Interview at Mizna's Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

Here's an interview I did for Martha Low and Ismail Ouassaddine while at Mizna's Twin Cities Arab Film Festival.

Mizna's was one of the best experiences I had on the festival circuit. Lana Barkawi, Rami Azzazi, Marya Morstad, and their team played excellent hosts, and I met a lot of very talented filmmakers, including Tania Khalaf and David Hamilton, who have been supportive allies ever since.

I often get asked about festivals in terms of what possible deals you might get out of them. Sell your film, sell your feature, get an agent, etc. But though To Rest in Peace has been very fortunate, the best rewards you get are the people you meet along the way.

One such ally is Lisa Robertson, who I met at the Breckenridge Film Festival with her short film Commerce. Lisa made a big impact on Exitus Roma. She gave notes on an early draft, helped us find our leading lady, Teri Reeves, and gave notes on an early cut that led to a lot of positive changes. The best aspect of the festival circuit is the opportunity to do better work, by seeing other films, and meeting very talented filmmakers.

To Rest in Peace continues its festival run, on its own momentum. I've shifted focus onto Exitus Roma, and other projects on the horizon, but will continue to update the blog until my new, not project-specific blog is up and running.

SoCal Independent Film Festival

 

To Rest in Peace will return to Huntington Beach for the SoCal Independent Film Festival! The festival runs September 28th to October 2nd. Our screening is on Thursday, September 29th at 1:10PM.

I say 'return,' because we shot our last day of principle photograph on Huntington Beach. People often point to this scene as one they are sure was shot in Kuwait. The Towers of Kuwait appear in the background, as Malek is contemplating the water. But these were filmed separately by Ali Younis, and then composited by Michael Ashton. The scene itself was shot by Sean Conaty with our priniciple photography crew in Huntington Beach, California.

Incidentally, if you would like to see more of Kuwait, Ali Younis has some beautiful nature videos up on his YouTube channel. Check out Kuwait's Desert in Spring. And did you know that Kuwait has flamingos?

The beach scene is one of my personal favourites in To Rest in Peace. It is the moment when Malek, having struggled with his choice of whether or not to risk his life and bury the two dead men himself, has reached the end of the road. There is no where else to go, and he is forced to contemplate his decision in a communion with nature. Part of the inspiration was this sentiment by Lord Byron, from Childe Harold's Pilgrimmage:

     There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
     There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
     There is society, where none intrudes,
     By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
     I love not man the less, but Nature more, 

     From these our interviews, in which I steal 

     From all I may be, or have been before, 

     To mingle with the Universe, and feel 

     What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.

Michael Benyaer gave a layered performance, underscored by Leah Curtis's music. This is one scene that stayed almost exactly the same throughout the editing process, from Zachary Dehm's first cut.

I look forward to revisiting Huntington Beach. It was the end of our production, but not of our festival run. More festival news is coming up soon, including our Canadian premiere. And we're off to the Big Bear Lake International Film Festival tomorrow! 

Michael Ashton

The talented Michael Ashton, who did visual effects for To Rest in Peace, recently released his short film Lazy Teenage Superheroes. The trailer is above, and the full film is on www.lazyteenagesuperheroes.com.

It's incredible what Mike can do in the digital realm, and I am amazed by how quickly he weaves his magic. On To Rest in Peace, he consistently delivered quality effects on time or ahead of schedule. Check out this before and after video to see his process on Lazy Teenage Superheroes:

The film was also shot by our director of photography, Sean Conaty.

The Pieces Come Together

After picture lock comes sound design, music and visual effects. The pieces are coming together.

Pictured above is the first draft of a green screen shot by our VFX Artist, Michael Ashton. Michael's film, Lazy Teenage Superheroes, was also shot by Sean Conaty, and has some pretty stunning visual effects.

It's so rewarding to sit back and watch your cut take shape into a finished film. To think that it all started with some words on a page, and a storyboard! There are five green screen composites, and two other effect shots that will be coming in over the next month.

Next up on the blog: an update on sound design, music composition, and a poster painting that I'm thoroughly excited about!

Crossing the Gulf

There's a nice little high speed ferry to Failaka. It has luxury seating, and takes about 45 minutes to cross the gulf. It does not, however, take cars.

So... in order to get our 1989 black mercedes over for filming, we had to take this beast of a ferry, which took almost two hours. There was a long lineup of cars, and you had to get there early in the morning, to make sure you found a spot.

It was well worth it, though. The mercedes was both a good platform for getting the background plates for the green screen shots, and a perfect match for the mercedes we had filmed in Los Angeles.

This will be a busy week, with picture lock coming up soon. Next post will report on a small test screening we're having today. Until then...

Days 6 through 9 of 10

A goofy picture.

No... we're not making a comedy. But after 9 days of production, you need a bit of goofiness.

Left to right, our set photographer Rich Prugh, behind him our 2nd AD Kaveh Taherian, then three of our wonderful cast, Asad Durrani as the neighbour, Ralph Lopez as an officer, and Junes Zahdi as a soldier. Ralph also played one of the two corpses that the film centers around. Cardo Blas was another soldier in this scene, but was not around for the picture.

Days 6 through 9 have been challenging, but we made it through, and managed to enjoy ourselves along the way.

Day 6 was the continuation of scene 10, the "Big One" from Day 5. We got up to letter U in coverage. It was particularly fortunate, because this was both the most complicated scene, and some off set issues had prevented me from doing my usual prep the day before. Despite the obstacles, we made it through and shot a good scene, well covered.

Day 7 we stayed at El Toro Airfield to shoot the scene when Malek first sees the two dead bodies that start him on his journey. We did so well with that scene that we were able to sneak in a few more close ups from scene 10, before closing out the location. We also managed to have some fun with Ralph and Mir, who were playing the corpses. After a long shot of them in the car, they asked us to roll again for a surprise. We slated it "10 Z" for "Zombie", and I called "action"; to which Ralph and Mir slowly woke up, snuck out of the car, looked around cautiously, then BOLTED in the opposite direction. It was a great laugh.

Day 8 we filmed our neighbourhood scene, where Malek sees his neighbour arrested, and later brought back tortured. It was a rainy morning, so we shot our close-ups first, which was a good gamble. By the time we were finished, the rain had cleared, the ground had dried, and we were able to shoot our wides.

Day 9 was a green screen day. We had a slow pace, got more than we planned for, and finished earlier than scheduled. We shot various driving scenes, which we will then combine with footage from Kuwait.

Today is a day off. We have half a day left at Huntington Beach. Then we go into post production, and start seeing cuts.

Updates will continue to be posted. Thanks for following us on this journey.