ITP Production

THAT'S A WRAP!

2007-09-21T21:24:00.000-07:00

Seriously nice work everyone. Everyone on the show contributed in a huge way to the success of the shoot. Thanks for the efforts. I'll post a cut up on this site as soon as I can.

Here's some pics:

SHOOTING SCRIPT

2007-09-19T22:48:00.000-07:00

When I listen to music that inspires me for this show, this is the cut I see in my head. This story can be cut down to represent exactly what's in the boards, but I'd rather provide more to the editor than less.

Open on:
reveal woman at sink - push into her as she washes dishes.
cut to:
a tight shot of the plates and then up to her face.
Cut to:
frontal shot - the blood streams down her nose
cut to:
blood drop falls past woman
cut to:
blood drips into sink - boom (woman is touches her nose in the background)
cut to:
woman considers the blood on her finger (what tha? - concern)
cut to:
Vroom! Car passes close to camera and turns corner.
Cut to:
Car drives towards camera and passes - Vroom!
cut to:
Woman gets out of car and walks up steps to hospital.
cut to:
reveal woman in chair, a tube is hooked to her arm. The doctor holds the glass canister while she takes the blood.
cut to:
Woman smiles at doctor (am I going to be okay?)
Cut to:
Doctor gives woman a warm smile ( you are going to be okay) - push in
Cut to:
Woman relaxes and tilts head back.
Cut to:
ECU of doctor
Cut to:
Woman leaves (out of focus) pan to reveal doctor considering bottle in close up.
Cut to:
Close on hanging bottle ped / pan down following blood through lines revealing doctor taking blood.
(alternate: push in on doctor starting wide and then end ECU of blood line)
Cut to:
Closer blood line
transition to:
Swoosh into blood line
transition to:
Animation
Transition to:
ECU test tube with blood - pull back to reveal modern day scientist

HAIR

2007-09-18T11:33:00.000-07:00

SHOOTING SCHEDULE

2007-09-18T09:40:00.000-07:00

Thursday, September 20, 2007
5. Car driving shot on road in Presidio - shoot through a grove of trees.
5A. Car drives around corner at VA Hospital
6. Woman arrives at the Hospital, gets out and walks to Hospital.

8. WS Woman sits in chair giving blood
7. Blood flows through clear tubing (couple different angles on this)
9. Close up Blood collection bag or glass container
10. Close up - IV in Woman's arm

12. Close up - Blood in glass container (tilt down to reveal doctor)
13. CU - IV tube entering doctor - same axis as shot 8 (step in)
11. Doctor considers blood - Woman walks out in background.

3. MS Underwater Cam - blood drips into water - slow motion
4. ECU Underwater Cam - Blood spreads - slow motion

1. WS Woman stands at sink.
1A. CU Woman at sink.
2. MS Woman stands at sink washing dishes - blood drips from nose - notices blood.

14. CU dolly pull to MS of lab technician holding up vial of blood

CHARACTERS

2007-09-14T09:09:00.000-07:00

Dr. Harrington (27) is a research doctor focused on solving the mystery of ITP. He conducted the blood exchange experiment in 1950.

Woman (30's) was the patient suffering from ITP that Dr. Harrington used for his experiment. He put her blood in his body.

MEET OUR TALENT

SHOT BREAKDOWN

2007-09-13T15:50:00.000-07:00

1. WS Woman stands at sink.

We are building this set on a stage very much as you see it. The color palette for this set will fall in the cooler tones... grays and blues to punctuate the blood. Our talents wardrobe will also be in the cooler tones. The room will appear to be naturally lit by sun streaming through the windows. Outside we won't see anything but white. I might even toy with seeing a bit of flare as if the sun is literally falling through the window. The talent will be washing dishes, slowly, calmly. She isn't rushed. The camera will push in slowly towards the woman. I would like to have a foreground element such as a breakfast room table with some elements on the table... salt and pepper, napkin holder...something to that effect. This will give us a little bit of depth.

If we are on schedule I will probably want to push the camera in from this angle and cover her action in a close up to give the editor choices.

2. MS Woman stands at sink washing dishes - blood drips from nose - notices blood.

In this shot we will turn around and bring in a wall behind the talent to play as the other side of the kitchen. The talent will be well lit by the simulated sun coming through the window. I want to try having the woman's face slightly in shadow. The wall behind her matches the cool color palette of the rest of the kitchen. The wall will be sparsely decorated with a small painting or some wall decoration. The back wall will be underexposed as the sunlight is not hitting it. I imagine a slow push in here as she discovers the blood dripping from her nose. I am going to take the action a bit further than in the boards and have her actually put her hand up, touch the blood and look at it. This will occur in the sequence after the blood drops into the water. We will work to have the blood appear from her nose and then drip.

While we are in this set-up I am going to push in and get an out of focus plate shot of the woman's chest so that we can choose to add an animated droplet of blood dropping through frame. This is, of course, if we have the time.

3. MS Underwater Cam - blood drips into water - slow motion

John Micheletos is building a rig for this shot. Its going to be a wood platform standing 5 or so feet height. A Plexiglas box will sit on top of the platform. The platform will have a square cut out so we can look up through the Plexiglas to the surface. The talent will be positioned over the makeshift sink. We will then drop the blood. We'll shoot at 60 fps so when the blood hits, it spreads in slow motion... dramatic. All of the props will be in the cooler tones so the red blood will really pop.

4. ECU Underwater Cam - Blood spreads - slow motion
If we have the time, I'd like to reposition the camera to the side of the Plexiglas tank and shoot a ECU of the blood spreading. We can put something white behind the blood to emulate the side of the sink. It will be out of focus.

5. Car driving shot on road in Presidio - shoot through a grove of trees.
This shot is a nice to have if we have time after shooting at the Vet Hospital. There's a place in the Presidio where we can set up the camera in the trees and then follow the hero car as it drives down a wooded road past us. We'll use natural light. There are no structures and if we don't see any other cars, the road can easily play for 1950.

6. Woman arrives at the Hospital, gets out and walks to Hospital.
In this shot, the woman will open the door of the hero car. The camera will push towards her on the dolly as she gets out and closes the door. The camera will follow her as she walks towards the hospital. The car will remain in the foreground. We will rack and tilt up to reveal the building to which she is walking (the VA hospital).

7. Blood flows through clear tubing (couple different angles on this)
This is another nice to have, but it will give the editor choices in post. While we have the tube set up, I'd like to frame a static shot of the tube and have blood flow through the tubing through frame. I'd like to have a loop in the tube to make the frame more dynamic. We'll try for a series of three of these shots. This shot will take place in the doctor's office set-up.

8. Woman sits in chair giving blood
In the doctor's office set-up, the woman will be laying on a medical bed and giving blood. The doctor will be sitting next to her holding the bottle of blood. A needle will appear to be in her arm. Blood will be flowing through the tubes into the bottle taking the blood.

9. Close up Blood collection bag or glass container
While we are in this set up I figured we punch in and get a close up of the blood in the glass container being held by the doctor.

10. Close up - IV in Woman's arm
More texture. More options for the editor. Punch in and get a close up of the woman's arm.

11. Doctor considers blood
This shot captures the doctor sitting in a chair next to the desk looking at the blood. We'll capture it wide and close with two focal lengths. The doctor considers the hero glass container with the blood.

12. Close up - Blood in glass container (tilt down to reveal doctor)

13. CU - IV tube entering doctor - same axis as shot 8 (step in)

14. CU dolly pull to MS of lab technician holding up vial of blood

THE STORY

2007-09-10T20:26:00.001-07:00

If you are interested in reading the real story behind our film, you can download it here.

SHOT LIST

2007-09-10T19:52:00.000-07:00

Note: The shots in red are shots that we must get. The rest are "nice to haves."

1. WS Woman stands at sink.
1A. CU Woman at sink.
2. MS Woman stands at sink washing dishes - blood drips from nose - notices blood.
3. MS Underwater Cam - blood drips into water - slow motion
4. ECU Underwater Cam - Blood spreads - slow motion
5. Car driving shot on road in Presidio - shoot through a grove of trees.
5A. Car drives around corner at VA Hospital
6. Woman arrives at the Hospital, gets out and walks to Hospital.
7. Blood flows through clear tubing (couple different angles on this)
8. Woman sits in chair giving blood
9. Close up Blood collection bag or glass container
10. Close up - IV in Woman's arm
11. Doctor considers blood - Woman walks out in background.
12. Close up - Blood in glass container (tilt down to reveal doctor)
13. CU - IV tube entering doctor - same axis as shot 8 (step in)
14. CU dolly pull to MS of lab technician holding up vial of blood

PHOTOGRAPHY

2007-09-10T10:40:00.001-07:00

We are shooting with the HPX500.

Photographically, we have two, high-level objectives: Give the film a beautiful look and make sure the blood pops. Our recipe for the beautiful look will be the 35mm lens adapter, a set of 35mm primes, large source lights, a bit of smoke to put the shafts of light in play and decrease the contrast of video and monochromatic production design and costuming.

In order to enhance the red color of the blood and make it pop, we are going to shoot everything cool... the warmest the light will be is white. From an art direction standpoint, all props, counters tops, wardrobe, will be on the cooler side as well or gray. If everything stays in these tones then we will have a nice color contrast with the blood and we can easily isolate the red apart from the background and have good control over that color contrast. In the final color correction we can then warm up the cool background without mudding up the blood red.

PRODUCTION DESIGN / PROPS

2007-09-10T10:39:00.002-07:00

Here's how I see us laying out the sets on the stage floor. This could change when we get in the space but these are my initial thoughts.

Giving Blood in the 1950's. Blood drains into a bag down low. The woman giving blood needs to be lying down. This is true to the story as it is told.

Receiving Blood in the 1950's. Blood flows out of a glass bottle from up high. When Dr. Harrington receives blood he will be sitting in a chair.

THE BLOOD
We need to pay special attention to the blood. Its viscosity, color, the way it works dripping out of the woman's nose and the way it works in the water. We might have to use different bloods for different applications. John Micheletos is the master of liquids. He will help us achieve the right blood.

When the blood enters the water, I'd like to shoot 60fps to see the blood diffuse into the water in slow motion. This will be an impactful moment. Imagine a low and quiet boom when it hits. Here is a video to inspire our eye for liquids.

VFX

2007-09-10T10:39:00.001-07:00

We have single composite shot that we need to achieve. After the film runs through the explanation animation of ITP the camera pulls out of the blood to reveal a modern day scientist holding a vial of blood. The camera continues to pull back through a window and then to an exterior of the modern day lab which, as it turns out, is the Amgen building.

To achieve this shot, we will capture a modern day scientist and a background scientist in front of a green screen. The practical camera will pull back from a close up the vial into a wide shot of the Scientists. Where the dolly stops, the CG camera will take over pulling back through the window into the exterior shot of the building.

Here are some critical choices that we need to make:

Speed of Dolly - Slow to give more tween resolution
Lens choice - Needs to be the same for practical and CG camera
Background slate - What is this going to be?

REFERENCES :

This is a wide lens. We see too much floor. Would be very hard to composite a wide shot like this.

I like the shallow depth of field but this will make it tough to pull back the CG camera into a wide shot of the building unless we switch lenses when we make the transition from practical camera to CG camera.

This is better framing. We could pullback and sell the window from here. Would be easier to composite. Medium lens plays the background slightly out of focus and will allow us to achieve a wideshot of the building within a reasonable amount of distance.

Another example of a good set-up for the final shot. This background could be composited in this photo. Its a medium lens. We could pull back several feet and sell the notion that a window is realistically just behind camera for us to fly through. We would avoid seeing feet / floor.

I just think this shot is cool.

WARDROBE

2007-09-10T10:35:00.000-07:00

Our Wardrobe choice:

The Woman (we are calling her Betty).

Inspired by...

The Woman
We want to dress the Woman in her homemaker clothes.

References

I'd like to find an outfit that is on the cooler side or grey. That way we an keep the overall tone of the image on the cool side of the spectrum.

Here's example of keeping the tones of the set and the wardrobe similar.

LOCATIONS

2007-09-10T10:33:00.001-07:00

THE PLAN
We are going to shoot this show entirely on a stage. We're gonna build the kitchen and the doctor's office. We plan to have two days of pre-light and pre-build on location to prepare and then a single day of shooting. We've selected the first floor of Dog Patch Studios for our stage. Click here to check out the studio.

Studio floor plan:

Below is a breakdown of our physical sets and locations:

Set: 1950's Style Kitchen
Our original intention was to bring in everything we need including the kitchen sink and dress an empty wall, but if we can find a 1950's sink in the Presidio that would be outstanding.

Set: Underwater shot
I'd like to dedicate a space on set to building and lighting the underwater sink shot. The only requirement for the space is that it have enough room to build the tank and light. I think a 30'X30' space would be sufficient.

Location: Car Driving Shot
If we can get 1950's car, I'd like to find a street location near our stage or hospital location to shoot a driving scene. The shot needs to play for 1950's. To help us out here, I will shoot tight and throw the background out of focus but we need to keep in mind that we can't have any billboards, etc. in the background that give away the time period. I plan to shoot this shot in the Presidio through a grove of trees.

Set: Doctor's office Lab Chair for giving blood
This could be a simple, plane corner in any room. I'd like to be able to change the wall color with either paper or painting. We will be shooting two walls.

Location Exterior Hospital (should look 1950's)
We want to shoot the talent approaching the building. We'll be shooting the VA hospital.

Other Location shots including General Hospital, Presidio Street Shots, Treasure Island, More VA & JCC:
Click Here:

Set: Modern Lab
The modern lab is going to be a green screen composite shot. For this shot we only need a room that we can set up a green screen and pre-light. The shot will be of a scientist framed knee up. This needs to be a fairly large room so that we have the room to dolly the camera back into our final framing.

BOARDS

2007-09-07T17:17:00.000-07:00

High Level Live Action Boards
Download (pdf)

Detailed Boards
Download (pdf)

TREATMENT

2007-09-07T14:30:00.000-07:00

The ITP Film acts as a lead-in to an animation that explains what ITP is. ITP stands for Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura. Its hard to pronounce and explain. For more information about the disease visit Wikipedia.

Our objective with the live action portion of the film is to tell the story of how Dr. Harrington discovered the physiology of ITP by injecting himself with the blood of an ITP patient.

Here are the shots in brief:

The film opens with a woman standing in front of her kitchen sink washing dishes. From her nose a drop of blood appears and then drops into the sink. Surprised the woman touches he fingers to face and then pulls it away to see blood.

The woman then walks to into hospital.

She sits in a chair as blood is taken from her arm.

The blood drips into a glass bottle.

We follow the blood the flows through a tube that's now inserted into the arm of Dr. Harrington.

Whoosh! The camera enters the tube and flows into Dr. Harrington's bloodstream.

The animation explains ITP.

Whoosh! The camera pulls out of the blood and reveals a modern day scientist holding up a vile of blood. The camera continues to pull back moving through a plate of glass and then reveals the a building.

HIGH LEVEL APPROACH

The boards are a great starting point. Ultimately the film will take on a sepia look. The blood will stay red to stand out against the sepia. We'll give the images a surreal tone. The lighting will be dramatic and contrasty. The doctor's office will be lit with pools of light a la Bob Richardson. We don't want to go scary dramatic but more top lit dramatic. There is a dreamy element to this opening. It's set in the 1950's and the story is practically a legend so we should treat it as such...maybe like a memory.

PHOTOGRAPHIC APPROACH
Photographically, we have two, high-level objectives: Give the film a beautiful look and make sure the blood pops. Our recipe for the beautiful look will be the 35mm lens adapter, a set of 35mm primes, large source lights, a bit of smoke to put the shafts of light in play and decrease the contrast of video and monochromatic production design and costuming.

In order to enhance the red color of the blood and make it pop, we are going to shoot everything cool... the warmest the light will be is white. From an art direction standpoint, all props, counters tops, wardrobe, will be on the cooler side as well or gray. If everything stays in these tones then we will have a nice color contrast with the blood and we can easily isolate the red apart from the background and have good control over that color contrast. In the final color correction we can then warm up the cool background without mudding up the blood red.

PRODUCTION DESIGN
Production design will be play a key role in the look of this film. In every shot, the elements placed on set should have a cool or gray color tone so that we can push our whole palette in the cool direction. This will work to isolate the blood red.

Here's an example of a room dressed in all shades of gray.

Monochromatic look with red popping

I like the shades of blue on the wall.

This a period piece set in the 1950's so all of the props and dressing need to be from that period. The props in the doctor's office such as the IV unit need to of the time.

PRODUCTION LOGISTICS
Our goal is to achieve all of the shots in a single day. To make this possible, we plan to have all set-ups built, dressed and lit prior to the day of shooting. Therefore we should be able to role the camera into position, turn on the lights and roll camera.

We will select a location in the Presidio that will allow us different rooms for different set-ups.

We will have two days for build and pre-light on location.

TALENT
Even though the talent does not speak in this performance, special attention should be paid to their look. The actors will be required to deliver nuanced performances that communicate the feelings that the actual patient and doctor felt at the time.