Mummys' Boy

Stuart Brereton · March 11, 2006

Just finished a week of shooting in Monmouth, South Wales, on a short film called 'Mummys' Boy'. It's quite an intense, but ultimately uplifting story about a dead boy, and his surviving brother. Our main location is an enormous old manor house out in the countryside, with huge rooms and lots of oak everywhere - floors, walls, ceiling beams.... The only drawback is that most of the rooms we've been shooting in are on the first floor or higher, so I've been unable to light through the windows and keep the floor clear of lamps.

We're shooting s16 on three different stocks 7205,7218 & 7201. The bulk of the interiors are being shot on the 250D, with a few night interiors done on 500T and day exteriors on 50D. I'm underrating all the stocks by 2/3 stop, and trying to maintain a shooting stop of t2.8

This is a digital still from the opening scene. The room is sidelit from a 2.5kw HMI outside the window. A .575 HMI with a chimera is keying the boy. I deliberately let the woman in the background stay silhouetted against the window.

Another day interior. The room is mostly available light. The table lamp was on a dimmer, and the boy was keyed with a .575 bounced off the wall in front of him, just out of frame.

This night/int was shot on 7218 with an 81EF. She is keyed from a 300w fresnel with some CTS and 1/2 tough spun. The moonlight was a .575 through some net curtain suspended out of shot.

.575 with a softbox, and some practicals in the background.

We shot a load of exteriors yesterday, right out in mid Wales, in the valleys. The scenery there is awe-inspiring, and should look great on 7201, particularly once it's been cropped to 2.35:1.

Monday is our last day, mostly pickups and inserts, then it's off to telecine. I'm hoping to be able to grab some stills from the neg to post.

Chris Cooke · March 11, 2006

Very nice Stuart. You're obviously alright with letting your windows blow out. I think that it can add to the naturalism. Looks good, I'd like to see the film. Which festivals will you be sending it to?

Jonathan Spear · March 11, 2006

Nice shots, Stuart. You make that glass of OJ look like nectar of the gods. Looks awesome.

Mark Allen · March 12, 2006

Good to note that these are all digital stills. I'd be interested in seeing the post-telecine equivalent still shots.

Stuart Brereton · March 12, 2006

Yeah, these are all digital stills. I'll try to get screengrabs of the same setups from telecine, so I can compare them.

The windows shouldn't be too blown out on the neg. Obviously my dSLR doesn't handle highlights as well as film.

March 12, 2006

Wow... now they look nice, first shots the best, love the composition, lighting looks nice and soft.

Morgan Peline · March 13, 2006

Hi Stuart,

Your lighting and compostition look really nice.

What are you hoping to achieve by under-exposing 2/3 a stop that would be different to exposing normally?

Cheers

David Mullen ASC · March 13, 2006

What are you hoping to achieve by under-exposing 2/3 a stop that would be different to exposing normally?

He said "underrating", i.e. overexposing.

Adam Frisch FSF · March 13, 2006

Looks nice, Stuart. Very naturalistic.

Morgan Peline · March 13, 2006

Oops - wasn't thinking.

March 13, 2006

Hey Stuart you gonna post the film on here? Be pretty cool to see it in action.

Rupe Whiteman · March 13, 2006

Stuart,

'liked the look of your shots and compositions - very naturalistic... 'just wondering which digital stills camera you used for these shots? Good luck with the finished picture...

Rupe Whiteman

Stuart Brereton · March 13, 2006

I used a Canon EOS 10D for these pictures. The framings are not necessarily anything like the actual shots, more of a guide, really.

One thing I've found myself doing is becoming more reliant on the stills camera, to the detriment of the images. I'm getting so involved in taking a meter reading, then converting it to a setting the 10D can use, then getting a still, then examining it, that I've stopped evaluating the scene by eye. Instead of thinking about my exposures, I'm just looking at the stills. It's not a very disciplined way of working, so I think next time I might leave the camera at home.

We wrapped tonight after a week of shooting, but it seems longer. Working with a mostly student crew is fun, but it takes a lot out of you, as you can't take their knowledge or ability for granted, and everything takes much longer to happen than it normally would. Still, it was a good shoot, and hopefully will be a good film. We TK next monday, so with any luck I'll have some actual screengrabs to post.

Stuart Brereton · March 20, 2006

Just got back from TK. The film was tranferred on a Shadow telecine to digibeta. I managed to get some screengrabs from a mini-DV copy of the rushes. The image quality has suffered because of the DV compression, but they're not too bad.

This was also the first time I've shot the new Kodak 50D (7201) I rated it at 32asa, and the results are just beautiful. Really, really crisp and very sharp. I'd love to shoot more on this stock.