Pre-visualizing God
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Larry sings in the choir at the First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn, where we shot CREDO, so they didn't mind our visiting a few times before our October 30 shoot date.
During the year I spent writing Cupid & Psyche, I devoured the directors' commentaries on as many DVDs as I could cram in. I memorized the shot flow of The Professional. I transcribed the screenplay of Amelie into Final Draft because it wasn't available and I wanted to see how it read and how long it ran.
The additional material to Amelie included a brief segment in which director Jean-Pierre Jeunet "pre-visualized" shots with cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel. (Here's my review of another of the latter's films: Ni Pour Ni Contre.) They used a little consumer camcorder to work out their shots, and this struck me as phenomenally sensible. I know from writing novels and performing in improv groups that one of my strengths is thinking about stuff. The longer I'm allowed to think, the better the stuff gets. Showing up on the set without a storyboard or shot list may get some drama junkies' juices pumping, but to me it's a waste of the opportunity to have shot something better.
Depart from the plan? Sure—I love when somebody gets a better idea that we can actually pull off on schedule.
Not have a plan? You're an idiot.
Our first scouting visit consisted of wandering around the church, looking for shots. In addition to the sanctuary—everybody's basic idea of INTERIOR, CHURCH—Larry led me into some spaces I didn't know existed. My two favorites were the inside of the huge pipe organ, a bare plywood space criss-crossed with silver organ pipes; and what Larry calls the "Scary Space," which frankly, I can't figure out the function of. The view downstairs from the Scary Space, into a paint-peeling, bare-bulb-lit landing, is what became the shot. Later, during color correction, the colorist said it reminded him of the corrosion and milky color scheme of Se7en. I can see it.
I took lots of footage of Larry standing in various locations. (Also lots of footage of electrical outlets, which helped me remember where they were when planning our sequence of camera setups.) At home, I captured and cut in iMovie, which came with my Powerbook. As I combined and recombined the shots, a plan began to emerge—a coherent movement plot, in which we start here and move in this direction, then change to that direction to reflect God's change of mood, then go out here...
This was the first camcorder version of CREDO (See Fig. 1), which was, at the time, known only as UNTITLED GOD MOVIE. With the shots arranged to reflect this plot, lines from the script laid in as subtitles, and everything time-stretched or time-squeezed to reflect (sort of) the actual running time, omissions became clear. For instance, we'd need a shot of him looking up at the organ, and then a tilt past the organ pipes, which would transition us from the choir loft into the organ interior.
We returned to the church and shot from the top, using a shot list created from our first version. This time, Larry brought the script along and read his lines on camera. Again, I took it home and created a rough cut in iMovie—which again pointed out missing or weakly conceived shots, as well as giving me a much better idea of timing and flow, since we shot the actual script and performer.
This pre-visualization process resulted in what was essentially a video storyboard. Our final paper storyboard, which served as an on-set reference on our actual shoot day, consisted of screen captures from this second camcorder version of CREDO, notes about things we still needed, and indications of things I thought needed to be done differently. (See Fig. 2) I put it together in Quark, emailed everyone PDF versions, and brought extra hard copies to the shoot.
We shot on a Saturday. We entered the church at 8:00 AM and wrapped exactly on schedule at 10:00 PM. In between, we took breaks for meals, did retakes as necessary to get what we needed, solved a few dozen technical problems, got inserts and room tone, and improvised when people had good ideas that we could pull off on schedule.
With only two exceptions, both of which resulted from the director not being able to see during the take (only two people can fit inside the pipe organ, and we had no remote video feed), the final footage shot by cinematographer Andamion Murataj cut together in Final Cut Express exactly as expected. (See Fig. 3) The problems presented by the two exceptions were solved seamlessly by the multiple takes and inserts we were able to get because the shoot ran so smoothly. The solutions are better than the original plan; I wouldn't recut to match storyboard now even if I could.
Inspiration on the set is a delight and an inevitability. Planning the hell out of the CREDO shoot allowed us to act on that inspiration when it struck.
[ Official CREDO website | Notify me when new entries are posted ]
Your comments and questions are welcome:
During the year I spent writing Cupid & Psyche, I devoured the directors' commentaries on as many DVDs as I could cram in. I memorized the shot flow of The Professional. I transcribed the screenplay of Amelie into Final Draft because it wasn't available and I wanted to see how it read and how long it ran.
The additional material to Amelie included a brief segment in which director Jean-Pierre Jeunet "pre-visualized" shots with cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel. (Here's my review of another of the latter's films: Ni Pour Ni Contre.) They used a little consumer camcorder to work out their shots, and this struck me as phenomenally sensible. I know from writing novels and performing in improv groups that one of my strengths is thinking about stuff. The longer I'm allowed to think, the better the stuff gets. Showing up on the set without a storyboard or shot list may get some drama junkies' juices pumping, but to me it's a waste of the opportunity to have shot something better.
Depart from the plan? Sure—I love when somebody gets a better idea that we can actually pull off on schedule.
Not have a plan? You're an idiot.
Our first scouting visit consisted of wandering around the church, looking for shots. In addition to the sanctuary—everybody's basic idea of INTERIOR, CHURCH—Larry led me into some spaces I didn't know existed. My two favorites were the inside of the huge pipe organ, a bare plywood space criss-crossed with silver organ pipes; and what Larry calls the "Scary Space," which frankly, I can't figure out the function of. The view downstairs from the Scary Space, into a paint-peeling, bare-bulb-lit landing, is what became the shot. Later, during color correction, the colorist said it reminded him of the corrosion and milky color scheme of Se7en. I can see it.
I took lots of footage of Larry standing in various locations. (Also lots of footage of electrical outlets, which helped me remember where they were when planning our sequence of camera setups.) At home, I captured and cut in iMovie, which came with my Powerbook. As I combined and recombined the shots, a plan began to emerge—a coherent movement plot, in which we start here and move in this direction, then change to that direction to reflect God's change of mood, then go out here...
This was the first camcorder version of CREDO (See Fig. 1), which was, at the time, known only as UNTITLED GOD MOVIE. With the shots arranged to reflect this plot, lines from the script laid in as subtitles, and everything time-stretched or time-squeezed to reflect (sort of) the actual running time, omissions became clear. For instance, we'd need a shot of him looking up at the organ, and then a tilt past the organ pipes, which would transition us from the choir loft into the organ interior.
We returned to the church and shot from the top, using a shot list created from our first version. This time, Larry brought the script along and read his lines on camera. Again, I took it home and created a rough cut in iMovie—which again pointed out missing or weakly conceived shots, as well as giving me a much better idea of timing and flow, since we shot the actual script and performer.
As a side note, this particular moment, Omniscience!, occurs in the following three places:
|
This pre-visualization process resulted in what was essentially a video storyboard. Our final paper storyboard, which served as an on-set reference on our actual shoot day, consisted of screen captures from this second camcorder version of CREDO, notes about things we still needed, and indications of things I thought needed to be done differently. (See Fig. 2) I put it together in Quark, emailed everyone PDF versions, and brought extra hard copies to the shoot.
We shot on a Saturday. We entered the church at 8:00 AM and wrapped exactly on schedule at 10:00 PM. In between, we took breaks for meals, did retakes as necessary to get what we needed, solved a few dozen technical problems, got inserts and room tone, and improvised when people had good ideas that we could pull off on schedule.
With only two exceptions, both of which resulted from the director not being able to see during the take (only two people can fit inside the pipe organ, and we had no remote video feed), the final footage shot by cinematographer Andamion Murataj cut together in Final Cut Express exactly as expected. (See Fig. 3) The problems presented by the two exceptions were solved seamlessly by the multiple takes and inserts we were able to get because the shoot ran so smoothly. The solutions are better than the original plan; I wouldn't recut to match storyboard now even if I could.
Inspiration on the set is a delight and an inevitability. Planning the hell out of the CREDO shoot allowed us to act on that inspiration when it struck.
[ Official CREDO website | Notify me when new entries are posted ]
Your comments and questions are welcome:
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