key part of the research that will feed back into the final product. This is the whole point of ‘practice-based research’, and so you can see how the film and research are related.

Production Crew

The highlight of the year so far was of course the shooting. We thank everyone who helped out, there are so many as with any production of this scale. 

We managed to pull together a great team in the couple of weeks before shooting. I will go through the main players, excluding the four man college team. 

As AD we got Dominique Brennan, a graduate from  Video and Film a couple of years ago. Myself and Niall had worked extensively with Dom before, so we knew she had extensive skills in management and organisation so although I had never seen her in the AD role before, I knew she would be great. And she was; as with any great AD, without her the film would have collapsed! She ran the set like a proper AD should, things happened on time and everyone had their role and jobs to do.

As gaffer we had Adam Heapez, another ex-BAVF head. A joy to work with, I found I could communicate light setups with him quickly and, crucially, trust him to set up at a second location while I shot at the first. He also stepped in on sound when Andrew couldn’t make it; an invaluable second skill. Adam was the only skilled crew member other than the 4-man college group and Dom that was on set all day every day for the whole shoot. All for a measly box of Roses!

On sound (most of the time anyway) was Andrew Grafton, a DkIT music graduate who did the postproduction audio on the last two DkIT films to get into Galway. He was a friend of Jamie’s and greatly skilled audio guy. Not an experienced boom op, he is a successful musician, an experienced sound engineer. All that was more than good enough. A soldier and a very busy guy, he is also taking care of the post audio for us, which is such a bonus to have him on boom as he knew on set what was usable and recorded lots of opportunistic extra stuff for the hyper-real sound design Jamie wants.

I was adamant that each camera-op have a dedicated camera assistant. When shooting with DSLR, the camera assistant has so much more to do between lens changes and assisting with rigging, on top of focus pulling occasionally and running back and forth with cards and batteries. The camera assists were also responsible for logging with camera log sheets and clapping. On B Cam we had Alan Markey, a skilled guy I met briefly at the Darklight festival and invited down, and then Patrick Clarke, a local photographer who supplied a 5D, who was a friend of Jamie's. As camera assist, I had Odhrain Soanes, another ex-DkIT film head, who was fantastic to work with and Rob Siberry who I worked with on Black Ice, a Still Films co-production in Sligo-Leitrim in which he was the DP’s camera assist.

We had so many more crew in terms of skilled crew who stepped in for a day or two when the other guys could not make it and all the unskilled production assistants and runners, that I could write about all night but I’m guessing you have stopped reading by now so I wont! All in all though, it was one of the most professional sets I’ve ever been on and it paid off as the results show. 

First attempt at promo poster

First Attempt at a promo poster. Way way too dark to print, so will need to rework this... Pity we dont have that many production stills and so can only use stills pulled from the footage! (they look great but even 1080p is terrible resolution to be printed on A3 at 300dpi)