Over the course of the last seven months I have been shooting stills and time-lapse video for a feature film called A Century of November. This will be the film adaptation of the novel of the same name written by W. D. Wetherell and adapted for the screen by noted screenwriter Jay Wolpert. For producers Nicolas Awde and Patrick Stark, this has been a labor of love for almost five years.
On Saturday, February 12th, almost 100 cast and crew gathered in Mission, BC to shoot the promotional trailer for the film. With Co-producer Patrick Stark at the helm and cinematographer Joel Ransom behind the cameras, we forged through a blustery wet day in the mud.
Other key crew members include First Assistant Director Jack Hardy, Production Designer Peter Lando, Costume Designer Monique Prudhomme, Visual Effects Supervisor John Gajdecki, Key Grip Tony Whiteside, Stunt Coordinator JJ Makaro, and Props Master Jimmy Chow.
The promo was captured with a combination of Panavision Genesis cameras as well as Arriflex 435 film cameras and Kodak's 5219 Vision 3 film stock, all with Panavision's gorgeous glass. The camera crew also had the epic 50 foot Super Technocrane with the Mega 3 three axis remote head at their disposal.
The set at Project Serenity X was divided into two halves, the first being the elaborate trench set and the second being "No Man's Land", the lethal bombed out space separating enemy and friendly lines on the western front. These were constructed one piece at a time over the course of the last five months. As the local coniferous trees and foliage do not accurately match those found in France and Belgium, both blue and green screens were employed to enable the Visual Effects team to composite the war torn backgrounds of the era.
Below are some of my images and time lapse from the set. Over the course of 12 hours I captured over 600 raw files and my three time-lapse cameras shot more than 35,000 jpegs!
Co-Producer & Promo Director Patrick Stark.
Co-Producer Nicolas Awde.
Cinematographer Joel Ransom & Patrick Stark watch the monitors at video village.
The 11:1 Primo Zoom. An optical marvel. 24-275mm at a fixed T2.8.
