Good Apples

Me and David went up to JDC (Joe Dunton and Company) yesterday to do a little camera test for the music video we are shooting in a week or so. The usual suspects were present. Mick brought us 'my' box of Cooke primes and Agis brought 'my' little lens for my viewfinder focusing (I am so short sighted the camera viewfinder won't adjust to my eyesight). Also present was Joe Dunton in the flesh. Later on, me and David got talking to him as he explained how David could re edit our film, Escaping Ornsay. He liked our film and showed another 2 shorts to us shot on Anamorphic (JDC are Anamorphic lovers and now i am too). I very rarely feel small when talking to anyone but one couldn't help but feel like I was shrinking as Joe Dunton spoke with us. He is a decent man and he ended up talking with us for more than an hour. David mentioned Robert Altman (who recently passed away) and Joe says, "he was a friend of mine...". Here is the Vice President of The BSC (British Society of Cinematographers), good friend of the late Stanely Kubrick and we were sat there with him watching our little lucky soul music video. It's a little surreal but I shit you not- it made my day. One felt like a school girl whose skirt just caught a gust of wind...

Despite settling back into London life from my travels at the end of last winter with good progress in shoots and the social life not being too shabby, I still feel the urge to leave this place frequently. Even though I haven't had time to think of Beijing much, I still want to go to Beijing and learn Mandarin. I may have to wait a little longer than originally hoped as this time is, a time of acquisition. My showreel is stating to show signs of a good grade that I am happy with and will have a new one by April that I may hope to get an agent with. Added that David is pitching for music videos now, it won’t be long until we are both shooting them for small, yet reasonable budgets. And it may not be too long until we do get decent budgets and shoot regularly. When, how and what we acquire is important. If this year be a leap forward into regular paid shoots, no matter how important Beijing is to me, it will, have to wait (as the latter financial situation won't exist without the other).

I first came across JDC 10 months ago. After 9 months I bumped into Joe Dunton on my way out (a few weeks ago). And now a conversation. It would be interesting to have a drink with him and ask and learn from him. It would be great. But I guess, we have to be patient and see where the wind takes us.

- J

Shoot Them... Shoot Them All...

I have been busy the last month of so. It has been one shoot after another, if not prepping, then shooting, day after day. Lucky Soul music video, Oreet Ashery’s narrative installation, HD Short ‘Florid’, Southall 16mm short ‘Thoughts of Yesterday’”, a corporate, dailies on the Aylesbury doc and now a music video for The Concretes. Now, the job for Lucky Souls was done on a minuscule budget for 2 days and we produced a great video (link below). Me and David have the opportunity now to shoot for a successful Swedish band called The Concretes. Their previous videos done under EMI had fairly big budgets (see link- independent- david levi). But they aren’t signed to EMI anymore and we have no budget. And with complex photography, the idea to shoot on 16mm and 35mm, we have to pull off a miracle, more than the Lucky Soul video. And we have a week to prep. Sometimes, we have to be bold and with enough experience and pure verve, we have to say, ‘yes, we can do that… we HAVE to” against the odds. One of the biggest hurdles is just ‘hiring’ 35mm equipment for free (which would have cost around £3000). I hope JDC will be kind to me, again. Me and David have spoke of giving them a token amount from our own pockets. We have been partners in projects for two and a half years and I have shot all of his student projects. Now that we are shooting music videos, we collaborate a lot on ideas. His work is very visual and relies heavily on the photography. Apart from advising and solving photographic issues, he allows me to input conceptual ideas about the work itself. In this way, the work becomes a fusion of mine and his collaboration. In this way, his work feels more like, ‘our’ work.

http://independ.net/

under david levi


http://mullett.tv/play.html

lucky soul

Florid was shot in Newcastle. Ania, the camera assistant and friend I trained and worked with for about 3 years came with me. We don’t get to work together much anymore. When we were starting out, we did all the time. She was to do Harjinder’s film but got a gig on Holby City (UK TV hospital drama). It was a fun shoot although we didn’t mix with a lot of the crew. For me it was a time issue (lack of). The locations were great yet difficult. The director, James Baxtor, has potential and it was good to work with him.

On the Southall funded short I was getting about 5 hrs sleep a day. I had just got back from Romania on the Monday evening. Tuesday was spent prepping. Wednesday was shooting. We got an Arri SR3 from JDC (I asked for an SR2) and everything else I wish listed for. I love JDC… We had a great crew half of whom I hired. Out of things one recalls from a shoot isn’t the content of the film, it’s the people you work with. It was great to work with Duncan again. He focused pulled (1st camera assistant) for me 3 half years ago and now he is a Gaffer (Chief Lighting Technician) and it’s the first time since then we have worked together. Hu, I have worked with a few times now and he is a great find. Fast, diligent and with all the ‘camera assistant’ demeanor one needs. The Art Directors, Azahara and Anton were great to work with. Azahara especially. We find very few people we click with and she is one of them. We have a dead serious sense of humour. It was great to meet them and we continue to be friends as a completely natural discourse.

I will be updating my work website soon (within two weeks) and the lucky soul video and the PCRF doc will be on there.

Apart from a day shoot for The Shadow and the Aylesbury doc, this week will be concentrating on prep for The Concretes video.

Florid: setting up on barrels of hay. it was windy, it was cold.

Florid: Camera Assistant's hanging out.

Florid: This is how wet.

Florid: Int. Car shot.

Florid: twin boys and mother with bullet entry wounds.

Thoughts: Duncan, Me, Hu.

Thoughts: Hu Cleaning lens

Thoughts: Harjinder (Director) and Gurdial (Actor) pretending to give cheque (kodak moment)

Thoughts: Art Directors Azahara and Anton.

Thoughts: Setting up shot amongst the Sitars. Anton, Jason, Hu.

- J

a continuing journey

Got up early on the train back to Buceresti Nord. Had to climb with luggage past 2 tanker cargo trains to get to our train.

Yesterday afternoon we finished up at Nightingales and headed up the hill to Saint Lawrence’s Hospice. More like a family home, it was comforting and warm. It was managed by an English woman called Kathy. She had been there for 13 years and was really cool. The kids were shown the video that they made a few weeks ago and they all enjoyed it. It’s amazing what joy self shot videos can bring. I started to show them how to make a dragon from their hands and then how to make a origami swan. That took a while, with 10 people and vary degrees of kids having special needs, but we managed and they all enjoyed it. An impromptu dance session followed as music blared. Kathy, Warren and myself shaked our booty a little. We were asked to stay for dinner, and I don’t think it had anything to do with our dancing moves. Warren knew most of the kids for 10 years. Most probably because of Kathy, all of them were extremely well mannered and hospitable.

Earlier in the day, Ben had asked me to talk to Mareuka about possibilities of her continuing to do video work and the possibilities of a career in the industry. She came over later in the evening and we all had a chat about it. We found out that she wanted to do a documentary about ‘orphans’ in the home they are living in. We all found this to be a good subject for her to pursue. Me and Warren said we would help her if she wanted to. I suggested that she should shoot as much as possible and understand and learn through her shooting. She has time to learn the basics before embarking on making something more ‘proper’. During her time at the house, Mareuka didn’t ask me anything and she barely looked at me. Whether it was shyness or scepticism, she still came over and she still listened, which is the main thing and, it’s a start. She did however, say thank you at the end.

Later, over a beer after we talked about witnessing the deaths of children with AIDS. Both Ben and warren had experienced this over the years in various places they have worked in. It was said that children deal with it much better than the adults. They have had their friends die around them throughout their lives.

Some of the kids aren’t orphans as such. Many were abandoned soon after birth and actually have families and siblings. Abandoned due to being HIV and poverty (many families not being ale to afford the drugs). Mareuka has lived in homes her whole life, and her ‘families’ resided in those homes. Despite Nightingales promoting the idea that the teens can and should see their families, some do not want to.

It is totally understandable why some of these kids have learning difficulties and some have behavioural problems. If I was abandoned at birth because I had HIV, then lived in several homes, never having any privacy living in dorms my whole life, knowing I had a family somewhere that I couldn’t live with, seeing my friends die around me, not knowing if I had a future because I might die from catching a cold; I would seek attention all the time and have severe behavioural problems too.







- J

Potential Cernavoda

2nd Feb.
Work with the teens yesterday went well. Teenage boys with the sensitivity of a boy, the testoserone of a man and the immunity system that doesn’t work. You treat them well and you always remember that they can die from getting sick. I had a receeding cold when I arrived and was a little paranoid of getting too close to any of them.

Me and Warren walked around the beach and the old part of Constanta. It was a good cold walk. An old casino was the highlight. It appear from nowhere around the corner and the brilliant sky emphasized the surreal beauty of the building on the pier.

Dinner was held by some friends of friends. A close knit of Romanians who were good people. Being invited to locals homes is always a grace that one has to appreciate. Sarcastic, funny and warm, I wish I could speak Romanian. They reminded me of when Chinese people get together. When friends, are more like a family we would want to have. Despite dinner being late and the reserved nature of our hosts, it was an enjoyable evening.

3rb Feb.
Today we arrived at where Warren is temporarily based, in the small town of Cernavoda. It is a slow and quiet town with a nuclear power plant nearby and over ground water pipes that run across town. We had a nice lunch and checked email before proceeding to the Nightingales Children’s Project. All the teenagers are orphans (who have HIV) and live within the dorm complex. Some are fairly ‘normal’. The ones we worked with had various problems. They struck me at first to be of indefinite age. Perhaps due to the drugs throughout their life, the poor nutrition and treatment in institutions, they all were stunted in both their physical and mental growth. They are 18 but with the physical and mental size of a 12 year old. I was told some have temperament problems, disruptive behaviour and are in various levels, retarded. A few, not ones we worked with, are severely affected by being institutionalized, rocking back and forth and mentally retarded.

The teenagers were asked to prepare sets and plan the shooting sequence for the day prior to today. Although very basic, I was fairly impressed by the efforts in both storyboards and sets. While a few of the others acted, one was asked to do the camera and direction. We went from on set up to the other and all was running smoothly. I was told that the one girl who was doing camera is normally quite disruptive and seeks attention although today, she was being very good. I was thoroughly impressed by her directing ability. From framing to art direction and the performances, here was real potential. I saw very little difference in professionals dressing sets, directing actors and even setting a light (a small house lamp in this case). With the desire, opportunity and will, I could see this disruptive girl manage a feature film with flair. Later on over dinner I spoke to Ben who largely runs Nightingales about this and he said that they were looking to acquire a camera as long as the teens wanted it and were willing to part fund it (earn it).

George Lucas once said that the digital revolution would see a girl in the middle of small town in Kansas make films and distribute them on the internet. If only she had a camera.








4th Feb.
It is lunchtime, it is snowing, it is beautiful.

- J

Baietzi din Romania

On the train from Bucuresti Nord (Bucharest North) to Constanta, the second largest city in Romania. The geography going east so far has been mostly wide spaces of flat land. Farms and dusty towns reside in the plains outside the train windows. Last night in Bucharest, the city was quiet. Despite the communist era being over 17 years now, the evidence of the dictatorship remains in the industrial architecture, the inadequate infrastructure and, within the older generation. The country joined the EU in the New Year but it remains one of the poorest and least industrialized. Another legacy which the era left behind was a large number of children with HIV. At the time, untested and unnecessary blood transfusions were routinely given to young children as an economically viable method of boosting health. Tragically, many children were given the virus. With poverty being widespread and a lack of adequate drugs being available and administered, many children died before they reached the age of 16. Many other children were abandoned by their families and put into homes. Many are institutionalized.

My friend Warren has worked here as a Paediatric nurse with the same children on and off for 10 years. I have come this first time to observe and possibly aid in facilitating an activity called Participatory Video. We are working with NGO’s Everyone’s Child Romania (Constanta), Children In Distress (within Saint Lawrence’s Hospice) and Nightingales Children’s Project (Cernavoda). It is an activity used to enable and help people in many different ways. One such premise being social interaction and collaboration. Beginning with this and then in further steps, video can enable people to communicate personal expression and ideas, about themselves or about their community or business. This is the first time Warren has brought forward this activity here with the teenage boys who have the virus.

I would surmise at this point that people do not like to be thought of as being part of a collective of ‘sick’ persons be it HIV, cancer or otherwise. Generally, people don’t like to think of themselves or others thinking of them to be part of a collective sick persons, they like to be thought of as who they are, rather that what they have.

Below, view from the train and me and Warren in the internet café.


- J