The Making Of Eid Salim By Ayman Ghali :D
Film Making is the most recent of art. Even though digital art is more recent, it is really only a new tool and not a new form of art. Since filmmaking is a unique art form, it has its own set of elements and principles.
Film making combines theater, music and visual art. Early filmmakers would just set up a camera and film a stage production or an everyday event. The camera was fixed and static. Very quickly though, film makers learned that you could move the camera for new and more interesting angles. They were soon taking scissors to their film and cutting and arranging them into ordered sequences. The Great Train Robbery, directed by Edwin S. Porter in 1903 used basic film editing techniques to create a story.
If you have every been to a live performance at a theater, you will remember that you probably had to sit still in a fixed position and you only had one view of the stage. The people did not change in size and the scale of the scene was always the same. You could not get close to the players and to see the expressions on their faces. The actors may have had to exaggerate their emotions so people in the back row could tell what the character was feeling. In contrast, filmmakers can place the camera 2 meters away from the actors face for a close-up. They can film the shot 2, 3, or 30 times to get it just right. They can film the production over 6 week and piece the best shots together later. Filmmakers can add sound effects and music. They are not limited to real time.
Film makers can film inside a studio, outdoors or at a location remote from the studio. Many production companies would travel to areas far from Hollywood to shoot their films.
The director's vision shapes the look and feel of a film. He or she is the creative force that pulls a film together, responsible for turning the words of a script into images on the screen. Actors, cinematographers, writers, and editors orbit around the director like planets around the Sun. Despite the director's pivotal role, most Hollywood movies are designed to pull you into the story without being aware of the director's hand. Many talented film directors with long lists of feature film credits are so skilled at being "invisible" that they are little known by the movie-going public.
Imagine you're being considered to direct a Hollywood film. You're handed a screenplay that has been "greenlighted" (given approval for production) by a major studio. As you read through it, you begin to imagine how it might play out on screen. You see the characters coming to life. You envision the lighting and hear the sound. You are absorbed in the world of the story until you see the script's final words: Fade Out.
And that is exactly what I did, when reading the story of Raymond Carver, I started imagining these characters coming to life walking talking, and feeling their emotions its like you are playing with your toys and setting up your own world.. But what is different in filmmaking is that you will have audience watching this world you created and your job as a director is to make it as real as it can be, and make everybody relate to it and believe your illusions.
Of curse my vision as a director included my style, I knew I was going for something very simple, and my goal was to learn how to tell a story and not to send a message.. A great filmmaker once said, “If you want to send a message, try western union”. I believe we are story tellers and not messengers, especially that I was working on a short film and not a feature.. The time I had was never enough to tell a huge story, and that was exactly why I chose a simple story, and more like an event that happened once upon a time with a family.
There are three stages to film-making: pre-production, production and post-production.
Pre-production is the stage where you try and convince everyone that your film is about to start shooting. It’s the nerve wracking stage where you wait for financial commitments to materialize in your bank, and for cast and crew to agree that they will definitely wake up to the call :P..Pre-production is when you’re spending money on script development, casting, scouting and securing crew. Bottom line — pre-production is difficult.
The second stage, production, is right after you get financing. Now you quickly get everyone together and spend two to three days of 14-18 hours each, shooting from dawn to dusk for a 15 min film..
During production everything happens at once. The actors, lights, camera, props, schedule, film stock, egos, temper tantrums, and all the rest. Production, although typically presented as being fun and joyous, will probably be the worst two or three days. But you persevere. Somehow you get that Martini Shot. Your film is in the can. You bring out the flat beer and celebrate. Everyone hugs everyone (except you, the director) and goes home. You pass out and wake up approximately two days later.
When you do wake up, you find twenty hours of footage. You’re all alone. What do you do now? The answer, of course, is simple. You begin post-production.
Post-production, somehow, is the part of the process that intimidates people most. Production is massively difficult. Post-production is not, as long as you take it step by step. Your first phone call will probably be to your cinematographer who, although he/she hates you, will be able to introduce you to several good editors.
The Story
Raymond Clevie Carver, Jr. (May 25, 1938 – August 2, 1988) was an American short story writer and poet. Carver was a notable writer of the late 20th century and a contributor to the revitalisation of the American short story in literature during the 1980s.
The Bath by Raymond Carver Summary
“The Bath,” which originally appeared in What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, reappeared in the Cathedral collection, revised and renamed “A Small, Good Thing.” The second version is also reprinted in Carver’s final collection, Where I’m Calling From.
Both versions of the story focus on a couple whose son is hit by a car on his eighth birthday and who is hospitalized and in a coma. This horrifying event is made more upsetting by the fact that the couple receives annoying anonymous telephone calls from a baker from whom the wife had earlier ordered a custom-made birthday cake for the child. “The Bath” is a brief story, told in Carver’s early, neutralized style, focusing less on the feelings of the couple than on the mysterious and perverse interruption of the persistent anonymous calls.
Now of curse after reading the story, I had to put my on touch into in, also make it Lebanese , change the locations and change a lot in the story since I was adapting..
I did the first draft and wrote the screenplay, and of curse it had a lot of issues. My instructor Mr. Alireza Khatami started helping me here to make it a better script, and page by page, word by word we made it better.
And after finishing the script I wrote my first synopsis for my first film :
The story is focusing on a middle class couple based in the city of Beirut whose son is hit by a car on his eleventh birthday and who is hospitalized and in a coma. This horrifying event is made more upsetting by the fact that the couple receive annoying anonymous telephone calls from a baker from whom the wife had earlier ordered a custom-made birthday cake for the child. It develops the emotional life of the couple in a more sympathetic detail, suggesting that their prayer for their son bind them together in a genuine human way that they have never felt before. The father feels his life has gone smoothly until this point, and where he hits a young girl while driving back home. And the story thus suggests that neither he nor his wife have ever had their comfortable, middle-class lives threatened by such a big event.
Pre-production phase
When a project moves from development into the pre-production phase, everything must be arranged that must be in place before the actual shoot. In pre-production, casting is completed, crews are hired, costume designers get busy, and set designers start building.. If the film will be shot on location, locations are scouted and contracted for the shoot. A schedule is prepared and the script is divided into scenes by location and casting requirements to make shooting as cost-efficient as possible.
We arranged the first meeting with the assistant directors, and we set up a crew list that included 28 people.. The hardest things was dealing with all these people, ugh my god I had to run and meet with everyone and make sure they’re all on the right track, and we are all on the same page working on my vision.
We arranged a casting date, not much people came but the ones that made it were picked.. I was lucky enough casting wasn’t very tiring in fact I like this phase.. I had trouble looking for old people though, its hard finding them here in Lebanon, especially when they all reply with (Baaed hal shaybeh badak yene massel ??!) Lol.. It was a hassle.. its cool though I picked my cast and then started rehearsals immediately.
After casting I had to meet with the art director of curse and work on the locations and the mood we needed to set.. Finding the locations was a bit hard, we had to get a hospital room for a full day shooting.. And you do not understand how noisy we are while shooting :P .. The producers parents were relatively close enough to the owners of Najjar Hospital, we were offered a room to shoot there.. But they were not sure about which room they can give us..
They made us wait till the day of the shoot so they can check which rooms are empty and which room they can give us... So basically the art director and I were creating different shapes in our minds and on paper.. But we were able to work around it.
And then I met with all the different art departments like costumes, make up and camera and we set things clear.
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Production
Cinematography
Cinematography is the act of capturing photographic images in space through the use of a number of controllable elements. These include the quality of the film stock, the manipulation of the camera lens, framing, scale and movement. Some theoreticians and film historians would also include duration, or the length of the shot.. Cinematography is a function of the relationship between the camera lens and a light source, the focal length of the lens, the camera’s position and its capacity for motion.
Usually the image of the film is given a lot of importance and I believe that a director complements his story by the image he gives it. In the end we are visual story tellers, what the audience see, should make sense, and tell a story even without dialogues. Every frame should tell us something and every frame is a story. That is why picking a DP is hard.. I had to go around and ask people about good DP’s to complement my story.. And I had to find someone I can work with, and that can understand me. While looking I met a girl called Elsy Hajjar, and it was right there when I knew she will be my D.O.P, the girl is an artist, my god how she works on her frames.. Every frame is a painting ..
Elsy and I started meeting on almost weekly bases, working on the mood of the camera from movement to lighting to framing.
Framing
When framing, as I said before I wanted every frame to tell me something and to have a philosophical meaning to it. I worked a lot with Elsy on the placement of the camera and the distance from it to our subject, I also worked on the love hate relationship between the couple shown in the framing.. That way the audiences sub conscious would feel the weirdness of the camera. The actors mutual space on the frame was never to each other, I created this love hate triangle between the couple and the kid. The mother always wanted to look at the kid and not show any interest to the father, when the father was always looking at the mother not showing any interest to the kid. But I did not only work on the mutual space in fact the framing of the subject played a big role in showing power and dominance. Centered shots were giving to the more important character always, and the character who will win the scene. High angle, low angle, side shot and centered shots were used a lot. As you will see in examples bellow.
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Lighting
I wanted the lighting to be very dull in some places and to emphasis on the point of sadness, even though sometimes it didn’t look real, it was purposely done to create a certain mood and illusion to the audience.
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Camera movement
The camera was very stable and moved only when it was motivated by the movement of the actors. I wanted the camera movement to be very slow and stable when in the hospital, to kind of get the feel of waiting with the characters, and sit with them waiting for the kid to wake up. But also the camera was very shaky at a lot of pints towards the end of the film, just so it can move with the characters and feel what they are feeling, the suspense and the fear..
Overall I would say the camera was very emotional and had the same feelings of the characters, for me it was just another person going through this journey with them.
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Production design
Production Design creates the mood, atmosphere and context of a film through the expressive use of space, objects, forms and color. The Production Designer interprets the written word for the screen, bringing all the visual elements together to create a story world. Ideas, imagination and ambition are pre-requisites.
As for a production designer for the film I suffered to find someone that would understand my style and my vision.. But guess what, I couldn’t find any.. I was my own production designer, I had all the are departments meeting with me and discussing how everything will be.
I worked on the colors a lot, colors are very important for me. I red a book once that says “If its purple, then someone is gonna die”. Its about colors in film and how each color can define something to the subconscious of the viewer.
That was exactly why my main actor (the father) was wearing purple, it gave him a bit more of a character. The mother was wearing blue sometimes , and grey in almost all the film, to show passiveness. As for the clothe, they were wearing normal clothe taking into consideration they are a middle class family.
The mood was very dull and the lights were very dimmed in almost all the film, the image showed a lot of sadness.
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Working on the locations and on the art direction, I wanted everything to be very normal and not exaggerated. Just what we see everyday in a hospital or a house, also taking into consideration their social status. Their house was a typical house in Beirut, just to show where they live, since no one ever mentions in the script that they live in the city.
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Color grading and correction was it, since I shot a 2k image which is ultra HD, I had the full freedom to manipulate the colors of the final image the way I wanted in post production.. That ended up being very nice.. Each frame had a color and each color told us something, sometimes it was sad, and sometimes it was passive.
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Acting
Of curse I worked on the acting a lot, I think 65% of a film is the acting, if you believe the actor then you can believe the film.. A good actor can convince the audience of anything.. And that was exactly why I did a lot of rehearsals with my actors in the pre production phase.
I always wanted the acting to be very real and natural I never wanted any exaggerated reactions..
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My experience
Overall it was amazing experience, working with so many people and making them all just trust your vision is enough an achievement. I have nothing else to say, because really as cheesy as it may sound, words cannot express how much I enjoyed working on my film.
Thank You..
Additional Pictures
Now Lets Watch !!!!!
