______THIS IS NOT CONEY ISLAND______
Coney Island is the romanticized place to be. A magic realm where people go to have fun and abstract themselves from their problems. Coney island is an allusion for the naïve young love. Everybody have being in that place before. It’s how love it’s sale on magazines, films, advertisement, it’s the society Idea of love. My first idea for this film, was telling a story between a young girl and an older man, showing the differences between the way two people and different stages of their life see love. When you are young you are more inclined to be passionate, naïve and adventurous, and soon as you get older, you don’t have time to play anymore, life get’s too serious and you become more cynical and practical. SUMMER AND WINTER Using the summer and the winter to tell a story was the solution that I’ve found to represent in a metaphoric way the youth and the elderly. This idea came from the film – “Spring, Summer, fall. Winter…and Spring” from the Japanese director Kiduk-Kim. In this film the character life develops according the seasons - Referring to childhood as the springtime, youth as summer and autumn and winter older age. I though to apply this idea in my film to make a contrast between the characters and the stage they would be in their life. Also as an allusion of summertime as be the time where people fall in love and live the best moments of their life’s, which is not necessary true.
I’ve decided to abandon the Idea of after facing some problems to find an older actor, one that would fit the character and that would be a good match with the actress. The problem was that all the actors from that age had more experience and didn’t want to work for free. Therefore, I’ve decided to abandon this first Idea and the park became the central point, and the story was around it. But I was still shooting in two different moments- Winter/Summer.
The Idea of having Coney Island as thebackgroung of the film was inpired by Patti smith’s book – Just kids, where she describes her love relationship with the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and how they use to go to Coney Island to forget about their problems in the ludic atmosphere of the place, to be transported into another reality.
“I always loved the ride to Coney Island. Just the idea that you could go to the ocean via subway was so magical. I was deeply absorbed in a biography of Crazy Horse when I snapped to the present and looked at Robert. He was like a character in Brighton Rock in his forties-style hat, black net Tshirt, and huaraches. We pulled into our stop. I leapt to my feet, filled with the anticipation of a child, slipping my book back into the sack. He took my hand. Nothing was more wonderful to me than Coney Island with its g ritty innocence. It was our kind of place: the fading arcades, the peeling signs of bygone days, cotton candy and Kewpie dolls on a stick, dressed in feathers and glittering top hats. We were just ourselves that day, without a care. Only weeks before we had been at the bottom, but our blue star, as Robert called it, was rising”. - Just Kids, by Patti Smith
RIGHTON BEACH/PIER
First time I went to Brighton I had exactly the same feeling as Patti smith it’s such a nostalgic place, it seems freeze on time, there’s some kind of lyrical decadency in it, like an old dream land. The foggy Brighton is even more atmospheric, it seems like a ghost town, lost among the clouds. A place that doesn’t exist. My intention was to play with clichés of the cinema and life, showing with irony the allegories of love, - all represented by Coney Island –the place where fun never ends. The Ironic aspect is also transmitted the voice of an narrator from an old advertise of Coney Island from the 40’s that I’ve found in the internet after researching about the it. Many other artists, filmmakers and writes, had Coney Island as an inspiration. It’s location of various films and the background scenary of love stories. For exemple in the Great Gatsby of Scott Fitzgerald.
THE TITLE The title is quite obvious, once the location is Brighton in UK and not the American resort. It’s winter and it’s England. This is not Coney Island Means also, that life is not an amusement park. So it work as a recall to wake up and stop daydreaming.
CONEY ISLAND HISTORY
Coney Island is a peninsula and beach on the Atlantic Ocean in southern Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States. The site was formerly an outer barrier island, but became partially connected to the mainland by land fill. Coney Island is well known as the site of amusement parks and a seaside resort. The attractions reached their peak during the first half of the 20th century, declining in popularity after World War II and years of neglect. to the minor league baseball team the Brooklyn Cyclones. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy dealt major damage to the Coney Island amusement park and other businesses. Luna Park at Coney Island reopened on March 24, 2013.
Between about 1880 and World War II, Coney Island was the largest
amusement area in the United States, attracting several million visitors per year. At its height it contained three competing major amusement parks, Luna Park, Dreamland, and Steeplechase Park, as well as many independent amusements.
EQUIPMENT -
Canon 7D Canon 35-138mm Lens/Canon 50mm Lens Tripod Handheld Camera 1 battery 1 memory card Macbook pro for editing. My equipment was very limited, and I opted for handheld camera. In some of the landscapes scenes I’ve used the tripod to give me more stability. Long shots where made with 50mm Lens and Medium and Close ups with 138mm. Because I had just one battery and one memory card, I had to bring with me the battery charger and my computer, to transferre the footage when the
card was free of space. This took me a lot of time and is definitely something to improve. Because I had financial problems, I couldn’t invest in those small things,that would make a big difference in the end saving a lot of time fot me and crew.
MUSIC AND SOUND Unfortunately I didn’t organized my time very well to work in the audio. I’ve decide collaborate with a sound designer student which was due to make the sound for the film, but in the end it didn’t came up the way I want to. Thus, I had to do a last minute decision of choosing songs from the internet by myself. I went to a platform in the Internet where you can download free song for commercial and creative purposes without worrying about copyright. Although some of the songs are from instrumental bands, such as the Glaswegian Mogwai and the Icelandic Sigur Ros. I’m still planning to improve the sound after resiting my work, if I want to show it at the Premiere in Stratford. I want to record it by myself, working with a sound designer, in a way to put it in my website without worrying with copyright. CONEY ISLAND BABY- The Excellents- 1960 I’ve found this perfect tune on the Internet after researching about Coney Island. I’ve decided to use it in the end with the credits to give the final touch of Irony. SOUND AMBIENT The background sound is not quite the way I was expecting. I really have to improve it. Because I’ve device that my film didn’t had dialogue just music, I didn’t recorded my audio with a good microphone, which decreased the quality of it. Another mistake, was to put music while I was shooting, I though the actors were need some inspirational songs to understand the mood of the scenes. My next film will definitely have the ambient sound well recorded, it’s something that I have to improve and I’ve notice that it is much more professional and efficiently in involving the viewer inwardly with the film. I still managed to use some of the sound recorded by my camera, but mostly of then was just noisy and windy. The solution I’ve found was getting ambient sounds from the Internet, again. It worked really well for the summertime scenes but not for the indoor shooting. Where is missing the essential and natural sound of breathing, moving on the couch, talking ecc. THE CHOICE OF NO DIALOGUE I’ve deviced to not have dialog in the film because I think if you don’t have good actors you can easily spoil your film. Dialogs are difficult to write specially if it’ not your native language. Latter on, I’ve realize that this wasn’t a very good decision.The film could be much more stronger if I had dialogues and sound ambience.
Websites for free sound http://www.freesound.org http://dig.ccmixter.org http://incompetech.com/ http://www.freestockmusic.com/
websites and internet tutorials: http://philipbloom.com http://dslrvideoshooter.com/ http://nofilmschool.com/dslr/ http://www.cinematography.com
ACTORS MADALENA MOREIRA DE SÁ The actors working with me were friends that had interest in cinema and acting. They were amateurs, but they had a natural talent and were so committed with the film, that made everything easy. Madalena,23 years old is Portuguese, which helped a lot considering that we speak the same language, was easiest to communicate. Considering that she never acted before, as her firs experience and I think it worked really well. She is very expressive, sensitive and incredible beautiful.
ANGUS KERR
Angus, 31, Scottish, has more experience than in the field. He have studied acting before, and was very happy to be doing it again after so many years. They were both very helpful giving Ideas for the film and many of the scenes were shaped after discussing their point of view about it. They were a great match, and her the stiffness in his features that contrasts with the soft and thin faces of Madalena. But they are both very actractive wich makes everything more pleasant to watch, especially in the first part of the film. Both of the actors agreed in collaboration with the film without being payd/ They were very helpful, en committed with the project. My budget was very tight. I did manage to pay some of the travelling for Brighton, considering we went there more then 4 times to shoot.
Collaboration with others. Marco Prates/Lee Ferdinand Mark
I had the help of two close friends interest in filmmaking and photography. They help carrying the tripod, bags with clothes, other equipment and also finding best locations to shoot.
Outfit Elisa is in her earlier twenties .She is naïve and adventurous girl. Her style is simple and feminine, soft/comfortable clothes. Winter outfit: skinny jeans and boots, big jumper, coat contrasting with summer outfit, flowery patterns, 50’s influence. ( pin up reference of mermaid parade of Coney Island).
Angus Outfit was more basic and informal too. Old jumpers, a lot of dark blue, green and grey. For the summer scene, a check, and a Jeans shirt with bright and soft colours.
TIMETABLE 1st day: Location Scout / February the first day I went to Brighton without the crew/actors just to do a location Hunt. I went to see Brighton pier, tooking pictures of the place, where could be interesting to shoot. And making note about the weather sound, etc. Was the first time in Brighton, and I was really impressed by the nostalgic atmosphere of the place. 2nd day : Shooting /March EXT- BRIGHTON The second they shooting, we‘ve started early at 8 a.m we got the train to Brighton to shoot the winter scenes.Myself, Madalena and an assistant Lee Ferdinand. It was pretty cold but the sky was blue and we have sunshine. Which wasn’t great. Was not the foggy day that I was looking for. But we’ve decided to shot anyway and changing the color in post-production to give a winter atmosphere We took the whole day, stoping for lunch at 13.pm and arriving at 18pm in London all very tired but happy. At this point, the idea of Coney Island was not yet clear.I was expecting for an answer in a older actor, so the film was still sticked with the first Idea of the love relationship between a young girl and an older man. 3rd day – April Easter brake – My actress wasn’t in London by this time, she was off for the whole Easter brake, so I had to wait for her to come back, and in the main time, I spent editing the video and looking for actors. 4th day- EXT BRIGHTON April Easter brake – I went to Brighton to shoot more footage of landscapes in a foggy day. 5th day – First week of May. EXT- BRIGHTON
At this point I had found the actor I was looking for, so we went back to Brighton to shoot the summer scences, plus another assistant, Marco Prates. This was a pointeless day, as the day was foggy and not sunny as we were expecting it to be. I didn’t use any of the footage of that day, except some landscape shoots again. 6th dayINT -Angus House. This was the break up scene. We shoot the second part of the film when Madalena arrives at his beloved house and they are sitting in his loving room awkwardly. The other scene that was shoot in his house was the scene in the room, when they wake up.This location was perfect because was all ready to shoot, didn’t had to change much in terms of set design. I was really happy to shoot there, and I Think the wallpaper look just great.
7th Day INT- ANGUS HOUSE EXT – BRIGHTON PIER AND BEACH This was the last day shooting, starting at 10 am we fist shoot at Angus house. The garden scene, last scene of the movie, and after lunch we got the train to Brighton. Finally had a good day of sun in Brighton. Bank holiday, the place was crowded, and was exactly the feeling we were looking for. I had some technical problems. I firs had my batteries running of and also the memory card full. Which delayed everything. We’ve finished around 8ish and went home. 8th Final editing 9th Post Production + sound
INSPIRATION/REASEARCH STEALING BEAUTY (1996)
“Lucy Harmon is a 19-year old American girl who is the daughter of poet Sara Harmon. After Sara commits suicide, Lucy travels to Italty and visits her mother's friends, Diana and her husband, Irish artist Ian, where Lucy wants a picture of her painted. Lucy decided to return to Italy to reunite with Nicolo Donati, a Italian boy she once fell in love with four years ago, when she last visited Italy. But reuniting with Nicolo isn't the only reason why Lucy decided to return to Italy, Lucy is on a personal journey, as she sets out to solve a mystery in her Mother's diary and discover who her father is who conceived her 20 years ago. Lucy's journey leads her to befriend Alex, a play-writer who is dying of cancer whom Lucy thinks may be her father or her father could be the artist who makes statutes from trees and sets out to loose her virginity as Diana and her daughter Miranda's boyfriend Richard become intrigued by her.� This film inspired the personality of the first character as being in similar stages of life. the train scene was inspired by Bernardo Bertolucci film: Stealying Beauty, the scene starts with a girl in the plain and then inside a train going somewhere, with typical girl behaviour, sleeping, listen to music, eating.
I also looked for films made in
Brighton, To see how other people explore the town, angles, frames, and what work and what doesn’t BRIGHTON ROCK (2010)
Brighton Rock is a novel by Graham Greene, published in 1938, and later made into films, a 1947 film and a 2010 film. The novel is a murder thriller set in 1930s Brighton. The title is a reference to a confectionery traditionally sold at seaside resorts, used as a metaphor for human character. The novel ties into Greene's earlier 'entertainment' A Gun for Sale, Raven's murder of mob boss Kite, mentioned in A Gun For Sale, allows Pinkie to take over his mob and thus sets the events of the novel in motion.
Stills FROM BRIGHTON ROCKS
VIMEO was a good source of inspiration as well, I’ve got some good references on how to shoot my film there.
Romance of the Light From James Miller PLUS 1 year ago Shot & Edited in one day by James Miller. Camera assistant, driver, BTS and stills, Luke Miller Filmed on the Canon EOS C300. used at 5800K ISO 850 - 2000 Lenses: Nikon 28mm 2.8, 35mm 2.8, 50mm 1.
POST-PRODUCTION In post-production and colour correction I’ve decided to give a vintage yellowish/red tonality for the summertime images, to make it look like the old photographs of the 60’s and 70’s , Instead for the winter bluish and green to cooler the image a bit, and also changed the saturation to give a pale tonality contrasting with the summer ones. Sound was very difficult to equalize, and I still think it’s the weakest part of the whole project.
WINTER
WINTER STILLS
SUMMER
SUMMER STILLS
First Script: This was a first script I was developing before the Coney Island Idea.
WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED. Overall, I’m very happy with my final piece. I still think that is a lot to improve, especially in terms of sound. But I can see the progress of my work and style during the years, and it’s much better now than before. Although I need to be more organized with time and money. This year in particular I had economic instability, which had affect a lot my work and my performance during the year. Going to university became a issue and not getting the feedback from my tutors and colleagues, which was definitely a great loss. I can see how feedback is important for our own work, and not showing it while I as producing was a big mistake. My skills with post-production, editing flow there’s a lot to be improved in this techinal aspects. Things like the - right format to export the films, color balance, temperature, lens, ecc. If the film wasn’t shot in handheld camera, it could look also much more professional. It’s something that I want to change in the next projects. Focus was also a difficult issue to deal with. The focus is manual, and I didn’t have a Focus puller on me. But in general, I think I was successful considering the limited equipment that I have. DIRECTING. I think I’m improving my directing skills, it’s getting better every time I shoot. I wish though, to have some direction in that issue, how to direct actors, how to transmit better my Ideas and make then feel comfortable in front of the camera. My communication skills have to be improved definitely, not just filming but in many other aspects of my life. TIME Organizing better my time and my budget.