Hello, my name is Carlos G Sanchez the director, cinematographer & writer for 11:11 Films LLC. I would like to break down my experiences and the techniques used to create Traces of Eliza, stay with me & I’m sure you`ll enjoy the ride, especially if your an indie film-maker. Traces of Eliza was shot on a micro budget, and was filmed over a month in San Antonio Texas with only friends. All the positions for the film aside from the actors and 1 grip were filled solely by I, Carlos G Sanchez. The positions I filled include.
Scout, Cinematographer, Director, Writer, Screenplay, Light Director, Editor, Colorist, Special Effects, Props, Audio Supervisor, Sound Composer, Drone Operator, Set Designer, Wardrobe Designer, Key grip, DIT, Boom Operator, Graphic Designer and Actor.
I spent almost 6 months putting the whole film together from scouting to print. The short was shot for 30mins but cut down to 20 for festival purposes. The film was one of the most challenging and rewarding projects I have ever worked on. With a micro-budget, minimal gear, friends & guerilla tactics the end product is a piece of art. Thanks to everyone who contributed.
Gear
Camera Sony a6500
Light: Aputure Light Panel, 2x Aputure Mini, 2x American Dj
Lenses: Sony 18-105 f4, Canon 50mm FD Oooh😍
Location: Pond
Crew: Samantha Verheyen, Carlos G Sanchez, James Stuchly
Dream Sequence
For the dream sequence we used four lights the Sony a6500 with the 18-105mm & the canon FD 50mm. We used two ADJ led club lights powered with a car battery charger, one on camera Aputure mini and one bi-color Came TV light panel, powered with a V-mount battery. The gear was mine so I was familiar with it, we utilized a diy camera rig to mount the boom on the camera and utilized a wheel chair for the steady cam shots.
This was the opening shot for the film, we shot at a beautiful pond surrounded with modern architecture. The dream sequence begins with Eliza (Samantha Verheyen) revealing her alternate persona Eliza. I scouted the location and wanted to shoot for dusk on the west side, since the skies have a fantasy & dream like appeal. Although, we did get the shot, it suffered from shaky cam so I ended up having to color grade another shot to match the next.😶
Meet MR. WHITE (James Stuchly) played Mr. White with a stellar performance. You can see in this shot how cool the skies looked. This is a premonition dream where Eliza will eventually meet Mr. White in the near future but in waking life. (Samantha) “Hey bud got a light”.
This shot was a blast, we were all in sync & in the groove, a perfect trifecta. We had previously rehearsed all shots the previous day so we were ready, I believe this was the 2nd take, & it had such great tension that we quickly moved on.
The briefcase is the secret sauce for the film, Mr. White is not only a metaphor for Samantha’s fear, but so is his briefcase or should I say the contents.😥 You can see the dragon clouds on the top right, I also added rainbow tracers for a more dramatic effect.
The chase is on. I used the Sony 18-105 at 18mm to make the shadow as large as possible and of course more tracers. Samantha had a fun time tripping in the heels.😣
The Canon FD shining again behind Mr. White. Samantha was pushing me on the wheel chair for this shot & it was scary. This was the 4th take since I fell over on the 2nd shot and lost focus on the others. James was nailing it🤗 He is getting ready to reveal the briefcase contents.
You boys ever try walking backwards in 4″ stilettos? 😣Yup not fun, so we had a couple of botched shots when Samantha almost busted her ankle while James pushed me in the wheel chair for a closeup reaction. I had to remind Samantha to bring the emotion, I remember telling her that her boyfriend wasn’t going to be picking her up since he may have found another mate online. Samantha nailed it after she heard the fake news.
Check out the beautiful bokeh from the Canon FD.🙄 More effects fill the frames as the tension builds. I used Sapphire FX with Adobe Creative Cloud to turn him to sludge. This small section was exciting to edit. The Eventide h3000 was used for the stutter, glitch vocal effects to alter his voice. I also used over the top color grading as well, but masking was a pain with thousands of frames to track.😲
Samantha freaks TFO.😲 Yowzer, that was weird. This shot has more visual effects to add suspense. Samantha nailed it on the 1st take, since James & I did a quick focus test before we trucked in for a closeup. The shot was still a bit shaky as James pushed me in for the shot, but was still usable by utilizing Sony’s IBIS.😘
The BlueRoom
Welcome to the Blue-Room. This is where my character (Carlos G Sanchez) Mark gets knocked out & kidnapped by Eliza (Samantha Verheyen). Yup, I was not only the prop master but the stunt man as well. Getting two prop beer bottles on the head is fun, painful and a total bitch to clean up.
Gear
We shot the Blue-Room sequence on my personal camera the Sony a6500 4k 24fps with the Sony 18-105mm and a rented B camera, the Sony a7sii with a 24mm Zeiss, ooh baby. All practical lights were turned off and substituted for 4 quasar science tube lights with dimmers & gels. The Quasar tube lights were covered in blue and red gel tubes supplied from Lighting Depot. A dimmer was used to control the light output to avoid highlight clipping. We used my Apurture light panel at 90% with a diffuser & teal gel to aid in proper exposure.
Lighting
Psychology behind the shot. Samantha (Samantha Verheyen) suffers from a personality disorder with bi-polar tendencies. In this sequence her personality changes from Samantha to Eliza. The change summons an evil character in Samantha who she calls Eliza, hence the red lighting on Samantha & the wide angle lens, which makes her seem to tower over Mark. James (2nd ASC) & I took about an hour running through various light setups and angles to get proper exposure & back lighting, while Samantha played on her phone. I had an excellent time getting my head busted by Samantha while James enjoyed the show.😄
To be continued….
