Fallen's sound

At last the sound for "Fallen" is all finished. It really adds a third dimension to the story, very unsettling, very dramatic. I love it. We just need to find a colourist for the grading and the film is finished. I cannot wait to show it to people. I will keep you posted.

It's a cut!

Great news. "It So Happens" is now cut and looks ace. I hope the rest of the post production will go as quick and as smoothly as the work done so far.

Here's a still from the actual footage... beware of zombies!

Let's cut it

Right, it has taken me a few days to recover from the shoot. Not that it was hard work in itself, but all the pre-production and me juggling lots of bowling pins in the air was tiring. I've returned to work, but that seems like rest compared. I have a day off tomorrow to actually get my sh** together, then more work over the week end. But on monday I should catch up with Nic Wassell, my friend, work colleague and fellow filmmaker (and film editor for Fallen and now for It So Happens) to start looking at the rushes and at editing the new baby. Can't wait. Onward and upwards!

Pics from the set of "It So Happens"

Here are some lovely pics taken by our on set stills photographer Ten K Mega.

Daniel Fazio (Director of Photography)

   Francesca Silveri (Writer/Director/Producer)      

Finn Lilburn as "Mickey"

Gary Lilburn as "Dad" (as a vampire)

Daniel Fazio (DoP), Gabrielle Reidy as "Mum" (as a zombie) and Finn

  

Daniel Fazio, Matteo de Castello (1st AD) and Francesca Silveri

The amazing Make Up team Virginia Popova and Olivia Whitaker

Behind the scenes of "It So Happens"

Gary Lilburn plays "Dad" (as a Zombie, Vampire and frying pan murder victim)
Gabrielle Reidy plays "Mum" (as a Zombie, a Vampire's victim and a frying pan wielding murderer)
Finn Lilburn plays "Mickey" a child with as macabre and vivid an imagination as a child of 11 can have.

Written/Produced/Directed by: Francesca Silveri
Director of Photography: Daniel Fazio
1st AD: Matteo De Castello
Make up artists: Virginia Popova and Olivia Whitaker
Sound Recordist and Gaffer: Yuri Nunes
Stills Photography and Gaffer: Kaveh Khatiri
Gaffer: James Harmer
PA: Almaz Anderson
Costumes/Props: Francesca Silveri

"It So Happens" (a new short)

Pre-production is now finished (in record time I may add -- 2 intense weeks) and production begins tomorrow at 8.30am. "It So Happens" is a new short film about Mickey, an 11 year old boy, who has some rather macabre daydreams involving his ever-arguing parents.

Gabrielle Reidy and Gary Lilburn play the argumentative parents and their son Finn will play Mickey. We shoot in 1 day and in 1 location. We will have zombie and vampire make-up, a bit of gore and blood... blood...

I now better go to sleep as the clocks go forward and getting up at 6am in fact means being up at 5am on my biological clock. There simply aren't enough hours in a day, but we even lose one, so a tough one for me and my fellow crew and cast members for a Sunday shoot.

I'll post some photos after the shoot.

Good night all!

Mixing

The sound and music of Fallen are in the process of being mixed by a professional studio. Once that's all done we'll match it with the video, add the last credits and send the video out for grading. One last push...

Sound Mixing and New Website

It has been months since my last update. Progress on Fallen has definitely been made, albeit slowly. But to do things well it takes time. Rob has almost finished with the sound mixing and the music. He was courageous to take on such a mammoth task whilst working full time elsewhere, so all his spare time is being used to work on Fallen. I will never be able to thank him enough for all the hard work. Anyway, sound mixing and music are almost finished, Nic Wassell has edited the film, including opening title sequence and credits roll (big big thanks to Nic as well), so when that's done you know you are almost at the end of the post production stage. I can't wait to show the film to everyone who worked so hard to make it happen.

Meantime I have launched a brand new website, you can see it at www.unchartedfilms.com

Enjoy!

Final cut and Charlie Kaufman

Great day today. Not only because the sun was shining and London basked in almost 30 C, but also because Nic completed the final cut as I watched how the last tweaks made Fallen fall into place. Pardon the pun.
We need to redo some of the dialogues as the street scene has some horrendous night traffic noise in the background (how many rubbish trucks can get past at 1 or 2am? Obviously many!). Hopefully we will be able to do an ADR session with Gabrielle and Kieron in a couple of weeks' time. Meantime music and the rest of the sound will come together.

Hurray for the final cut!

On a totally different note, I managed to speak face to face with Charlie Kaufman today (after a masterclass organised by BAFTA in conjunction with the BFI). He's my scriptwriting hero, and I am totally a happy bunny. I saw a live interview, also at the BFI, two years ago, when he presented "Synecdoche New York." When the Q&A was opened to the audience I didn't get a chance to ask him a question about scriptwriting. Back then I thought that I was never going to get another chance to speak to him. Now 2 years later he's there on the stage again, taking questions and... I just can't raise my hand. There's a full auditorium, my writing hero is on stage and... I can't speak up. But I waited outside the green room with my friend Matteo (a Producer), in the chance he'd come out. And he did. At last... third chance... It was a short exchange, I asked him how he deals with rewrites. He said that editing a script is easy, once he's written it. Writing it is the hard part as he needs to figure out where he's going with it. I must have had an expression of awe and surprise on my face because he asked back whether that was the opposite for me... sadly, yes it is. I figure out what I'm going to write normally beforehand, sometimes whilst I am writing, but once the script is finished and needs tidying up... well... that's when the nightmare begins for me. I guess Charlie Kaufman is not only a hugely talented writer, down to earth regarding his ability and skills, but he's also a disciplined writer. Which obviously I am not. Or maybe... maybe... different writers have different approaches, different styles, different methods.

Music and sound

Another sound and music session at Rob's. Progress is being made and I was well impressed. I can't wait to see the whole film with music and edited sound. It's amazing how much the right atmosphere or music can highlight a scene. We will need to do a little ADR as the background noise in the street scene is just too much. Once the sound and music are done, the film will need a little SFX tweak. Once that is also done, it'll be time for grading, titles and ARC-ing, and then I guess I'll have to set a date for a private screening for cast and crew. I'm looking forward to that.