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BLOOD, SWEAT & TEARZ
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When Big Trev from Out Da Ville rang us to ask if we could make his band’s first major promo, the answer was an instant yes. We didn’t know
that UK hip-hop was so drastically under-funded we’d have to pull in every conceivable favour from just
“about everyone we knew!
But we did know they had masses of talent. They
every frame, but hard lighting for the highlights. We wanted to shoot on a ratio that satisfied our cinematic yearning but didn’t over crop.
And we also wanted to light significant amounts of the promo with nothing more than burning barrels of fire. Our final feeling was that we need- ed to bind the promo together with a simple coloured theme – and given the title, we settled on a deep blood red.
the time maintaining lip sync. The result tricks your eye into believing your not seeing clever editing, but impossible body movements. For a performance based promo, it gave us the edge we needed.
In the Telecine (which was only possible due to the outrageous kindness of Vicky Dunn at the Farm and some truly fabulous grading by Sunny), we re-created a bleach-bypass look with a resaturation of the reds
through their Spirit.
The result looked spectacular.
Glossy with deep saturated reds and creamy highlights, but with masses
of dark moody flames
and spectacular blacks. ■ JUSTIN WICKHAM (Director) &
BRENDAN MCGINTY (DP)
Photos: on location with Big Trev and Out Da Ville
T
were already making big waves as a massively up and coming UK hip - hop act.
Despite the budget
we felt we
had to shoot
on film to
get the look
we wanted
- and give
the band
something
that would set them
up alongside their rich American counterparts. It had to be glossy, tricksy and slick. There was no other way to put the band on the kind of pedestal they needed.
”
The track was about strength against adversity. It was
very much a coming up from the street/fighting for survival number and it had real power. At the same time it had a melodic feel to it with a beautiful piano riff running the length in almost complete contrast to the raps.
We needed a look and a location that could deliver both without compromise.
After much scouting we found the amazing Chelsea Bridge wharf site beside Battersea Power Station. As soon as we set eyes upon it – with its burnt out cars, railway arches, waste- land plains and graffiti adorned ware- houses, we moved in on the spot! There was even an enormous blacked out warehouse with remnants of Lucasfilm equipment. It was enough of a prece- dent to get our creative juices flowing.
We wanted super high contrast, tons of rich almost liquid blacks in
he Cinema and Television Benevolent Fund is the trade charity for everyone who works in the film, cinema and commercial television indus-
We chose Fuji 500T and 250T after testing various stocks of different speed. We had Panavision (who cut us
a legendary favour on an ARRI SR3 with all the trimmings – thanks Mick!) mark
up the ground glass to 2:1. Rather than shoot anamorphic, we cropped in, got
high speed slow motion even in extremely low light and still maintained
a super fine grain and ultra high con- trast throughout.
We shot most- ly at night out in
the open to get real depth in the shadows and ground the promo in a harsh gritty cityscape. OPTEX lent us their 4mm lens and with it we got impossibly wide without distorting the verticals. They also lent us a 1.8mm (!) straight 16 fisheye for some traditional hip-hop but it was the 4mm that stole the show. We still can’t believe we hadn’t tried it before, but we’ll never shoot on super 16 again without it.
We’re both old school purists and we wanted to do as much of our visual trickery in camera. In fact – the budget made it essential, so we had the track slowed down and speeded up digitally (thanks to De Lane Lea) and matched the frame rates to under and overcranked rates on the high speed SR3 (which lets you decide extremely precise rates like 18.75 FPS.
The idea was to intercut slow and fast body movements while all
he British Independent
Film Awards 2000 featured nominations for four UK films that were originated on Fuji: Saving Grace (Best British
Independent Film, Best Actress – Brenda Blethyn, Best Director – Nigel Cole, Best Screenplay – Craig Ferguson & Mark Crowdey), Love’s Labour’s Lost (Best Actor – Adrian Lester), There’s Only One Jimmy Grimble (Best Newcomer on-screen – Lewis Mackenzie) and It Was An Accident (Best Newcomer off-screen – composer Courtney Pine). ■
T
tries. It organises events throughout the year to raise money for its 1000 beneficiaries. If you would like to support the Fund, your trade charity, why not buy or sell tickets for the CTBF’s Grand Draw on December 5?
Over 60 prizes are on offer including televisions, annual cinema passes and cases of Champagne. The amazing first prize is a cruise on the QE2! Tickets are just 50p. For Draw tickets, more information about the Fund’s work or other fundraising events, please contact the CTBF on 020 7437 6567, or by email on charity@ctbf.co.uk. ■
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