In this final installment of BEHIND THE ATTIC DOOR, the filmmakers reflect their personal journeys as production comes to an end.
Behind the Attic Door – Episode 7 – End in Sight from The Attic Door on Vimeo.
Erica Harrell
Producer
In THE ATTIC DOOR, we use the desolate and epic Western landscape, iconic John Ford country, to echo the terrifying loneliness of our two young characters. Though the landscape was at times harsh for our crew with high temperatures, dust storms, and the occasional flooding (seen in Episode 5 of “Behind the Attic Door“), we were certainly not the first filmmakers to face these conditions in Utah.
I found this great excerpt from John A. Murray’s Cinema Southwest: An Illustrated Guide to the Movies and their Locations.
“As early as 1925 director John Ford traveled to Promontory, Utah, to film part of his twelve-reel epic film The Iron Horse, shooting at the very place where the historic golden spike was driven, connecting the East Coast with the West Coast for the first time by rail line (which, in a larger sense, signaled the birth of modern America). During the 1930s the area around Kanab in southwestern Utah became known as “Little Hollywood” for the many pictures made there. Later, in the 1950s, the center of gravity shifted to the east, as Moab became the state’s major center for filmmaking. Virtually every American director and actor of note has worked in Utah, from Cecil B. DeMille (Union Pacific, 1939) to John Ford (Rio Grande, 1950) to Steven Spielberg (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, 1989); from Henry Fonda (My Darling Clementine, 1946) to Clint Eastwood (The Outlaw Josey Wales, 1976) to Jodie Foster (One Little Indian, 1973). If a film has red slickrock and prickly pear cactus desert, cloudless blue skies, and distant mountain ranges, there’s a good chance it was shot in Utah.”
This article talks about shooting in Paria(h) as well as Kanab, Zion and the Coral Pink Sand Dunes. Theres also a mention of Jackie Hamblin-Rife, our ultimate production supporter, and mentor for shooting in the west.
Check out the entire article here.
Imagine giant film cameras and huge lighting trucks trying to maneuver down into Paria where it was difficult for us to go with our lightweight equipment, smaller vehicles and sparse crew. The advances in film technology really allow for modern indie filmakers to go to places where previously only huge Hollywood productions could afford to go. It is so humbling to think back on our shooting and all of the famous films that came to that area before us and the many more that will come after.
As production nears an end, the filmmakers discover the magic in between the takes.
Behind the Attic Door – Episode 6 – Something Amazing Happens from The Attic Door on Vimeo.
Erica Harrell
Producer
The economy in the last few weeks has been on a wild roller coaster ride and no one is sure when it will end. Many of us are facing cutbacks and job loss. An independent filmmakers we have a lot at stake in the future films. We have our investors to think about as well as being able to provide for ourselves. Of course we are really excited and thankful to have the films that we have, but many of us are wondering what the future of indie filmaking and indie film distributing will be like.
I found this article on IndieWire today that talks a bit about film financing during these hard times. The article points out that some producers are still able to find funding through private investors who have not been too affected by the stock market crashes. However budgets are getting smaller and production is slowing down. The more dismal news in this article for films like “The Attic Door” may be that buyers are way more limited. Gone are the indie powerhouse distributors like ThinkFilm and Warner Independent. Hopefully change will be coming for filmmakers like us and many others around the world.
Kristin Øhrn Dyrud
Composer
Part 1: The Beginning
Working on The Attic Door as a composer has been an incredibly rewarding experience. I was brought on board in the summer of 2007 when a mutual filmmaker friend brought Danny and me together. I was introduced to the story through communicating with Danny over email and reading the script. As the editing process started a few months later, I got the chance to watch different evolving versions of the film. After watching the first cut I spent a whole week, partially in a cold and quiet loft in Norway, which seemed to be a good environment to try to get underneath the skin of this movie. I focused solely on the film and its dramatic and emotional content without thinking of music at all. I felt it was crucial to understand the film 110 % to be able to come up with the right musical concept later. I had the luxury of time to do this and wanted to take full advantage of it. So I spent my time reflecting and doing research such as listening to a lot of contemporary music (Lutoslawski, Penderecki, Stephen Scott, John Cage) and watching movies with unusual scores (There Will Be Blood and No Country For Old Men).
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Behind the Attic Door – Episode 2 – The Old Frontier from The Attic Door on Vimeo.
Erica Harrell
Producer
Thank you all for your support of our first episode of Behind The Attic Door our weekly web-series. A new episode will be up on Wednesday!
Ted Hope’s new blog (which Danny featured in an earlier post) has alerted me to CinemaTech’s blog and specifically a blog by Scott Kirshner. Scott’s called New Business Models for Distribution focuses on a panel he was a part of regarding DVD sales and distribution versus digital means of distribution. Scott believes that digital distribution is going to gain a lot of steam over the next few years. Scott points out the past growth of theaters versus the growth to get VHS and DVD’s at home.
He also posted some new business models for getting the most digital dollars from movie releases like iTunes and serial releases, but the one that is really interesting is “Live Speaking Gigs Via Videochat” working on the idea that filmmakers can give speeches about their films around the world using technology like the iChat or Skype and can be paid a fee to do so. For the group who is sponsoring this can be more cost effective than flying in filmmakers, but also the filmmakers can do more of these appearances and earn some money.
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