the almost final version

the 'almost final' version of the film, just the credits are still to be changed

The action takes place in a train. The film will consist of one shot, approximately 3 minutes long.

Two parents, a little girl and a drunk are seated on opposite benches in a train. The drunk is asleep, the two parents are very focused on their work (the father works on his laptop and the mother corrects some paper work) and the little girl is playing with her cloth doll while trying to get mummy and daddy’s attention. The parents are so caught in their work that they do not notice anything around them. The drunk wakes up at some point and tries to make the little girl laugh. He makes funny faces, noises etc. The little girl doesn’t like the drunk; she takes out a water pistol and shoots him, but the drunk’s chest gets covered in blood and he dies. The parents still don’t notice anything.

Throughout the whole film, the viewer’s attention will be constantly swapping from the action inside the train to the scenery in the background. This will be done by directing the actors in accordance with the train’s movement: if the train passes through an area with trees or buildings along the tracks, the focus will be on what is happening inside and this will also be reflected in the window. When the train enters an open field the action inside will subtly stop and the focus will move on the scenery outside.

The film talks about a world where people don’t communicate to each other, a world with workaholic parents who don’t have time for their children anymore while the children are left under the violent influence of media and everyday life.

The drunk sits on the window seat on the right side bench. He wears a fade colour coat and is almost unnoticeable before he wakes up. The father sits next to him and works on his laptop, a pile of papers and files between him and the drunk. On the opposite bench, mother sits on the window seat. She has a pile of papers in her hands and a few coloured markers. She corrects something on those papers and highlights fragments of them. The little girl sits next to her mother; she wears colourful clothes and two pigtails. She is playing with a nice old fashioned cloth doll. The camera will be set opposite the four characters, facing the train’s window. The shot will take place on the route from Bangor to Belfast (North - South), early in the morning, just after sunrise so the light will come from behind the camera.

Before the actual shooting, I will film the scenery in the whole train journey in order to pick the 3 minutes part that best suites the script. After that, the action will be rehearsed with the actors with the scenery screened in the background so we will create a set of actions and movements that fit the background image. After rehearsals, the actual shoot will only take one train journey and only one take.

Making this film represents a technical challenge, an experiment on changing the viewer’s focus between different elements in the same frame just by directing the action and the movement within that frame. It is a means to explore how multiple image layers work in a single shot and how a story can be told only by direction, without any camera movement and without editing.

'The next stop is Holywood'

Initially, I wanted to make the film on a Super 8mm film camera and have it all in literary one piece of film - one roll of celluloid that is. Due to some technical problems and financial issues, I decided to film it on a digital camera but to keep the whole 'one piece of celluloid - one shot - one take' concept. I couldn't get a Super 8 camera with a wide lens on it which was absolutely necessary to be able to film in a train where you don't have enough space to set the camera far from the actors in order to capture the whole action. So I found a digital camera (Canon XM2) with a wide lens and decided to use that.

I went on a train and filmed the view on the window for about 20 minutes. After doing that, I choose the most appropriate three minutes sequence (which I will upload to this blog soon) and started the rehearsals with the actors while screening the sequence in the background. I just told the actors the main story, the main features of their characters and they started to improvise within this frame that I have set. It was working very well, surprisingly well so this gave me confidence that it was going to be a good project. After we built all the actions and interactions we worked on synchronising everything with the background image and there we were, ready to go shooting.

We met on a Saturday morning at 6.30am. I know, inhuman one would say, but it had to be that early both because of lighting issues and because the train would be free at that time. We got on the train, picked the right seats and started to set up for the shoot since we were going to go all the way to Bangor (the terminus point of that train), stay in the train and film on the way back to Belfast. Ha ha, one thing I forgot to mention... the train was delayed with about 10 minutes, a detail to which I wouldn't pay too much attention normally (coming from Romania you would understand why) but wait to hear this: just two minutes after we got on the train, we heard an announcement saying we had to get down at the next stop and change the train. The conductor came to clarify things for us: ''There is a surreal bomb, you have to change the train.' 'A good start, a good Belfast - like atmosphere', I thought to myself and started to joke with the others about this.

We moved onto another train where the real bomb was and it was going to blow us off and only the camera would resist. This was all a plot that I had set up. But enough with the jokes and back to more (or not really) serious things. I set up everything, prepared the improvised pump filled with fake blood (water, flour and food colour) and waited to get to the right place.

The drunk (Stephen Don) was only going to join us in Bangor, a few minutes before the shoot so everything was tight and had to be well prepared. He jumped on the train in Bangor and the train headed right back, only stationing for about 1 minute in Bangor, probably trying to recover the delay. So we were even tighter. The shoot was going to start in a couple of minutes and Stephen had to change and attach the pump to his t-shirt. All set, everyone ready, camera rolling and ACTION!!! The three minutes flew and seemed like 20 seconds. And it didn't work well. Or it did, but not as well as I wanted it to go.

Initially the plan was to have the father (Colin Hanna) on the front seat on the left, the drunk (Stephen Don) next to him on the window seat, the girl (Aoife Fitzsimons) on the front seat on the right (being almost in a close-up this way) and the mother (Rachael Devenney) on the window seat next to her. But after the first day of rehearsals I looked at the recording and thought it would be better to change their position because you couldn't see the girl's face in the initial one. What I didn't realise at that point was that by seating them the other way around you wouldn't see the drunk almost at all. This was the big mistake. Apart from not rehearsing in the train (partly for financial reasons, partly for the 'one take - one shot' principle), the big mistake was the way I seated them and the framing that didn't allow the drunk to be seen.

I was quite disappointed and thought it was all lost now. But after a few minutes, my friend Michael (whom I have to thank for voluntarily waking up at the earliest hour in his life) suggested that we could take a few more shots, although the train was rolling now along new and unexplored grounds. In an absolute coincidence, the second shot we took looks pretty well and ends with the announcement "The next stop is Holywood".

I'm editing the sound now and will be adding the credits designed by another friend, Cosmin Valceanu, and hopefully will have it ready in a few days. And there will be photos from the shoot and maybe some more impressions and feedback coming soon. Keep an eye on it. Peace.

background for 'the piece of film experience' from Victor Dragos on Vimeo.