CAPTURED - CREATIVE SPONTANEITY
Since 'The Summit' the only project that was feeding my creative spark was a short film called 'Drop Bear' that I have been director of photography on. Kudos to Lennard Smith for allowing me to shoot his project - more on this project to follow in future blogs.
Don't get me wrong I love the client projects that we work on and love bringing people's vision to life and I will continue to do so as every project I work on I grow and learn so much as an individual and a filmmaker. However some creative spontaneity was in order!!
Across 2011 I had written down a swag of short film ideas and I was briefly on and off writing my next feature film project. Before 2012 ended I wanted to shoot a short film to fill my urge and get my focus back.
Enter the short film 'Captured'. Shot over one day one week before Christmas 2011 'Captured' follows a young war photographer who finds herself separated from her platoon in the jungle during the Vietnam War. With only her camera in tow and instincts to survive she must make her way to safety with whatever means possible.
'Captured' was born pretty much from discovering a photograph through Google Images of renowned photo journalist Catherine Leroy, who at the age of 21 was the youngest female war photographer to cover the Vietnam War. Leroy pretty much booked a one way ticket to Laos in the late 1960s from France on an adventure to cover Vietnam with no experience at all. She went on to cover numerous wars from Iraq and Afghanistan. I don't really recall what prompted me to search for Catherine Leroy. I really wanted to create a project which put my partner Julie Dickson in the lead role and that was based around true events. I knew I wanted to create a project that really interested me as well, I think with any project you have to want to do it and enjoy it and not try to force yourself to do it because it would be a great idea, attract attention and everyone else likes it. I think there is a fine line when it comes to choosing projects you want to do.
Looking back to my early years as a filmmaker around the age of 16 I've always been interested in war films watching films such as Platoon, Apocalypse Now and World War II epics such as The Longest Day. I remember now making two short war films for high school projects and my own use which saw me creating prop weapons out of wood and metal and digging up my parents backyard into a battlefield (just as long as I filled the holes up when I was finished - which my Dad ended up doing for me lol - cheers old man!). The only actors I had then were myself and my younger sister - Dad had a few Army uniforms stored away from his time as a Army Reserve during Vietnam which we used.
If anything my passion for photography and war films most likely drove me towards creating 'Captured'. I think deep down I want to be photo journalist in war, I probably don't have the guts to carry it out though, 'Captured' is my way of fulfilling this void.
I think another thing that lead me to the Catherine Leroy photograph was the need to take a different look on war in film. Popular war films especially set during the Vietnam War deal with US infantry men dealing with their own inner battles of being drafted into a somewhat pointless war and their disillusionment with the situation and the steps they take to change the system and survive. Platoon, Casualties of War and Apocalypse Now look at this perfectly. All of these films deals with men at war.
Collaborating with my partner Julie Dickson on the project gave me a great opportunity to look at women in war, something that hasn't really been touched on a great deal. What a perfect set of ingredients for a short film, photo journalist, based on a true person, set during the Vietnam War. All things that interest me! Where could I go with this!
Over one night in September 2011 I wrote the first draft of 'Captured'. I took Catherine Leroy's story of how she was captured by the North Vietnamese Army while taking photos in battle basing this event very loosely and indirectly for 'Captured's structure. Somehow Leroy managed to persuade her way out of being captured by the NV Army promising a magazine spread for the world to see how the enemy lived and breathed. It worked and gained her international acclaim.
In a nut shell Julie plays a war photo journalist like Leroy who has a chance encounter with the Vietcong, it's a matter of life and death situation that takes an interesting turn. We cast another up and coming actor Christine Milo in the role of a Vietnamese woman as well as a couple of other minor actors to feature as US soldiers in the film. A big shout out must go to Julie and Christine for taking on this story and braving the testing conditions and terrain of where we shot 'Captured. Julie and Christine excelled in their roles ten fold!
I'll leave the story of 'Captured' for you to view when I release the film for all to see. At the moment the filming is awaiting a film festival run, which we are very positive about.
Through September right up until the near end of December I revised the 'Captured' script through four drafts. To give an authentic feel to the film I collated numerous pictures from the internet for references on costumes, props, colour and mood. I re-watched some classic Vietnam War films and found some I had never seen before just to get in the right frame of mind before shooting. I find compiling reference boards and films a great way to capture the feel and mood of your project, seeing as this was historical it worked perfectly. The reference boards not only offer myself a great way of envisaging the film it also helps the actors involved understand their characters, the history and situation we are portraying and what they will potentially look like.
I sourced all the costumes through Sparke Films, a internationally recognised military film specialist company. Run by Ian Sparke and son Luke they supplied me with authentic uniforms and webbing from the Vietnam War era. A big thank you to Ian and Luke for helping me out where they were able to!
With the costumes in place I sourced a SLR film camera from the era off eBay. This was the last remaining piece of the puzzle at the time as the camera only arrived the day before the shoot! Talk about close! It was so hard to find something from the era that was authentic as most cameras used to capture the Vietnam War were either the Nikon F series or Lecia cameras which are worth a mint these days!
Prop weapons are always a hard item to find here in Australia unless you have a film armourer on board your production. No firing was needed of any weapons in the film however I was in need of something that looked like a M16 rifle, the weapon of choice by US soldiers in Vietnam, to appear throughout the film. Luckily in another spontaneous moment Julie had a connection who was able to source a toy M16 rifle which looked remarkably like the real deal! Problem was solved on that front!
Location for the shoot took place on the Sunshine Coast here in Queensland on private property, a friend of ours owns a large property adjacent to a large valley featuring a small creek which looks a lot like the Cambodian jungle.
Rehearsals were pretty much non existence for both Julie and Christine on the project. We met on a couple occasions to discuss the script, story and characters. The film has no dialogue in it relying on pure filmmaking from everyone involved. I offered both actors the material, information and motivation they needed for their characters and took a raw approach to the performances. They both did their homework before the shoot. I knew they both would be very capable of delivering the required performances as there were committed one hundred per cent for the roles and the vibe was right! I also knew once we got onto location, got them into their costumes and pushed them through their paces it would all fall into place. A lot of emotion was also needed in some of the pivotal scenes of the film so rehearsing these moments would have drained them.
I kept this project fresh and spontaneous. We shot over one day from 5:30am till 5:00pm keeping the action in one small area of the location using minimal crew. I like shooting with limited crew on projects too many hands on deck can sometimes lend to too much unneeded energy. I shot and directed the project, with one sound guy, a clapper/production assistant, a runner, the two main actors and one featured extra. If anything 6 to 7 people were on set at all times.
Another style I employed on this project was shooting what I knew I need to for the film. Many times previously I have shot projects shooting every angle I could think of then trying to create the film in the edit. This can lead to a lot of wasted time as most of the angle you never end up using. So I made a point of getting what I needed and trusting my vision. I complied a shot list but didn't do a storyboard for this film. I had the film well enough embedded in my head that I knew exactly what I needed. It's risky doing this but you will learn as a filmmaker, it's the only way! Can't wait to my next project to employ the same process!
The film was shot all hand held on my Canon 5D Mark II with one lens - I deliberately gave myself this limit to push myself to be creative with whatever I had at my disposal. A good learning experience. Sometimes too many bells and whistles can spoil a project.
Editing occurred over a intense three to four day period using Final Cut Pro 7. I graded them film myself, mixed the sound and even mixed the score for the film using loops and music beds from Apple's Soundtrack Pro. A teaser for the film was even pumped out during the editing stage, with the film being submitted to film festivals pretty quickly after!
A big thank you must go to Julie, Christine, Lenny, Ellie, Iain, Jay, Annie, Darryl, Dave, Ian and Luke.
If anything 'Captured' was a very spontaneous project which somehow fell into place rather quickly and rather effortlessly. It was great to get back into a filmmaking project of my own and offer fellow filmmakers and actors a chance to be apart of a fantastic production.
If anything 'Captured' was a very spontaneous project which somehow fell into place rather quickly and rather effortlessly. It was great to get back into a filmmaking project of my own and offer fellow filmmakers and actors a chance to be apart of a fantastic production.
Here's the teaser trailer for the film for those who are interested. Also I'll be putting up a small behind the scenes video soon on Tha Apple Box to give you a visual insiders point of view to filming 'Captured'. Enjoy the teaser.
As always keep shooting! - Lucas
