Jordand Galland on Shooting a Theatrical Vampire Movie With the Red One

There are several different roads to Park  City,  UT, this time of year. Sundance dominates the industry’s attention and the media’s coverage, but the smaller, scrappier Slamdance festival has carved out its own niche downtown, where the offerings are mostly low-key, lower budget, and/or edgier than their counterparts playing at the Egyptian Theater just down the street. But a Slamdance slot doesn’t indicate a compromise in production values – Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead, which premieres at this year’s Slamdance, was shot in New York City using the Red One camera recording at full 4K  resolution. F&V  talked to director Jordan Galland on what his debut feature got out of the Red system that other digital cameras wouldn’t provide. Watch the trailer, below, then read the Q&A.

FILM & VIDEO: You had made short films before Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead. How were they shot?

Jordon Galland: I made one short film with actors. It was 30 minutes long and it was called “Smile for the Camera.” I shot that on the [Panasonic] DVX100A. That was exciting at the time [2005] because it was 24p. For really cheap you could make something look like film, at least on a small TV. After that, I had a couple of [feature-film] scripts, but [Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead] was the one that emerged. I started bringing in the cast, and as soon as we had some actors we started scheduling. It came together like a whirlwind. It happened quickly, which was great. I’ve been involved with other film projects that are still in development.
How did you hear about the Red camera in the first place?

I was interviewing cinematographers. We had a really, really low budget. I would be happy to film something that wouldn’t look so great if it were a different kind of script. But this is vampires and Shakespeare and theater. It’s comedy, but there’s an antiquity built into the story. I felt like we needed to get a richness that was as close to film as possible. All the digital cameras I knew about that were cheaper than film, like the Viper, were too expensive for us.

One of the cinematographers I talked to said, “Well, I have access to a Red camera.” I remember the first time I heard that. I said, “That’s great. What is that?” They explained, and I was like, “Oh, OK ‘ that’s amazing.” But what if it breaks down, and you only have access to one?

The line producer, Marco Henry, met with [the New York-based digital cinema company] Offhollywood, and we all went in there because they had some Red cameras. They had test footage of this rooftop at night in Manhattan with a candle as the only light source, and it looked beautiful. It looked like the film, and the blacks were dark and rich. That was the first time I saw [digital] footage that I thought could support the scenes in the film. Our influences, the films that the cinematographer and I were referencing and talking about, were older movies that were shot in film.

So we made a deal with Offhollywood. We were the second feature to film in New York with the Red camera. It was the best timing ever. The first feature was Asylum Seekers, and they were filming just months before us and they were having a few technical difficulties. That’s understandable, but it’s a scary thing for a low-budget filmmaker. But we took the chance. We were sitting around the table, and the line producer said, “Look, this might make our lives more difficult, but we’re going to have a way more beautiful picture.” And that, of course, meant everything in the world to me.

Did going to the Red add much cost?

No, it didn’t. Our picture is sort of “in association with” Offhollywood, so we were on the same page and struck a good deal with them. It was astounding how cheap it was and how smooth the workflow was. We were prepared for the worst. We had one day where it was too cold and the camera wouldn’t open, but Offhollywood had multiple bodies and we had one on stand-by. So it was fine. It was amazing.

What resolution did you shoot?

We shot 4K on the memory cards that held four minutes of footage. There was a Red tech on set who would download the footage into a laptop and check it. They had big drives available – you could just shoot onto a drive and not worry about it – but our production flow was like film. A four-minute card is like a reel of film. You shoot four minutes and then you change it. I think I would do it the same way again. If you shoot to a drive that has hours of capacity on it, what if it gets corrupted? That’s it. We had a couple of cards that got corrupted, so we were happy we were shooting with a safe amount of card space.

If something went wrong, did you know immediately?

Yeah, but what was funny was they didn’t tell me until later. I was busy doing a lot of suff, and at one point they said, “We just need to take these two shots again.” I figured the focus was fuzzy or something – they didn’t tell me that the card was corrupted. I guess they didn’t want me to freak out. The camera department was nice in that way.

Can you describe a certain scene or a certain shot where the Red camera helped you get something especially nice?

When we were filming interior shots with big windows and daylight, we really had a lot of definition out there. There’s one shot at the beginning of the movie that was taken in a bedroom on lower Fifth Avenue. I wasn’t thinking about it, but the view out the window is so cool. It’s like old New York. We were looking at the dailies, and I was like, “Oh my god, this looks like Paris.” It’s just in the movie for a second, but it was something I knew we couldn’t have gotten with any other camera but a film camera. You can see five blocks down Fifth Avenue, and everything is in focus in the room too.

The color red itself is a color you have to be really careful with when you’re shooting digital HD. And we were making a vampire movie, so we wanted a lot of heavy accents of red. We were lucky. The camera is named the Red camera, and the color Red is beautiful – you can get all these deep, stunning red colors. Shooting HD, if you have a red hat or a red shirt you wouldn’t see the shadows normally. It would be a block of red. So those were two things that were awesome. We could film exteriors during the day and they would look wonderful, and we could film the color red without worrying about it.

Would you like to shoot film next time, or is the Red where you want to be, technology-wise?

As much as I love the Red camera, I would like to shoot on film if the budget allowed it. But if it’s an independent film again, I think the Red is just amazing.

Was anything else about the film especially challenging?

Filming in New York was a wonderful experience. I grew up in Manhattan and this city is amazing. I recently watched the Rick Burns documentary about New York, and the city has an amazing history. We filmed in Central Park near an old fountain and an old tunnel that was really beautiful, and in an old cemetery in Queens. The location scouting was a really interesting process, and we found a lot of places that were really historic.

And then we found our theater. In The Shining, the hotel is a character in the movie, and in this movie the theater is similar. It’s a play that’s being put on by vampires. We didn’t have the money to get a cool old theater on Broadway for even a couple of days. We just couldn’t do it. We drove out to the old Russian area of Brooklyn, and they had some nice theaters out there. But, actually, the Red became an issue. If we were out there and the body broke and we had to get back [to Offhollywood in Manhattan], if it took an hour and a half or two hours we would lose time. So we didn’t ever want to be too far from Offhollywood. We had a place lined up, but we were not happy about it. It just wasn’t big enough and it was too modern. But we found a theater in the East Village literally a week before we started shooting. It was from the 1800s, which was specified in the script, and it was amazing. In the film, it looks really incredible. We were thorough in our search, but blows my mind how lucky we were.

And you were happy with the elegance of the Red camera’s imagery.

In the palette of the movie, there’s a kind of lavender tone in the costumes and background. The theater itself has this strange dark-grey, purple vibe to it. It’s an interesting color, and I don’t normally see it around. Watching the footage, I was really happy with the palette that the Red camera picked up and emphasized.

What format are you screening from in Park City?

It’s a Digibeta made from the online layoff. But we screened the film for the cast and crew at Tribeca Screening Room. It was really big and it looked amazing.

I was wondering what you thought the first time you saw it on a big screen.

The first time was at NAB last April. It was a 4K projector in a little screening room. We showed eight minutes of the film and then discussed it with [Offhollywood’s] Mark Pederson and the cinematographer, Christopher LaVasseur, and the editor, Connor Kalista. That was pretty incredible. We were in the middle of editing at that point, and Offhollywood was like, “Let us do a quick color-correct and fly out there and show it.” That was one of the first 4K projections, and it was amazing. A couple of slow-motion shots were recorded at 2K, and the special effects shots are rendered at 2K. For the screening at Tribeca we watched the film at 2K, which was still higher-res than what we had been seeing. I didn’t notice that much of a difference. The film was still vibrant and beautiful and magical. I guess what I’m saying is, I’m in love with the camera.

For more information: undeadflick.com