To conclude our series of blog posts from Paul Krik, writer/director of Able Danger
, currently in theaters, here is his breakdown of how he posted his movie.
Able Danger was shot on an Panasonic AG-HVX200 by accomplished Brooklyn-based cinematographer Charlie Libin. We shot HD using no tape. It was shot to P2 cards, basically RAM and then copied to a hard drive. It was edited on Avid mostly on a laptop in a basement and then on an Avid at Jump Editorial. It was edited in HD but at the Panasonic "native" file size of 1280 x 720. This is not true HD, but after testing the camera's 1920 x 1080 record modes, I found the difference negligible and the 1080 mode had problems with motion. And the file sizes made shooting 1080 inefficient.
After much research about the absolute best methodology for finishing, I decided on the following; 123,840 uncompressed TIFF frames (86 mins x 24 frames per second) were exported to a hard drive and brought over to one of my favorite post production facilities, NICE SHOES, and colorist Chris Ryan imported the TIFF sequence into the specter (German color correct box) and bumped up to true HD 1920 x 1080. It was color corrected there and laid down to D5.
No special pro lenses were used. We used a wide angle adapter on occasion and a long lens adapter for daytime surveillance. For surveillance night scenes, we used
military grade night vision.
I did all of the sound editing and sound designing and editing and music editing in the Avid. The final was mixed in Protools. Shots that needed effects were exported as uncompressed TIFFs out of Spectre and went to one of two places:
1. AFTER EFFECTS was used for the surveillance graphics. It took months to develop the surveillance look. We (Roberto Serrini and I) experimented with a lot more graphics on screen and a lot more text. But that took away from the beauty of the imagery and became too noisy and less "filmic" also getting the right interaction of the onscreen text, the surveillance chatter (which I recorded through a kids' toy voice distorter) and the onscreen action took a lot of fine tuning. I worked intimately with my assistant and After Effects artist refining ad infinitum. After I color corrected the night vision in Specter, TIFF frames were exported and we laid the After Effects back on top and then exported TIFF frames.
2. THE FLAME was used for some "gun flashes" and "electricity" in the stun baton were added after the color correct and bump up to 1080 HD from the Specter. The color TVs were composited and tweaked in the flame by Nick Sasso at Manic. Final finishing took the After Effects TIFF frames and conformed in the flame and laid down to D5 at NICE SHOES.
The film basically only existed on hard drives until we were done and laid down to D5. I think it was pretty innovative. The dream sequences on top of the World Trade Towers were shot on green screen, and uncompressed TIFFs were exported out of Avid and into FLAME and matte paintings and comps were done in flame. The intro animation was done in After Effects.
Comments (1)
The Critics Rave
“Paul Krik’s stylish, darkly comic conspiracy thriller takes its title from a classified military program alleged to have identified four 9/11 hijackers prior to the terrorist attacks, and borrows its gleaming B&W look from THE MALTESE FALCON. The film is gorgeously photographed, briskly paced and strikingly handsome despite an indie-sized budget.”
Ken Fox
TV GUIDE
http://movies.tvguide.com/able-danger/review/295289
“Surprisingly entertaining zero-budget film noir that effectively mixes pseudo- Hitchcockian theatrics with a hefty doseof contemporary lefty paranoia.”
NEW YORK MAGAZINE
*Critic’s Pick*
Sara Cardace
http://nymag.com/listings/movie/able-danger/
“NOIR ON ACID. A paranoid fantasy of geek superheroics. Like-minded theorists may ascend from their basements to rally.”
Jeannette Catsoulis
NY TIMES
http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/movies/11able.html
“Krik uses flashes of dark comedy, an affection for the film noir genre and the perfect eyebrow-half-cocked attitude towards his subject matter to create a fast-paced and entertaining story… With its black-and-white cinematography and visual imagination (the film mixes in color dream sequences and text-overwritten surveillance footage)… Krik’s low-fi riff on the conspiracy thriller has a charm all its own”
Scott Macaulay
FILMMAKER MAGAZINE
http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/blog/2008/02/rotterdam-able-danger.php
“Knocks along with the steady heartbeat pace of a thriller and is painted in the languid, low contrast shadows of a noir.”
Michele Orange
VILLAGE VOICE
http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-09-10/film/able-danger/
“Able Danger is a slick debut feature…. An update of The Parallax View… A cinematic x-ray of paranoid mindset… In the long shadow of
noir pastiche, complete with a femme-fatale turn by Elina Löwensohn”
FILM COMMENT MAGAZINE
“Krik references film noir, rustling up some heavies and hardboiled patter here and there. Ironically, the connection is intriguing, given the wartime stew of anxieties that originally fostered the movies that came to be known as noir; Krik¹s two main riffstones come from either end of the lineage, The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Kiss Me Deadly (1955).”
Nicolas Rapoid
THE L MAGAZINE
http://thelmagazine.com/print.cfm?content_id=4462
“Mildly surreal, mostly black-and-white homage to film noir, set in the built-in ironic enclave of hipster Brooklyn. Able Danger is a smart and all-too- conceivable conspiracy thriller that raises serious questions in less-than-serious ways. Do we really think we know the entire truth behind 9/11? If so, the movie shows a bridge it might want to sell you”
Frank Lovece
THE FILM JOURNAL
http://www.filmjournal.com/filmjournal/reviews/article_display.jsp?vnu_conte
nt_id=1003849095
“Paul Krik¹s low-budget indie thriller Able Danger is nicely shot in tinted b&w hi-def video, slickly mixed, scored and edited almost to the point of being indistinguishable from this or that Bruckheimer TV show.
And Krik is a keen film student: Many of the film¹s images recall Welles, Lang, Fuller, Mann, Kubrick, Frankenheimer you name it.”
Steven Boone
SPOUT
http://blog.spout.com/2008/09/12/911-conspiracy-movie-for-hi/
“Shot in a high contrast black-and-white that milks maximum atmospheric effect out of its wide, busy compositions and chiaroscuro lighting…”
Brandon Harris
HAMMER TO NAIL
http://www.hammertonail.com/?p=363
“Shot in black and white and reminiscent of classic ’30s noir films, Able Danger tracks a Brooklyn bookstore owner (based on the owner of Vox Pop) and a European femme fatal over bridges and on bikes in the dangerous search for 9/11 truth.”
Robyn Hillman-Harrigan
FLAVORPILL
http://flavorpill.com/newyork/events/2008/9/11/abel-danger
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posted by @ 9/18/2008 8:45 AM
