jump to navigation

Equinox done (for now) June 30, 2008

Posted by joost in : film , comments closed

The two and a halve minute cut of Equinox for the Virgin Media Shorts competition is finished and can be seen online! They convert submitted films to flash, thereby losing some quality, so I might upload a higher resolution somewhere else because I want people to see it the way I intended. But for now, check out my entry for the competition – and vote for me :-)

Equinox

Starring Danny Ezra, and featuring a crew of former classmates from the London Film Academy.
Written, produced and directed by Joost Zoetebier

I’m quite happy with this entry for the Virgin Media Shorts, even though their constraint of two and a halve minutes caused some headaches. I feel the story can still be told in that shorter timespan, but it’s now a bit more straightforward. And because of that it feels a bit sadder than the four minute “director’s cut”; that version should leave you with a bittersweet emotion (if I have done my work correctly :-)

More news on the other version of Equinox in a couple of weeks time.

Update 6 August 2008:  The shortlist has been announced. Sadly, Equinox didn’t make it to the final 12.

Equinox editing update June 26, 2008

Posted by joost in : editing, film , comments closed

The first week of editing was slow, mainly because all the editing suites were occupied by new students. We are still allowed to use LFA’s editing facilities – which has become really sweet now since the complete switch to macs! – but because this is a post-graduate project we are basically the last in line. Add to this some specific issues due to the fact that we shot the film on HD with a movietube and corresponding lense kit, and before you know it a week has gone by.

Luckily the past few days Shilpa (the editor) and me have made some good progress. After the first rough assembly and a first cut we now have a second cut that we are pretty happy with. This means that we are close to a locked picture, having only to work on sound and color correction (this film will have no music, and just very simple titles). The deadline for one competition is June the 30th, leaving us not much time anyway :-)

If I want to submit the film to that competition, I will have to dig up my butcher’s knife though; the second cut lasts about 4 minutes whereas the maximum duration for this competition is 2 minutes 30 seconds… And you don’t just lose more than a third of a film just like that… So I will have to be brutal and lose complete lines of dialogue, get rid of some actions and tighten everything up, while still trying to stay true to the nature and intention of the film.
As it stands now I will try to make a cut specifically for this competition (because the prizes and publicity are just too appealing to ignore), and after that I will finalize the ‘longer’ version which will be the official cut – which I will submit to another competition (that doesn’t have such a short runlength constraint) and possibly to festivals.

Equinox June 9, 2008

Posted by joost in : directing, film, screenwriting , comments closed

Many months ago I wrote a short script which I gave the working title “Equinox”. This story started when a particular image suddenly hit me, an image of a man sitting at the end of a pier, looking over the water to the horizon. While I was writing I saw thoughts and emotions surface that I was going through at that moment. I incorporated those into the story, making it the most personal screenplay I had written so far.

The next few months I focussed on “Rule 2″ and wrapping up my year. For me it was clear that this would be my first ‘independent’ short film that I wanted to make after the LFA. From a production point of view it is relatively simple film (one actor, one location, exterior so no additional lights needed, etc) and more importantly, I really wanted to see this story come to life in the form of a short film.

After a short stint of preproduction I directed this film last Friday, with a small crew consisting of familiar faces from the LFA. It felt good to finally shoot this script, but in a way it felt like an anti-climax. I got all the shots that I wanted, tried some variations in the performance and wrapped before the tide of the Thames made further shooting impossible. I guess it’s just an odd feeling of bringing the script to life that I know inside and outside.
The plan is to edit the film in the next two weeks, so that I can submit the film to two short film competitions that offer publicity and prizes. Once the film is online, I’ll post an update.

Life after the LFA June 9, 2008

Posted by joost in : LFA, film, lifestyle, london, reflection , comments closed

From March 2007 until April 2008 my life basically was the LFA. I’ve spent days, weeks, months at the LFA production office, in the theatre and in the editing suites. Truly a time to never forget. But as with all good things, this too came to an end. Is there life after the LFA? What does it look like? I’ll try to answer some of those questions in this post.

In my previous post I already mentioned that I worked on some shoots. These were (all but one) unpaid, but that did not really matter, it was great to make some more short films, this time outside of the safe environment of the LFA, but with people that I knew from and worked with at the LFA. And as said before, those productions were quite useful because the short films that I hope to be doing the coming year(s) will probably be shot on HD out of budget constraints. And shooting on HD was not part of my course since I attended a proper film school. Thanks to these shoots I am now much more informed about the practical pros and cons of shooting digitally.

One of the things that I want to do in this “post-LFA” era is fairly obvious: work on more shoots, to get more experience and also to network with other filmmakers.

A lot of the freelance film work starts with a phone call, someone that you’ve worked with before is doing a new film and is looking for a crew. Who does he approach? People he has worked with before, people who are professional, people he can get along with. So connecting with other filmmakers, doing the best you can and establishing a trustworthy reputation is quite important. Of course a little bit of luck and being in the right place at the right time also helps.

Apart from doing these unpaid or low-paid short films, one other goal for me is to try to get onto more professional shoots; commercials, music videos, feature films. If I want to work on feature films in the future, I need to work my way up and try to find a way into that world. My interest is not so much into the technical roles on set (camera, sound, lights) which doesn’t leave that much if I want to gain more on-set experience. Right now I’m thinking about pursuing assistant directing roles and script supervisor / continuity.

On a more practical level I need to find work to pay for my rent and the bills. This is tricky, since a lot of film work is freelance and short term. I am not expecting to be able to live on those kind of gigs any time soon, so I am aiming to find production related work, either in a fixed (ideally part time) position or project based work.

As said, ideally I’d like to work part time because that leaves me time the rest of the week to work on my own projects, and to write and direct my own (short) films. At the moment I am working on one short film (that I’ve just shot last Friday!), and I have written an outline of an idea a while ago that might develop into my first feature length script – very exciting!

Every now and then opportunities pop up, the most recent development is that I might be working as a location manager for a couple of weeks on a long short film.