Post no.3 onward and upward
Our then DOP mentioned to Daniel over their first conversation that he might have the possibility of getting his hands on one of these beauties (or beasts). We entered into price negotiations with a couple of English companies during the process of which the daunting reality of this new technology became all too apparent, regardless of this I had set my mind on it no matter what. The quotations from London were budget busting as we now realized we would require an expensive team to handle this new pretty much uncharted territory. A DIT to handle the technical requirements, at 250 pounds sterling a day, and a a first AC at yet another significant sum.
Kevin Hannifan who had lived in Toronto had given me contact details for a friend of his named Peter Parks, a man that runs a serious camera rental company in Toronto. Peter had kindly offered some advice, my next e-mail to him was in relation to the Red Camera, he replied that he did not have one, but gave me the contact details for a guy that did. Vinit Borrision. I called him immediately and on answering his phone he was pelted under a torrential RANT from a delirious yapping novice Irish Producer who initially was in hot pursuit of a pricing deal and by the end of the phone call was offering him the option of being the DP of the film.
Vinit told me that should he decide to do that on the strength of reading the script, that he would give me an unbelievable deal. Little did he know that I thrive on all things unbelievable.
By then unfortunately Daniel had lost confidence in our English DP and in fact he had just left the day before after having come over for his second stay in Ireland, the above mentioned phone call was made Friday evening, March 14th. That which was looking an impossibility, the prospect of shooting with a Red Camera had now become a contender once more. Fingers crossed that Vinit would like the script. Meanwhile Daniel was researching the camera on sites like www.creativecow.com and low and behold came across a picture of Vinit with the camera in all its glory at a symposium in Montreal for Final Cut Pro users and DP’s over there. What were the chances of that?. Daniel was now incredibly excited that he was now teasingly about to have the possibility of having his first feature shot on a camera that will basically have a '35mm' look. No farting around with lower level cameras, I was getting closer to putting into his hands the best possible camera for the job at this point and time.
All of this was going on while I was here studying and learning the trade on the run. At night watching videos on line into the late hours from www.freshdigital.com that were incredibly enlightening for me as I needed to converse with everybody on so many levels.
So here I was learning about the importance of a focus puller and being blown away by what that entailed; anyone reading this will probably laugh at the absurdity of my largess in proportion to my ignorance, but there you go, I say, jump the FUCK in at the deep end. My initial interest beside the fact of a couple of years back in the mid to late 90’s attending the Everyman Cinema in Hamstead in London watching many of the great master pieces from the spectrum of world cinema greats, to my recent early forays into actual editing, and previous to this having written two scripts. And now Producing a feature from scratch. A-Z learning curve in a matter of months, and WHY NOT! My role as a Producer will be to initiate, coordinate and supervise matters such as fund raising, hiring key personnel, and arranging for distributors. But I think this film will be somewhat different as well as the above I am going to have to create the entire vision for where can go and what we can accomplish as a group of talented and courageous individuals, and inspire people to do more for less on his particular adventure.
Meanwhile back on the battle field we had gone through the ordeal of loosing our first chosen location, I recommend not making the same mistake I did by banking on what seems perfect and seeking out more than one location to suit your needs. That same day we went out and found another perfect location, but did I heed the advice I just gave you above? Did I fuck!!! And this lead to another slightly torturous and anxious wait with regard to seeking permission to shoot there after once again setting our hearts and minds upon it. This time we had found a brilliant house built in 1829, Bellmount House, and lived in by a group of interesting somewhat anarchical students. We arrived one afternoon to witness loads of beer bottles and cans all scattered by the front door. Daithi and I had actually come here once before as the house was known to Daithi, during that visit we saw signs of life and thought that a family must be in residence, so we just drove away without further enquiry, it seemed a forgone conclusion. This time it had the hallmarks of what we had hoped for all along, a mecca for students who love to party.
We met with Sam who unwittingly opened the door and was a cool, attractive young musician who showed us around. Our first sight was that part of the ceiling had fallen in in the entrance hallway, the aftermath from a big party one night where someones foot went through the floor. The rooms were huge with grand high ceilings actually in tact!! But the basement was the real gem, great big rooms, one of which houses the band equipment where they can play and rehearse full steam ahead without any grief as there are no immediate neighbours to hector at the noisome mayhem of these students untrammeled nocturnal exploits. Music to our ears.
Kevin Hannifan who had lived in Toronto had given me contact details for a friend of his named Peter Parks, a man that runs a serious camera rental company in Toronto. Peter had kindly offered some advice, my next e-mail to him was in relation to the Red Camera, he replied that he did not have one, but gave me the contact details for a guy that did. Vinit Borrision. I called him immediately and on answering his phone he was pelted under a torrential RANT from a delirious yapping novice Irish Producer who initially was in hot pursuit of a pricing deal and by the end of the phone call was offering him the option of being the DP of the film.
Vinit told me that should he decide to do that on the strength of reading the script, that he would give me an unbelievable deal. Little did he know that I thrive on all things unbelievable.
By then unfortunately Daniel had lost confidence in our English DP and in fact he had just left the day before after having come over for his second stay in Ireland, the above mentioned phone call was made Friday evening, March 14th. That which was looking an impossibility, the prospect of shooting with a Red Camera had now become a contender once more. Fingers crossed that Vinit would like the script. Meanwhile Daniel was researching the camera on sites like www.creativecow.com and low and behold came across a picture of Vinit with the camera in all its glory at a symposium in Montreal for Final Cut Pro users and DP’s over there. What were the chances of that?. Daniel was now incredibly excited that he was now teasingly about to have the possibility of having his first feature shot on a camera that will basically have a '35mm' look. No farting around with lower level cameras, I was getting closer to putting into his hands the best possible camera for the job at this point and time.
All of this was going on while I was here studying and learning the trade on the run. At night watching videos on line into the late hours from www.freshdigital.com that were incredibly enlightening for me as I needed to converse with everybody on so many levels.
So here I was learning about the importance of a focus puller and being blown away by what that entailed; anyone reading this will probably laugh at the absurdity of my largess in proportion to my ignorance, but there you go, I say, jump the FUCK in at the deep end. My initial interest beside the fact of a couple of years back in the mid to late 90’s attending the Everyman Cinema in Hamstead in London watching many of the great master pieces from the spectrum of world cinema greats, to my recent early forays into actual editing, and previous to this having written two scripts. And now Producing a feature from scratch. A-Z learning curve in a matter of months, and WHY NOT! My role as a Producer will be to initiate, coordinate and supervise matters such as fund raising, hiring key personnel, and arranging for distributors. But I think this film will be somewhat different as well as the above I am going to have to create the entire vision for where can go and what we can accomplish as a group of talented and courageous individuals, and inspire people to do more for less on his particular adventure.
Meanwhile back on the battle field we had gone through the ordeal of loosing our first chosen location, I recommend not making the same mistake I did by banking on what seems perfect and seeking out more than one location to suit your needs. That same day we went out and found another perfect location, but did I heed the advice I just gave you above? Did I fuck!!! And this lead to another slightly torturous and anxious wait with regard to seeking permission to shoot there after once again setting our hearts and minds upon it. This time we had found a brilliant house built in 1829, Bellmount House, and lived in by a group of interesting somewhat anarchical students. We arrived one afternoon to witness loads of beer bottles and cans all scattered by the front door. Daithi and I had actually come here once before as the house was known to Daithi, during that visit we saw signs of life and thought that a family must be in residence, so we just drove away without further enquiry, it seemed a forgone conclusion. This time it had the hallmarks of what we had hoped for all along, a mecca for students who love to party.
We met with Sam who unwittingly opened the door and was a cool, attractive young musician who showed us around. Our first sight was that part of the ceiling had fallen in in the entrance hallway, the aftermath from a big party one night where someones foot went through the floor. The rooms were huge with grand high ceilings actually in tact!! But the basement was the real gem, great big rooms, one of which houses the band equipment where they can play and rehearse full steam ahead without any grief as there are no immediate neighbours to hector at the noisome mayhem of these students untrammeled nocturnal exploits. Music to our ears.
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9:07 AM
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