August 31 , 2004
Batman ’s been remove . Chief O’Hara ’s in a bad direction . Robin has long since hang up his superhero leotards , but he ’s the only one who can avenge Batman ’s death . loony toons and Wonder Woman are sideline as enforcers for a corrupt Commissioner Gordon . The Joker ’s back , flank by two karate - kicking , hipster Jokerettes . And is that the Penguin beckoning from the shadows ?
What ’s survive on here ?
DirectorJohn Fiorellaand cinematographerGabriel Sablofftook on all this and more in the 18 months deserving of nights and weekends they devoted to produce the extended trailer"Grayson . “Without studio support of any kind , they created a dramatic and visually arresting prevue of a movie that may never exist . There ’s no"Grayson"screenplay , no cock-a-hoop studio backing , not even a valet de chambre ’s agreement to produce a feature film - duration film ; just a honey for the D.C. comics superheroes and an itch for filmmaking .
Fiorella explains :
The Approach
Fiorella and Sabloff turned an $ 18,000 budget into a five - and - a - half minute trailer over with convincingmotorcyclechases , underwater evasion , firework and impossible exploit of strength . Most of the production budget went tofilmstock , production equipment , processing and transfers , impart short left over for anything else . Since the budget would n’t tolerate for daily or weekly film transfer , they only learn their developed footage in large batches every three month . fit in to Fiorella , despite these limitations , the pair got most thing in good order the first time around .
Sabloff shoot all of the footage on a standard16 mm Bolexcamera fitted with ananamorphic lensto achieve a broad - screen - like scene ratio . Althoughdigital videowould have been more price - effective , Fiorella preferred the look and functionality of the Bolex :
Guerilla Tactics
The two employed insurgent filmmaking tactics and innumerable special effects tricks along the room . They flash the trailer solely on weekend and used whatever placement they could find , often without official headway . For the scene showing Batman ’s funeral , they shot at a public golf course , but were presently chase after off the green and had to find a like location . By the ending of shooting for that sequence , they had been recoil out of several golf course of study . They found a local Los Angeles subroutine library to be more accommodating . By sheer coincidence , on their shooting mean solar day , a feature film film rented the space for use later in the day . Apparently , the bibliothec assumed they were part of the feature photographic film shoot . Fiorella and Sabloff capitalize on the bibliothec ’s confusion and pip their scene in the library without break .
Another scene call for a trailing snapshot of Robin turn tail down a in use street at top focal ratio , in his full superhero costume . To avoid the disbursement and complexity of halt off a metropolis street and hiring extras , the filmmaking pair sought out a crowded street in business district Los Angeles one weekend . Sabloff positioned himself in a car and cued Fiorella ( playing the role of Robin ) to run down the sidewalk as if pursuing an evildoer . Other positioning include a public beach , an bowling alley , the 405 thruway , the inside of the filmmaker ’s apartment and an flat complex pond .
Almost all of the special effects wizardry was stock off in the analog realm . According to Fiorella , only 4 digital effects were used in the entire trailer . To render Robin freeze a hail ofmachine - gunbullets with a metallic element door , they strappedfireworksto the exterior of the door and lit them in chronological succession . When the plot yell forSupermanlifting a heavily armoredtank , they used the proficiency of squeeze linear perspective and positioned a tiny toy dog tank car in the extreme foreground and Superman in the backcloth .
Shooting Under Water
For a chronological succession where Robin looks like chained to a wooden chairman and thrown into apool , the filmmakers created a submersible casing so they could shoot the prospect underwater . In what may be report as a moment of corking courageousness or great insanity , they bolted two immense garbage cans together , add Plexiglas window and included 350 lb of light ballast to keep the submersible warship on the pocket billiards ’s floor .
Fiorella recalls the trial by ordeal with a laugh :
What’s Next?
The filmmaker also produced a 30 - minute featurette , account many of their yield techniques in great detail . Fiorella securely believe in the educational value of studying other filmmaker ’s techniques . He hop to produce aDVDone twenty-four hours presenting a complete feature film alongside a version of the same picture made up of the cutting footage without the special effects .
Fiorella and Sabloff would love to see their " Grayson " construct become a feature some daytime , but they recognize the integral difficulties in selling the undertaking . For one affair , the epic plot of ground involves an clumsy figure of individually licensed characters , each of which constitute its own incarnate entity . Even if the movie maker did get all of those properties together for the same picture , the " Grayson " trailer probably contains not one , but several movies ' Charles Frederick Worth of plots . It ’s also particularly difficult to influence the pre - existingWarner Brothersschedule of superhero picture discharge as an outsider .
In just a few months ' meter the prevue has already produced some positive result . Fiorella now has an agent who is actively shopping both the " Grayson " drone and a graphic novel adaptation . He continues to receive hundred ofe - mailmessages each daylight from Grayson buff , and superhero and movie net message table everywhere are abuzz with discussion of the projection .
For more information , check out the link on the next page .
