Been Up to Much?

So it’s been a while now that things have been slow around these parts. You might be forgiven for thinking that we’d simply lost steam and that Conversion was on the proverbial backburner. Not so!

In fact, we’ve been caught up in the adventure known as post-production. After all the work of filming is done, of course, you need to sit and look at what you have and figure out which bits are usable and which aren’t (see “roof collapse” below for an example of the latter). Unlike filming, which is intense and focused and fast-paced, post-production moves at tortoise-speed, slowly and steadily (if you do it right) bit by bit assembling a movie from the varied fragments of footage. This also tends to be the time during which you say “uh-oh” or some other four-letter variant a lot.

After all, this is where you’re stuck. When you’re filming, if something doesn’t work, you have the possibility of being able to go back and shoot the same section again. Once everything is over and the set decorations have been sitting in the trunk of the car for a while, or people have started doing funky things with their hair, or there are piles of snow around when the rest of the picture takes place in the summer, that opportunity is definitively no longer there. What you have is what you’re going to live with, so if something is missing or messed up, you’d better learn to work around it.

That’s where the talent of a good editor comes in. These are guys who work in the background of the background. Unlike those involved in filming, whether in front of or behind the camera, the editor comes in after the fact to work his or her magic. Most of the people involved in the film don’t even get a chance to interact with him.

With Conversion, we got very lucky when Ben Goloff joined the team. He’s spent the last months helping us bring coherence to this project, trimming what needs to be trimmed, cleverly shifting from one shot to another when there are little boo-boos that need to be hidden, ensuring that serendipitous unexpected moments find their way into the final picture. It’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of long, hard work that requires great patience and an exceptional eye for detail (two characteristics I appreciate greatly, since I possess neither). And gradually, something is emerging. Something that, if we do say so ourselves, is pretty damn cool. But you’ll have to wait a bit longer for that.

In the meantime, here’s a little clip to introduce you to Ben and hear him describe his background and involvement in Conversion in his own words.

The Sky is Falling

When we were in pre-production, I kept making this list of all the things that I could think of that could go wrong. It got to be a pretty long list, really. Given the number of outside scenes, inclement weather could have seriously compromised our ability to finish shooting. Our lack of permits to film outside could have gotten us shut down or even arrested. One of our locations could have backed out at the last minute.

But the remarkable thing was, while there were some definite hitches in the master plan, we were almost eerily fortunate. We were able to overcome our problems without missing a beat, which is something that most big-budget features can't claim. By the time we were close to finishing, I was starting to feel like we were home free.

Then the roof fell in. Seriously. Fell in. Crash.



The most shocking thing about this is that, with half our set destroyed and several shots remaining, everyone took five, shook it off and then came back to finish the day. And, yes, after the dust settled and the broken glass was swept away, we were able to shoot everything that we had planned.

It's a testimony to the kind of people who were involved in this project that the entire cast and crew stayed and pushed forward. What could have stopped the film dead in its tracks (and could have caused serious injury to the people on set) turned out to be nothing but a video anecdote on YouTube. That which does not kill the indie film apparently makes it stronger.

Being Julia

There are things that you know are going to be important to a film from the outset. If you know what you're doing, if your familiar with the script, you know that that a character's reaction is really important at a certain point, or that the way a scene unfolds depends greatly on the geography of a location being just right. And once you feel like you have those crucial things under control, that's when you can start adding the sort of additional details that add flesh to what you're developing.

One of the little details about playing the character of Julia that was really important to me was that whatever she wore, it should look just a little offbeat, a little different than what you might see on the forms of mannequins in department stores (even high end ones). The character is not supposed to be wealthy or showy, but needs to look a little different from the normal "Friday night out" gang.

Personally, I'm a big fan of a number of Canadian designers, so I'm very happy to have the opportunity to flaunt some of their wares on screen throughout the film. In fact, everything I wear playing the character of Julia is Canadian-designed and unavailable at mass retail. I'm not what you'd call jingoistic, but I'm pretty proud of that.

The outfit that I'm wearing through most of the film is from a company called Kollontai. (They haven't entered the web age yet, but their stuff is phenomenal and can be purchased here and at some other select boutiques). I'm also found traipsing around the scenery wearing items from Tension Clothing, Studio Gang, Slak and Pam Chorley. Every shoe on my feet (including those nice open toe ones that are great for elongating the legs and not so great for running around alleys) comes from John Fluevog and all the handbags (including not only mine but one that has a very special "cameo" in the film) are from Morris B. There are other indie designer appearances in the film as well from the likes of Biomechanical Candy and Romy Noel. (Even the make-up I'm wearing is from a Canadian company.)

I'm saying this not because of some sponsorship deal- all the items were either purchased or borrowed and returned. Certainly, I like to give some props to designers who I like, especially when they're home grown. But the reason why this detail was important is because I think that it dovetails so well with both the character and with the spirit of the film. After all, what's more encouraging to someone working independently than the sight of someone who's become successful (if often under-appreciated) doing the same thing. In fact, the one thing that links those designers is that they have made a career offering something that's just that little bit different, that little bit more distinctive, than what you can pick up just anywhere. The devil, as they say, is in the details.

A Thousand Words (or more) About a Picture

Here's an interview with Director Dominic Marceau, Actor Paul Ash and Writer/ Actor Kate MacDonald conducted by the radio show 'Beautiful Music for Ugly Children' on Montreal's CJLO.

But What Does it LOOK like?

Oh sure, you can TELL people you're shooting with a still camera, but that doesn't mean it LOOKS good. So we'd like you to judge for yourselves...

“This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco, this ain’t no fooling around!”

So we've passed the halfway point and we're all still alive and kicking. What a trip! Here are a few lessons we've learned on the set of "Conversion" thus far:

WEEK ONE

• When you have only one chance to get a good take, you WILL get a good take.
• Throwing toilet paper at a statue in the middle of a park draws a crowd.
• Kids will offer to graffiti anything.
• Directing in a suit and tie really sucks. Running down a wet hill in 4" heels also sucks.

WEEK TWO

• Wearing big boots is a good idea when shooting in an alley full of rusty nails, broken glass and used syringes. Wearing open-toed shoes is not.
• Always feed your extras well. Of course, you may want to make sure that they stick around for the "extra" part and don't just grab food and leave.
• Getting people to dance to no music is a dodgy, albeit interesting, affair
• If you think of something cool/ interesting/ funny to do in front of the camera, think of how it will feel doing it about twenty times before committing.

WEEK THREE

• On an independent film shoot, end times are highly flexible.
• Bringing lighting equipment up three floors of spiral metal fire escape is even less fun than it sounds.
• Lights attract bugs. Big lights attract bigger bugs. And in bigger swarms.
• An adult human can sweat their own body weight under the proper circumstances.

WEEK FOUR

• Some people have an amazing sense of dedication. Others do not. It's important to concentrate on the former.
• You never notice how much traffic there is on a street until you try to film something there.
• Some actors give you not only a performance, but a wealth of DVD extras.
• Days that end with drinking beer and jumping in a pool are superior to those that end at dawn in an alley.

"So what do you think was going on there?"

WE. ARE. ROLLING.