Location Scouting!

I figured it's time to post some location scouting photos. Me, Ben, Erin (PD), Grace (Producer) and Anna (Wrangler) went location scouting two weeks ago. Here are some photos of locations and the crew!

Church Exterior:

This is the one I liked most!

Crash Site:

Don't ask...

Work/Farm:

Grace, Erin and Ben!

Prison: (We really didn't have permission to take photographs so I secretly shot some as I walked away and while we drove out.)

Me. There was this convex mirror sitting by the stairway which assume was used to look under cars for any prohibited materials.

Household/Kitchen:

Lakeside:

Playground:

Anna our UPM/Wrangler/Captain!

Here's the whole scouting crew. Grace, Anna, Ben, Erin and my shadow.

Making the Production Packet!

It is very difficult to produce a film of this scope completely on your own. In fact, even with a sizable team of producers and crew on board the amount of work involved is still quite daunting. 

When it comes to real films, the first step after completing a solid draft of the screenplay is to enlist the help of other interested filmmakers as well as financiers. This is where the ‘production packet’ becomes handy. 

Since we have elected to shoot our movie through the Emerson Film Program, our packet was put together as a formal proposal for a specific two-semester production class, which will give us access to essential equipment and other resources. 

It is not unusual to print 50-100 copies of the production packet. The application for the program only required us to produce four packets, so we (DP Shant and I) decided to hand craft each one. 

After I wrote the copy, Shant and I discussed a design for the packet. We wanted the packet to appear simple and elegant, while also incorporating colors and images relevant to our film. 

A key part of the book’s design was the page dimension. We chose a 6.5’’x11 format to recall the 1.66 aspect ratio that will matte the film (this ratio was chosen for its similarity to the golden ratio, and has NOTHING to do with Nestor Almendros’ preference for it). 

The pages were exported from Adobe In-Design and printed onto matte paper. Each page was cut individually. When the pages were assembled, with the photo title page and heavy black cover in place, Shant hand-sewed each binding using a simple but very neat stitch, 

Here is the final product. 

We have yet to hear back from the program to see if they accepted us…

Here are some progress pictures!

Cutting down the pages!

Scraps!

It's all about the Boar's Head

Pages all cut down.

Sewing pattern tests.

Ben. He did one thing, and he messed up. LOL

Hammering/punching-out the holes! 

Some sewing.

TADA!

-Benjamin (pictures by shant!)

Hello world!

Our first blog entry. Very exciting.

There is a lot to catch up on.

Beneath Contempt is an Emerson thesis film by writer/director Ben Brewer and cinematographer Shant Ergenian. It will be shot from this coming May to the beginning of October on 16mm film.

This blog will act as a live record of our process from the initial stages of pre-production to the final stages of festivals and so forth.

If we accomplish what we set out to do, hopefully these posts will help guide future filmmakers as they attempt to take on their own ambitious ventures. If we fail, well, you’ll know exactly where we went wrong…

So what is our film about?

It’s about the truth!

More specifically, it tells the story of a young man who goes to prison for killing his closest friends in a drunk driving accident. The film takes place during the first weeks of the young man’s parole, after six difficult years spent in a Massachusetts state prison.

It is through this story that our film asks some very difficult questions:

Is it possible to forgive someone who has caused such a tremendous tragedy? Can a community treat a person with respect when they see him as a murderer?

Our film is in a world not of ‘heroes’ and ‘villains’, but of loss and penance, of anger and grief, of great guilt and the blindness of love, of misguided youth and empty homes, of foolish criminals and their mistakes, of people who pray to forget rather than forgive.

We want to make a film that demonstrates something honest about who we are and how we exist together.

…Wow that sounds quite ambitious…hopefully we can pull it off

Thus begins our journey!

Here’s to Beneath Contempt!

-Ben