Fotograma 23

Fotograma 23 is the latest short movie of Victor Santos as an independent producer, in this one he is also the writer, director and executive producer. You must be wondering why am I talking about this short film and this director. Well, let's start from the beginning.

We were in September, this year, and I received an e-mail of Victor asking for my availability  to be the scene photographer in the short movie he was going tho shoot in two weeks. That was a no brainer YES. I love cinema and that's the kind of job that I've been waiting for. So we scheduled a meeting for the nest day to talk about the details.

During the meeting, while Victor was telling me the story, I was creating an image in my head of a poster for the this short film. In the end, after talking about everything Victor said what I wanted to hear - "And I may use one of the pictures for the poster and some for the promotion.". As soon as I heard that I grabbed a piece of paper and made a sketch of what was in my mind. I remember he said - "hmm, that can work.".

Two weeks later the film shooting took place in the streets and in a photo lab. The first day, in the streets, was really nice, lots of motion and dynamic.

Although shooting on the streets was nice, the second day was the one I was expecting because of the idea I had back in the office. Victor had described the room that was really good to take pictures. As soon as I arrived there I discovered there was no space to make the portrait I had in mind, unless i got inside a closet with camera and tripod. No way the three of us could fit in there, so it was just me and the camera.

They started filming while I was out of the room getting the gear ready and waiting for the break. After testing all the material I needed once and twice I finally got my chance. Everything was in place and ready to roll when the battery of st-e 2 dies just before the first picture. They gave me 10 minutes and I had no spare battery... (Not so professional, I know) Lucky me we were in a school of audiovisual where I could ask for a a flash. Five minutes later I had everything in place again as I hadn't planed.

With no 430ex I couldn't use the ring flash I had in mind. So I used just one flash light for kicking and then I took advantage of the light table telling the actors to go just above it. the problem was that the back light was too strong even in the minimum power. 

Thank God Adobe, Lightroom 3! I knew I could do something with this image later at home. I made some other pictures without the backlight, but they just didn't made it. After balancing the light, deleting some stuff and adding some vignette  in LR3 it looked like this.

Victor added the lettering and the poster is done.

The thing I liked the most about this job is that the final picture is almost the same as the one that came to my mind while I was hearing the story. I believe that is what makes the difference, being able to do what you thought in the first place, if there is little difference between the image in your head and the final image then, I believe, you are in the right direction.

The short movie is coming out soon, here you have the teaser. If you want to find Victor Santos look through facebook, vimeo, IMDB.

Happy New Year, Everyone!