Tuesday, May 28, 2013

update - posters


We have added 4 new posters.
Which one do you like the best?
















Saturday, May 25, 2013

Scene list

Here is the scene list:
(spoiler warning! don't read if you don't want to know the ending)

Scene 1 - Intro / titles
Scene 3 - Escaping the battlefield
Scene 4 – Stop to breathe
Scene 5 - Walking the distance
Scene 6 – Rainy rest
Scene 7 – Enemy chopper
Scene 8 - Rilco falls down
Scene 9 - Buzzers
Scene 10 – step on mine
Scene 11 - staying to rest
Scene 12 – Sitting and resting
Scene 13 - Directives
Scene 14 – Rilco gets picked on
Scene 15 – Scanning the area
Scene 16 – Sarge smokes and discusses with Mase
Scene 17– Harley hides to drink
Scene 18 – Fist fight
Scene 19 – harley patches up Sarge
Scene 20 – harley talks with Rilco
Scene 21 – Explaining the plan
Scene 22 – Siberian massacre
Scene 23 – Something is really off
Scene 24 – we are not alone
Scene 25 – take him out
Scene 26 – the medal
Scene 27 - The satellite is out
Scene 28 – Trapped in Zhytomyr
Scene 29 – Prepare to attack the base
Scene 30 - attacking the base
Scene 31 – aftermath of the attack
Scene 32 - Mason talks to Rilco
Scene 33 - Earthquake
Scene 35 - Walking talk part 1
Scene 36 - Walking talk part 2
Scene 37 - Finding footprints
Scene 38 - resting point (Rilco vs. Chief)
Scene 39 – Mason flashback - Irak
Scene 40 - resting point (Mason and Harley)
Scene 41 - resting point (Rilco and sarge)
Scene 42 - A funny feeling
Scene 43 - The torture spot
Scene 44 - The analysis
Scene 45 - Rilco gets cut
Scene 46 - Calling for back-up
Scene 47 - operation
Scene 48 - The stand-off part 1
Scene 49 - The stand-off part 2
Scene 50 - The stand-off part 3
Scene 51 - Harleys confrontation
Scene 52 – Storm and rain part 1
Scene 53 – Storm and rain part 2
Scene 54 – Storm and rain part 3
Scene 55 - Meaking peace with the creature
Scene 56 - Nightmare
Scene 57 - Morning missing sarge
Scene 58 – Sarge getting killed
Scene 59 - Debating
Scene 60 – Harley dies
Scene 61 – Harleys body
Scene 62 - Mason leaves Rilco
Scene 63 – Rilco is weak and alone
Scene 64 - Mason crawls and dies
Scene 65 – Rilco finding courage
Scene 66 - Rilco vs. the creature
Scene 67 – Why did you let me live?
Scene 68 – Epilogue






Casting

When casting on a small budget production like this movie, you can't expect to do a long casting where you interview 1000s or 100s of people. You can't think that you will find the missing pieces to create the story. You have to make the story work with what you have.

So each part was written to fit each actor.



Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Posters

4. Green flare version


3. Grunge version

2. black & white version

1. Original sin version





Saturday, May 18, 2013

Inspiration

We wanted to make a original movie. But the idea of the movie is of course inspired by several other movies, and obviously on several levels. So we wanted to explain how and where we put in inspiration.  And of course we want to say that we never intended to copy any movies. If the simularities are to close, then consider them tributes.

01 Predator (1989)
Obviously the story is similar, but the main theme that we were inspired by, was the depth, developement and relationships of characters. No character is copied, no character is even inspired by this movie, but the way they interact. The tuff intensity of each character, and the feeling of being alone in the jungle with dangers around them.

02 Star Wars (1977)
Okay, first of all, this is not going to be as revolutionary as the original star wars. But after seeing a documentary about Star Wars and how it was created. We wanted to mimic the independency of this movie. And also the sounds and music that was very different from what was popular. We wanted to have the same kind of intro that would capture the attention of the viewer. The sounds that were original and gave life and intensity to the movie.

03 Aliens (1986)
The most impressive thing about this movie, is in the middle part where the team is alone on a alien planet, surrounded by dangerous creatures around. This is the emotional theme that we wanted to capture.

04 Tears of the sun (2003)
The professionalism and doubt of the main characters here is just so intense, that was truly inspiring for the script writing.

05 Fight club (1999)
We wanted to have the dirty look of this movie. The cinematography and its intensity. Of course it would be very different, since our movie was mostly film in the forest. So it would be a intense challenge.

06 I am Legend (2008)
the movie had this intense cinematography that truly created to illusion of solitude. And we wanted that feeling.

07 Resident evil (2002)
We simply loved the music and intensity here. But mostly it is the music here.



Sunday, May 12, 2013

Quotes from the movie

coming soon..



Trivia

Did you know section

Accidents happen often on movie productions. Dave accidently hit Tommy in the face while making a fight sequence. According to the Tommy, the nose was almost broken from the hit.

There were two latex masks in the movie. Since they were so life like, they were given the nick names "Grumpy" and "Arnold".

First day of shooting took place 14 sept 2012.

Last day of principle photography took place aug 5 2013.

Early in the beginning of the movie there is a scene, called "Rainy rest", the cast was going to shoot the chopper scene, but it started raining, and would not stop. So they sat down and ate. The Director started filming, and suddenly a deer approached them. The scene just gave such production value and was added to the story. According to the director this scene is one of his favorites.

A "earthquake scene" was scripted, but not filmed. When it was to be filmed, the director changed his mind, to save daylight for more important scenes.

Rilcos sniper medal is actually a bowling medal.

To make the vests look more realistic, they had to be filled, but since the actors were not trained soldiers. The content of the vests were "socks and t-shirts".

Director had one rule when instructing the actors. Characters are not allowed to smile. This would set the tone for the acting.

Funny thing happened that the director did get a hold of real and very sharp combat knives. But since he was worried that the actors would accidently hurt themselves, he changed his mind last minute, and no real knives were to be used. Robin asked if he could have the knife, and the director gave it as a gift to him. Of course the next day Robin cut himself on the knife while cutting up a piece of bread.

Since the crew did not have time to practice lines, and filming was only done during the weekends, the director had the idea of filming every scene, using blue screens, filming himself performing every line of the movie. He calls this "moving storyboard".

All four characters have one line that they had in the previous movie "the Consultant" (2012). The director did this for fun when he wrote the script.

Robin has the line: "We're not alone".
Markus has the line: "I'm simply saying"
David has the line:
Tommy has the line: "I like it"
These lines were said in both this movie, and the consultant by the same actors.

The camouflage color of the military outfits that the main characters use are wrong for the location topography. They wear desert camouflage  The main reason for this was that the paradox of making this movie, that the clothes are supposed to hide the characters, but in order to make them more visible in the movie, the bright colors of the clothes contrasted them from the dark forest.

The picture that David (Rilco) holds of his fiancee, is actually the directors wife, and Robins sister.

Since there were only 4 main actors, the illusion of bad guys and good guys was done using baklavas and also latex face masks.

There was a total of five cameras used to shot this movie. The main camera was the Canon 600D (T3i), and for action paced scenes, we used the Samsung WB2000. Some slow motion and wide angled shots were done with GoPro hero 3 (black edition). Also used for steady shots, was the Panasonic HC-V 720. And there are a few shots that were done with the iPhone 5.

The first budget for this movie was 300 EUR. But at present time it is closer to 2000 EUR.

About Ending (SPOILER ALERT)

In the first version of the script, the creature dies.



FAQ

Question: what is the movie about?

Answer: 
you can read more about it here: http://thedeserters-officialsite.blogspot.se/p/story-synopsis.html. 
but basically its about four soldiers desertering a battlefield, and try to find their way home to the base through a forest in which evil lurks. 


Question: How did the movie get funded?

Answer: 
Low budget, really low, between 2000-3000 dollars. Which was paid out of the pocket of the Director (Tommy Starsson). And everything was done by ourselves. We did the music, we filmed without permission, we didn't have good microphones, so we did a lot of ADR (automated Dialogue Replacement. We did as much as we could with what we had.


Question: Why Didn't you try to get it financed through KickStarter?

Answer: 
Because that would defeat the purpose of the idea of trying to create something by our selves. The movie was a great lot of fun, and once you talk about money, it becomes something else. When art turns commercial, it doesn't stop being art, and we don't mind making money on this movie, but the problem is that we don't want to get involved with commercial aspects, and so the movie won't be commercial unless someone asks to commercialize it. 


Question: What kind of computer was used for the editing?

Answer: 
Believe it or not, but the entire movie was edited on a 2012 mac mini (i7 processor). For those who say it can't be done, we tell you that it really can be done. All editing, all effects and color grading was done on this little machine of wonder. Everything was edited with the software Final Cut pro X. 





Soon will be more...

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Thursday, May 9, 2013

10 min (!) Behind the scenes feature "about the movie"

here is a new movie clip.
A 10 minute (!) behind the scenes feature called
"about the movie".

Enjoy:




Teaser for "bloopers from hell"

Now you can see the Teaser for the upcoming blooper-reel "bloopers from hell".
Enjoy.



Friday, May 3, 2013

Production diary / progress


In the summer of 2012 we (AgnosCinema crew) wanted to create a 2nd sequel to our first short movie Fruit Wars. We wanted however to make it a bit longer. And we had been discussing it so long, that Tommy Starsson wrote the script, and we met at a Coffee shop in Helsingborg, to discuss how to make this movie. But after describing the ideas of "Fruit Wars 3" we realized that we wanted to make something more serious. And Tommy wrote a new script, for something called "the Deserters". 


We probably took most inspiration to the classic movie "Predator" among others. But we realized after the rookie project "the Consultant" that it would be expensive. Because the devil works in the smallest details. The make up, the clothing, the sounds. 

We knew that the only way to make a movie worth watching considering our low budget and resources was that we would focus to make the best of what we had. 

In other words, we would have to make the best possible color grading, sound effects, script. Basically starting from making a very interesting introduction, then to exciting scenes and completing the film with a satisfying ending. 

And to make the movie good in that aspect, we would have to make sure that every detail is superb, and completely convincing. We basically had to hide the fact that our resources and knowledge was no where near the expertis of famous movie makers and basically everyone else in Hollywood. 

Everything starts with the DSLR Canon 600D, this is the main thing that made the movie even possible, because the camera has so many possibilities. 

The movie took a long time to make, and while writing this we are still not finished, and have a long way to go. In a way we are on several levels of the process. We are still in pre-production on certain areas, and in post production on others. And to add, we havent even filmed half the scenes yet. 

The movie will be released for free, because this movie project is not and has never been about money. We make movies because we love making movies. 




Interviews

here is a new movie clip.
A 10 minute (!) behind the scenes feature called
"about the movie".

Enjoy:




Story boards


As detailed as the script was, it never gives the emotional level of understanding the characters and their actions. There is this moment where Harley hides from the group and takes a sip from his bottle. And he remembers a horrible memory of war.

The script tells all this, but in order to see how it would look, and how we had to shoot the scene, we needed good story boards to help us understand our own movie.

more coming soon...



Costume design

To get the right feeling of this era of time, we needed to find the perfect costumes, that would make no sense in military sense. They had to show that the characters are of military background, but that there wasn't a established military economy.

That is why the heroes in this movie carry military clothes of desert khaki material, and are also not size regulated. This further developes the image that the soldiers in this post apocalyptic time take on whatever clothing is available.

It was also important that each character had a distinctive look. The sarge, had a barret to show that he was the guy in charge. Harley and Mason have more neutral clothings, and yet distinctive in their own ways. Harley had a boney hat, which gives a sense of silky smooth red neck bad boy attitude. And Mason has a cap, which give his eyes a mysterious look. As if he carries a dark secret, which he does obviously.

And finally Rilco, who has a green military bandana, to show that he is the bad boy of the unit, which goes hand in hand with him being the newbie of the group, the guy who stands outside the group. Which is key in his development in the story. 

Still all four have the same military clothing under, to show that they were a unit, and also part of a greater army, which can be seen in some sequences. 

The riffles also play a role in their distinctive looks. For instance, Mason is a pillar of strength, and he therefor has the heaviest riffle. He also carries a pump riffle, which is massive in size and effect, which implodes in the characters ripple effect on the group. 














Sound editing


coming soon...



Cinematography


Cinematography is so important for a movie. Without it, it would just be sounds and images. But having the vision to film from certain locations, and in ways that would incapsulate the theme of a story, is the essence of a good movie. 

The story in the script was very dark, and post apocalyptic. So everything had to be in sync. The main music was finished early by the main composer (and actor) Mark. That helped to shape the feeling of the movie in a way we never thought possible. 


We had to start from something. It could have been only the story boards, or only the script. But in essence, everything in this movie had som symbolize decay, hopelessness and emptiness. 


The heroes are not just alone, they are as if alone in the world. They struggle to survive, and to make that transition and tension real, the cinematography had to be just right.

We had to focus on the clothing of the main characters, we had to focus on the bad guy outfits. The locations that surround them. Fire and smoke, dirt and wilderness. 

The main theme of the cinematography was basically Jason Vorphees vs. into the wild. In other words, the dangers and fears of horror versus that secluded feeling of being alone in the forest. Alone and surviving, just like it was written into our bone marrow. 


This goes even as deep as the flash back moments, the apocalyptic intro. Everything has to connect. we had to complete this vision of vast solitude and inventive spirit that transcends from within. 





Making the music



software: Fruit Loops




The main composer for the Deserters was Mark who is also playing Harley. After many discussions with the director a new sound was created just for this movie. It was the kind of music that would enhance the feeling of sollitude and dispair. 

Mark made a couple of scores for this movie and the songs will be shown on this page soon. 



 When you think about the kind of music that you hear in movies, they often reflect on the emotions of the main character or the moment in a scene. 

In this movie we had three different composers making tracks for different purposes. But the main scores were composed by Mark. And with a lot of hard work he created some of the finest music scores ever. 


Mathias made a couple of ambient sounds for certain scenes that worked as catalysts for the emotional back layers. 

And Robin made a couple of tracks for certain moments of excitement. Robin and Mathias tracks work as oppositites to the tracks that Mark made.

We will be releasing a behind the scenes documentary how this process was made and how the composer was inspired and also how he was able to connect his music to the emotions of the scenes. 

main tracks

01 Stalker theme

02 Hunters Path

03 Fearsum Fruit

04 FinalFrutyfear

05 Siberian massacre










CREATED BY AGNOSCINEMA  - 
AGNOSCINEMA.BLOGSPOT.COM






Thursday, May 2, 2013

VFX

Since this is a action packed war/horror movie, we had to make a lot of things in post production which we didn't have in our budget.

Tank, attack choppers, real weapons. And the weapon part was probably the most time consuming special effect we worked with.

Once you get the sound right, you have to make the gun look realistic in action. We added smoke, muzzle flash, flying bullets and quick cuts.

All to create that magic illusion of modern cinema. That we were using real weapons. In reality we used Soft airgun riffles from china (!)

And in post production we made those bad boys look as real as we could.

The key of making a good weapon special effect, is to enhance certain reality checks, and downsize volume on the effect.

Basically means, you have to make it look big, and yet make it smaller at the same time, so it doesn't look forced. A artform that we are still struggling with, while working in post production.

But we really hope we can create the effects that will blow (and trick) your mind. And make you believe at least for a moment, that we are using real weapons.