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"Tuesday" Wins First Place, $5,000 Grand Prize: David Norris Grabs Attention with Story and Talking Head POV
By StudentFilmmakers Magazine
posted Nov 30, 2008, 06:00
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Featured in StudentFilmmakers Magazine, September 2008 Edition, Page 26.
Above, center: Jim (Steve Young) and Meg (Louise Quill) start the day. Above, right: Camera operator Andrew MacLeod and the actors wait as the director David Norris properly attaches Jim’s catheter bag to his leg.
Australia-based filmmaker, David
Norris�s short film Tuesday wins first
place in The Edgewise Media and
Panasonic Digital Media Film and
Video Shorts 2008 Awards Competition
featuring �AMQ�. The 14-minute
drama-suspense was written, directed,
and edited by Norris. The story is of a
recent quadriplegic named Jim (played
by Steve Young) whose only contact
with the outside world is his career
and his wife, Meg (played by Louise
Quill). During bath-time one day, Jim
finds himself alone and trapped inside
the bath and his own useless body. The
plot: Will Jim ever be found after his
anger at the world has alienated himself
from the world?
Above, left: The director of photography (Virginie Tetoofa) steadies her camera operator (Andrew MacLeod), while the camera assistant (Paige Anderson) helps set up one of the film’s highangle shots. Above, center: Jim (Steve Young) and camera operator Andrew MacLeod. Above, right: David refers to his hand-drawn storyboards prior to a take.
Tuesday�s crew consisted of Virginie
Tetoofa (cinematographer and editing
assistant), Andrew MacLeod (camera
operator), Shannon Patterson (1st
assistant director), Simon LeRiche(composer), Paige Anderson (camera
assistant), Marco Treglia (sound
recordist), John Fairhurst (boom
operator), and Charme Lee (online
editor). Annabelle Murphy and Siobhan Jackson served as supervising
producers for the film. Kathy Hinchand Holly Sharpe served as casting
assistants.
Up-and-coming filmmaker David
Norris shares some behind-the-scenes
info about his winning film Tuesday in
a brief Q&A with StudentFilmmakersMagazine while in the middle of writing
his next screenplay.
If you could share a tip or
technique in relation to writing short
films, what would it be?
David Norris: A tip for writing short
films? That�s a hard question, mainly
because I still find it difficult writing
short films within set running length
boundaries. All my ideas usually need
a little bit of reworking to get shaved
down, yet I usually still end up a few
minutes beyond the set limits. Aside
from that, I always seem to come up
with a concept, twist, or story idea, and
then develop characters around them
to make the ideas interesting. I like to
try and make mini-features � three-actstructure
films with a situation or crisis,
a middle and resolution � as opposed
to making �slice-of-life� character
pieces.
While you were writing Tuesday,
did any interesting challenges come
up?
David Norris: Actually, writing the
film was easy this time. I came up with
the concept of a disabled man getting
eaten by his hungry dogs at the initial
concept stage, and the film just wrote
itself. This isn�t always the case though.
Budget-wise, all the disabled-person�s
equipment existed, my brother is
disabled, and it only cost a couple of
hundred dollars to produce.
Did any issues come up in regards
to camera placement and positioning,
getting certain shots, or in relation to
POV?
David Norris: The main POV issues
revolved around the interaction with
the protagonist�s dogs. Their shots
alone took an entire day. They needed
to give me a specific look, reaction, and
deliver the performance while looking
into the lens. It was a matter of trial and
error mainly, and just slowly teaching
the dogs to take the food from a certain
position. It was torture, but not very
interesting really.
What challenges came up during
post production?
David Norris: I had many challenges
with editing. The rough cut was some
20 to 25 minutes, and there were two
scenes that I hadn�t pre-visualised with
storyboards. I had decided to just shoot
it on the day. So I had them covered
from 10-odd angles, but no idea of how
to cover the scenes through the edit,
aside from the opening and closing
shots. The best help was my editing
assistant, Virginie. She came in to help
after a week or so of my pulling out my
hair. Although I usually love the editing
stage, this film was a huge task. We
had more than ten 90-minute betacam
tapes of coverage. Anyway, somehow,
having someone edit for you while
you call the shots, is such a smoother
editing experience.
Above: The Production’s main crew: (L-R, top to bottom) David Norris (Writer/Director), Andrew MacLeod (Camera Operator), Louise Quill (Meg), Steve Young (Jim), John Fairhurst (Stills/Continuity/Boom Operator), Paige Anderson (Camera Assistant), Virginie Tetoofa (Director of Photography), Marco Treglia (Sound Recordist).
David Norris is currently shooting
his next film, a sci-fi epic. For more
information about the filmmaker, go to
www.studentfilmmakers.com.
Tuesday on set photos and behind-the-scenes shots by John Fairhurst.
Watch Tuesday at: www.studentfilmmakers.com/edgewise-media
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