Shadows

(Out of the Past: Nicholas Musaraca)

Welcome to my new-look blog! Thanks Blogger for you cool new designs! Things have been fairly quiet since I last posted, pretty much the same stuff going on, the big break hasn't happened yet!!! I just got the posters done for 140 and I've ordered postcards. I'm in the trying to get DVD duplications done but it's proving difficult, for some reason businesses in Ireland don't seem to want any business. I've been in touch with 3 companies in the last week and not one has returned my calls or emails! Whereas with a company in America I rang out of curiosity has fallen over backwards to give me all the information I need to get my business. I wish I could go with them but it's proving too expensive. Of course I would like to keep it local, but the locals don't seem to care! Frustrating!

Thomas and I are maybe 2 days away from finishing Iscariot. 2 years in the writing and we're coming close to the end! I'm sure there will be more development, and if we find a producer and get money to make it Im' sure the script will change again, but that's only natural. But for now, this is the draft we're sending out into the world to see if we can find that producer, find that money.

I'm really happy with it. We spent a long time and put a lot into it. And I've learned more about writing on this script, employing as many writing techniques as I could find to make it better. I honest don't think I'll ever be afforded the time we've had on this script again. But hopefully we wont have to take this long, hopefully we've learned enough that when the next one comes along we can apply all those new skills immediately and pump it out much faster. Hopefully we'll also be paid for it too and we can work on it full time! Not grabbing 2 hours here and there, mornings when possible, evenings when not! But we'll see. Maybe this script will tell us if we're good enough to actually make a career out of this, or if we're just fooling ourselves!

I think I've mentioned before that it's a dark action thriller, a throw-back to 1940s Hollywood film noir. And we want to shoot it that way. Our hopes for this project are to shoot it ourselves, to co-direct. To shoot it in a highly stylised and highly lit fashion and in black & white. If possible we've even talked about shooting in 1.37:1, or Academy. Which is the format film noir was shot in. It's unused now, everything is wide screen, but there is something special about 4:3, and something that lends itself to thrillers, particularly noir. It's smaller frame, so everything is forced to be closer. It creates a claustrophobic feeling. There's an oppression and buildings and rooms are allowed to rise higher, pressing down on the characters. Of course that'll probably never happen, it'll be a miracle if we get to shoot Black & White!

Most audiences, other then cinephiles, see Black & White as outdated, like VHS. They fail to see it as an extension of the art form. Another way of seeing and portraying things. They don't realise that some films could actually work better in Black & White, some stories are Black & White stories and perhaps they might actually enjoy them more if they saw them in Black & White because story would do a better job of communicated it's tone. What's so special about Black & White is that it creates a heightened reality that is purely and truly cinematic.

Look at the films of Nicholas Musaraca, cinematographer with RKO in the 40s who, with his lighting and shadows, largely influenced by German expressionism, shaped the look of the films that were to become known as film noir. This highly stylised look could only worked in Black & White and lends itself perfectly to the tones and themes of noir. This is the kind of thing we're after. I hope we can pull it off.