Halation

Hello, We are so happy to share this with you at this point.  At long last, Halation is now online and available for your viewing pleasure! We are very proud of the film that we made, and there are a number of people who helped bring it into existence.  We are so pleased to be able to share it with y'all, and I hope to hear your thoughts once you have seen it!  - Trevor White, Director.

I have had the honor and enjoyment of bringing to life a story that has both depth and an enthralling, haunting narrative. My role as the production and set designer for the film is to create a space that addresses the idea of what it means to be ‘haunted’.  In the end, I let the home’s narrative take much precedent over the direction the set took stylistically as well as emphasize the power a space can have emotionally on its occupants.

 It is by nature that during the beginning of the conceptual design for the set I immediately referred to what elements and principles I am engrained with; the fundamental tools of line, texture, repetition, proportion, and harmony that create a cohesive and comfortable space. For this film, however, I decided to abandon those principles to help support the themes present in the story.  In this narrative, the homes’ features are intriguing, eerie, and almost unsettling at times.  Dating back to its origination in 1908, you can see the signs of age within the home and the stories that can be told from that.  And much like any home, there are the trademark dark corners, secret cupboards, and a frighteningly morbid basement that are suspect to nightmarish fantasies.  I played off those fantasies, allowing the set to be disproportionate, sterile, and unsettling.  As the main protagonist is introduced, the secrets of his own past stir up the secrets that have been hiding within the narrative of the house over the years.

  Thank you for following our update of the ‘Equipment Round-Up’. 

Megan Bogaard

Production Designer

I am excited that Aaron, Gabe, Clark and myself are all involved with the audio in Halation. We definitely have our work cut out for us, especially with the frequent phrase, "oh, we'll just do it in post". We can only capture so much usable audio live, so we will have to recreate anything from voices, to foot steps, to glass breaking (spoiler alert!), and an endless amount of other things. 

Clark has been working solely on the orchestral score of the film, Gabe and I will be working on the noises or "scary" parts of the movie, and Aaron and I will be working on sound design. I feel incredibly confident with Clark's amazing music abilities, Gabe's professionalism as a audio guy, and Aaron's fantastic software skills. It's going to sound so good.

In case you were curious, this is the equipment and software we are using in the audio department:

- For live sound capturing we are using the Rode NGT-2 microphone with a Tascam DR-40 recorder.

- As far as software goes we will using primarily Pro Tools, Reason, Logic, and various others for all audio.

Braden

This is the first part of a series call "Equipment Round-up", which will include THE SIGHTS, THE SOUNDS, THE PROPS, THE SET, THE MOOD, THE CUTTING and THE MUSIC.

Let me start off by saying, thanks so much for supporting our film HALATION.  Just by checking out this blog, you are part of a thing that is truly inspiring.  It was with your support that we were able to acquire the right tools to make this quality film, so we thought it might be fun to fill you in on what we are using!  

THE SIGHTS

The vast majority of this film has been shot on a Canon T2i.  We are using this lightweight and affordable camera body to produce beautiful 1080p video at the cinema film speed of 24fps.  We have also been fortunate enough to borrow a Canon 7D and 2 different 5D MKII's at various times.  We have some generous and awesome friends :)  All the footage (across all cameras) is being shot using the Technicolor Cinestyle color profile, which essentially is attempting to emulate something similar to RAW footage you'd see from a 4k camera.  This "RAW" footage looks hazy and grey, low contrast and totally flat, but allows for much richer colors and contrast in post-production.

In terms of support gear, we are shooting loads of this movie on a shoulder mount system that has a focus pull wheel.  We also are shooting on a nice heavy video tripod with a fluid panning head, and a few cinematic "dolly shots" from a 1m rail from Glide Track.

Thanks for reading and check back next time for a post on THE SOUNDS!

-Aaron McConkey

Lead Cinematographer and lover of tech gear