Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Winter Nights

by Ari

Scaling Back:

I've spent the last month or so on rewrites and polishes, refining the script to make sure everything can work within the limits of our budget so we can realistically film what's written on the page. In the process of doing this I found an interesting way to fold two supporting characters into one. Oddly enough, I feel like it added a whole new layer to the story and deepened the relationship between that particular character and one of the leads.

I also read Sidney Lumet's book Making Movies for research purposes, and I've found this to be extremely useful for breaking down all aspects of the filmmaking process, from prep, to designing the aesthetic for a story, to important tips on how to work with actors and crew. Highly recommended.

Between rewrites I've been exploring the city for possible locations, taking pictures and writing brief notes for each place. I'm also flirting with the idea of black and white photography. Some of my early ideas for composition and lighting and tone seem to fit B&W better than they do color - not much of a surprise considering most of Winter Nights' influences are black and white movies. This isn't a final decision yet (and surely something to discuss in detail with the dp), but I'm leaning towards it at the moment.