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NZ Macguide Issue 9
In this day and age, film company Gordon Productions is rare. Armed with just a Mac G4 and lots of creative inspiration, GP is an innovator in an industry oversupplied with 'me-too' players.
Using some inventive film-making techniques and a slice of Apple technology, Gordon Productions have cranked out four feature-length films at unheard of budgets ranging from $2000 to $25,000 per film. Putting this figure into perspective, your typical Kiwi feature-length film is usually made for between $300,000 and $1.9 million.
Macguide: Gordon Productions pretty much pioneered the ultra budget film genre in New Zealand, what sort of budgets are we talking about?
Campbell Walker: So far Gordon Productions have made four feature length films and I've worked in major roles on three others. We've produced several for around $2000-$3000, and the highest is at $25,000, and I've been recently editing one which came out at $39,000. Our first Gordon Production feature, Uncomfortable Comfortable, was made for around $6000, including a small grant from Creative New Zealand, where the next two, Shifter and Why Can't I Stop This Uncontrollable Dancing? didn't get any funding and were made for about $2000 each. We got good funding for the next film we made, Off, which we got $25,000 for.
MG: How does that compare with other feature length films?
CW: The New Zealand film industry makes pretty low cost films by international standards anyway, and the average budget of a feature-length film ranging from $300,000 at the low end, through to $1.9 million, so we're pretty reasonable by comparison.
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| Just a G4, some software and lots of nous |
MG: What sort of films are they?
CW: The way we make films is based around the virtue of not having any money. Our films are about people: we don't use sets, we use locations like or our own houses or those of friends we know. No one gets paid at the time, but any money we make afterwards is distributed. Our films don't tend to be flashy sci-fi special effects extravaganzas, we prefer a physically simple film that's emotionally complex. They're mainly about the way people interact with each other in a recognisably realistic style.
MG: Are there many challenges making a feature length film on such a shoestring budget?
CW: Because we tend to use improvisation rather than having everything rigidly pre-scripted, things can sometimes get quite interesting. While we were filming a scene in Shifter, one of the lead actresses we were filming realised she was running late for an appointment and had to leave right in the middle of the shoot, which meant we had to figure out how to fill the gap she'd left in the remaining scenes.
That aside, we tend to film over a five day period using a crew of two to four people while most New Zealand feature-length films take much longer and use a crew of at least twelve. It can be hard work, sometimes.
MG: So you guys must have developed some innovative, and interesting techniques to keep costs down?
CW: We tend to have to think laterally, using improvisation. This means that while we have a plan of where we're going with the film, we don't give our actors specific dialogue, which means we do a lot less retakes and have very natural, believable dialogue.
In Why Can't I Stop This Uncontrollable Dancing?, my second film as director, I decided that we wouldn't script or even decide on the exact story, just a situation and two characters, that we'd shoot documentary style. Both the actors kept wanting to plan what was happening next and we had to physically prevent them from colluding, which made for some realistic tension in what was essentially a stalker movie.
MG: So what venues have your films been shown in?
CW: We've had broad film festival coverage throughout New Zealand and Shifter screened at a festival in Vancouver. We've also taken our films to art galleries and theatres around New Zealand. The fourth completed Gordon Production, ...Dancing, is screening in this year's film festival, as are two other no-budget features I've worked on Gregory King's Christmas, which I edited, and Alex Greenhough's I Think I'm Going, which I co-produced.
MG: So what Apple hardware and software does Gordon productions use?
CW: We invested in a PowerMac G4, initially running OS 9.1, and editing on Final Cut Pro 1.2.5. More recently we made the move to OS 9.2. Our machine has about a 110Gb of storage, which we need every bit of. Currently we've got two whole feature length films stored awaiting completion, plus footage for another shot film.
I've got an odd setup - this fairly high-tech computer and a DV camera, but I'm usually running it also with a little old stereo amp I inherited from a flatmate, some speakers from the tip, a 15-year-old VHS deck and a little 10" TV. I really like being able to put low-tech and high-tech gear into the same chain and have them work well and simply together.
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Campbell's virtue is that necessity is the mother of inventions |
MG: Did you guys do much research before plunking down the cash for your Mac gear?
CW: We talked to quite a few other video editors and read a lot of hardware and software reviews, and of course looked at prices. In the end two factors figured in our decision to go with a Mac. The first one was Final Cut Pro, which is easily the best basic and affordable non-linear video editing package we found, and the second was the simplicity of the PowerMac compared to a PC.... I'm not a propeller-head, and I don't have the ability or the inclination to muck about with complicated gear. What we wanted was something that worked out of the box - a Mac did just that.
MG: Surely some would argue that opting for Mac over a cheaper PC, especially given Gordon Productions ultra-budget ethos might be a bit of a bizarre move?
CW: The choice was pretty obvious. Having a firewire port built in, the Mac was set up for working with video immediately. I've used PCs for video editing but they've always been a real headache to set up. Take Premiere on a PC. It's just clunkier and not as simple a process compared to Final Cut Pro. I'm editing a film for a friend on a PC at the moment and the software isn't anywhere near as good as Final Cut Pro. Configuration issues with the PC make using it a long and painful job, and the damn thing keeps crashing all the time anyway.
MG: What parts of the film making processes is the Mac involved with?
CW: The key use of our Mac is video editing. Having our own editing hardware means we can edit when we want - something that was previously impossible to do with rented edit suites. This also means that we're not running up big debts to edit a feature length film which takes a lot of the pressure off. It also means I can edit at home, in the middle of the night, or whenever I have time.
MG: How much of an impact has Apple digital video technology had on Gordon Productions?
CW: Without the Mac we wouldn't have been able to make our last few films. Using a Mac gives us flexibility and simplicity we'd only have dreamed of a few years back, it's really convenient having edit suite in our own home. With Uncomfortable Comfortable, our first film, we used old tape-based U-Matic editing technology, which made everything so much slower, inconvenient and just plain complicated. Going with a Mac has made a huge difference.
MG: Do you think Gordon Productions will make the move to OS 10.2 sooner or later - why?
CW: We'll eventually move to OS 10.2, but timing's important to us for making the move. While we're in the middle of editing our latest film it isn't something I'm prepared to do. Although I'm really happy with OS 9.2, we're eventually going to have to move to the version 3 of Final Cut Pro, which means migrating across to OS 10.2.
MG: What Apple hardware is on Gordon Productions wish list at the moment?
CW: What we'd really like most is a large external firewire hard drive. Having the ability to shoot and store footage with the transportability of a removable hard drive would free up a lot of great film making possibilities. A G4 PowerBook would also be nice too - if anyone's giving one away it'd be going to a good cause.
© Parkside Media 2003
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