Resonance Trailer - Do You Believe?

A few months go I was asked to be the second unit director on a new up and coming TV pilot called Resonance.

I am usually fairly despondent and somewhat frustrated by the current UK drama shows on terrestrial TV. They tend to be a little too safe, passive and sanitised for my liking. I have always felt that UK drama has had a long way to go before it can start to match up to the likes of an HBO production. 

It's true that budget always plays a big part in any production and also true that HBO have mega budgets compared to UK TV...but creativity and excellent writing and storytelling do not break budgets. But if you are of the mind frame that we will just shoot the cheaper and easier option, then you are never going to push the boundaries and ultimately it affects your creativity and in turn viewer enthusiasm.
 
Resonance is a new TV pilot with a completely different take on how a TV series should be. I could tell from the off that the creators had a vision for Resonance and a real sense of passion for the project. It struck me that they cared more about the storyline and the project than anything else. This is very important as it means that a viewer can trust that the show will stay loyal to them...the show will be as full of energy in the latter series' as it was in the ones were they loved it for

 

After reading the script that was sent to me, I quickly realised that this was a very well thought out story and brilliantly written. It was also perfectly in tune with my taste and genre of writing, so needles to say, I loved it and so I agreed to be involved.

 

The cast were fantastic! Including some great names like Charles Dance (The Golden Child, Last Action Hero, Gossford Park), Nikki Amuka-Bird (Torchwood, Survivors), Aidan Turner (Supernatural, The Tudors), and Ruta Skansen (Spooks, The Tudors).

  

Of course the crew were highly professional and one of the best crews I have had the pleasure to work with. Which made for a really fun and relaxing atmosphere while maintaining a high energy and tempo to get the shots needed.

The shoot was fantastic on set and it incorporated filming some really interesting a action along with some very cool and different shots. Again testimony to the different approach that Reosonance has taken. We had Parkour runners climbing up the sides of buildings and jumping off sheer drops. We had the stunt coordinator from 'Clash of the Titans' coordinating the stunts, then there were fight scenes, chases, car mounted cameras, multiple locations, guns and so on...I just kept thinking...'If this is just the 'pilot'...what's the full series going to be like?'

  

Well if the pilot was anything to go by, then the rest of the series will be a high octane roller coaster ride...and personally, I can't wait!

The trailer has just been released and so this is a first sneak peek into the world of Resonance.
Watch the trailer here:



Or for more information on the series outline, cast and crew, you can visit the official website http://www.willyouhelp.co.uk/
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Nissan 370Z roadster shoot with Canon 7D

I recently filmed the new Nissan 370Z roadster. It was shot over two days and three separate locations with the Canon 7D.

On the first day the car was shot in Spanhoe airfield in Laxton. We filmed in an old aircraft hanger which was a great location to start with, but naturally a little dark.

HD DSLRs are supposed to be fantastic in low level light and while that is true to an extent, don't go expecting miracles from them. If you get the iso settings wrong then you will end up with quite a lot of video noise that is hard to remove, if not impossible. I have noted that the 7D in particular starts to introduce noise after the 800iso mark. Of course it all depends on the speed of the lens and exposure setting which will be different in each instance...but it is worth making a mental note to check for noise in playback after you have filmed a low light situation with an iso higher than 800.
Of course you will need a monitor for playback to see the noise. The small viewfinder on the back of the camera is not capable of showing detailed noise and so if it looks good on the back of the camera, it des not necessarily mean you won't find noise on the image when you get it back to the studio. There is nothing worse than getting it back and seeing that the image is not usable.
However, if you get the balanced settings correct in low level light then the image will look great with minimal lighting budget and costs.

The Second location was still in Laxton near to a fantastic viaduct, which gave us some great images.

On the second day we filmed in Chobham near to a National trust reserve and just off the motorway. It was a great location, but again I noticed a fair bit of the 'jelly' effect that the HDLSRs are known for.
The roads where not perfectly smooth and so whenever the car bounced over a bump, it then had an exaggerated effect on the camera.

I have to say that this jelly effect is highly frustrating at times, especially as you know it is a problem that would not happen to say the more expensive digital cameras like the Red One or the Arri D21. I know there is a massive price difference between the cinema cams and the Canon 7D, but I am beginning to wonder if the trade off is too costly in terms of time spent having to re-secure or steady images.
I don't feel like I would be confident to direct a film on the Canon that entailed a lot of motion or traversing of the camera. I could happily live with the noise issue and just add some extra lighting to counter it...but the jelly effect is something I don't think I could ever get use to.

Having said that, the 7D is a fantastic camera that is accessible to most budgets and as long as you are not planning to shoot the first 15 mins of Saving Private Ryan, you shouldn't encounter too many problems with the image shaking and causing the dreaded JELLY EFFECT!

I think I have probably been pushing the 7D to it's limits over the past few months and I am begining to see where it's restrictions are. So I suppose once you know it's limitations, you can plan and shoot accordingly to the camera's abilities

Taste the Champion Chip

It's amazing what you can do these days with a good idea and a bit of enthusiasm. In this global economic struggle where budgets are ever decreasing it is always a good practice to see what you can put together on a next to zero budget.

Therefore, one sunny Sunday morning my partner (Natalie) and I decided to shoot a quick video for the Doritos 'King of Ads' competition. The emphasis was always on having a bit of fun and not taking it too seriously. We wanted the video to have that fun element seeping in and almost feel like we had just captured these guys playing football and having a laugh.

We had a great group of lads that were more than happy to eat Doritos, play football and have a laugh while doing it. It made for a really relaxed shoot and we can't thank them enough for being such good sports. We shot the whole advert on the new Canon 7D (of which I am fast becoming a big fan of), this allowed us to shoot at a higher frame rate (50fps at 720p) for some of the running shots, this means we can play back at a slow motion speed. 

Our idea was simply based around the World cup Championship. As we get closer and closer to the world cup we are starting to see an increased volume in football related adverts (I should know, I have just done one for KitKat). So we quite simply had Doritos related names on the back of the player's shirts. Peter 'Crunch', Tortilla, Salsa and Doritos. We tried to get the message across saying 'Crunchy Tortilla with Salsa all over it', but that was too obvious so we used 'Crunch, Tortilla dipping in...Oh Salsa is all over it!' Which works a little more subtly and on a few different levels.

 

We designed the advert so that it could be viewed with or without sound...and it also works if you are just listening to it. Some adverts don't do this and in my opinion it makes for a weak advert if you can't get the product message with visuals only or with audio only. A good example of this is watching a TV in the pub and not being ale to hear it or a radio advert.

We were also conscious of having the hero actually consume the product, this is a huge necessity in advertising and something we knew we needed to get.

We will have our fingers crossed for England in the world cup and or fingers and toes crossed for a taste of the champion chip too! We hope you like the advert!

Microsoft car shoot

I was recently lucky enough to be asked by Microsoft to film a road test for their MSN cars section. The location was Goodwood race circuit. The cars were a Porche 911 turbo and a Audi R8 V10 (both convertibles)...and the weather? Wet, windy and raining all day - the perfect weather for a convertible shoot!

Goodwood race course itself was a great location to shoot at, as it is steeped in motor racing history. It was somewhat odd to be told that we need to be fairly quiet with the cars as the engines might upset the neighbours. Also we had a speed restriction in certain parts of the track. Its was a bit of an oxymoron to have a turbo and a V10 engine and expect them to be quiet and ironic to have a speed restriction on a race track!

This was the first test shoot with the new Canon 7D rigged for film and so I was quite excited to see how it would perform under extreme conditions.

Usually when filming at speed you get a lot of vibration which makes the images distort. On this particular shoot the 7D was fine and I was impressed by how the image was not affected when I used the stabiliser on the zoom lens. If you are using prime lenses with no stabiliser then expect some vibration. More recently I shot a bonnet mount on the new Audi A4 and I used a nice 24mm Carl Zeiss 2.8f prime lens to get a nice depth of field, but the vibration from the engine alone was enough to cause problems with the image. There have been lots of reports about the HDSLRs having a 'jelly' effect on the image sensor when the camera is shaken about and this was certainly the case with the A4 shoot. Therefore I would recommend that you sacrifice the depth of field and use a lens with a built in stabiliser.

Overall the 7D performed way above my expectations and you only really notice that when you are looking at the rushes. It allowed some great 50fps footage to be shot and again this helps in the edit to slow down any bounce. In fact the only problem I really had was the lousy weather.

When you are shooting low angle out the back of a moving vehicle at speed and on a wet surface, you have a very limited amount of time before your lens is covered in gunk and water. So you are constantly wasting time cleaning the camera and the lens. A few solutions to this are to drive slower or move to a country where it doesn't rain for ten months of the year!

The only other thing that the 7D needs is a monitor. The viewfinder at the back is a great feature and as it has a live mode it allows you to point and see what you are shooting. However, the viewfinder is only a guide and while the images may look sharp on it, once you get it back to the studio, they may have been soft - and that's upsetting!

Of course the viewfinder is on the back of the camera so if you have the camera out the back of a moving car, then your head has to physically be behind it to see it, which can be impossible or even dangerous in some situations.

The solution to all this is an external monitor like the Marshall V-LCD651ST-HDMI. It has a 1024x768 resolution and can easily connect to the hot shoe of the Canon that allows it to be positioned in any direction. But more importantly it has an in-focus filter that actually allows you to see when your image is in focus or soft. It also has an exposure filter that allows you to see if the subject is correctly exposed. It has great playback in a higher res than the viewfinder with an anti reflection screen. In short this should be the answer to most of the problems I came across on the shoot...that and a nice spell of sun!

Light Rain is accepted into Cannes Film Festival

Light Rain has officially been accepted as part of this years 63rd Cannes International film festival. It will be part of the Short Film Corner and will be shown on a continuous loop with the other selected short films. It is a great venue to have your work shown to a global market and this year Tim Burton will lend his support to the festival by heading the Jury.

It is a great opportunity to rub shoulders with the Hollywood elite and get a good sun an at the same time. I hope that the only rain in the South of France will be 'Light Rain' bum-bum-ting!

For more information please visit the official website @ Cannes Film Festival

The Eight Percent

This is a short film I noticed a few years ago at the Tribeca film festival competition, where it was awarded first place. It is a lovely story with some really great acting from Benjamin McKenzie and Ashley Williams. It's one of my favourite short films, so take a look.

What's the score with David Hearn

This month I have asked David Hearn to show a bit of insight into the complex world of film score composing. We were lucky enough to work with David in 2009 on the short film Light Rain. He has worked on some truly epic film scores over the years and was on hand this month to answer some Q&As about the scoring of a film.

-Interview Begins-

NEIL: Hi David, thanks very much for taking time away from your busy schedule to answer a few film scoring questions.

DAVID: That's ok, I was actually just looking at some porn...you can edit that bit out!

NEIL: I might have to (laughs)

NEIL: OK, so lets start by finding out where you get your inspiration when you are about to begin a scoring process?

DAVID: Well, 9/10 times in film there's a temp track that the editor/director have put in place as this effects the timing of the edits, and the overall mood of the piece. It no doubt forms the basis of the 'inspiration'. But I am also inspired by lots of old Hollywood legends - Rosza, Korngold, Steiner, Waxman, etc.

NEIL: So the director gives you a few cues of things he likes and then sends the edit with a temporary track to give you an idea of what he/she had in mind?

DAVID: Yes, the key is to not listen to the temp track more than once really. You take the feel, the vibe, the general tempo and pace of the track and then evolve something new from it. But, temp tracks are sometimes a necessary way of the director conveying his intentions for the music to you, without having to know lots of musical terminology.

NEIL: Yes, I never properly understand all the terms you composers use. So what's next in your process?

DAVID: Well, then I try to watch without any sound at all, and this is pretty much where it all happens...if you hear the score in the head, then you're golden... you can go about making it a reality. If you don't hear it, then you're either in trouble, or you might have to do a 'process of elimination' approach. Then that means sketching lots of ideas out. Finding a good tempo is perhaps one of the most important aspects of beginning a cue.

NEIL: So you watch the film in silence to gain an idea of mood and tempo, like the origins of silent cinema?

DAVID: Well, not necessarily. If there's a temp track, then I have to take note of that...because it would be foolish to dismiss the intentions of the director, plus almost all of the time, the temp track works pretty well.
But, I don't really want to end up shuffling notes around to make a sound similar to the temp music...so instead I just take the overall vibe and feel from the temp track, then turn the sound off, and then that's when mood and melody appears in my head.
I find it very, very important to imagine it first, rather than sit at a piano and jam ideas out.
 
NEIL: You mentioned some of the Hollywood legends that give you inspiration, Rosza, Korngold, Steiner and Waxman. How much of a bearing does this have on the style of score you deliver?

DAVID: Well, it's hard to say. I love the 'golden age' scoring style, if you can call it that. However, it's completely overstated and wrong for movies today...so, it's not so much of a direct inspiration, but rather a more abstract imprint it leaves in your musical mind.

NEIL: Yes, modern day movie making has certainly changed from those early days. Directors these days seem to favor big sound effects over a building orchestral score. Does this effect the way you put your scores together?

DAVID: Yeah, completely! It has to, otherwise you're giving people what they don't want. I suppose on the one hand, I love cleverly orchestrated, well put together and thought out scores. But on the other hand, I don't like being distracted by underscore when I'm watching a movie.
I recently worked on a big disaster movie (Roland Emmerich's 2012), and there was relatively little 'music' in there. Lots of percussion mostly, but perhaps of note was that the biggest action sequences were almost completely bereft of score.

NEIL: To keep an element of realism in the film?

DAVID: Yes, it has the benefit of making the audience feel more involved in the movie and makes it a more 'lifelike' experience. I guess when you're spending a million dollars on a CGI sequence to make it look like real life, to have an 80 piece orchestra going crazy over it would defeat the point!

NEIL: It can be an effective tool to keep people on the edge of their seats.

DAVID: Not that it's a new device. Was it Hitchcock's 'The Birds' that had no score? Very effectively I might add. I just hope Hermann walked in, said 'you don't need score for this', collected his paycheck and left!

NEIL: Well on the film Light Rain, we didn't have any loud action sequences. Did you enjoy using music in the traditional sense to build the emotion?

DAVID: Ah yes, indeed...well Light Rain was unusual in the sense that it had a 'storybook' feel to it. It was narrated, which is great for a composer to work around. Plus, the movie had a couple of very definite sync points that would have been a shame to not highlight musically.
With a picture like this, you want to keep the number of tempo and signature changes to a minimum, as anything that varies to wildly would become distracting for the viewer. Once I'd settled on a good steady tempo, I began piecing the other elements together as I'd heard them in my head whilst watching the initial playback. I often start with a piano sketch, then start filling the elements in around that, like a painter colouring in a pencil sketch. Once I've got a good base, I'll turn off the piano guide track and continue orchestrating as needed until the piece is complete.
The overall look and feel of the film influenced how it felt musically to me, so hopefully that was reflected in the music.

NEIL: Yes, I was very pleased with the outcome of the score. You just know immediately when something fits, because it enhances the story and makes for a better film.
You talked about how modern film making has progressed. Has scoring progressed in the same fashion and if so how has modern technology allowed you to improve?
 
DAVID: Scoring has both progressed and regressed at the same time in some ways. Modern technology allows us to realise the score as it's being composed. If you're good enough, it'll sound like a real orchestra, which is amazingly liberating in a creative sense.
If you're not good enough, the technology can hold you back to the point that you make bad orchestrations and compensate using even more technology. It's all about finding that balance between making the technology work for you, as opposed to working for the technology.

NEIL: I remember that you are very technology driven, even more so than most composers...is that fair to say?

DAVID:  I'm involved in the technology side as a developer too. I've created a sample library that allows very expressive string writing.

NEIL: So would you say that technology used correctly will help the process...but ultimately it is the talent that needs to be there?

DAVID: Oh yeah, for sure... if you can figure it out (and it's a minefield), it can be a godsend. Plus it allows film makers on a budget to have a bespoke orchestral score, without having the risks associated with recording real orchestras. Then there are all the other benefits of being able to change things around to suit the clients changing requirements. But, you have to be able to write properly in the first place. So the talent for music has to be there along with the talent for technology.

NEIL: It certainly helps if you have a talent for it like you do.

DAVID: Well, I'm lucky enough to be blessed with very good pitch and auralization. If I hear something in my head, I can play it, and I can hear full scores in virtually complete detail. As such, I work very fast - but in my case it's more important to get a good vibe in the first place, as with each viewing of the film you grow more immune to the initial reaction other viewers will have.

NEIL: That's all good advice. So finally, do you have any advice for any potential composers out there that might be looking at this as a career path?

DAVID: ooooh... good question! There's no set way... no set path. I guess my advice would be to do some work for other composers, to get a feel for the process. You'll just end up being a bit of a dog's body for them... so don't do it for too long! Then seek some upcoming directors and start working with them. Meanwhile, make sure you know the basics and knowing how to score things out using sibelius, basic computer stuff will get you incredibly far.
Most stuff is done 'remotely' now - so emailing midi files, mp3s, movs, etc are all very important to know.
 
NEIL: Thanks David, this has been very insightful. I would just like to thank you for taking the time to talk with me about it all.
 
-Interview End-

My thanks to David for giving up his time to conduct this interview.

Kellogg's Advert on air today.

I recently directed a short CG animation for Kellogg's Optivita. The advert used a re-edit of pre-existing live action footage of master chef Aldo Zilli. I was asked to direct a CG animation for the main point of the commercial. The message being that Kellogg's Optivita can help reduce cholesterol in your arteries.
The advert shows Chef Zilli explaining how Kellogg's Optivita's oat bran can help to collect cholesterol in your arteries and carry it away.

Our animation demonstrates this by having multiple cholesterol particles floating in a gut artery. Then two larger particles of oat bran flow down the artery and collect some of the free-floating cholesterol.

The animation was deliberately made to look more animated than photo-real, this would help move away from the idea that this was a scientific and anatomically correct advert. Thus giving a little leeway for interpretation.

The hardest part of the task was to make the animation look and feel like it belonged in the sequence of live action footage. We began by taking our cues from the footage and then incorporated the lighting, grade and palette into our animation. We used soft pinks for the artery walls to stay on brand with the Optivita logo, and we also used a softer lighting that marries with the early morning light of the live action scene.

The fluid effects in the artery were created with particle effects and 3D software and the whole scene was expertly animated by Jonathan Wood.

The advert is scheduled to start airing today for the next 4 weeks.

The Survivor Concept artwork

Here are a few select images from the concept artwork of the short film 'The Survivor'.

These images have been beautifully illustrated by Julian Kok who is an excellent concept artist for film and TV. You can visit Julian's blog for more information and more great examples of his work here http://juliankokart.blogspot.com/

If we can capture on film just some of the epic atmosphere that Julian has created with these concept boards, then we will achieve a very exciting look and feel to the film.