INTRO
Hello and a big welcome to the director's notes to the wonderful
experience that is Untitled Project Part 2. Don't expect any
explanations or insights coz I had no idea what the hell I was
doing. Still don't for that matter. So read on and enjoy.
STORY/IDEA
Well, the idea came from seeing forthcoming film releases listed in
magazines with titles like Untitled Woody Allen Project or Untitled PT
Anderson Project. So I thought it would be fun to make a film
called Untitled Project. Then I took it one-step further and
added Part Two just to make it a little more surreal. Also
I had just seen David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, which totally messed my
mind up. So I thought I would try my hands at a David Lynch style
movie (not that I'm trying to say that I'm in Lynch's league, well we
can dream can't we.) So that was that really. I decided that I
would include minor cock-ups and use them to my advantage, All the
framing was out of whack but it seemed to go with the whole weird thing
that was going on. Basically I was just throwing everything
into the mixing bowl and seeing what the resulting gloop would look
like.
SOUND
I have been heavily influenced by David Lynch, Shinya Tsukamoto and
Darren Aronofsky (especially Requiem for a Dream) amongst others and
specifically their use of sound and sound effects. Obviously they
are real good at knowing what to do with it. Me on the
other hand, chuck it in and then look (or listen) to the result. If it
was remotely cool it stayed, if not it went. This was a true
experiment. I wanted it to be as raw as it could. Using my
mobile phone affected the sound on the tape so I incorporated that into
the film. I wanted to assault the viewers' ears as well as
their eyes with this one so that's why it's loud and obtrusive.
No half measures or subtlety here folks.
LOCATIONS
Basically I was hoofing it, if it was within walking distance of my
flat and it was remotely interesting then it was used. I wanted
to use many different locations to jazz it up a bit and try and make it
look like a bigger movie, as the rest of my stuff was always set in the
one room and was a bit claustrophobic. Coz the Edinburgh
International Film Festival was on at the time of shooting (and because
I had stupidly written in the script that the film director Martin
Rodriguez was being interviewed at a film premiere type do), I thought
it would be clever to shoot a scene outside the UGC cinema (or whatever
the fuck it's called) and have my actors stand near one of the many
advertising banners. Anyway, while deciding where to shoot
and how, a security guard comes up to us and asks what we're
doing. We explain and he asks us to leave because we're not
allowed to film the cinema building due to, get this, "architectural
copyright". How fucking stupid can you get? Anyway we
move from the front of the building got our shots and still managed to
get the building and the festival banner in shot. At this moment
in time I'm trying to get my cinema complex built utilising the footage
that I took.
ACTORS
Again I had to star in this and I'm bloody awful. But the rest of
the cast is phenomenal. My inexperience with working with a
proper cast undoubtedly showed, but I'm an actors director, I let them
get on with it and to put their own thoughts and ideas into the
performance. It seems to work coz they were
brilliant. So that's my great directing tip: Let The Actors Do
The Work. Thanks to our brilliant new crew of actors who
begun
here with us!
BUDGET
Again absolutely nothing (unless you include countless trips to bakery
shops!)
OTHER STUFF
I thought it would be funny to have the chat show things in there just
add to the off the wallness of the piece. Also it helped in the
editing process. Martin Rodriguez is a mix of my first name
(spelt the boring way) and Robert Rodriguez' second name (well
duh!) One day I want to be just like him. The title
Shitkicker Five just sounds like a hard as fuck movie title that
hopefully will be made some day.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This was an experiment from start to finish some of it works and came
out the way I imagined it while other parts kinda suck a fat one.
What do you do though? Just never show it to anyone?
Continually shoot and edit material until you are so pissed off with it
you just want to chuck it in to the nearest bin? No you
deliver what you can and then you move on. I have to keep telling
myself that I'm on the biggest learning curve at the moment. At
some point this will all come together, but until then keep trying to
churn out more mini movies.
© Owned By Martainn
Russell
02/03/2004 19:58