Philips Cinema - Parallel Lines - Dead Awake, by Kris Koster

http://www.philips.com/cinema

Dead Awake
A film by Kris Koster

--
I discovered this contest purely by chance on 31st July. With only eight days to conceive, write, produce, film and edit this three minute piece, I knew it was going to be long days (and nights), not forgetting plenty of coffee!

But it was a challenge and I certainly love one of those! Here was my crazy timeline:

31 July: Conceived the story - Actually that part was the easy bit. Because the contest is 'parallel lines', I really wanted a parallel story of my own going on in this film. Decided on 2.35:1 pretty early, particularly since I wanted a split screen parallel sequence at the end to finish the piece.

1st August: Rang round plenty of contacts, mostly pre-production co-ordination. Started to block the piece out in my head.

2nd August: Wrote the script. Started looking for appropriate music on Creative Commons Public Domain sites. Started creating the title sequence in After Affects. I decided on the 30-second title sequence after much thought. I figured it was worth doing this as, after all, the brief was, "make it as cinematic as possible..."

3rd August: Sourcing locations, particularly hospital theatre, ward and house. Even though we had a contact at senior level at the hospital, he couldn't get the clearance for the theatre in time. But he did loan us the clothing we required.

I wanted to shoot Wednesday, but availability of cast and locations forced me to shoot Thursday. A huge phone around again. Spent all evening and early hours finishing the title sequence to the opening score.

4th August: Set locations, prop search, spent some time at locations for blocking. Finalised music selection. Re-arranged music selection for the piece, double-checked music licences which took a while! Checked all the gear, one of my primes missing!

5th August: Production day. This was really a two day shoot, but I had to squeeze it into one. Very heavy day! Canon 5D2 - I love you!

6th - 8th August: Post production!

A thoroughly enjoyable but utterly exhausting experience! Thank you to all the wonderful people who worked with me on this one!

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• phillips cinema
• parallel lines
• Dead Awake
• Kris Koster
• San Jaime
• Tres Coronas
• Michael Redfern
• Joanne Venet
• operating theatre
• parallel story
• conscious operation
• canon 5D2
• canon 5D mark II

[MrSharpCritic]

What I liked about this short compared to the others is that you had twin stories emerging toward the end that fully embraced the 'parallel lines' and Philips brief. Good thinking, makes it stand out from the rest.

Using Cinemascope was a good choice too as it made the film more cinematic. Add to that, good music selection and all round acting performances with professional title sequence makes this entry one of the best.

[kriskoster]

Thank you, appreciate your comments. We'll find out tomorrow I guess! There are so many great entries, it was enjoyable just to enter. -Kris

[SIARSEDIG]

Nice work! Your story is not rushed like many others.

The dialogue is used in a unique way. Good luck.

[kriskoster]

Thank you Siarsedig. I saw your entry too, 'Innocence' - Very touching story and both kids were great performers - Great direction there. -Kris

[tyszkas]

Think it is brilliant, amazing what you can say but without words, the eyes from all actors in this are amazing

[kriskoster]

Hey thanks! It certainly pays to have a couple of veterans in there. Both Michael and Joanne have done extensive TV work. But all the actors performed admirably!

[fleetstreetpapmob]

Wow, deep and clever story - needed to watch it twice before I got it all, but very impressive

[bugbearlisa]

Woo hoo! Michael Redfern stars. What a great British actor, bring him back to our screens please! Look him up on IMDB, never realised how much stuff he has done

[Shadow0202]

Nice music

[SarasotaFilm]

Finally! A superbly crafted story for this contest, well thought out with excellent use of the dialogue and decent actors. One of my top ten for sure (I have about another 50 to see yet!!).

[ray4bry]

That lovely red head's eyes say it all!!...wasn't she in the comedy series Benidorm??