Eric Kress Lighting Workshop "Dual Close-Ups" by Benjamin B, edited by me

In 2012, I have had the pleasure to edit Eric Kress Lighting Workshop with Benjamin B. The workshop held by Gokinema and moderated by Benjamin B deals with dual close up. Eric Kress meticulously lights the two shots as well as go through with every decision he makes during the process. The footage recorded by Arri Alexa shows how every adjustment, touch, and choices made by the cinematographer affects the shots, the scene and the overall mise-en scene.

It took around 9 months to edit and finish this documentary as I and Benjamin were busy doing other projects. We collaborated online, sending each other our own edits, brainstorming and thinking for a clear and simple approach to document Eric Kress's approach to lighting. Needless to say, I am very proud of this collaboration.

To read more about the documentary as well as the event, please visit the article in American Cinematographer's website.

Synopsis for INDIA - Self-initiated Project

This is a project that I have been thinking and dreaming for some time but due to my daily busy life as well as procrastination, I have not been able to work on this project for further development. Since I have some free time at the moment, I sincerely think that I should start thinking about how to develop this idea into a much more concrete proposal. I have prepared a small synopsis for On the Bridge, a workshop where I will have the possibility to present it. Hopefully by the end of next week, I will have a much more concrete synopsis.

"I'll not date in August" (working title)

Premise: Peace leads to a happy life but does peace come easy? Adaptation from I.N.D.I.A, a short story written by Dana Dutch

This is a proposal for a ten minute short film for a younger generation about a girl who meets a boy when in her life she gave up thinking about romance. She finally decides that she really cannot dictate anything to her own heart and wonders how funny little circumstances brought major changes in her life.

The purpose of producing this film is to give the viewer the experience that sometimes we are so fed up with out busy lives, we really have hard times understanding what is really going on around us. This is the story of a girl who happens to meet somebody when she expects the least from the opposite sex. 

Moreover, by adapting a short story from a comic book written by Dana Dutch, I expect to reveal the glossy aesthetics from the melodramas of the 50s as well as capturing and interpreting the sudden emergence of the boy and the girl. The story deals with the inner life of its characters and to visualize it in a cinematic manner is the purpose of the film. 

 

Verna

in 2010, I was offered a place at the Helsinki Film School as an Erasmus student. During my time in the film school, I had a chance to observe Finnish film students producing short films. Verna was one of them and I worked in the production to document the process. Here's the video.

I'll not date in August!

Scenes From a Marriage

Before coming to Helsinki, I never realized that I would go back to my theater days but this time not as an actor but as a filmmaker. I met Carine Ravaud, production designer student from Paris and she was already designing a Bergman play Scenes From a Marriage in Helsinki. She told me that the director would like to use video installations during the play and asked me if I would be interested. My answer was yes without any hesitations.

Next Monday, I went to Helsinki Theater School, Teak to meet with the director. Marcus Groth was directing the play and the next thing I know, we were already in the process of brainstorming.

Marcus was looking for a realistic and natural way of telling the story. The actors were trained to perform in a natural manner and the set design was built in a realistic way. I knew from that moment that at least the introduction video should act to fulfill the set design and extend the idea of home feeling in the mind of the audience.

But to accomplish that, I also knew that I needed elements of tension because the intro scene had a crescendo. I wanted to divide the composition by emphasizing the difference between man and woman and I used objects that can sometimes be dangerous such as knifes and boiling water.

Between the acts, we have decided to use animal couples, Marcus had the idea to show the animals to underline how it is actually easy to be together. For this reason, I spent plenty of time looking for animals that would match what we are looking for. I went to a stable to shoot some horses, I shot squirrels, swans, dogs and fishes. We didn't really like the horses and the squirrels (although I found the experience rewarding!) and we went to use swans, fishes and dogs. The reaction to these videos by the audience was extremely satisfying. I believe we were able to extend the play with the installations.

To shoot the introduction videos, I have visited a lot of houses. I was lucky since the people in Teak found me couples where I could go and shoot their homes. And in that sense, I was able to see inside the houses of real Finnish people which was also a rewarding experience.

We had ten shows and we had the last play last Saturday on 30. 10. 2010. We had really good reviews which I have shared some of the links with you below. I will never forget the experience, I will definitely miss everybody that I met at Teak during the production. It was a really good opportunity and I feel really lucky to be a part of it. I think the play was a blast!

Below is an extract from the introduction video originally used in the play. Of course the video by itself doesn't really say much because it was made to be shown during the opening scene where the characters are interviewed by a journalist.

Here some of the articles and reviews:

Website for Ingmar Bergman Foundation

Newspaper/Västra Nyland

On Radio in Finland!

Borgåbladet & Östra Nyland

Newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet!

The photographs above are taken by Niklas Sandström.

Vimeo Page

Hi,

I have decided to use my Vimeo account to share some of the stuff that I did from 2007, so if you want to check it out, here's the link!

By the way, have you ever had what they call a writer's block! Well it seems to me that I have had it in my whole life. Today I was thinking about myself of four years ago and I have realized that I still have the same problems today. Which is, trying to do something so desperately but not to be able to find a subject or a voice or to come up with a story or I don't know what they call. Well I have red and listen to a lot of people and I just couldn't find any solution. Well if you have any advice, I would be really happy to hear your thoughts.

Personal Website!

Hi! I organized some of the stuff that I have been working on throughout the winter and decided to share them with you through my website.

Click here to see my website.

Some Inspirations

I have decided to share some of things that inspired me and I was thinking of using them in my own short film which I intend to shoot in the spring. I was fascinated by lighting, colors, composition or technique.

It is not easy to understand the shot because of the titles but it is a shot of the road seen from inside the car. On the rear window, we see the reflection of Humphrey Bogart driving. It is a close up of his face.
I thought about reproducing this shot in a way that I would shoot the road and the close up of the reflection separately and I would combine them together in the editing software. I think that would create a sort of a different surreal feeling, a combination of different shots coming together to create a linear whole within the composition. And by doing it with very clear, sharp and colorful image by using an HD camera, it will possess an absurd look. But I am not really sure how it is going to end up!
I also like a composition to have layers and hierarchy within it. I believe without those, it doesn't mean anything.


This is a shot from Almodóvar's film, I love the way he plays with color. Red always signals the victim but in this particular shot, it is the telephone. The director, here, probably refers to the character who is going to call, we don't see him, but he is the Fabula. Yet without showing that character, Almodóvar points out that he is the victim. It is very clever.
In his last film, the color red plays a major role in the film. Red presents the hierarchy between the characters and changes all the time by their power, love, lust or misery.
My favorite scene from Broken Embraces can be viewed here.

The way Almodóvar chooses to use elements of pop culture fascinates me. I decided I have to combine my own work with pop references and one of the magazine that is very important for me is "Les Cahiers du Cinéma". That magazine was very important for the foundation of the New Wave French filmmakers and it is still a very important film magazine for world cinema. I don't know how am I going to use it but I just want to combine it with a very self reflexive way!

Some Works!

I have been working and editing for Lanfranco Aceti since September and here are some of the works we have just finished!
Some of them are edited by myself, some of them were already finished works so I had to re-transfer and re-master but for a few, I also did some shootings that were missing in the videos and it was cool!
Here's the link.