The Forest Is Red - The Camerawork Approach

David Jakubovic and Devin Harjes on set. A doorway AND a lens flare. ©2010 The Forest Is Red

 
Now that we wrapped our 22-day shoot of "The Forest Is Red," I have time to recollect some impressions I've had, lessons I've learned, and anecdotes I've accumulated during this production of a very low budget feature film.


When we began, my intention with this movie was to shoot lots of footage fast, planning to edit energetically and wildly, and to "stylistically" not care about how the film looks, in a way - in other

DP John Schmidt on set at Bond Street Studios. ©2010 The Forest Is Red

words create a dirty look that with the right edit would feel very cool. Kind of like "Pi," for instance. Night scenes? Just get what you can and push it far later so that you can see. In other words it's all about the story, the characters, and the edit. A typical way for an editor to think, I suppose, when trying to make a low budget film, where the only goal is: finish what you're starting. But this was not motivated by what I thought is really the right way to show this story - it was motivated by how I thought I'd be able to actually get this done with a tiny crew in a short period of time. I was confident that I could make it cool that way - but still, this creative intention was motivated by practical concerns.

Steadicam operator John Hockenberry on set

But then came the first day of filming, and something happened. Organically, we shot precise, well thought-out, strongly composed shots. By organically I mean that these shots were what felt right on set. We also had operator John Hockenberry on a Steadicam on our first morning, with whom we got some really nice footage of our lead character rushing through the streets of Astoria. Definitely not cheap, down n' dirty looking material waiting to be edited in a fancy way.

The problem now was that we just set a very high standard for ourselves. Our first day's footage looks very good, and so now we must continue shooting to that standard. But can we keep that up on a low budget and for 20 more days?

Another thing that happened on that first day, is that the acting and chemistry were so good between Devin Harjes and Virginia Robinson, his elderly boss who does not always treat him kindly, that we took a scene for which we had a whole bunch of coverage planned, and just shot it instead in one simple two-shot, with perfectly good results.

Nicole Sudhaus shooting a scene in Nathan's apartment. ©2010 The Forest Is Red

And so to summarize, two things happened: 1. We set a high standard for the shots, and 2. I realized early that the story, acting and characters are what will make this film, and not fancy editing. This is a very strange thing for me to become aware of as a director, because as an editor I am used to thinking in terms of "let's shoot this scene in a way that is fun to edit." I've always done that on short films I've made. On this film though, I quickly began to think differently. I basically forced myself to remove the virtuoso editing plan from the table. I stepped far outside of my comfort zone.

Afton Boggiano, Dora Sacer and Daniel Jakubovic ©2010 The Forest Is Red

Of course, I still shot a few scenes in a "this-will-be-fun-and-fancy-to-edit" sort of way. But only when they were called for by the story and energy of the moment.

These two new realities we faced actually worked very well together: because we shot only the exact coverage needed, we could take the time to make sure we get the shots to look right.

Now that the madness is done and I can look calmly at the footage, I believe we made the right choice. Weather it will all cut together nicely and be interesting and entertaining is a whole other question which I'm sure to discover as I edit. But for now, I'm glad we took the more controlled, precise, artistic approach that we did.

Afton Boggiano on set. ©2010 The Forest Is Red