Monday, December 27, 2010

OMEGA - Production Shots - Day 4



Production Shots from our forth day of filming have been uploaded to our Flickr account, check them all out here.

OMEGA - Production Diary - Day 4

Final day of filming for 2010... whoo!


PRODUCTION DIARY - DAY 4 -  December 20th, 2010 | West Croydon


Crew in attendance: Peter Ninos (Director), David Tang (Cinematographer)Trent Ninos (First A.D.), Teena Ninos (D.A.) and Billy Ninos (Clapper Loader). Cast in attendance: Adam Schmerl (Jake).

Scenes being filmed: OMEGA Scene 7

Our final day of filming for 2010 was a much smaller and tighter shoot than the last three filming days.We have one scene to film, the pivotal moment when Jake researches OMEGA and watches Prof. David Jameson's video detailing the comet. Most of the scene will cut to an edited reel of the Viral Videos we filmed on Day 1 at the Stockport Observatory with Devon but today we filmed Adam's scenes watching and reacting to the videos.

My dad was kind enough to lend us his kitchen for the scene, we had to empty heaps of stuff out so the shots didn't look too cluttered. We also had the challenge of simulating moon night while it was still pretty bright outside.

DTang set up out lights and used clever shadows to sell the time of day. The other crew kept commenting how bright it looked but when we reviewed the footage you could definitely be mistaken for thinking it was a full moon in the dead of night.

We did several shots of Adam walking into the scene, we added a quick shot of Adam lighting a candle to add some extra actions before cutting to the videos. We did several shots with Adam and laptop in frame with markers on the screen so we can edit the Viral Videos in at any point in post-production.

Filming went very well, everything went smoothly even if we had to do multiple takes after shots were interrupted by exterior sound. We shot the walk-in, laptop search and walk-out many times for different angles and takes - thankfully Adam reminded us there was dialogue in the scene and we filmed that last!

We wrapped up filming close to midnight, and as a clear indication that DTang is a master Cinematographer, we had all assumed the artificial lighting he had set up was actually the light levels outside. Well it was pitch black and my brain did a double-take to make sure I hadn't blacked out for a few hours.

So that wraps up filming for OMEGA for 2010 - we still have many scenes to film in the New Year, but we get right back into filming on the 6th of January 2011.

A huge thanks to all the cast and crew - Adam, Kate, DTang, Ian, Teena, Trent, Theadora, Faye, Tamae, Billy & Paul, thank you all so much.


Catchya in 2011!

OMEGA - Production Shots - Day 3


Production Shots from our third day of filming have been uploaded to our Flickr account, check them all out here.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

OMEGA - Production Diary - Day 3

Man, been so flat out with Christmas I didn't upload this straight away - anyway, better late then never (unless you're an electric chair repair man).


PRODUCTION DIARY - DAY 3 -  December 19th, 2010 | UniSA West Campus, Adelaide

Crew in attendance: Peter Ninos (Director), David Tang (Cinematographer), Ian (Gaffer/Photography), Trent Ninos (First A.D.), Teena Ninos (D.A.) and Billy Ninos (Clapper Loader). Cast in attendance: Adam Schmerl (Jake), Kate Englefield (Jess), Theadora Kezios (Nurse), Faye Kezios (Extra), Tamae Ninos (Extra) and Paul Larsen (Doctor).


Scenes being filmed: OMEGA Scene 4 & Scene 5 - Jess Coverage.

Hot on the heels of yesterdays awesome shoot we barreled straight into our third of filming. Today's shoot was much more involved, we had two scenes to film, had a bigger set to dress and we had to work out all the background action.

As soon as we arrived at UniSA we immediately starting moving furniture around to make the ordinary Uni corridor look like a busy hosptial wing. I was amazed at how bringing in rows of blue chairs and some "First Aid" and "Reception" wall slates immediately made the set work.

We were actually filming just around the corner from yesterdays shoot so we were very mindful to not show that area of the set (especially the orange doors that were shown in detail). This one set was playing two different locations. I was very pleased with how the set turned out, everyone did a great job. DTang and Ian were manning camera and lights again and both did a great job lighting the large area.

A huge thanks to Gigi D'angelo for providing us with a set of brilliant costumes. We had two pairs of surgeon scrubs and a nurse outfit. Kate and Theadora looked the part completely, thanks Gigi!

Tonight we filmed Scenes 4 & 5. Scene 5 was the same phone conversation we filmed yesterday but now we're showing the call from Jess's perspective. So it was Kate's turn in front of the camera with Adam reading his lines off screen.

Scene 5 was filmed first (as Adam wasn't required for Scene 4) and it went very smoothly. Adam and Kate, once again, performed brilliantly and we managed to get the scene with different shots and close ups in very few takes. The action in the background was very well played and gave the impression of a busy hospital wing - it all came together to make the scene pop.

It was important to show a stark contrast between Jake and Jess. Jake is feeling isolated and alone, so his set was dimly lit and there was no other movement or activity besides him. Jess is feeling frazzled and stressed, so her set was brightly lit and looks crowded and steril - a perfect hosptial.

Scene 4 was last for the night. We said goodnight to Adam and started setting up for a complicated, but engaging shot. The scene is literally two lines of dialogue delivered by Kate to a technician and a nurse but instead of just framing in a medium and filming, Trent and I thought it would be visually interesting if we did a handheld tracking shot of the nurse walking through the wing towards Jess while the lines are heard as we approach them. This small addition instantly turned a simple dialogue scene into a interesting shot and a great addition to the overall look of the film.

With these two scenes in the can we have taken a huge leap into the story and have the bulk of the dialogue scenes shot. Tomorrow is a smaller shoot with only Adam and very little dialogue.

Day 3 of filming was fantastic, everyone did a great job. Cast, Crew and Extras all pulled together to give us great footage.

One more day 'till the Christmas break, will post soon!

Major thanks to Adam, Kate, DTang, Ian, Teena, Trent, Theadora, Faye, Tamae, Billy & Paul.

OMEGA - Production Shots - Day 2



Production Shots from our second day of filming have been uploaded to our Flickr account, check them all out here.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

OMEGA - Production Diary - Day 2

A little tired from a long day working, then straight into filming... but I'll try to keep this coherent.


PRODUCTION DIARY - DAY 2 -  December 18th, 2010 | UniSA West Campus, Adelaide

Crew in attendance: Peter Ninos (Director), David Tang (Cinematographer), Ian (Gaffer/Photography), Trent Ninos (First A.D.), Teena Ninos (D.A.), Billy Ninos (Clapper Loader) and Paul Larsen (Grip/Runner). Cast in attendance: Adam Schmerl (Jake) and Kate Englefield (Jess).

Scenes being filmed: OMEGA Scene 5 - Jake Coverage.

Being only our second day of filming and our first day with our lead actors we focused on filming one scene today. Scene 5 features the phone conversation between "Jake" and "Jess", the core of the movie. We filmed Adam's coverage tonight with Kate reading her role off camera. Tomorrow's shoot will flip the roles and having Kate's coverage with Adam reading off camera.

Our location for the shoot tonight was in Yungondi Building at UniSA's West Campus in the city. A huge thanks to Mark Dorian, Campus Facilities Manager, for permitting to us to film in such an excellent location!

Trent, Billy and I were the first to arrive on set while waiting we met Ian and once we were let into the building we started unpacking and just sussing out the location for interesting shots. We dressed the corridor to look like a government office (a couple of well placed Australian flags did the trick nicely). Ian did a great job fine tuning the lighting, both with our studio lights and the fixture lighting. Teena and Paul were the next to arrive and helped unloading all our gear and moving the furniture in for the set.

Adam and Kate arrived shortly after, they had rehearsed their scenes earlier in the day and we very confident with the material. We had a quick read through which was excellent, both did an great job.

DTang arrived a little later after an all day film shoot and was gearing to get working again! He and Ian retooled the lighting and the camera positions and got the set looking fantastic, they both did a superb job!

Filming went extremely smoothly, Adam and Kate read through the entire scene five times for each different shot and portions of the scene a couple more times for various close ups. Surprisingly we didn't have many takes, everyone was on their A-Game.

We started with a medium shot of Jake in the corridor speaking with Jess on his mobile. We then moved into a close-up before going into tracking shot and finally the extreme wide shot.We got all the shots we need for Adam's coverage with some to spare.

After we wrapped filming for the night and packed up our gear we restored the "Barracks" back to the "University". We all ended up at the Pancake Kitchen (having a premature wrap party, nice!) it was a great time and good to get to know everyone in a personal setting.

All in all it was a fantastic second day of filming! I'm so happy we've been able to get back into this after a long break. The momentum will continue with the third and forth day of filming happening tomorrow and Monday respectively.

A huge thank you to Adam, Kate, DTang, Ian, Teena, Trent, Paul & Billy. They all did an outstanding job!

Monday, December 6, 2010

OMEGA - Pre-Production Diary - Table Reading

It's a bit strange to be having a Table Reading after the first day of filming, but oh well.

We had our main cast down for a Table Reading yesterday, the 5th of December 2010. Crew in attendance: Peter Ninos (Director), Trent Ninos (First A.D.), Teena (D.A.), Billy (Clapper Loader/Extra Voices). Cast in attendance: Adam Schmerl (Jake), Kate Englefield (Jess), Devon Aubert (Prof. Jameson) and Frenk Etti (The Agent).

The Table Reading went very well, we got a great idea of the flow and running length of OMEGA as well as a great preview into how our actors handled the work when read together. (HINT: Brilliantly).

We were interuptted half-way through by rain, but we pressed on made it through the reading. We filmed the entire reading and I was going to post it online but have since decided against it for now, I don't want the entire plot spoiled before we even get into principle photography.

Thanks again to the cast and crew for coming down.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

OMEGA - Production Shots - Day 1



Production Shots from our first day of filming have been uploaded to our Flickr account, check them all out here.

OMEGA - Production Diary - Day 1

This post is a little late, we had our first day of filming for OMEGA on the 20th of October 2010. We filmed on location at the Stockport Observatory in Stockport (about 80 kms North of Adelaide).


PRODUCTION DIARY - DAY 1 -  October 20th, 2010 | Stockport Observatory

Crew in attendance: Peter Ninos (Director), DTang (Cinematographer), Trent (First A.D.), Teena (D.A.), Billy (Clapper Loader). Cast in attendance: Devon (Prof. David Jameson).

Scenes being filmed: OMEGA Viral Videos 1,2,3,4 & 5.

The Viral Videos we're filming will be used as part of a viral marketing campaign we will launch to promote OMEGA. They will be released online in the months prior to the films release to (hopefully) generate interest in the story. The videos themselves will also feature in the final film, our main character, Jake, stumbles upon them while trying to figure out the mystery of OMEGA.

7:30 pm - We arrived at the Stockport Observatory bang on time and it was a clear and brisk night, perfect for filming. We got a brief tour of the site from the staff there, the entire place was very impressive, incredibly the telescope and the dome housing it were all constructed by dedicated members of the astronomical community - outstanding. DTang arrived shortly after and we immediately started setting up lights and trying to find interesting shots and angles. Set up took us about an hour, followed by some filmed rehearsal takes to make sure everything was working right on camera. We planned on filming the 2nd viral video first (it was set during the late afternoon while it was still light) but mother nature makes fools of us all and it got dark very quickly. We had already set up for the 2nd one so we shot it first anyway.

8:00 pm - The staff at the Observatory were extremely helpful, they moved the telescope and the dome in whatever direction we wanted. We managed to get some awesome shots with the huge telescope in the background behind Devon.


8:30 pm to 12:30 am - The large dome area was a challenge to light but DTang pulled it off perfectly, we got some awesome shadows of the telescope and it all looked very natural. The lights also had the annoying side-effect of attractive every moth in the world into our filming area (jokes on them, they kept frying themselves on the hot lights).

The first video shot (which was the second video scripted) was a little slow starting. We came up with the idea, on the spot, to have Devon reach towards the camera as if his character is the one controlling the record button, panning, and zooming. I thought this would be a good way to show that it's more of an amateur online video blogger doing all the editing in-camera. The effect worked perfectly and DTang and Devon were great moving the camera in sync with each other. It did slow down pretty much every shot, as we were working out the choreography as we went along and it was hard on poor Devon who had to remember all these queues as well as acting out his lines! Devon was very patient and got through the multiple takes very professionally. I now know how to structure the next scripts we use, taking into account all the choreography (and no there won't be dancing).

We got through filming the 1st and 2nd viral videos fine but it was getting late and the staff were waiting on us to finish up so I decided we'd film the 3rd, 4th and 5th videos at another time in a different location, specifically an office that can stand in for an on-sight office at the Observatory.

It was a great first day of filming, and I'm extremely grateful to the cast and crew who made the long trip out to Stockport. I promise all other locations will be closer to the city, but being able to film in an actual Observatory was a brilliant opportunity and will make the scenes set within it all the more convincing.

All in all a great start of filming for OMEGA!

Thursday, September 30, 2010

OMEGA - Restructuring

After meeting with members of the MRC and having a very productive rethink we've decided to restructure OMEGA. The overal themes will stay the same but there are many changes to give the story more life.

Hopefully this doesn't interfeer with the planned October shoot.

Monday, September 20, 2010

OMEGA - Lead Actor

CAST

We have our lead actor, Adam, who was fantastic at auditions and has accepted the lead role of "Jake". He was the only applicant to commit the script to memory AND give a compelling performance.

The other applicants, for the most part, also did a good job and we've cast a few of them as radio voice extras. There's a place for everyone.

PRODUCTION

Now the fun begins. Trent and I constructed our Stunt Dummy yesterday and it looks awesome. Next the sets will need to be finished and painted.

David, our Cinematographer, has broken down the list of all the equiptment we need, I'll be meeting with the MRC, Picturehire and Urtext to work out the best hiring deals.

Friday, September 17, 2010

OMEGA - Auditions

We had our final round of auditions on Sunday, they went really well. We had some surprising performances and we definitely have talented actors on board.

Kate was great (she's always great!) reading with the guys that were auditioning for Jake and we should be offering the lead role to one of the actors very soon.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

OMEGA - Short Film Project

"A mysterious comet is speeding towards the earth. Jake, suspended from the Australian Armed Forces, waits anxiously to hear from his girlfriend, Jess, who is stranded in North America during a planet wide blackout. The two lovers soon realize that Omega is not what it seems as they try to find one another while the world around them descends into chaos."  - OMEGA pitch.

OMEGA is the first project I'll be tackling. It's not the oldest idea we've had, in fact it's only about a year old. But it'll be, in my opinion, the easiest to film and the most cost effective. That doesn't mean we'll be skimping on story and characters, definitely not. But having a smaller project to kick things off will be less stressful and we'll have more time to work out any problems.

It was originally conceived in 2009 when my cousin and I were discussing what a faster-than-light comet would look like if it was headed for the earth and the idea subsequently morphed into the current story.

OMEGA is a high concept mystery short film, one that we're writing as a short film trilogy (approx. 10 to 15 minutes each). The first installment is being written in such a way that it can stand alone should future entries prove impractical.


PRE-PRODUCTION

Our current focus is on the script, we've been working on it for about eight months now and it's been rewritten many many times. We're close to having the final version complete.

The next step are the auditions. We've listed a casting call on StarNow and we've had a heap of applications. We'll be holding auditions in September for the lead character. We've already cast the female lead (a brilliant actress named Kate), but we're still without a lead male.

That's all for now, next post should be regarding the outcome of the auditions.

Stay tuned.

Introduction

Morning, Pete here.

I have been an aspiring film maker in Adelaide, Australia for a number of years. Most of what I have been wanting to create has been put on back burner while I was running my (unrelated) business. Now that I am selling that business I am looking forward to getting back into film making. 

I've started this Production Journal for updates and news about any of my upcoming projects. All my endeavours into film will be published here under Phantom Earth.