Saturday, May 21, 2011

'Behind The Scene' - Very First | Action||Sci-Fi|| Short Movie.






Movie Name - 'DRIFT.'
Genre - Sci-fi, Action, Short.
Director/ Cinematographer/ Visual Effects Supervisor... etc - Rumesh Tharanga.
Starring Amila Saranga.
            -  Rajitha Ayesh
            - Rumesh Tharanga.
Video documenting/ Photographing Behind the scene - Nuwan Kalansooriya
On location Lighting Assistance/ Behind the Scene Photography - Rajitha Ayesh


NEW- First And second Day at Second Location.


Breaking the Ice Early in the morning...
________________________________________
Recently, I started making an experimental Action, Sci-Fi Short movie.

My intention was, successfully test an action sequence of a movie composed with CG Visual Effects. And more especially I wanted to test intense Editing style to give the punch of rush. And here I tend to use some stylized/ dramatic camera angles.

Editing was successful. Everything worked out the way I expected.

After 3 Days of shooting in 4 Different locations, we filmed approximately 696 shots and 242 shots were in printable quality (Or usable for the way I liked to edit).

As this was a ZERO Budget Movie we only had minimal facilities to filmed these footages.

Equipments used:
  • Protax HD7000 - 720p HD 30fps camera - (Only changeable settings in the camera was 'Exposure'. So I had to be tricky to film with it. Without manual settings for ISO values, Shutter Speed, frame rate... it was so hard to get the desired look. We had to shoot some footages twice because camera's sensor has a problem [factory error] - if camera used in a wide opened area (In our case express Rail Road) and if it is cloudy and happen to film objects faced sun's opposite direction [Sun is in front of the camera] camera only illuminate sky and really far objects... Simply characters or objects near to camera get too much darken. I learned that fact in first day of shooting in the evening. So had to shoot 'em again in the next day in broad day light [Middle of the day]. Also NO especial Gears for Depth of Field. Without a way to control the aperture I simply would not be able to gave utmost cinematic look to most of footages, at the way I wanted it. Camera only had two inbuilt focusing levels - Infinite and Macro. No Manual Focusing. But I tried my best to get the best out of it. And also I didn't have much time to experiment with camera. But I believe I did my best, at least for the very first time.) 
  • Samsung C20 SD camcorder - Used to Video-graph behind the Scene. And Some Still photographed were shot as well.
  • Canon Powershot A480 - Used for HDRI photography.
  • Home Made Reflectors/ Diffusers - I bought 2 'Bristol boards' ($0.15 x 2) and stapled them together and bought a silver coloured paper (have no idea about the name of the paper and cost me $0.25) stapled it on to a one side of those stapled Bristol boards and made a cheapest 'Reflector'. And in most of the shots that were filmed in Rail Road and other open Areas,  foreground (Separated character from background) was illuminated by using "my home made reflector".
  • My Sister (Chanuka Lakmali Hettiarachchi) Provided me with some make-up kits. And her help for make-up as well.
  • A Green cloth as a green screen. 2.5 meters. $1.40 per a meter. 
  • ESP: Computer - A computer with "Intel Core 2 Duo" processor, "4GB" of Ram, And "On Board Graphic card" used for making every a bit of Computer Generated Visual Effects you see in this movie. 
Though it was a almost ZERO budget movie, I believe I breath my unique style as possible as I could upon this small work of Art. Consider it as the VERY first Short movie made with Real Footages + Computer Generated Visual effects.


Now, I have the HARDEST part left with me; which is making Computer Generated Visual Effects. Which will be the most time consuming and self devoting part. 

People Who Behind this task force:

Rumesh Tharanga - Director/ Producer/ Screenplay Writer/ Director of photography/ Visual Effect Supervisor... Etc.


Amila Saranga - Actor/ Assistance in Location Choosing/ Public and Media relationship Manager.


Nuwan Kalansooriya - Videographer/ Video documenting Behind the scene/ Photographing Behind the scene/ On location Lighting Assistance. 


Rajitha Ayesh - Actor/ On location Lighting Assistance/ Behind the Scene Photography.




















I would like to thank Umesh Muthumala so very much for Providing His Movie Camera and equipments for us for shooting.
And Would like to thank so very much to Danuka Chamara for Providing Cameras and equipments as well and his help on this production.

I find it an immense pleasure to Thank "Nuwan Kalansooriya" and "Rajitha Ayesh". Without their friendship and mammoth help, this wouldn't be a success and I never could do this alone.

And I should appreciate Amila Saranga's Brilliant performances. In a very short time (In a matter of minutes) He grasps what I wanted from him and he gave his utmost to Breath the life in to his character. Amila Saranga got all it needs to be a marvelous actor. I love his dedication over this work and I owe him so much for being behind with me in this very especial task.
More exciting Behind the Scene Videos and stuff about to Come...

Keep your fingers crossed.

See you Next Time.