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"The Perfect Sleep" opens theatrically next week


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The day I've been waiting a LONG time for has finally arrived--"The Perfect Sleep", a film-noirish extravaganza that I shot 4 1/2 years ago is about to have a limited theatrical release.

 

We worked very hard on the visuals for this film and I believe that it shows. We shot principal photography on the F900 and it will be screened in anamorphic 35mm.

 

See the trailer at:

 

The Perfect Sleep

 

Opens 3/13 at the Laemmle Sunset 5, Los Angeles

Opens 3/20 at the Quad Cinema, NYC

 

Chicago, Dallas and Portland dates TBD

 

The booking is currently for one week at each theater depending on attendance...come one and all!

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What glass did you shoot the film on? I'm guessing you didn't use an adapter? (Pro35, etc.)

 

No adaptor, no--couldn't afford the stop-loss with our lighting package. This was a very low budget show for its scale; principal photography was around $600K and an 18 day shoot.

 

I had Zeiss DigiPrimes and the Canon 7.5-158 zoom. The first Digizoom had just been released but we couldn't get it for this job. I ended up living on the Canon zoom more than I would have liked for speed purposes--I honestly can't tell in the final film which shots were on the primes vs the zoom, however. Interestingly enough there were five days of additional photography (2 years and many edits later!) that I wasn't available to shoot, so Greg Gardiner covered it on the Genesis with Primos--I was naturally concerned how this would cut with my F900 footage but it worked out well enough. Projected, I can see the difference in sharpness but it's one of those things that virtually no-one else will notice. Luckily these were all discrete scenes that "live" on their own, which helped.

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Congrats Chas! It looks great! Where will it be playing in LA? I'll check it out.

Did you do all of your own operating on the film?

 

thanks Brad. It opens next Friday at the Laemmele Sunset 5 (at Crescent Heights) for a week and hopefully longer, depending on attendance.

 

I did have to operate on the film, unfortunately. I personally think that if there was ever an absolute need to separate the shooting and operating duties, it's on a low budget HD production but ironically, it is the most likely type of shoot to not be able to afford an operator and this was no exception. I dealt with it by using my Hot Gears as much as possible, operating from the engineering monitor which allowed me to keep an eye on the lighting at all times. It did make communication with my AC and dolly grip difficult (would have been fine with coms or at least walkies with headsets...no dice on either, natch). Unfortunately there was a mishap with the Hot Gears halfway through and they went off to be serviced for the remainder of the shoot, so I was back to operating from the camera, with a lot of running back and forth to the monitor...

 

And yes, I did my own Steadicam as well but there wasn't a tremendous amount of it in the film for stylistic reasons.

 

I did have a number of B camera days which Gary Hatfield operated, he also went off and shot some splinter unit atmospheric shots for me which were terrific (and many appear in the film).

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thanks Brad. It opens next Friday at the Laemmele Sunset 5 (at Crescent Heights) for a week and hopefully longer, depending on attendance.

Whoops! I should have read your first post a little more carefully!

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Congrats Charles. Since we don't all know your level of marketing knowledge, I'll go ahead and recommend Richard Boddington, a regular here, to find handy marketing tips for your movie. Best of luck with everything!

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Congrats Charles. Since we don't all know your level of marketing knowledge, I'll go ahead and recommend Richard Boddington, a regular here, to find handy marketing tips for your movie. Best of luck with everything!

 

I'm just the DP...there are plenty of producers and a distribution company who are dealing with such things. thanks though!

 

There will be a viral video online shortly with some "special guest" testimonials--pretty cool actually.

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Charles,

the film is reviewed in today's L.A. Times Calender section, and I think, overall, a pretty good one. I am irked on your behalf, however, by the following, written by the reviewer: "Director Jeremy Alter does, however, makes vivid use of the picture's limited locations (especially downtown L.A.'s landmark Bradbury Building) and has a keen eye for lighting and composition."

Credit for having a "keen eye for lighting and composition" should have fallen to you, as a collaborator, at the very least.

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Charles,

the film is reviewed in today's L.A. Times Calender section, and I think, overall, a pretty good one. I am irked on your behalf, however, by the following, written by the reviewer: "Director Jeremy Alter does, however, makes vivid use of the picture's limited locations (especially downtown L.A.'s landmark Bradbury Building) and has a keen eye for lighting and composition."

Credit for having a "keen eye for lighting and composition" should have fallen to you, as a collaborator, at the very least.

 

You're asking too much, reviewers have zero production knowledge and have no clue what a DOP is or does.

 

You are right though.

 

R,

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Thanks Paul--the producer told me tonight that he has fired off some emails to the various sites that miscredited the photography (unfortunately the Times was one of several), which was nice.

 

Richard--I disagree, most established film critics have an understanding of the major players behind the scenes. And this is the L.A. Times we are talking about!!

 

 

Tonight's show went well, I'm happy with the print and generally amazed at how well the F900 cropped to 2:35 holds up, especially when cut against Genesis footage. Would love to hear feedback on it, hope some of you can see it during its engagement (through next Thursday).

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Very much "Third Man"--as in, "The Third Man Theme"...! (although my favorite version may have been the one Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass did--pretty funny actually).

 

The original score is by David Vanian of the seminal punk group The Damned, it's quite good. I think the trailer score was made before he had finished his work.

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New Screening Dates--Held Over!

 

Due to audience response and attendance last weekend, The Perfect Sleep has been held over at the Sunset 5 until the 26th (an additional week).

 

The NY engagement at the Quad Cinema has been pushed back a week, it will open on the 27th.

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