Cinematography Demo Reel, Erin Roche Galey from Erin Galey on Vimeo.
19 September 2009
13 July 2009
Underwater World Photos from the underwater scene
Paloma, our wonderful set assistant, posing with the sea turtles
Chris Broe - breaking down our lighting set up
Me and David, the Dive Master, shooting scenes with the kazoo
That's me, directing from underwater. Seriously, this is a little ridiculous that I get to do this with my life.
Shooting some scenes - that's me on the left with the camera rig
me from underwater -- peace! We used a 1200 watt HMI to achieve the silhouette we were looking for.
Chris Broe, world's greatest camera assistant, prepping the camera for the dive. Thanks Mark Wiltshire for the underwater housing, and to Ajill at Bigfoot Industries for lending us a surfboard. And of course, to my Dad for giving me that old kazoo in the first place.
David the dive master going over the dive with me.
A little refresh on our hand signals.
Big fish tanks. Lots of fish. Good diving. hee hee.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pipe. For real.
01 February 2009
Wrapped! Production Notes...
Kindred Spirit - Wrapped!
Hey folks. Long time no update - after getting Kindred Spirit IN THE CAN (uproarious applause!!!!!!!!), I went straight onto Alexa Caravia’s BRIGHT. Then straight home for the holidays, then back to produce Eric Elofson’s MASTER OF HIS DOMAIN, to finish the 2nd year production period at Tisch Asia. We’ve been flat out for almost 3 months on productions. I’m actually wrote this somewhere over the Pacific on my way back home for the holiday after a 12 hour day on Alexa’s set, wrapping 10 hours before my flight left the tarmac, and only just now getting around to posting it. Woo! Procrastination!
I couldn’t be happier about the production. I had a small, amazingly dedicated crew of folks who worked their ass off every day for the picture. We accomplished much while having a lot of fun. Dream team is an understatement, they threw everything they had at it. I have butterflies just thinking about it.
I also had a wonderful experience with my actors, who were incredibly brave and really put themselves out there for the roles. I am so grateful to everyone for all their hard work and dedicated, honest energy on this project. I am so fortunate to have worked with each and every one of you.
A small list of people to thank in no particular order:
Eric Elofson, Shivani Khattar, Kyle Haskett, Natasha Capol, Han West, Paul Williams, Jeane Reveendran, JC Crump (aka: Captain BBQ), Laetitia Gangotena, Sean Ng, Sangchul Lee, Kalani Iida, Ajill and all the guys at Bigfoot Industries (Izad, Shahir - thanks for the surfing lessons brah!), David Glassco, Eddie & Cameron Watters, Jason Hoag, my Parents, the Addison H. Gibson Foundation, Christopher, Jenny, and William at Ubin Lodge, Laura Schuster, Angelo Perrino, Jon Hammond, Barbara Schock, David Irving, Pennie Dupont, Emlyn Wiliams, Charles Blackwell, Michael Burke, Jenn Ruff, Paul Anderson, Shamin, and Takin at Billabong, Bala at FEG, NYU Production Services, Chris Ciancimino and Kevin Connors who read early drafts, and the 20+ extras who randomly came out to Pulau Ubin to be a part of this production. THANK YOU! MERCI BEAUCOUP! XEI XEI! I could not have made this film without you.
Here’s a brief recap of the week:
In the days leading up to the production, I made some final casting decisions, outfitted my actors with sponsored wardrobe from Billabong (sick!), and started rehearsals with Natasha, who flew in from Malaysia for the week. It was awesome working with her, man. She really did her homework on the character and simultaneously opened me up to the Laban acting technique, which I’d never heard of before and found really useful. Not to mention finding an awesome new friend who totally kicks ass and who is gonna use her spare time to start up a roller derby league in Penang! (oops - did I forget to tell you about that, Tash?? We’ll talk ☺ ).
I was super lucky to discover Paul Williams after numerous casting obstacles for the Andy role. He happened to be in town for the weekend from Kuala Lumpur, and I knew the moment I had him read some lines he was the one. And he understood Andy as well - responding as Andy, staying in character for long amounts of time. He really pushed himself for the role, it was awesome to watch. Turned out he was able to take the whole week off work for the production. Serendipity!!
Paul and Natasha worked together as I continued the search for “Bridget.” We decided on Jeane Reveendren, a student at Lasalle College of the Arts where Tash graduated from last year. She was a real find, a talented actress and total trooper to jump in so last minute like she did (little did she know what I had in store for her for the week… nighttime shots on the water, a sandy bikini fight… muwhahahaahaaha).
It was an amazing experience as a director to see the actors work together to create the characters that made the most sense to them and to the story. They really gave them a life of their own. I loved it when they would disagree with me about something - Natasha saying, “no WAY - Samantha would not do that, I feel like she’d do this instead.” Music to my ears, man. Music.
During the time I was casting/rehearsing, Shivani and Eric worked out camera and production aspects. A special honor should go to them as they jumped straight into work on the production after their return from Shivani’s shoot in India and during simultaneous bouts of Delhi belly. I don’t know how they did it - Elofson especially with only one kidney. You are either a freak or a machine, I can’t decide.
Right before our shoot, I went on a surfing trip to Desaru, Malaysia with the cast to work out our surfing skillz and get to know our characters a little better. Crazy little gem of a spot, and only less than an hour away from Singapore. Admittedly, I should have listened to David Foster Wallace and worn more sunscreen, as it was so much fun that we forgot to stop for anything really. Chest high waves, and we all got some good rides in too!
I let the actors rest the next day as myself, Shivani, and Eric finished the final touches on the location, made camera decisions, and figured out how in the world we were going to come up with 20+ extras for this party. Notwithstanding the obligatory startup obstacles, production was, in my mind, a total success. We were on time, on budget, and got pretty much every shot I had shotlisted and more (which happens how often???). Working with Shivani was nothing short of a dream. I made instant use of her deep wells of patience with a nailbiter decision at the eleventh hour over whether to shoot HD or film. She and Eric were incredibly supportive, and were prepared to go either way. I knew we had the crew for either, but I wasn’t sure in the end what to focus on. In the end, story won out. We went with HD and it was definitely the right choice for this production.
We shot on the Sony EX1, which gave us absolutely stunning digital visual quality, and also allowed us to review what we shot at the end of each night, as well as the freedom to keep rolling on complicated party scenes with lots of extras, choreography in the water, lighting the beach at night, a fight scene, and other such challenges. I’m totally bummed I didn’t get to work on film this year, but there were so many pro’s to HD. Mainly that I saved over half my budget and didn’t go prematurely grey. ☺
There were a lot of highlights to this production, and what we accomplished. The surfer funeral scene, the gorgeous lei’s, the tiki torches, the BBQ, the final scene in the rain, the actors, the crew, and the support that has come from everywhere - friends, family, sponsors, investors… I am so touched, so thrilled, and so grateful.
On that note, I sign off. Stay tuned for updates on shooting the shadow show, notes from the cutting room, screening for Oliver Stone, production stills, and post-production reports.
Many Blessings and Namaste,
Erin Galey
Writer/Director
Hey folks. Long time no update - after getting Kindred Spirit IN THE CAN (uproarious applause!!!!!!!!), I went straight onto Alexa Caravia’s BRIGHT. Then straight home for the holidays, then back to produce Eric Elofson’s MASTER OF HIS DOMAIN, to finish the 2nd year production period at Tisch Asia. We’ve been flat out for almost 3 months on productions. I’m actually wrote this somewhere over the Pacific on my way back home for the holiday after a 12 hour day on Alexa’s set, wrapping 10 hours before my flight left the tarmac, and only just now getting around to posting it. Woo! Procrastination!
I couldn’t be happier about the production. I had a small, amazingly dedicated crew of folks who worked their ass off every day for the picture. We accomplished much while having a lot of fun. Dream team is an understatement, they threw everything they had at it. I have butterflies just thinking about it.
I also had a wonderful experience with my actors, who were incredibly brave and really put themselves out there for the roles. I am so grateful to everyone for all their hard work and dedicated, honest energy on this project. I am so fortunate to have worked with each and every one of you.
A small list of people to thank in no particular order:
Eric Elofson, Shivani Khattar, Kyle Haskett, Natasha Capol, Han West, Paul Williams, Jeane Reveendran, JC Crump (aka: Captain BBQ), Laetitia Gangotena, Sean Ng, Sangchul Lee, Kalani Iida, Ajill and all the guys at Bigfoot Industries (Izad, Shahir - thanks for the surfing lessons brah!), David Glassco, Eddie & Cameron Watters, Jason Hoag, my Parents, the Addison H. Gibson Foundation, Christopher, Jenny, and William at Ubin Lodge, Laura Schuster, Angelo Perrino, Jon Hammond, Barbara Schock, David Irving, Pennie Dupont, Emlyn Wiliams, Charles Blackwell, Michael Burke, Jenn Ruff, Paul Anderson, Shamin, and Takin at Billabong, Bala at FEG, NYU Production Services, Chris Ciancimino and Kevin Connors who read early drafts, and the 20+ extras who randomly came out to Pulau Ubin to be a part of this production. THANK YOU! MERCI BEAUCOUP! XEI XEI! I could not have made this film without you.
Here’s a brief recap of the week:
In the days leading up to the production, I made some final casting decisions, outfitted my actors with sponsored wardrobe from Billabong (sick!), and started rehearsals with Natasha, who flew in from Malaysia for the week. It was awesome working with her, man. She really did her homework on the character and simultaneously opened me up to the Laban acting technique, which I’d never heard of before and found really useful. Not to mention finding an awesome new friend who totally kicks ass and who is gonna use her spare time to start up a roller derby league in Penang! (oops - did I forget to tell you about that, Tash?? We’ll talk ☺ ).
I was super lucky to discover Paul Williams after numerous casting obstacles for the Andy role. He happened to be in town for the weekend from Kuala Lumpur, and I knew the moment I had him read some lines he was the one. And he understood Andy as well - responding as Andy, staying in character for long amounts of time. He really pushed himself for the role, it was awesome to watch. Turned out he was able to take the whole week off work for the production. Serendipity!!
Paul and Natasha worked together as I continued the search for “Bridget.” We decided on Jeane Reveendren, a student at Lasalle College of the Arts where Tash graduated from last year. She was a real find, a talented actress and total trooper to jump in so last minute like she did (little did she know what I had in store for her for the week… nighttime shots on the water, a sandy bikini fight… muwhahahaahaaha).
It was an amazing experience as a director to see the actors work together to create the characters that made the most sense to them and to the story. They really gave them a life of their own. I loved it when they would disagree with me about something - Natasha saying, “no WAY - Samantha would not do that, I feel like she’d do this instead.” Music to my ears, man. Music.
During the time I was casting/rehearsing, Shivani and Eric worked out camera and production aspects. A special honor should go to them as they jumped straight into work on the production after their return from Shivani’s shoot in India and during simultaneous bouts of Delhi belly. I don’t know how they did it - Elofson especially with only one kidney. You are either a freak or a machine, I can’t decide.
Right before our shoot, I went on a surfing trip to Desaru, Malaysia with the cast to work out our surfing skillz and get to know our characters a little better. Crazy little gem of a spot, and only less than an hour away from Singapore. Admittedly, I should have listened to David Foster Wallace and worn more sunscreen, as it was so much fun that we forgot to stop for anything really. Chest high waves, and we all got some good rides in too!
I let the actors rest the next day as myself, Shivani, and Eric finished the final touches on the location, made camera decisions, and figured out how in the world we were going to come up with 20+ extras for this party. Notwithstanding the obligatory startup obstacles, production was, in my mind, a total success. We were on time, on budget, and got pretty much every shot I had shotlisted and more (which happens how often???). Working with Shivani was nothing short of a dream. I made instant use of her deep wells of patience with a nailbiter decision at the eleventh hour over whether to shoot HD or film. She and Eric were incredibly supportive, and were prepared to go either way. I knew we had the crew for either, but I wasn’t sure in the end what to focus on. In the end, story won out. We went with HD and it was definitely the right choice for this production.
We shot on the Sony EX1, which gave us absolutely stunning digital visual quality, and also allowed us to review what we shot at the end of each night, as well as the freedom to keep rolling on complicated party scenes with lots of extras, choreography in the water, lighting the beach at night, a fight scene, and other such challenges. I’m totally bummed I didn’t get to work on film this year, but there were so many pro’s to HD. Mainly that I saved over half my budget and didn’t go prematurely grey. ☺
There were a lot of highlights to this production, and what we accomplished. The surfer funeral scene, the gorgeous lei’s, the tiki torches, the BBQ, the final scene in the rain, the actors, the crew, and the support that has come from everywhere - friends, family, sponsors, investors… I am so touched, so thrilled, and so grateful.
On that note, I sign off. Stay tuned for updates on shooting the shadow show, notes from the cutting room, screening for Oliver Stone, production stills, and post-production reports.
Many Blessings and Namaste,
Erin Galey
Writer/Director
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)