Unofficial Tex Murphy

"No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal – the redness and the horror of blood."

There is no doubt we all remember that line from Under a Killing Moon. It is of course extracted from Edgar Allan Poe's short story The Masque of the Red Death.

I first red the poem (pun intended) when I was 12 years old (which was shortly after I experienced Under a Killing Moon, which got me interested) and I remember saying to myself after reading the original of Poe's story "Wow, this would make a great film, can't wait for someone to make it". After I realised I wanted a career in filmmaking I decided "Ah stuff it, I will make it myself".

Now it is my last semester in my course of Media production and filmmaking at Uni and I have been making the film! And it’s BIG. The way I see it, and I have always thought this way; if you are going to do something, do something big, even if everyone tells you it cannot be done. Not only will you make in impression just for putting in the effort, but even if you don’t succeed, the sheer scale would have been enough to give everyone a worthwhile experience, and help their position in the industry.

Anyway, seeing as I have been hella busy with the production I have not had much of a chance to document its progress... but now we are in post production and I have some time to let you all in on the behind the scenes.

It has been 4 months in the making so far… firstly it was the task of turning Poe’s short story into a screenplay… a good friend of mine, Danielle Tinker, who is also a writer was given this task, and after draft number 5 and various re-writes we were able to settle into a very stable script. Click HERE for a synopsis of the film. I cannot release the script until the film if finished sorry. =o(

There were to be only three locations in the entire film… a dirty, gloomy and macabre London Street, in which a man is loading a cart with dead bodies which are strewn across the street (bring our your dead style), a big castle/manor where the prince lives, and the grand ballroom.

We used the University of Sydney for the street and castle locations, as it if full of amazing old buildings, and sandstone streets. As for the ballroom, we settled on the State theatre, here are some loc shots:



Shot of lamppost on top balcony



The Prince's hallway



The Prince's hallway



Floor Tile mosaic



The Grand Ballroom



Now that we had the locations we realized that in order to re-create a very elaborate masquerade ball, we of course needed a lot of extras… not to mention a lot of crew. Basically, this was a hugely ambitious project, much bigger than anyone expected to be pulled of (especially my lecturers)… it was by far one of the biggest productions the Uni has ever seen a student propose and probably the biggest any of the cast and crew have been involved in.

After the rounding up process (which took about 1 month) we had over 60 actors in total, all of which were to be dressed period costumes (ball gowns, etc.)… we also had a crew of about 40… which, alongside the usual roles (DOP, 1st AD, Sound, Art Director, Gaffer, grips, etc) included 12 makeup artists, 2 choreographers, 2 seamstresses, 2 costumers, a musical continuity supervisor, 3 runners, 4 camera assistants, 4 gaffers, and we even stretched as far as a 4th Assistant Director! All of whom were willing to donate their time which was truly amazing! The makeup artists (who came from one of Sydney’s most renowned make-up schools (4-arts) even held a weeks worth of classes specifically dedicated to our film and its style. All of this and of course yours truly was of course the director.

Over the days of October 1st, 2nd and 3rd we shot the film… the camera we used was a Panasonic P2 on the DVC PRO-HD format, at High Definition 720P 25. The P2 camera is famous for being a solid state camera which records footage onto flash cards instead of tape. Whilst this format was new to me, and very intimidating, it did not take long for me to trust it, as we were given no hiccups. 80% of the film was shot using steadicam, in order to give that leering/stalking feel to it. We also has a crane for a few of the shots as well.

Here are some shots our on set photographer took (these are not screen grabs of the film itself):



Me, Andy Worth (DOP) and Chris McHardy (Cam Assist)



The cart 'o' death



Bring out your dead!



Jamil Khuri - Sound Recordist and Boom



Scary Paul - Gaffer, Key Grip (jib and crane) and holdind a 5k light (these lights were bounced of the ceiling to light the scene, wow what a difference they made)



Evan (syeadycam op) with Chris, and cast



Evan (steadycam op)



The Read Death



What happens when you cross the Red Death



She loved evey minute of it (actually went home like this and scared the crap out of her mum)



Balroom scene and guests



Balroom scene and guests



Balroom scene and guests



One of the elaborate Masquarade masks



The ebony clock



More guests getting into character


Our prince Prospero... funny story: He came on board 2 days before the shoot, original person to play prince pulled out a week before for a gig with "more exposure and money"...I saw him shortly afterwards on a Burger King TV commercial. This guy, however, was awesome, and worked well despite the last minute recruitment.



Prince again.



Guests look onto the shoot from above.



I swear those two are pashing in the background.



It is hard work being an extra... 14 hour days.



Prince being Dr. Evil



A musician... this one played the Cello.



The Read Death looking deathly.



One of our more distinguished guests.



Albert... from Chamelot, just in town to enjoy the party.



He was quite intense.



Justine with a touch of purple.



A touch of glamour.




So far we are in the editing phase of post production, editing using Final Cut Pro. As much as I hated it, I have succumbed to using the Mac… but I am not the editor, so it’s not that bad for me. We are looking to get a rough out by this Saturday so we can get a copy to our music composer who is none other than Matt Heider. Then we hope to get a picture lock by no later than Thursday 26th in order to get out sound designer enough time to meet out November 17th deadline for completion.

So far everything is going smoothly, and some of the shots look absolutely beautiful… I will keep everyone posted on its progress as more is made.

Enjoy!

-Cub. =o)

P.S. My lecturer, who said, quote: “I don’t think you will pull this off”… had a look at the footage and said, quote: “That just look f**king great!”.

This was the same guy who laughed in my face when I told him that in 1st year that I wanted to make my Noir film in the future set on Mars. And who later admitted I pulled it off.

"Wow, this would make a great film, can't wait for someone to make it".

Well, you didn't really have to wait long. This was a Vincent Price movie back in '64. (Although most of those vincent Price film adaptions of Poe's stories had little to do with the original story.)

Anyway, nice job. I studied film making when I went to college my first time around. Of course, we used 'film' back in those days. 16mm and super 8. I only did shorts. 5-10 minutes. But production was always exciting.

Of course, the score is very important for establishing the mood. But I am curious to know if you are you going to do anything with the color to help enhance the gloom and atmosphere? Seems like a story of this sort would benefit from that. Probably warm tones will give it a dated look while casting a bit of red over everything. Or muddy black and white. I haven't shot any digital film, but it *seems* like color is probably more easily fiddled with in digital than with film.

Do you know anything about that?

Cub... I am flabbergasted. If the photos are any indication, this thing is gonna' ROCK. Can't wait to see it!

That's totally blowing my away CUB! You've got to submit that to film festivals, I haven't seen anything but these pictures and it looks incredible. And Matt doing the score? You never know where friendship and connections will get you eh? Seems like if you ever make it over here to "the states" a visit to Tex's favorite director would be in order.

Please let us know when you've got the full project done. I for one, will be lining up to buy/borrow/beg a copy.

What can I say, looks like you did right by the old master. I loved reading Poe.

Awesome job!
Jen

so when you make it big...cast me as an extra ok?

WOW!

Don't forget your Tex Murphy friends and give them signed copies, so we can sell them in 10 years on eBay and make a sh*tload of money .

In another comment, I love the way only cinema has the ability to stay true to original intents. This looks amazing and the effort you put in to make it look as though Poe was narrating your movie (by the looks of it) is impressive. Nowadays in every art everything has to be modernized, but cinema can still produce "period" entertainment.
Hat's off.

WOW!
I sure will look forward to it when you release it. Yes, like Jen said when you done with making movie, edit filming, and then you should submit to film festivals if Uni of Syndey will let you? Hell, you may win rewards.
How many minutes will this short film movie you going for? 30 min, 1 hour, 2 hour?

btw-director Adrian Carr would be proud of your accomplishment and he might wanna see how well your short film movie is. You got potential to be a film maker, Cubase!

Cubase wrote:
One of our more distinguished guests.

Holy hell... it's Michael Portillo!



RUN FOR YER LIVES!

Thanks for the response guys!

In response to some of your questions:


DrPaul:

We are going to dedicte a hefty chink of post production to colour grading once we get a lock off which should be within the next week. This is basically a process of using the software the adjust ('grade') the colours shot-per-shot to acheive the kind kind of aesthetic we want for the scenes. I have worked using 16mm before and found that you usually get it graded when you are getting your telecine of the film (digital transfer)... but in general film is easier to work with when grading than digital... mainly becuase digital has a habit of losing details in dark shots... however, the Panasonic P2 with the P2-DVC-PROHD codec performs very well, and we got it specifically to give us enough colour information so that we may perform an accurate grade. Whereas something like an HDV transfer would have provided us with no where near as much detail to work with.


Jen:

I never forget friends.


Ryan:

It's the Univesity of Technology, and yes they will allow me to release it to film festivals and I plan on taking it to as many as I can (both nationally and internationally)... I figure for something like this it would be foolish not to. It's going to be a short film and we are aiming at around 12 minutes.


Take care all!

-Cub. =o)

Really impressive! I am totally zonked by your efforts. If anyone can pull this off, it's you Cub. Add me to the list of recipients.

Well ill await my complementary limeted edition DVD production of your works in the mail LOL.

In any case it looks to be a huge suxxess and i wish u all the best of luck

Wow, this looks like a really professional film! To be honest I may of had my doubts too if you'd said the kind of staff/cast you'd need. You're amazingly lucky to have such a wonderful array of talented people around who are willing to donate time. I guess it must be because you're obviously very dedicated and professional about things and they could see you would take it the whole way through and with that trust they had no problem with it. So congratulations!! All the settings/cast/props look amazing and the behind-the-scenes people look like they're doing a great job too.
I'm sure this will be a real gem in your portfolio.
I'll look forward to seeing it, assuming it'll be available.

Slightly offtopic but ontopic at same time as it involves the Red Death:

By the way, for anyone who likes Poe, have you played the game The Dark Eye?
It has within it an original story about visiting relatives at a house and you gradually learn of their dark secrets etc. which ties things together since the game keeps coming back to it, but inbetween the original story you sort of have a mind lapse and end up in a ghostly version of the house. In the ghostly version you find objects that trigger/propel you into one of Poe's stories and you must play the story through either as the murderer or the victim (depending on the object you selected). You have to play through both sides to complete each story.
It's a truly amazing and unique game. Not just in concept and the fact that its made up of Poe's works. But also the visual style which is weird and haunting stop-motion puppets.

The stories in it are The Tell-Tale Heart, The Cask of Amontillado, and Berenice. But also the poem Annabel Lee and maybe some others.
The Red Death poem is in it too. But not as an interactive story. It is basically just a sequence where William S. Burroughs (wonderfully) narrates it whilst a sequence is played with art and animation to portray it. The art for the Red Death is really striking. It was my first experience of the poem and I really like it.

I got it in a bargain bin years ago whilst on holiday. I think you can get it from here and maybe other places. Also found a site that has the audio for the Red Death: http://realitystudio.org/multimedia/
I could probably try and help someone out if they really wanted it or just part of it if you can't find it anywhere else. (PM me)

This is me right now:

Wow, those pictures are simply stunning. I can't wait to see the finished product!

Simply amazing man. For a senior film project of that quality, they should name a lab after you.