Inside Scoop on Upcoming HD Short, "Downsized"

POSTED BY Dan Riesser, 10 December 2007

DOWNSIZED is a horror-comedy short. It’s my first HD short film, my first foray into horror, and my biggest and most expensive short I’ve made to date. I write a lot of horror screenplays and hope to one day direct horror features, so I figured it was time I tried my hand at a short.

I started writing it in the spring of 2007 and got right into pre-production. A lot of things had to be done on a level I wasn’t used to. It was my first time acquiring production insurance, organizing rentals of camera/grip equipment and props.

It was particularly fun getting my prop axes for the film. I rented through ISS Props in Sunland, CA. They were surprisingly helpful for a company that usually deals with big budgets and professional crews (they were prepping for “The Shield” when I was there). I rented a prop axe kit with a real axe and a replica axe with a foam rubber head, and then I purchased an additional all-foam rubber replica. I used the purchased one for effects shots of the axe in a skull and in a stomach. After the shoot, I glued the axe back together and now have it hanging on my wall in my room.

 

 

 

I was lucky enough to have a Director of Photography on the film who worked hard to organize all the equipment. He organized all the rentals and borrowing of equipment. We shot on a borrowed Panasonic HVX 200, utilizing its P2 tapeless recording technology. I was really nervous about doing this, but it was surprisingly easy. If you’ve never shot on this camera and have a chance to, take it. Just have some external hard drives and a Powerbook on set and you’ll be all good.

In addition to the HD camera, we used 35mm prime lens and an adapter, dolly tracks, a jib-arm and even a full Steadicam rig. All of this was a pretty big deal for me, since I’m much more used to using a DV camera and a wheelchair. It was a lot of fun having some cool toys to work with, and seeing jib and Steadicam shots in a no-budget short really helps to sell the production values.

Production took place over two weekends in September 2007. We shot in Santa Monica at an office generously offered to me by a friend and his dad. It was a lucky find. The location was the thing I figured would kill the production before it ever got off the ground (finding locations to use in LA is impossible and/or expensive). But I lucked out and had a great location and plenty of access to it.

Shooting went fairly well, with no more than the usual production snags and scares. Each day was a night shoot, starting around 6 PM and ending at 6 AM. We started out with a major problem with the lens adapter, but got that solved. We thought we lost elements of the costume the 2nd weekend, but found them. We shot a small section of the film in a downgraded format, but using Compressor I fixed it enough so it will be workable in the final cut (I hope).

It was my first time really focusing on blood effects. There aren’t many in the film but they look good. We hired a makeup girl who did an amazing job for very little money. One big blood effect involved spraying blood out of a hose hidden under the actors shirt, using a large syringe. I was nervous setting up for it, putting up tarps (since we couldn’t make a mess of the office) and figuring out the logistics. Our first attempt went badly and sent blood spraying all over the walls of the office. We scrambled and managed to clean it up, and the next few attempts got it right. The shot looks great and hopefully will get a big laugh/gasp.

I’m currently doing audio mixing and adding sound effects to the short. I’m pretty happy with the picture cut. My music composer is working on music currently, and I have to tackle color correction in the next month or so (if any readers in the Los Angeles area are experts in Apple’s Color program, drop me a line).

The current cut runs about 15 minutes, which is a good run time. I hope to have the short done by February 2008. My last short didn’t really do too well in the film festival circuit, but I’m hoping this one will fare better. Enjoy the little teaser I made. I’ll most likely cut a more “official” trailer in the next few months. Feedback appreciated!

horror, short, HD, Downsized