Parc Entertainment - A Video Production Company - Birmingham, AL

Twice this week I have been up all night working as the DP for Filament Artists’ latest short film, entitled “Love at the Grocery Store.” The screenplay was selected as the winner of the Production Prize at the 2008 Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival and will premiere at this year’s festival on September 26.

Shooting inside a grocery store has its particular set of challenges and so I wanted to pass along some things to remember if any of your projects take you inside the same environment.

LIGHTING & TONE

Most grocery stores are lit with fluorescents, meaning that everything will be washed with a flat, even, diffused light. If the tone of your piece calls for high-contrast lighting, you might want to see if the grocery store manager will allow you to turn off the overheads, giving you more freedom to light as you see fit. If this isn’t possible and you still want to create a surreal look with high-contrast, you can always light your subject with hard, direct light, that comes from the side, creating harsh shadows. The hard light will force you to stop down your f-stop. This should darken the background, while leaving your subject properly exposed.

Since fluorescent bulbs cast an even, diffused light, your subjects can come out looking drab, flat, and uninteresting. You will need some additional light to help create more natural skin tones and make colors that pop just a little more. However, reflectors alone won’t get the job done. They just won’t provide enough reflected light underneath fluorescent bulbs. And aiming a 1Kw or 650w tungsten at your actors will create an obvious difference in color and tone.

To give your shots a warmer look under fluorescent lighting, start by using your tungsten lamps and reflectors together. Mount a large piece of white foam core onto a c-stand and then bounce light from a 1Kw lamp onto your subject. The result is a soft, diffused light that isn’t overbearing, and yet one that warms up the scene a bit more. And I always recommend a little rim lighting to help your subjects stand out more from the background.

Bear in mind that the above solution assumes that you want a natural, warm tone for your project. If the mood of your film is a bit darker and somber, then you might like the sterile, flat, “blue” tone that the existing lights create.

LIGHTING & COLOR

Shooting under fluorescent lights can affect the white balance of your shot. If not properly monitored, the lights may cause the color of your shot to drift slowly from a cool tone to a warm tone, then back again.

However, I’d advise you to look back at our previous post for a more extensive look at shooting under fluorescents. To that article let me add that using a Kino light bank will be a big help. Kino’s do use fluorescent bulbs, but unlike the bulbs installed overhead in a grocery store, these bulbs burn at a constant color temperature. This will give your shots more accurate color representation while maintaining a consistent look with the rest of the lighting in the store.

Fluorescent lights might also appear green on camera. A green tone might work well for your project if the mood is more sinister and the location of your story more urban, decayed, or threatening.

Look for the comedy, “Love at a Grocery Store” at this year’s Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival. The screening is tentatively set for 9pm at the Alabama Power Building.

Even if you couldn’t make it out to Park City, Utah for the Sundance Film Festival, you can still get a taste by heading over to iTunes and downloading a few of the featured short films. Yep, that’s right. I got this little tidbit from John August’s blog. The films are free to download until January 25 and ten are available.

A couple of weeks ago I told you about this year’s Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival’s promotional commercial. I was brought on board as cinematographer. It’s a great concept promoting “10 Years of Independents.” Watch for the commercial on Fox6, Charter, and Brighthouse. Enjoy.

Last year I produced Departure for the Summer 2007 Sidewalk Scramble. I just found out yesterday that it was selected to screen at this year’s Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival. I hope everyone will make plans to attend. The dates for the festival this year are September 26-28. Unfortunately I have only been able to produce one short this year, but there are several ideas in the works. I’m hoping to move into production on another short by late October or early November.

This year’s Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival is rapidly approaching. If you’ve never had the opportunity to attend, I would highly encourage you to do so. The caliber of submissions gets higher every single year, and this year marks Sidewalk’s 10th anniversary (so you know there’s going to be some special stuff).

As always, Sidewalk will soon be airing promotional commercials to garner interest in the festival. What’s special about the promo this year is the fact that I had the opportunity to work on the shoot as Director of Photography. Filament Artists produced. The 30-second spot was filmed with Alabama talent and Alabama crew, right here in Birmingham. Hopefully it will further highlight the talented filmmakers and the growing film production market here in our community.

We shot the commercial with the Panasonic HVX-200 in DVCPro50 format at 24fps. To read more of my insights into this particular camera, check out two previous posts, “First Impressions” and “Some Considerations.” I won’t give away anything about the commercial’s concept. You will just have to wait until it airs. There’s a possibility that the spot will also screen before each film in each venue during the festival. But ultimately that’s a call left up to the good folks in the Sidewalk office. Until then, look for the commercial on WBRC Fox6 and Bright House cable.

Being a movie fan is more than just catching the latest, most popular blockbuster that hits the theatre. It’s about immersing yourself in a variety of films. Some will be great. Most will be awful, but by viewing them one can learn a lot about the art of filmmaking. However, when you live in a smaller market, you are not always exposed to independent film, especially documentaries. But becoming involved in a local film festival can give you the opportunity to see films that may never hit the big screen. Every film festival needs screeners - people that watch submitted films and then rate them. You don’t have to hold a film degree from NYU to do this. You simply have to be a fan of movies. For the past three years I have been a documentary screener for the Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival here in Birmingham. I have seen a lot of horrible films, but I have also seen some great ones. And I am constantly learning about people, issues, cultures, and events that I never knew existing, which is pretty enlightening. If you are a fan of movies and want to see more than what Hollywood is turning out, volunteer at a film festival. It’s definitely worth the time.

Here are a few shots from this year’s Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival:

Wendy and I on opening night at the Alabama Theatre

Standing in front of the Carver Theatre after one of the shorts blocks.

Standing with the two main actors from my short film, Collection: Brandi Burgess and Elliot Moon.

Opening night at this year’s Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival showcased the comedy The Ten, an irreverant and insane comedy based on the Ten Commandments. The narrative of The Ten is comprised of different short films and features an ensemble cast, including Winona Ryder, Paul Rudd, and Jessica Alba. However,  the star power does little to resurrect the weaknesses that plague the film.

Since the storyline is comprised of ten short films, there isn’t much holding this narrative together, except for the recurrence of a few characters. Otherwise, this movie plays out like a 90-minute sketch comedy show - and a weak one at that. The film starts off strong and features some great comedic gags, but a majority of the jokes are juvenile, crude, and offensive. The dialogue often rambles on longer than it should, ruining any comedic timing. Many of the short films are bland with no direction and little in the way of acting, despite some of the A-list stars. And when you throw in some random animation and horrible song and dance numbers, it’s just the icing on the cake for a film that really isn’t worth the time.

Bottom Line: 1 out of 5 stars

This post is the first on a series of reviews from this year’s Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival. I had the opportunity to watch about 12 films, and this first review centers on the feature-length documentary Strictly Background.

Directed by Jason Connell and shot over a period of two years, Strictly Background illuminates the sub-culture world of the movie extra by profiling ten different actors who struggle to make their living as a background player. These people survive on $50/day up to $120/day and sometimes live in a converted storage space, all in an effort to make their acting dreams a reality.

This film succeeds for a number of different reasons. First, the characters are interesting. Each person profiled has a unique history and unique circumstances that brought them to Hollywood. The subjects represent a cross-section of society, from white men, to asian men, to hispanic men, to elderly women. The filmmakers strive to profile a diverse ethnic group who have only one thing in common - they love working in movies.

Second, the film has heart. The story is very well balanced, from the humorous tales of life on the set, to the disappointments of unemployment. The filmmaker’s treat each person with respect and take an objective view to the subject matter. The film refrains from exploiting or humiliating these individuals. It simply shares their stories in a balanced manner. The viewer becomes so invested in these characters that when one actor suffers a personal setback, the viewer immediately empathizes with his plight.

Strictly Background was both humorous and heartwarming, and the footage from actual movies in which these extras appear complete the story nicely. Overall, a very well-done documentary.

Bottom Line: 4 out of 5 stars.

The Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival officially starts tonight at 8pm with the screening of The Ten, an irreverant comedy inspired by the Ten Commandments. The film will be shown at the Alabama Theatre. Last night I had the opportunity to attend a filmmaker’s reception where I was able to meet a lot of wonderful people. Earlier today we all got together for a brunch at the Botanical Gardens, and it was nice to network with some of the filmmakers I had heard so much about in the weeks leading up to the festival.

Thanks to the Rick & Bubba morning show for helping me get the word out about my short film, Collection, which screens tomorrow night at 9:15 at the Alabama Power Building, located at the corner of 6th Ave. North and 18th St. North. Because of the publicity we received from Rick & Bubba, Collection’s film page is now the most viewed page on the sidewalk web site, with 2,176 views as of this post.

I plan to be downtown throughout the entire weekend, watching an incredible lineup of films and posting my comments and pictures here. Check back in for a complete recap of this year’s Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival. Plus, they have some great looking merchandise, so I will definitely have to pick up a shirt, or hat.