BETTER LIVING THROUGH CHEMISTRY (W/T)Ā
Late 2014 saw two final shoots for this independentĀ feature documentary directed by Cosmo Birdie Feilding-Mellen,Ā edited by Nick Packer andĀ produced by John Battsek of Passion Pictures. In October I was diverted at short notice from a shoot inĀ LA to Houston and thenĀ DelawareĀ to interview two retiredĀ FBI agents who had decided to talk, crucially giving the film perspective from the law enforcement side. Then in November I spent a couple of days in Oxfordshire shooting dramatic elements for VFXĀ (pictured)Ā namely Tim Scully and Nick Sands' first acid trip. The film tells the story of these chemist's incredible lives in the 60's and 70'sĀ as the makers of the world's most famous LSD -Ā Orange Sunshine. The film will be completed inĀ March 2015 and will first submit to festivals beforeĀ television sales and hopefully theatrical distribution.
Postscript: How to film an acid trip? The main problem for the cinematographer is how to avoid clichƩ. I felt strongly we should avoid wacky lighting, shift/tilt lenses and other optical tricks. Cosmo wanted the scenes to have a single person POV perspective and so we tested shooting single roving camera takes, shot clean and quite wide. We then gave the footage to Allison & Anthony Brownmore (Blue Spill - VFX) who were asked to subtly manipulate the warp & weft of carpet patterns and other textures such as wood grain. They also lightly superimposed some fractal-like patterns almost subliminally into the shadows. This I felt worked very well and am looking forward to the grade in February and seeing it all put together.