(PRWEB) September 23, 2005 -- Civil engineer, Daniel Crane (played by Lance Henriksen), is working to rebuild war-torn Iraq when he is kidnapped on his last day in Fallujah. Crane finds himself beaten and alone, a hostage in the drama of war with one last wish, to tell his wife he loves her.
“ We shot with only straight N. ”
The internationally acclaimed, A Message From Fallujah is the second short film from Director, Richard Gibson from Australia. Having recently won the Best of the Fest Award at the 9th Annual Los Angeles International Short Film Festival, the film now qualifies for an Oscar® nomination.
Executive Producer, Andrew Morris from Sydney-based Luscious International and Gibson invited cinematographer, Philip RANG to shoot the production. Working with Gibson provided Rang a chance to learn about the benefits achieved through a hybrid mix of film technology and digital effects. “Richard's intense manner and experience in post production effects taught me about what can be created from very little real elements in frame”, recalls Rang. “The opening sequence of the film was shot in the morning of the last day. We shot against a derelict storage shed artfully dressed into an Iraqi street cafe by Art Director Oleh Sokolovsky. The middle of the frame was the cafe, and because we had a roof with straight lines we didn't need blue screen. Richard knew through the use of simple matte paintings, he would be able to extend the cafe and give the impression that we were really in an Iraqi street.”
Written by Shane B. Riant and shot on the back lot of the Serenity Cove Studios in Sydney's southern suburbs, Rang worked with Gibson to embrace the full gamut of imaging technology. “Film technology and its chemical process will always be present for the best shooting results”, says Rang. “But it's the tools we use in tandem with film that can generate a desired visual effect and give us the best of both worlds”.
Rang chose KODAK EXR 50D 5245 for exteriors sequences and KODAK VISION2 500T 5218 for night and interior scenes. “We supplemented our stock with KODAK Vision 250D 5246 for the dusk sequences. The flashback home movies of the family were shot on a hand cranked 16mm Bolex with Kodachrome 400, developed in a standard negative bath which gave us a lovely grainy old world home movies feeling.”
“Richard likes to operate hand-held quite a lot and we made full use of an Aaton 35mm which also doubled as our second camera” explains Rang. “We also used an Arri 535 and worked with several different lenses including Zeiss Ultra Primes 10-135mm, an Angenieux HR 10:1 and a Canon 300/600mm Telephoto lens. We shot with only straight N.D.s and a 2 stop Polariser.”
Throughout the shoot, Gibson and Rang discussed the use of various filters such as ND grads and also considered a bleach by-pass for the development of the negative but, together, they chose to shoot the film ‘clean’. Additional effects, such as the matte paintings and the 3D images of the helicopters done by Paul Butterworth at Fuel Post Production, were left to the 2K transfer process which was shared between Warren Lynch at Inter Color and Andrew Clarkson at Cutting Edge.
Rang describes working with Richard Gibson, “…as being a wonderful adventure.”…
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