PRODUCTION DIARY - DAY 13 - October 16th, 2011 | West Croydon, Adelaide.
Crew in attendance: Peter Ninos (Director), David Tang (Director of Photography), Jordan Agutter (Gaffer/Camera Assistant), Trent Ninos (First A.D.), Teena Ninos (Production Manager/Location Sound), Billy Ninos (Clapper Loader/Grip), Paul Larsen (Grip/Runner) Gigi D'angelo (Costumes). Cast in attendance: Adam Schmerl (Jake Mercer), Thomai Kezios (Afghan mother), Athan Ninos (Afghan boy).
We come to it at last, the last day of principle photography for OMEGA. It's been a long year of shooting, thirteen days of long nights, heat, moths, and just about everything else. But we made it through, and I couldn't be happier!
Hot on the heels of yesterdays awesome shoot move onto our last shoot.... which just happened to be the first scene in the movie. This is a crazy business. It also turned out to be our longest single shoot on OMEGA, other days have come close but Day 13 sped towards the 9 hour mark and overshot it by a few minutes. Adam and Jordan join us once more for the days shoot, plus we had Thomai and Athan on set for the first time. Good fun to be had by all.
We are filming OMEGA's prologue today, a prologue that was a major after thought we arrived at long after writing the final draft of the script. Going through all the footage of the previous eleven days of filming lead me to the conclusion we needed a strong character moment to open the film before the narrative kicks forward with the Omega crisis. After careful consideration and some... outlandish concepts we'd arrived at the final concept for the prologue; Kandahar. Our lead character Jake (played to perfection by Adam Schmerl) is a corporal in the Australian Defense Forces. During a later scene Jake reveals his guilt at an event that he was responsible for during his tour in Afghanistan, something that plagues him throughout the plot. While on deployment Corp. Jake Mercer is shot and separated from his unit, seeking refuge in an empty afghan home he calls for evac but there's only static, to make matters worse the power in the house blacks out, there are voices outside, Jake thinks he's being ambushed, everything happens very quickly and innocent lives are caught in the crossfire. This scene is a powerful opening for the film because it's deeply rooted in our main characters motivations and fears. Here we see exactly why Jake is so stressed when power blacks out across Australia, why he tries to solve the mystery of Omega himself, he's trying to atone for that night in Kandahar. Adam jumped at the chance for this deep character study and was completely enthralling during every minute of action.
The Kandahar set, much like yesterdays Radar set, was our most complicated yet. We had access to an empty bare brick room - a blank canvas. Trent, Teena and I spent the weeks leading up to the shoot gathering interesting and unique props that would fill up this empty space, a couch, an old tv, very eastern looking vases and brass urns, and from Trent probably the oldest door ever found, still intact since before time when dinosaurs ruled the earth. Once all the set dressing was in place, the windows were blocked out to simulate darkness (damn night time, more on that later). DTang and Jordan began work on the lights, we need two stages of lighting on this set; power-on and blacked-out. We needed this down in real time on camera so the lights were expertly rigged up so that at the flick of a switch the prop lights (tv and lamp) and set lights were killed at the same time with the moonlight and character back lights took over.
To add some atmosphere DTang hooked us up with some awesome Smoke-in-a-Can called MagiCan (two cans of which he promptly stole... grrr). It's amazing stuff and gives an effect a smoke machine cannot; density. It makes the air look heavy and thick and creates awesomely atmospheric light rays and a bloom around light sources. These were expensive but worth every cent. The holes and slits we'd drilled and sawed out of the ancient door let through the eeriest beams of light that caught the smoke and dust nicely to create a seriously awesome effect.
Supplying us with our most elaborate set of costumes to date is with wonderful Gigi D'angelo. Gigi went above and beyond for us for three costumes for today's shoot. For Thomai and Athan playing afghan mother and son we had a black burqa and child shirt/pants/cap combo. The burqa was stitched by hand and looked amazing. The most involved costume was for Adam, as a soldier in the Australian Armed Forces Jake had to look the part, so Gigi put together an ensemble of desert camo, pants and tops, vest with pouches, belt, backpack, water bottle, shovel and mesh helmet to give Adam the look of an active serviceman. The desert camo clothes, I'm told, we worn by an Australian Digger in Afghanistan, which is very humbling and adds that extra layer of depth to the entire sequence. Gigi did an amazing job with these costumes, outstanding work.
We gave ourselves a good two hours for rehearsals and blocking so we were able to plan out our shoot in greater depth than we'd able to previously. With only minimal dialogue we could focus on the actions, the movements and the timing. The first scene filmed was of the afghan civilians, it's a quick scene so it was better to get this one out of the way first. Thomai and Athan were great sports during the whole ordeal, and despite not being actors they managed to add a great deal to the movie. Once this scene was covered we reset and began filming the bulk of the scene. Adam started out by bursting through the old door (which held together after being slammed in to at least ten times), he'd scan the room for signs of enemies combatants before hobbling into the corner and radioing for help. After bandaging his wound (best fake blood to date, onya Trent!), Jake snaps out his pistol because of a noise, he limps up, moves slowly through the room. Then darkness, a black out hits, it's a tense few moments before BAM! I'll leave it there, can't give away too much. We covered the action from various angles, a neat focus pull here, shooting from ground level there it all worked.
The scene was over. Cut, print and that's a wrap! I called. OMEGA, the filming part at least, was over. We'd done it! Our first film finished. It was a great feeling, I've been grinning like a madman ever since. I've been saying this a lot but it must be said again and again, a huge thank you to every member of the cast and crew for their help and support. There'd be no film with you. Through your hard work, dedication, professionalism, and good nature you've helped create an awesome film! And I promise, the next movie will be set in broad daylight. No blackouts or night shoots for a looooong time.
Now for some acknowledgments.
Adam Schmerl, my main man. As I said above Adam was a last minute addition to our audition roster, and what a performance he gave us. He had committed the entire script to memory and read it with such deep and raw emotion that made me double take. One quick look to Trent in row behind and I knew we'd found our lead. Adam is a complete professional, but still and awesome guy to talk to and has a great sense of humour. Adam moved to Melbourne earlier in the year and was still willing to give up the four straight nights before flying out to filming the remainder of his scenes. Even more, he agreed to let us fly him down to film for two more days to complete the movie. Adam has a bright future ahead of him as an actor and a director, a true asset to any film, great things abound!
Kate Englefield, my leading lady. Kate was with the film longer than anyone else, even while the film as it was back then was a shadow of it's current self Kate stuck with us. Her audition was amazing, even more so as she had to act it with me (I can't act my way out of a paper bag). More so, after we'd offered her the role and she accepted she graciously came down to read with the actors trying out for Jake. Even faced with some... interesting auditions, she'd read her part with Adam like a star. Throughout the shoot Kate has been a joy to work with, a cheeky sense of humour that livened up the set whenever she was around. Kate, a seasoned film and theater actress, needs no help from this humble director, she is a star!
Devon Aubert, the rock star. Devon was the first actor to be filmed on OMEGA, but when we had no idea what we were doing. He'd drove all the way out to Stockport with us to film the viral videos. Devon did an amazing job even though it's a tough thing to act to a camera, but he handled it brilliantly. He let us bash him into the side of a car for his kidnapping scene over and over again, what a good sport. Devon's given us an extremely memorable performance as the inquisitive Professor and will make the viral videos and film scenes he's in a joy to watch.
Aliante Youngdino, the suave Italian. Aliante, or Frenk as I call him, is one of the most enthusiatic actors I've met. He'd message me throughout the shoot with questions and suggestions about his scenes. Frenk put a great deal of effort into finding the motivation and meaning behind all his lines. A gifted actor, dedicated and hard working.
Nick Buckland, the Samual L. Jackson of Australian films (they're both in everything). Nick, the owner of the Adelaide Artist Agency, helped introduce us to Frenk, but on top of that he'd generously agreed to play a role in our film. Nick was a load of fun to be around and was very patient with those of us still learning the fine art of film making. A true gentleman, much obliged.
Our supporting cast, Paul Larsen, Travis Prosso, Theodora Kezios, Faye Kezios, Thomai Kezios, Tamae Ninos and Athan Ninos all helped flesh out the movies action and did a great job on set despite being new to the world of film making.
David Tang, my steely eyed missile man. David has been instrumental towards the success of OMEGA. From an interesting first meeting in 2009 (we'd pretty much wrapped up our conversation, said our good days when his hot chocolate order arrived and we had nothing left to say while he drank it, awkward). David has helped us immeasurable by lending us the use of his Canon EOS 7D along with a plethora of filming equipment he helped us find and hire for the shoots, to bringing on one awesome camera assistant after another to introducing us to Adam Schmerl, a last minute audition that gave us our star. DTang is a master and has a long and successful career in film ahead of him, a true asset to any director, this one especially.
Trent Ninos, my awesome cuz. Trent will be known as the originator of the OMEGA idea all those years ago. Throughout the production process, shooting and now into post production Trent has been an invaluable sounding board and ideas man that I've found invaluable. Trent always has his camera on hand and has captured a heap of behind the scenes material that will help us remember OMEGA. Whether it's fine tuning dialogue, constructing sets, assistant directing, or just being awesome Trent's an intergral part of TEAM NINOS, this movie wouldn't have been possible without him. My film making wing man.
Teena Ninos, my wrangler. My awesome sister has had the hard job of wrangling Trent and I on the (numerous) occasions that we'd get distracted or want to set something (anything) on fire. As Production Manager Teena has spear headed the unpacking, organizations and logistics of work on the set. On top all that Teena also took charge of location sound recording on the film, something that she handled like a pro despite having less than ten minutes to learn how to use the Zoom recorder. Teena keeps TEAM NINOS on track, what a great sis.
Billy Ninos, the jack of all trades. Bilbo has been the go to guy, he's been our Clapper Loader first and foremost but he's also been wrangled into grip, runner, fleckie operator, boom swinger, stand in and background extra. The youngest member of the film crew and TEAM NINOS Billy is a great cousin and helped out like a boss.
To our camera assistants, gaffers and focus pullers, Michael Tessari, Jordan Agutter, Ian Bethune, Amber McBride, Sam Cherry and Lyndon Warren. They all came together and made up the backbone of the film crew, lending their hands and keen eyes to every aspect of making the film work. Dedicated and professional, great fun to work with.
Gigi D'angelo, our wonderful costume designer. Without Gigi's help our actor would've been wearing jeans and tshirts. Gigi did and fantastic job at sourcing our costumes and making them from scratch as well. From surgeon scrubs, to army attire Gigi had it covered.
And a big thank you to John Ninos, Tulah Droulias, Con Ninos, George Vlass, George Carr, Elias Mainas, Rebecca Carter, Nicholas Vaidie, Andrew J Clark, Carina Gun, Jeremy Kelly-Bakker, Sebastian Tomczak, Jeremy Diaz and everyone else who lent their time, advice and support through the production.
While the movie is far from over (post production will be grueling but loads of fun at the same time) I'd still like to thank everyone again for their hard work and patience. I'm still new to this whole profession and it's made the learning process so much easier and more fulfilling having patient, friendly and hard working people by my side the whole way.
This is the start of something big.
One down, many many more to go.
Thanks a million.
Pete
No comments:
Post a Comment