I'm Ready For My Closeup

Lots being said about our recently released Official Soundtrack Preview. In case you've missed the news, Paul Barton has finished the score and we've been giving you a little peek of what to expect on our FACEBOOK page. If you haven't seen the video yet, take a listen here and let us know what you think!

OFFICIAL SOUNDTRACK PREVIEW

Things have been busy, resulting in some irregular posting schedules with this blog -- but I'm keeping at it. I am just on my way out the door to visit Mike and Devin on our first sound studio pre-mix screening of the film with the score in place. From there we'll move on to tweaking the dialogue, foley and atmosphere edits and preparing the film for its final mix session which will likely be spanned over two days.

Still I'd like to keep going with the theme of the previous blogs! The next few blogs following will likely be devoted to updating you on the final leg of our journey -- video, pictures etc... Expect it all!

Jada McCullough was Key Makeup Artist on William's Lullaby and hired based on her impressive portfolio. She brought with her a great sense of what the film and, most importantly, the characters needed. She also had an excellent vision for showing the transition in our protagonist over the course of the film as he continues on his downward spiral towards an inner hell. It's always jarring to me to look at some of these make-up tests, especially when I am so used to seeing the finished product on screen for two years. But take a look at some of the sickly and disturbing looks Jada and her Makeup Assistant, Csilla Lasso were able to conjure up with our two leads, Richard and Toby.

Toby Bisson on the set of William's Lullaby

Toby Bisson on the set of William's Lullaby

Richard Roy Sutton on the set of William's Lullaby

Richard Roy Sutton on the set of William's Lullaby

Richard Roy Sutton on the set of William's Lullaby

Thanks for reading/viewing! Catch you next week folks. Share this blog with your friends if you can. If it's your first time here, check out the archive on the right and catch up on what you've missed. 

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N.

Dressing the Cast

Hi again folks!

I had the pleasure of being away in Arizona for two weeks touring with The Best of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis and have only just returned. I am looking forward to focusing solely on the finish line for William's Lullaby. It's been a little tough leading a double life as an entertainer, but we're making it work!

Jerry Lewis, actor/filmmaker/entertainer, on the set of "Hardly Working"

We have production meetings in place all month as we put together the separate pieces that everyone has been working on so diligently.

The blogs will get more and more interesting from here on out. I hope they have been somewhat interesting for you thus far. But as we lead into our final production meetings, we hope to provide with well documented updates on the process of bringing William's Lullaby to fruition. And things are going to be a lot more revealing as we pull back more of the curtain -- stories from set, actor and character profiles, scene breakdowns and tid-bits of information that only you, the blog-reader, will be able to read exclusively here are some of the many things to look forward to in the weeks and months ahead as you wait for William's Lullaby to show up in a city near you.

Keeping along with the thread of "Creating the Look of William's Lullaby" this week, we'll take a look at the wardrobe. This was not too difficult a task for my team in the summer of 2011 as, when one worked off the original script, the wardrobe pretty much presented itself and it was just a matter of locating specific items and organizing them throughout the script breakdown.

I always am thinking of colour when I direct my attention to wardrobe. One of my earlier films, The Vicious Circle, featured a lead protagonist with a wardrobe colour palette that mirrored his downfall to rock bottom (going from light baby blue to dark black). It is arguable that in William's Lullaby, Thomas Splinter has already hit rock bottom by the start of the film, but I indeed resort back to this tactic of a shift in colour with his wardrobe as we get closer and closer to revealing the true thesis of the film. The other thing we tried to focus on with Thomas was the idea of dressing him almost like a teen -- in that, with his present state of mind, he would not be paying much attention to his outward appearance and likely wearing and re-wearing the same clothes. This was likely the smallest wardrobe collection for a lead character in the film.

 Richard Roy Sutton wardrobe test [2011]

Richard Roy Sutton wardrobe test [2011]

This fits with the idea that Thomas carries on through his adult-life with the emotional stability of a child with certain areas of his past not yet confronted, creating within him a wounded inner child.

For William, we had the luxury of choosing from Toby Bisson's own wardrobe to create his character. Where we zeroed in and became specific was in the accessories. As you come to know more about William's Lullaby you'll learn that a pair of glasses become a very powerful, significant and symbolic item recurring throughout the film and creating a general thread that ties the pieces of the mysteries together. We tried a number of different glasses ranging from child sizes to adults, different shapes and frames and eventually settled on this awkwardly fitting, slightly over-sized pair that engulf most of the top portion of Toby's face -- a poor man's band-aid for poor eye-sight and one that Thomas Splinter would likely buy for his son as a temporary way of fixing the problem.

Toby Bisson wardrobe test [2011]

Actors Ila Lawton and Robert Lawton portray the only true sense of grace and stability with their characters in William's Lullaby and both serve as sort of wise mentors for Thomas as he pushes through his grief and mental anguish. Their wardrobe and colour palette both needed to suggest a warm and inviting, paternal and maternal feeling with a strong contrast to Thomas' rough and unkempt appearance.

Ila Lawton wardrobe test [2011]

Robert Lawton wardrobe test [2011]

Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment below. Share the blog, share our FACEBOOK PAGE, TWITTER PAGE, and don't forget to LIKE and FOLLOW!

N.

From the Pen to the Screen

We have been working like crazy these last few weeks and will continue to for the next while as we near the finish line. Mike and Devin are working hard on preparing the film for a pre-mix and I'll be sitting down with Paul Barton in the coming weekend to go over the score in what will possibly be our final spotting session.

Meanwhile, on my end we've been colour balancing the film and preparing it for grading. Amazing progress has been made in regards to licensed music and we have a few surprises for everyone that we will reveal in due time. Biggest lesson here is -- never give up and exhaust all resources. Never assume the answer is 'no.' You will be surprised at what happens when you simply ask.

Gary Carr also began work on the end credits of the film. He is responsible for the ghostly "William's Lullaby" that appears in our teaser, using Leslie Martin's design. So to make a long story short, the end is in sight and the pieces are falling into place. But we are all aware of the fact that it is going to take a great deal of work in the coming months to get there. Game on.


A few posts back, I talked about how I storyboarded the entire film prior to casting as a way of preparing myself mentally for the task of bringing the visual style of the film to life. I thought I'd do a little less talking in this post and show you some examples of how those storyboards influenced the final product. If you take anything away from this post, it's that you don't need to be a great artist to storyboard -- stick figures will do! It's the idea that counts.

In most cases I was able to use stills from my location scout to visually lay out my shots. I would read the script line by line and picture the film, cut together in my head. What did I visually see? I would then do a few rough outlines, then pen the final drawing. Spending a great deal of time on each frame allowed me to really contemplate my reasoning for that shot and as you can see, for the most part, I stuck with that blueprint once I got to set.

As you can see in this scene, Richard and Toby bring a great deal of life to the image that I, unfortunately, can't quite express with my pen. Often, their motivation for blocking and action dictated slightly different camera positions and movements as seen by the slight difference between what is going on in my storyboard vs. the final scene.

Again, we were quite flexible with straying from the drawn image once we got to set but you can see that the essence of it is still there. Toby is a ball of energy and his jumping up onto the bed (as seen in the final scene) is far more dynamic than what's on the page and offers more excited camera movements to match his energy.

I said I wouldn't talk much in this post. I lied. There you have it. An example of just how much storyboarding helped me, and continued to help me in the editing room.

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Comment below!

N.

Casting William's Lullaby

Hi folks!

This week, we're taking a look at the casting process of William's Lullaby and what it was like for us to be first introduced to Toby Bisson, Richard Roy Sutton and the rest of our cast.

But first... We have begun colour grading William's Lullaby and it is incredible the difference it makes. I am very excited with how it is turning out and I thought I would share a little "colour test" with you to give you an idea of the subtle differences that alteration in colour can make to a scene.

Rewind the tape to May, 2011 and we look back at William's Lullaby in its infancy. We began a casting call for William's Lullaby in Toronto and Kingston (where we planned on shooting the film) using print media, radio ads and online casting calls. At that point, all other roles had been cast either internally or, in some cases, prior to pre-production even starting. We were specifically looking for our two leads; Thomas and William Splinter. The result were numerous video submissions from actors and non-actors across Ontario.

From videos and online auditions, we moved on to casting in person and saw nearly 50 people for both leads. We were looking for something very specific in both characters. Both had to be likeable and sympathetic to an audience; and furthermore they had to be believable as father and son.

In walks young Toby Bisson.

Toby will correct me on this (because the difference IS a big deal) but I believe he was six at the time of auditioning for us. He had caught our eye earlier when a video was sent in to us of him dancing to the entirety of Michael Jackson's "Beat It" (air guitar and all) with a closing line of: "I'm Toby Bisson and I want you to pick me for your movie." In truth, he had won our hearts from that point on. And that feeling was further reinforced when we met him in person. He is the William on the page and demonstrated both a youth and maturity beyond his six years that would be required to take on a project of this scope.

This was Toby's first movie role and for those of you that have been following us on FACEBOOK or TWITTER, you know that he has been doing extremely well ever since.

Later that same day, Richard Roy Sutton owned the room and who knew at the time that these two would soon be playing father and son. Well, we did. Very quickly too.

Richard brought with him credentials, experience and tools as an actor with many credits to his resume, a full reel and a previous video audition in which he had already read scenes from the script.

Richard's read was without a doubt the best we had heard. I recall Alex McLean, our co-producer (who read opposite Richard in his audition) commenting after he left the room: "He stared into my soul!"

Two days later and after many hours of auditions and discussion, we made the calls and Toby Bisson and Richard Roy Sutton joined the William's Lullaby team. They became a part of the pre-existing cast that included Kingston's Partners in Crime duo, Ila Lawton and Robert Lawton in the roles of Collette and Peter, respectively. Amy Healey (who also sat in on casting) as the gracious and motherly kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Gibson. Peter Nielsen. Sandie Cond. Marc Veno. Gabe Meacher. Calvin Rea. Braedon Da Silva and many others.

Upon completion of the script, we had thought the roles would be impossible to cast and indeed they were our biggest challenge in the process (a five-year-old involved in intense scenes and carrying a feature-length film is not easy to find). But we had found our Thomas and William in Richard and Toby. And if we were excited with them then, our reaction after shooting the film in August 2011 was one of absolute glee and confidence.

N.