During
the recent Digital Filmmaking Seminar run by Screen Training Ireland,
and part of the Galway Film Fleadh, I interviewed John Carney, Tom
Hall and Mark Waldron, makers of "Park", the first digital feature
to be shot in Ireland.
"Festen " was showing in town as
we sat in the bar of the Rowing Club, early in the evening, before
things got too hectic.
Dermot Mc Nevin:
"How do audiences react to the content
of "Park"?"
John Carney:
"I think lots of people like it.
People seem to like it the next day, when they've had a chance to
think about it."
They used two cameras in the making
of "Park". A Cannon xl1 which is a large shoulder held camera with
changeable lenses, and a Panasonic ez1 which is a mini DV. Most
of the film takes place in a city centre Park. One of the lenses
used on the Cannon was a wide angle with a tendency to blur around
the edges. They embraced this and achieved a sort of fairy tale
(a dark fairy tale) quality to some of the pictures.
Tom Hall:
"We actively tried never to establish
the actual geography of the place. You never know where the park
is in relation to the rest of the city. The outside world is excluded,
and the girl just walks into this alienated world."
DMcN:
The fact that there are no other
people in the shots reminds me of Veritgo.
JC:
"That's completely the inspiration
for the film, even from the opening soundtrack. The Laneway…the
gallery…that's completely the inspiration for the film."
DMcN:
What are the distribution plans?
JC:
"We're beginning to doubt whether
we want to show it to a wide audience, in terms of how happy we
are with the film now. It'd be nice to get some TV things. I think
it's a TV film actually. I don't think it's a festival film. I think
it's something that will come on well after the news, it's reasonably
demanding, and odd, on the small screen.
DMcN:
Might you find it hard to sell to
TV if it's had few festival appearances?
TH:
"It's going to be a hard sell, we
always knew that. In terms of a career thing it's…you could say
counter productive. It's a thing we really wanted to do. In terms
of the digital thing we thought it was the right vehicle to see
what was possible. Although I don't think we'd ever go into another
production in quite as disorganised a way."
DMcN:
Have you considered the Internet
in terms of the future as a possible means of distribution?
TH:
"We actually don't know anything
about it. If digital replaces film, companies like Kodak or Panaflex
or whoever, are not going to just roll over and disappear. The stranglehold
of distribution is where it's really at, and that's where people
pay their money. Production is all well and good, but it's like
people writing their poems and then putting them in the desk drawer,
and they're not really of any consequence in the great scheme of
things. So if production does develop in that way, then something
else is going to have to happen with distribution and what that'll
be, I don't know."
DMcN:
Is it a selling point that it's the
first digital feature shot in Ireland?
JC:
"Yea…and we're going to make another
one this year, really cheaply and blow it up onto 35mm, properly
this time (they transferred Park from video onto 35mm film by shooting
off the monitor). We'd like to have a bit more money…a bit more
comfort next time."
DMcN:
So was "Park" a calling card movie?
JC:
"I think visually it's really strong,
probably the strongest TV film a lot of people have seen. It proves
that you can get beautiful shots from digital. Digital doesn't have
to look really bad. If you treat it well, it treats you well."
Park has the feel of colour saturated
Super-8mm film. The film opens with an almost expressionistic scene
of a man and a girl walking from the light (Exterior) into the dark
(Interior). This kind of scene suits digital remarkably well. This
shot sets up the rest of the movie. Coming at the start of the film,
it's devoid of context, yet you sense its importance.
JC:
"If we were to do another thriller
I'd love to do something incredibly dark and interior. I think that
the rape sequence worked really well, when you cut from the park,
back in and he's zipping up his trousers and leaving, and there's
this shadowy feeling of this ghost in a room. I'd love to actually
start a film like that, and keep it there for about half an hour,
where you don't know what's going on, and you can see hardly anything.
I think digital works really well like that. Really strong backlight
and figures and gloom. I don't know if you could do it as well as
the beginning of Oliver Twist where everything is told with light,
and incredibly good Camera work."
This brings us to an area that
these guys feel strongly about. Picture quality is one of the most
problematic aspects of shooting on low budget digital. "Festen"
was shot on a one chip mini DV camcorder. It's story and performances
are very strong, but because it was shot on a one chip mini DV it
has a…"certain look" about it. It raises the question of how many
"Festens" can be watched by a public so used to high quality slick
images. Film after all is a visual medium.
TH:
"I think that the traditional virtues
of Cinema, not to be reactionary, lie in not Steadycaming around
following an actor through a scene, but in actually Editing, and
covering a scene well. No matter what medium you're using these
things still hold true, as the grammar of visual story telling.
We've always tried to do this. Deciding to shoot on digital didn't
mean breaking with the way we shot our previous films. It was just
convenient. We weren't even aware that this was the first digital
film being made in Ireland."
Mark Waldron:
"It's not even something that excites
us. The format is irrelevant. We couldn't afford to shoot on Film,
and we wanted something better than analogue Video."
TH:
" It's just Cameras and tape recorders,
whether it's ¼ inch tape or whether its DAT, whether it's digital
video or analogue video, it's really whatever you have to hand."
DMcN:
How do you feel about all the enthusiasm
for digital at present?
TH:
"It's a bit disingenuous on behalf
of those now saying that because of digital we can now make our
film. Ten years ago you could have made your film on Hi-8. The idea
that the Lars Von Triers of this world put forward that they are
starting something new, is bogus."
JC:
"I have a problem with the shaky
camera thing. I think it'll spend itself very quickly."
TH:
"There's a point to be
made though about how you can switch through twenty TV channels
and see perfectly composed images that are meaningless. The thing
about "Festen" is that it's not nearly as radical as it thinks it
is. They're brilliant at publicity. I don't know if in ten years
time it'll be remembered."
JC:
"It's supposed to be reactionary.
I don't find it a reactionary film".
DMcN:
Are you guys reacting?
JC:
"I think we are unconsciously reacting
on quite a local scale to Irish Film. There's a tendency in Irish
Film to play it safe. I think Irish audiences are underestimated
by R.T.E., by the Film Board, by Filmmakers themselves."
DMcN:
So your allegiance is to Cinema,
not digital cinema.
JC:
"It can be awkward, having made a
digital feature, 'cos people ask you to write a lot about digital
filmmaking, whereas in fact, our making a film on digital was just
coincidence.
DMcN:
Do you see small crews as the way
forward?
TH:
"We couldn't have done it if Mark
(the D.O.P.) just turned up in the morning of the shoot and lit
things and shot things and then went home at six o clock. Mark gets
involved from the development stage, even before there's anything
on paper. It's all about developing a shorthand. We all knew what
kind of film we were trying to make."
And with that our attention shifts
as two fully dressed boys jump into the lake, followed by a dog
barking loudly. Coronation Street comes on the TV, and the bar is
filling up.
DMcN:
Your advice to young Filmmakers?
JC:
"Get a video camcorder and make the
most of it. Any kind of crappy format will do. Money is not important,
if you have a pound make it for a pound. Filmmaking shouldn't be
any different from painting or writing. It's just something you
do."
Prepare to hear more about these
people. They are already working on a project (with somewhat larger
financial backing this time), which should go into production later
this year.
Dermot Mc Nevin.
