Lessons From Daddy
Katie Bevell is a producer and, since her background is very much production-orientated, also the line producer of the 14-minute short Daddy (working title), a dark drama which explores how Damien’s involvement with a paedophile ring affects his previously healthy relationship with his own children.
Why did she use HD? “Well, in 2004 I investigated HD for another shoot. I had shot one project on BetaSP and two on Super 16., so it was a natural step to try HD.”
“Our DoP Duncan Telford has shot a lot of HD , and can handle any technical issues. Daddy was pitched to me and my producer partner Bennett McGhee by Director Martin Stitt.“
“Everybody is talking about HD nowadays, and this gave us a chance to try it out. Paradoxically, we wanted to avoid HD’s clean, crisp look, so we hired a P&S lens and a 35 mm prime lens with a Pro-35 adapter to fit on VMI’s HD 750 camera.“
Explains Martin Stitt: “ These enabled us to soften all the hard edges, and we chose an aspect ratio of 2.35, again to suit the style of the film.The low budget -£6,000 - dictated our choice of HD as a medium, plus the fact that VMI were hugely supportive technically.”
“One incredibly emotional 40-minute counselling scene had to be shot twice: the cost of conventional film would have broken the budget.”
“Also, kids are completely uncontrollable, so we needed to shoot the party-scenes verité-style, which again favoured HD.”
“HD finally won over other formats because of our need to blow up to 35 mm, to get the film onto the top Festival circuit.”
Katie’s final verdict? “Every medium has its idiosyncrasies, and limitations. HD has limited depth-of-field, and too much light can create colour-grading problems. I was an HD first-timer, and would gladly use it again. It is certainly cost-effective, but it can throw up post-production expenses if you are not careful.”
