Music

There is a certain moodiness that needs to be addressed and supported with the music. The music will mostly support the bio sections. I don't see there being any music in the dialogue scenes. Its nice to see that we've succeeded in building some nice characters during the production. I feel they play as authentic and sincere. I want to create a score that will support that. Like the characters, the music needs to be honest and straightforward. I don't want to go too emotional and Saccharin. At the same time, specially in Mile's case, there is a certain weight to what the characters are talking about. This is big life stuff. So there needs to be a little weight to it. In the case of the other characters, the music should support their upbeat outlook.

Some of the temp music that's in place was written and produced by Jesse Clark. His music is playful, emotional and at the same time very progressive. I really like it. At the same time, I wonder if it is too experimental for the audience.

The optional I was thinking of was a score with more traditional instruments. I wrote the shooting script with the film score for Amelie in mind. Instrumentally its very playful yet it has weight.

Acknowledgements

Nice work on production everyone! Great performances all around. I really appreciate your hardwork and effort. It will definitely show in the final product. Check back here for a cut in a month or so.

All the Best,
Stokes

Inspiration and References

Natural look of the clinic. In a lot of instances
we might have to let the practical lighting do
the work in the dialysis center.


Natural light as a single source.


Miles's curtains will start closed but with light
coming through to give a glow from the outside.


When Shooting exteriors, let's think about the sun.
Mile's taxi ride would be cool backlit.
We'll shoot Miles's house exterior when the sun is low.


Pools of light in a fluorescent room


Intimate interview - sunlight is white - a bit desaturated


Intimate interviews


Interview - Intimate with a BG that falls off.

The Real Deal


Epogen Injection

Shot Lists

Download the Shot lists here:

Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday

Wardrobe

A breakdown of wardrobe in days:

Miles
(this is way more than we anticipated, let me know if a problem)
1. First Interview / 1st Dialysis visit
2. Cooks outfit (for still image)
3. Wardrobe for hang out session with buddies (for still image)
4. Second dialysis center visit (with Ellen)
5. Final Interview wardrobe
6. Ending dialysis center montage (speaking with nurses, etc.)
7. Miles at Al's with Buddies

Ellen
1. Interview / park
2. Playing scrabble with friends
3. Dialysis Center visit

Rosa
1. Interview / School
2. Dialysis Center Visit
3. Rosa Reads to children at library

Nurse Shelly
1. Nurse outfit

Crew List

EPOGENCREWLIST.pdf

Scene Breakdown

Miles House Interior

Talent - Miles
Prop / Art - Completely dress location
Extras - None
Hero Stuff - Old TV, Worn out house shoes, pictures of the following: miles at AL's cooking, Miles with Buddies at Al's, Exterior Al's. We also need boxing paraphernalia, a rotary phone.
Extras - None
Special Equipment - Smoke machine

Ellen Kitchen Interior

Art Department / Props

Miles and Miles's Place

This is the exterior view of Miles's house.


Location Images

Miles's place is will be shot in the Pershing Hall Building located in the Presidio. They have a bunch of empty spaces that look like (or once were bedrooms). Here's an example of a room we will use. EXAMPLE

This location will need to be fully dressed. We need to convert a room into Miles's living room and another room into miles's bedroom. I'd like for these rooms to be adjacent so that we can shoot from the living room into the bedroom. From the images it looks like that won't be a problem. I'm going to scout the locations myself tomorrow to pick the exact locations in the building.

Ideally, I'd like to shoot some wide shots so I'd like the room to be fully dressed. I'll only be shooting one direction.

The overall aesthetic should support the idea that Miles has been living in this home for a long time, 30+ years. It’s become a vault of sorts for his memories that mostly comprise of his two favorite things, the restaurant where he was employed, Al's, (this is Miles's home away from home) and boxing.

We should think in terms of Miles having decorated the space by himself, maybe with the help of a girlfriend at the time, although, he didn't listen to her much. I imagine the furniture and pieces to be masculine and dark in tones... wood, leather. Just so you know, I'm going to add a little ambience (smoke) to the room to give it a vibe.

Miles hasn't done much (or anything, really) to the house since he moved in so the furniture is definitely dated.

I plan on photographing nuances of Miles's space to establish his character and build a connection with the audience. I've chosen the following pieces as heroes for the shots:

Old TV (off)
Picture Framed (or they could be pinned up) pictures of Al's restaurant
I'd like at least one of the pictures to be nicely framed to promote Miles's sense of respect for Al's restaurant.
Picture of Miles in his cook’s outfit in front of grill (Al's)
Picture of Miles and his buddies hanging out at Al's
Pair of worn in house shoes.
I'd also like to have some Boxing news clippings, old boxing paraphernalia, boxing gloves, etc. Things to tell the story of Al's interest in Boxing.
(I image all of these things set around in a shrine-like fashion).

For Miles Bedroom, I imagine that it’s pretty simple. He doesn't spend a lot of time. I imagine a bed (Queen or double) and a bed stand with a lamp and rotary dial phone. Maybe a chair in he corner. All of this next to a window that will provide us natural light. I'm planning to limit my shooting to the corner of the room where these things will be placed.

The carpets are really red. Maybe we can throw another rug over the carpet to kill some of the red. I'd like to avoid shooting the house shoes directly on the red carpet.

Here's a couple of images that jumped out at me in terms of vibe:



Ellen and Ellen's Place

Ellen's home location images
Ellen's home location is going to be dressed except for a few little things such as her scrabble board. I also would like to make her kitchen looked a little more lived in with things like fridge magnets. I image she has a lot of her grandchilds drawings on the fridge.... pictures.

My first inclination is to put a table in the kitchen have Ellen play her scrabble there. Its colorful and has an interesting look. There's also plenty of light. Here's another shot of the kitchen.

Final Cast

Charles Branklyn as Miles, New HD Patient

Tara O’ Leary – Shelly, HD RN

Carole Landes – Ellen, experienced HD patient

Vilma Vitanza – Rosa, model HD patient

Granddaughter - TBD

Grandaugher Choices:

I have some granddaughter choices.

If we get two for one for twins... the twins would be cool. They could play together which would give them more business and make it a bit less awkward for them. Its sort of interesting creatively. They are my first choice (second choice is below). I'm actually happy with either.

Ellie Celia Kruglikov and Hannah Rose Kruglikov



Natalie Cheyette





Extras

Miles's Friends

Here's who I like:

James Allen:



Al CACIOPPO

Location Selects

Miles House

Here's a house for Mile's. It looks like its in a neighborhood and its modest. I'm diggin' it. I'm going to shoot this location tighter so it feels like its in a tighter neighborhood.


The Pershing Hall Building in the presidio can work for miles's Bedroom, Living Room, and. I like the dinginess of it. We are going to have to dress the hell out of it. I'm specifically thinking of this room for the Living Room.

We can make the adjoining room his bedroom.

In order to save locations we can nix Miles's breakfast nook location. I have him writing in his journal there but we can have him do that in his living area.

For the exterior of Miles's house, we can go pick up and exterior. We need some choices for that. I'm thinking of something very modest with a lawn.

Al's Restaurant

Original Joe's is still my first choice. The place is sweet. But's Al's is great, too. If I had my druthers, I'd go with Joe's, but if that puts a strain on logistics, I can go with Al's. While Joe's looks great it also has a lot room to move the camera around and go on long lenses. Al's looks a little more cramped but we can make it work. Of course, for the exterior shot, Al's works fantastic.

Ellen's Home

For Ellen's home I like apartment 2.
Apartment 2 has a bright homely look. I like the colored walls. My only concern is that it looks tight in there and it doesn't have the suburban house look, but that's probably out of the question right?... going into a suburban house?

Here's a couple of examples of suburban living rooms. A little more expansive.



As an alternate, we could shoot all of the home shots in the Presidio's Pershing Hall building, but I'd want to paint walls and to give the homes a different feel. I'd also need to cover up the red rug (the color is death for video as well as it kicks off a bunch of red light which looks bad). We'll be seeing the floor in Ellen's shots. The need to differentiate the rooms might create enough work to warrant a company move to another location.

Library

I love the the 24th Street Branch.

The high vaulted ceilings are great although, we might be shooting in the intimate reading areas in the other parts of the building. In any case, this branch offers us some great choices.

School

Of the choices I like the Jonathon Swift School.
The hallways with the children's art is nice. That'd be a cool place to shoot the hallway scene.

Is the Galileo school out of the question? Its relatively close to the presidio. I just remember walking through the halls there and thinking, "man, this would be a great place to shoot."

Park

I like the park options. There is a park in the presidio on West pacific blvd. It has a jungle gym. That will keep us in the presidio if we need to run over and get those shots. Just wanted to throw that out there. It also has a nice look.

As for the parks scouted I like Alta Plaza.
It has a jungle gym for the granddaughter to play on and nice surrounding grass areas.

Rehearsals

I'd like to have a day of rehearsals with the actors as soon as a I return (Possibly August 8th). That way we can make sure that our actors are prepared to perform the way we need them to perform. That'll give us enough time to make any adjustments if we need to. This rehearsal is essential to achieving the "believability" of the performances. I'd also like to rehearse with a teleprompter to get the actors used to it and figure out how to integrate it into our production. While the actors shouldn't have a problem memorizing some of the conversation dialogue, there are a few long monologues for Shelly. There's also the interviews, which are lengthy. During production I don't want to battle memory loss and waste time trying to hammer through long dialogues. The teleprompter will act as a crutch if we get in trouble.

What we need for the rehearsal:
A space
Actors
Teleprompter
Video camera (i can bring this along)
Shane - you might want to come by to talk about how we wil integrate the prompter into our shoot.

Equipment Wish List - as of 7/20

A Camera: SDX-900 camera w/ 35mm lens adapter and 35mm lenses
B Camera: DVX-100 camera
PeeWee dolly to roll SDX on
Camera mounted Color LCD monitor for SDX
Smoke Machine

Shane: Add to the wish list using the comments section.

Scripts

Final Dialogue Script - this is the final script as approved by Eveo and Amgen.
Download Final Script Here (PDF)

The shooting script is how I see the film playing out shot by shot. I've taken the dialogue script and added more visual language. It'll give you an idea of what I'm going after and what I intend to cover. This script reflects the final and approved dialogue.

Download Shooting Script
Updated: August 11, 2006

Location List

MILES HOME: Exterior, Bedroom, Living Room





Exterior Al's Restaurant



Interior Al's Resaurant



ELLEN HOME: Living Room, Breakfast Room





Library



School Hallway



School Classroom



Dialysis Center

Taxi

Park (with jungle gym)

Shot List

You can download my latest shot list here:
DOWNLOAD SHOTLIST
Last updated: July, 18, 2006

Character Location Descriptions

Miles – I imagine that Miles’s home starts out dark. His curtains are drawn. I imagine him having yellow curtains that glow from the sunlight. At the end of the film, though, the curtains will open to brighten the image. His world has lightened. Here's a couple of references. These are on the daraker side but you get the idea...




Ellen – Ellen’s world will always be bright. I image her kitchen to be colorful and well used. She spends a lot of time in the kitchen.

Rosa – her kitchen setting will also be bright. I imagine it’s decorated with drawings her students have made over the years.

Jim – Jim’s mechanic shop is bright (sunlight) but at the same time dingy. It’s very worked in and looks like it has been for many years.

George – George’s computer repair shop is bright and lit by fluorescents. No sunlight. It’s very white.

Photography

The photography will also support the realistic aesthetic to this film. We should shoot it was we would if we were dealing with actual dialysis patients. I imagine the weaker patients like miles would not agree to be filmed on a set. We’d have to go into their homes and capture them in the most comfortable setting for them.

Overall, the photography will feel very intimate and warm. Interviews will shot in extreme close up and close up depending how each subject responds to the camera. The camera will always have a slight movement, except for some instances when I’ll punctuate certain shots with a very still camera.

The lighting will seem very natural. Our lighting approach will be to utilize natural light and augment natural light.

I’m going to shot mostly on a long lens to give the photography a filmic look. When the film takes us into the homes and personal lives of our subjects we are going to shoot them very intimately and clean. But, in the dialysis center, I’d like to be a bit more voyeuristic. We are witnessing them in private moments as if we are not there. To support this approach the photography in the dialysis center will be more voyeur in nature. We’ll shoot through things, people, and equipment. I want lots of foreground elements and very tight shots on long lenses.

To enhance the look of the image, I’d like to use 35mm lens adapters on both the SDX-900 and the DVX-100 B camera. This will assist in giving us that warm, filmic look.

Two-camera approach:
The high resolution SDX-900 will be our A camera. It will be our principle camera and capture all of the wide shots and masters. The DVX-100 will act as a B camera and capture tight shots exclusively. While we shoot principle shots with the A camera, the B camera will be always roving to capture nuanced cutaways. This will give many more options in the cutting room, make our production more efficient and allow us to tell a better more engaging story.

Here's a few examples of photography that spoke to me for this video:
Example 1
Example 2

Another thing I'd like to do in some of the homes, particulary Miles's house as well as in Jim's house is to put a little ambience in the air. We can achieve this by using a smoke machine. This especially helps DV look more filmic. Also, in Jim's house it will help sell the shaft of sunlight that one SHOULDN'T place a vial of Epogen in. This will also work well in the classroom shots.

The Dialogue

The dialogue will be as realistically written as possible. Much of the information that needs to be passed to the viewer will naturalized into common speaking language. If the script hasn’t achieved that, I will attempt to further naturalize the dialogue on the set. I will approach each shooting day looking out for one thing: do the actions and words of the characters feel real to me. Do I believe them.

I shot a documentary a while back for the San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center. The doc was filmic and the characters very genuine. These weren't fictional characters, but its the genuine nature of there conversations that I want to shoot for during this production. You can watch those spots here.

Purpose of Video

The purpose of this video is to educate experienced and inexperienced dialysis patients about the advantages of using Epogen in their treatment of Anemia related to Kidney Disease. It will also act train patients on particular procedures that the patients will need to undergo.

Creative Objective

While we have sculpted fictional characters, it will appear to the viewer that these characters are non-fictional. In every sense the characters must appear like subjects of a documentary, not actors in a film. They must feel real.

Every creative decision will be guided by this objective.

Director's Blog

Hi All,

I'm going to use this site to post information regarding the Epogen and You Production. If you have questions regarding the direction of the film, you might check here.

Thanks Everyone!

Stokes