Creating a film
wasn't something that I put on my list specifically, however it is probably one
of the things I am most proud of. Lots of people have been asking me how I
managed to get my film done in such a short amount of time, 20 days from
concept to final edit, so here is a bit about my amazing FilmLife journey!
FilmLife was
something that I heard about back in 2012 and wanted to be a part of. Ever
since my transplant I have been really involved in, what I like to call,
spreading the good word, of organ and tissue donation. Unfortunately, in 2012
FilmLife only ran a film making workshop in Sydney, so because I am a scientist
by nature (currently doing my PhD in Kidney Regeneration at Monash University),
and not a film maker, I had no idea how to make a film and did not manage to
submit a 2012 entry. I did stream the whole FilmLife screening night and was
deeply moved by all the films that were shown. I couldn't believe that so many
people were as passionate about something that was so close to me, most with
out being directly affected by it.
In 2013 when
FilmLife announced that they were holding a workshop in Melbourne I jumped at
the opportunity! Not only because I'd had a kidney transplant and thought that
this was an excellent way to engage an audience, not only was I interested in
using the arts to communicate such a difficult topic, but mainly I entered
because this was the last year I was able to do so!
The FilmLife
workshop in Melbourne was held on the weekend of the 2nd and 3rd of March, with
a welcoming night on Friday night. This welcome gave the filmmakers the
opportunity to talk to a donor family, and a nurse who was involved in the
transplantation process and people who were transplant recipients. They were all
there to share their stories of organ donation and inspire us filmmakers. Even
though most of these people were some of my closest friends, that I am lucky
enough to know merely through having my transplant, I didn't hold back in
asking them everything that I hadn't already had the opportunity to ask them! I
truly admire their gusto in opening themselves up, sharing their stories and
answering hard questions (mainly that I was asking!).
The workshop
was incredible. Run buy filmmakers Rohan and Gerlee, the plan was to leave the
workshop with developed ideas and skills that would allow us to shoot the film.
I must say that at first I was a little worried about other people stealing
ideas, but it didn't take me long to realise the environment we were in was an
incredibly supportive one, and also very creative.
There really is
no grand story or light bulb moment on how I came up with the idea of my film. I
just realised that the words "donate to somebody that I'll never
know" fit in really well with "now you're just somebody that I used
to know." When it was time to share my idea with everyone at the workshop,
I was a little apprehensive - this wasn't a developed idea, rather one line
that I had come up with. But I did share and everyone LOVED it! I really don't
think that the film would have happened if I didn't get that response from the
group. Everyone was SO encouraging.
In general I
think I am pretty good at parody songs, I make up a line here and there which
always make me and other people laugh. However, rewriting a whole song is a
very different thing! I did come home from the first day of the workshop very
pumped and excited to get this done. So I wrote out the lyrics of the original
song by Gotye, featuring Kimbra, and even wrote down all the shots in the film
clip.
I couldn't
sleep on Saturday night, all these ideas for lyrics was keeping me up. I was
wondering around the house at all hours of the morning scribbling things down
on bits of paper, and recording my own terrible singing into the dictaphone on
my phone. By the time I arrived at the Footscray Community Arts Centre for the
second day of the workshop, I was running on about 3 hours sleep - but the
lyrics were pretty much done. If I was going to get this film in on time I had
to lay the lyrics the following weekend, then film the weekend after that to
give me one week to edit. Next was time to find my talent.
Hannah Sweeny
also attended the workshop, an actress/singer herself who had connections.
Hannah suggested a friend who would possibly be interested in helping me with
my film, my amazing female talent Lesha
Pavlis. I sent Lesh my lyrics and we decided to meet. Lesh also said that
she would bring a friend who was also interested in filming the project for me.
It was SO nerve
racking meeting Lesh and Chris
for the first time. Lesh told me she was a lyricist and she thought my lyrics
were great. HOLY CRAP! Lucky I didn't know she wrote music before I sent her
the lyrics, otherwise they might not have been sent in the first place. Chris
too thought that the project was a great idea and was keen to help out, even
when I told them that I had no budget.
That's right, everyone volunteered their time and equipment for this
project. At our meeting Lesh also said that she has a friend who is interested
in the project, and who looks very similar to Gotye.
Within a few
days Lesh had recorded a rough cut of the song, with her singing both parts,
and sent it to me. I was on the train coming home from uni when I received it
and I think I played it 3 times! You wouldn't have been able to wipe the grin
off my face if you tried. It was the most unbelievable feeling hearing my words
sung out loud. I was definitely crying at some stage too. It was incredible.
By this stages
things were so hectic at uni I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown.
I think I had about 5 things going that I had to organise and my deadline for
recording the final version of the song was already passed. I was starting to
hope that Dima (my amazing male
talent) wouldn't record his part of the song so that I wouldn't have to
organise anything else. It was almost time for me to film and I had no idea of
a location, I had no idea of where I was going to get lights from, and I was
yet to find an anatomical artist.
The way that I
found Jess was crazy. I had been emailing Monash Visual Arts department all
week, bugging different lecturers and professor to see if they knew of any
students who might be able to help me out. However, the Monday before filming,
when I was teaching a developmental biology class at uni, there just so
happened to be a visual arts class that was doing an anatomical drawing subject
in the room next to me. I walked in, saw Jess drawing and literally yelled at
her asking her what she had planned for the weekend. Luckily, Jess and her friend Tam were free on
the weekend of filming. Now I just needed a location and lights.
The day before my
shoot, everything seemed to come together. I was told that a producer is a
problem solver... and boy did I solve some problems the day before, and morning
of, my shoot! The day before my shoot I went back to where it all started at
the Footscray Community Arts Centre to meet Gerlee and Rohan again. I annoyed
them for a good 3-4 hours and walked away with a complete shot list, edit list
and a professional light rig.
In a secret
location, I had planned for a 4 hours shoot. Telling everyone that if it went
for longer then 4 hours, I would pull the pin and just deal with what I had.
That didn't happen. It was more like a 9 hour shoot. The day started with me
with me racing around finding the last final things I needed for the shoot...
which was everything, including body paint, acrylic paint for the back ground,
a background to paint on! There was lots of stops are craft stores, bunnings,
$2 shops and fabric stores to get everything I needed.
My artists Jess
and Tam showed up at about 2.30pm, which looking back was way too early. I
think they slept for about an hour or so until they were needed! When Chris and
Lesha showed up at around 3pm, Chris and I got straight into setting up the
camera and talking about the shots that I needed to get. When Dima arrived it
was all systems go. The first thing was to get the lighting right, which was a
challenge because I had expected Dima and Lesha to stand flat against the
background that we were to paint on. However, because I also didn't want shadow
on the background or on my actors, we had to make them stand about one meter
away from the wall.
Dima and Lesha
had already recorded the lyrics into a final version, so we played that song
from my computer over and over and over again. That way, every take we did Dima
and Lesha could belt out the lyrics as if they were actually singing them, and
we would match their lips moving to the recorded song in the editing room.
It was actually
fairly quick getting Dima's first verse recorded. I only needed him to sing the
lyrics twice, once in a close up, and once in a midshot, so then I could splice
together everything in editing. Dima was so professional and really nailed his
lyrics and acting every single time. I think we only got 2-3 takes of him
singing his verse and we were done. However, by that time we had finished this
recording it was already 6.30pm! We still had SO much to do.
Next was the background
painting and the body painting. All of which had to be captured in stop motion.
I had to make some decisions on the fly and not include some things which I
would have liked to. I wanted to include a heart monitor on the background and
a pancreas in the body painting. However, since I moved the actors forward I
lost space on my background so couldn't fit the monitor in, and I did not think
that people would have known what the pancreas was. Once these decisions were
made my two extraordinary anatomical artists started their magic. I had 100%
faith in them, even if they were painting with a sponge - something that I had
never heard of before! Chris was so patient, capturing every line or shading or
colouring in a still shot. We actually took so many shots of everything being
painted we had to cut out half the photos in the editing rooms to make the stop
motion fit into the film!
Once all of the
organs were painted on Dima and the background was finished it was time to
bring Lesha in and record both of them singing in at least 5 different shots.
Both were incredible. So good in fact that we only had to do one take of a shot
I needed! By the time we packed up it was about 11.30pm. Chris, Lesha and Dima
were incredible troopers and understood what filming/acting/singing actually
involved and were not phased in staying back so late.
Three days
later, I sent Chris an edit list and he had matched up all of the mouth
movements from all the shots we took with the prerecorded track. When I sat
with him were managed to edit the whole film in 3 hours. Yep, I knew exactly
what I wanted, although it did help already having a film clip to base my edits
on!
About 4 days
after the edit the film was due. I had done it. I managed to pull off making a
film, from concept to final edit, in less then 3 weeks. You can watch the movie here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R-I1oIkF-Y
If you like the
clip then please PLEASE support the people who made it possible!
Chris Kosmer
has his own production company - http://www.kontinuummedia.com.au
Dima Shafro is in an awesome band - http://www.facebook.com/grandcruband
Lesha Pavlis is an
amazing solo artist/actress http://www.leshamusic.com
