DIGITAL SHOWCASE - DIRECTOR'S BLOG
| STEPHEN STLEGER - 'PREY ALONE' |
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Can you tell us about the film’s conception & why you wanted to make it?
James and I had shot hundreds of commercials together and we had always talked about trying out some big ideas. Obviously storytelling ideas are limited in commercials purely because of their duration , 30 or 40 seconds etc.
Usually a short film is a study of a situation or a character, but James and I wanted to try and do a “three act structured…big... action” story… in 15 minutes. James had been creating various 3D sets and 3D animation over the years so we came up this idea and worked it from there.
We did do some storyboards, however they are limiting in a way. We wanted to shoot Prey Alone in a loose fashion. The intention was that the camera operator was trying struggling to keep up with the action, for example, zooming in, focusing up and sometimes nearly missing the action completely. It is nearly impossible to storyboard that. We found that it’s pure trial and error… and sometimes we preferred the error.
Tell us about the production and post production?
James had shown a clip of some Jet fighter shots he had done to John Mc Donnell (the Producer) and he went to the Irish Film Board and RTE who have a short film award called Short Cuts. We were selected with 5 other films and given a budget of €80,000 and the film was shot entirely green screen on 16mm over 4 days in Ardmore Studios in Bray.
The Irish Film Board and RTE were excellent. They approved a green screen off line edit and didn’t change a thing. You can’t really ask for more than that. All the 3D/effects and backgrounds were done on home PC’s by James and a few top friends we dragged in to help us out, they are; Jonathon Ridge; John O’Connell and Eddie Sheanan. We were very lucky to get these guys….really talented and motivated ...They just love what they do.
How has the film been received both at home and abroad so far?
The response has been absolutely huge. We don’t really know the film festival scene, so we left that to John Mc Donnell and the Irish Film Board, but the Internet response has been massive…We have had over 40,000 downloads so far and thousands of e-mails for people wanting to see the film. James and I have signed with agents ICM in the UK and The William Morris Agency in the US. All off the back of the short… so we shall see what happens next?
'Prey Alone' will screen before 'Goodfellas' in Dublin's Meeting House Square, Temple Bar, on the 27th of August 2005 as part of the Stella Artois Movies on the Square.
DOWNLOAD A CLIP FROM PREY ALONE IN THE IFTN Digital Showcase
NEED TO KNOW MORE? CHECK OUT THE PREY ALONE WEBSITE - www.saintandmather.com
