Mostly Technical Info on the Making of 11:11

Since I like to start at the tale end of narratives, I'll discuss the sound design in 11:11 first, because in the end, it's the crucial element that makes the whole movie work.

Backwards imagery has universal appeal but reversing sound creates aural fatigue in the listener. Not only that, the presence of sound before an event takes the viewer right out of a story. It reverses that old standby, cause and effect, and belies the impossibility of a backwards universe. Getting the soundtrack to work was going to be the biggest challenge, that is, after successfully completing the script.

Since I took on film's own idioms when I decided to write, direct and edit 11:11, every part of the process had inherent difficulty so it was just another problem to be solved.

I made the decision early on that 11:11 should have a forwards score that included some backwards elements in the music. Eckart Seeber, the movie’s talented composer, did a great job with the score. In fact, if one listens to the totality of 11:11's soundtrack, it is, in some ways, a conventional sounding film—if you can get past the weird language. This treatment of sound is the movie’s biggest cheat. And probably the one element that made the movie bearable to listen to and believable as an alternate universe. In addition to the forwards music score, production sound effects were minimized to begin with, first by shooting in a controlled atmosphere. Then any production sound effects were stripped away and replaced with manipulated (foleyed) sound effects by my genius sound designer, Paul Ottosson. His biggest feat was taking backwards dialogue and minimizing the satanic slur that always accompanies the end of a word when it is reversed, a result of normal speech and breathing patterns.

I won’t bore you with too many post-production stories, but suffice it to say, I provided Paul Ottosson - a genius sound designer, with an OMF of the cut dialogue tracks. By the way, creating original backwards sound takes in the AVID and laying them off to DAT and then re-inputting them into the AVID for syncing was the most tedious part of the whole process. Obviously, since we shot the film backwards with reversing mags, no syncing happened in telecine. But we did get a frantic late night call from a telecine operator telling us all our film was running backwards. My response to him: “Great. That’s how it should be.” By the way, since I did my own assistant editing I want to single out Gretchen Hatz, our second assistant camera, who tail slated every single take religiously during the shoot.

Concerning the shooting of the film, it's true that we shot the film through the camera’s gate backwards. As the film editor and screenwriter of the film, it was important to me that every take loaded into the AVID appeared in the right order, reflecting the action in the screenplay.

To this end, I created a shooting script, which reflected how the actors really performed the screenplay, in real time, or forwards. We ended up shooting 28 scenes for 11:11, so page one of the shooting script starts with scene 28.

I ended up having to number the shooting script for the 1st AD, not to dimish her contribution or participation as Melissa Barnes is a great 1st AD in every way. Just that after talking with her for a bit, I realized the screenplay/shooting script relationship would be more efficiently mined from my head and that once she had a template for what we would really be shooting, as is generally the course, we would be all set. And we were. We planned all our shots and transitions. Our DP (Best Cinematography in a Short Film at the Boston International Film Festival in 2006) was (and is) amazing and brilliant so that made all the difference when it came to editing. It also made for a small shooting ratio. Also, I knew when the actors and crew had nailed the take backwards. Afshin Shahidi (DP) really got what I was doing, and we were able to collaborate seamlessly.The best cinematography award belongs to Afshin even though the festival felt that it belonged to the film and therefore to its chief architect. Thank you Afshin.

Regarding the actors. I de-emphasized the technical aspects of what we were doing as I wanted Mataji Booker (also Matagi) and Doug Bennett to stay focused on their craft , rather than worrying over whether what they were doing was working backwards. Mataji has some real 'acting chops' as my producer Harve Cook said after we wrapped. It bears mentioning that everyone is witnessing Mataji's first few days in front of a movie camera when they watch 11:11. And she does a great job. Mataji Booker has since evolved into a very talented singer song writer as well, so check her out on myspace.

Of course, Doug Bennett is a consummate professional, and Mataji’s background as a dancer really pays off visually. 'Great casting' -- as Bill Bob Thornton remarked -- a strong concept, and the technical expertise to pull it off from start to finish was the basic recipe.

Hats off to the cast and crew involved. I wish to meet again on the playground.

Jaman

New developments in the distribution of the film. It is going up on more sites. Jaman.com for one. Soon the film will be available as a loop. So viewers can watch the film in both directions. Keep an eye out for it as it allows one to really enjoy Doug Bennett's performance. He is great in all directions but is especially funny forwards.

Every download helps pay for the next film

Raising money for my trippy, sexy (almost entirely forwards) ultra-violet, heat radiating, blood pumping film starring 3 multi ethnic girls attending a prestigous women’s college twenty minutes outside of Boston. Not wanting to give away too much... it's like no other coming of age sex comedy you’ve ever seen.

Every dollar helps get it made. Having you as my numerous patrons and potential audience is a real gift because it allows me creative freedom. I'm raising funds with no pre-packaged agenda attached save my own 'bizarre' one, apparently. By the way, if there really is someone out there reading or watching, I get down on my knees before you and kiss your feet or is that pandering!?

So download 11:11 so you can help me make a film that will reclaim the sexual revolution, reclaim the body from the distorting effects of religion and society and at the very least, you could have an original film watching experience and you can tell your friends you helped the new film happen when you are sitting in the theater a few years from now, watching sexy girls explode with sexual energy, but it's still a date movie.

Anyway, lots of sites have the movie from jaman.com to bside.com. Just do a search on Esther Peres and that should get you to links for the backwards movie, 11:11. Make sure you see it forwards too.

Onwards to the next film.

An inverted variation of the Dorothy Dandridge Story

11:11's plot is an inverted variation of the Dorothy Dandridge story but without quite as much melodrama.

Committing to writing and directing backwards is like tying your hands behind your back before you sit down to the task. But after it's over you get to write and shoot in a 'conventional' manner and that makes it so much easier for everyone. Convolutions of plot and dialog are suddenly much easier for your audience to follow and the obvious myriad production challenges go poof; but backwards has its own rewards so I went for it.

Cool imagery still compels, even as our screens grow smaller and smaller. As a film editor, I constantly run my footage (digital video once it's in the Avid) in many directions and speeds. The genesis of the idea emerged from a love of backwards imagery, silent movies, foreign film etc. As we say in the cutting room, K.I.S.S. - keep it simple stupid. (Good advice for a cutter but not for a politician informing international policy.)

It was gratifying watching 11:11 in a crowd. Hearing laughs in the right places and witnessing everyone snapping into backwards thinking was great. It screwed the next festival film screening though. That film was narratively challenging. It switched from past to present and from differing points of view and realities. I tend to prefer non-linear flourishes in my narratives. Good recent example - The Constant Gardner. But anyway, I heard people in the audience muttering. "I can't get this... I'm still thinking backwards from that last film."

Play it forwards

When you download 11:11, use the a/v controls in your player to toggle the film in reverse and see it forwards. That strange language turns into English. Soon the film will be available as a 38 minute loop but meanwhile this sort of works.

Art for art's sake

Please download this movie so that someday I can make another far out film.

I know, I know, in this day and age , as in every other, art should exist for some higher purpose; to overthrow corrupt governments. (Wouldn’t that be nice?) I mean art for art's sake, seriously. In these politically desperate times, art should be a transcendent experience, something that can extricate human beings far and wide from the primitive grip of the Amygdala (primal emotion) and the beguiling tricks of the mid-brain.

All I did was run (reel/real) film through a camera backwards. And the feature I’m working on is just going to be a crazy sex comedy. It’s not like I’m helping pull the world from the brink of disaster. Hillary Clinton thinks that's her job. Perhaps I should have sent all the money I raised to shoot 11:11 to The Smile Foundation. My executive producers would have been ticked but...

Here’s the link, because it’s a great cause.

http://www.thesmilefoundation.org/.)

Let me get back to the inane struggles of the filmmaker/artist – in case anyone gives a crap or can relate. In my teenage years, I wanted to make a film about Palestine and Israel. There have been wonderful movies made about the Israeli Palestinian conflict but I don’t think any of them have brought us any closer to a two state solution. The bible tells us that their tribal warfare started in the womb. That's a lot of really well trodden neural nets in the collective brains of Jews and Arabs to re-program.

So if you download this film, you’ll help realize my dream of making this crazy feature film, a movie that promises to eliminate the mystery behind female orgasm, that should get me some mileage. Seriously.

Oh, and as promised, lots of people just love Mataji in the film. So here is her myspace link. Enjoy the music.

Mataji Booker’s myspace profile…

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=42651284&MyToken=9c5eba4d-4f09-47d2-9252-5d8e8989abc2

A big long somewhat technical schpeel about 11:11

11:11 is the work of a film and filmmaking junkie. I enjoy every part of the movie making process: writing, production design, cinematography, directing, editing etc. As a kid growing up on the East Coast, some of my most memorable experiences happened at the local art house cinema. I got hooked on great movies from the start: The Bicycle Thief, Persona, Raging Bull, The Conformist… The list is endless.

My idea for creating a backwards movie dates back quite a while to before David Lynch’s amazing bit of filmmaking in Twin Peaks. I got the idea of telling a love story backwards after seeing the brilliant film Betrayal. Failed love is entirely nostalgic and much better in reverse. Anna and Otto’s love for each other is thinner than the skin between two onion layers. They are completely self-centered and superficial human beings. It doesn't matter if they're going backwards because even forwards, they're not evolving. So they may as well be going backwards.

Meanwhile, my love for backwards imagery probably all started as a child when I was lucky enough to have a Super 8 camera. I still have vivid memories of projecting the reels backwards and laughing out loud.

In the digital world, even though the collection of zeros and ones racing around the capacitors, integrated circuits and logic boards of computers are flat, they don’t have the immediate analog reality of the filmstrip. Hit the rewind button on a projector and suddenly gravity is defied. Use a Panavision special effects camera - like we did - where the camera’s motor allows for variable speed and direction, add some reversing mags, and now you’re running the film through the camera's gate backwards. This allows the footage transferred in telecine to match the original screenplay – rather than the shooting script.

The shooting script is a flip or reversal of the screenplay. For instance, scene 28 of the shooting script is scene 1 of the screenplay. If scene 28 had 5 set-ups, 28E would correspond to the first shot in the screenplay – or the first shot in the story that people would experience seeing the film. If this is making your head spin, try writing backwards, not exactly the script writing equivalent of a Sundays stroll on Boston’s Esplanade. Training your mind around effect preceding cause is extremely unintuitive. In general, the difficulty factor of 11:11 increased in every way as the result of my insistence on telling the story in Z-Y-X order. As you might imagine, everyone told me not to bother. My investors were willing to fund the project, but only if I presented the story in a conventional fashion. I told them we had to perform it that way and that I would create a digital version of the movie that ran forwards. Two movies for the price of one went the pitch. In fact, the producer’s version is twice as long and at the ‘beg-ending’ of the film, it turns around and the story plays out in real time. This is available on the DVD as an Easter Egg as a "Watch the loop" feature. There's also a deleted scene and other footage from the set accompanied by Director commentary on the DVD. But enough with the blah blah blah...

I suppose I could have seen all the negativity around my directing a backwards movie as a vote against my competence as well as a vote for the unlikely success of a mock foreign film. Perhaps both possibilities energized me. I guess I’m of the school that something’s not worth doing if it’s too easy. I know, I'm a bit of a meshugana.

But, I love filmmaking so much I even enjoyed numbering the script for the first AD who sort of just shrugged at me when I told her I needed the shooting script to match the scene order in the screenplay. I even did own assistant editing in this film. (I’m Mark Kram.) This was a real drag as I had to sync up all the sound takes. We tail slated everything while shooting so the slate ended up at the start of each take. After importing the original DATs into the AVID (we shot analog ¼” and then I made DAT clones) I created backwards sound takes using the Audio Suite feature in the AVID and then re-output the new sound takes to new DAT sound masters, then re-input them and got everything synced up for cutting. Brutally boring. The true and completely uncompelling sacrifices we make for art...

Anyway, the other effect of shooting backwards in camera is that the footage looks better. No digital interpolation of backwards movement occurs. Where I could, I also varied the frame rate to add more frames per second. As you all know, film runs at 24 fps while video rate is 30 fps. This all looks life-like to the human eye. But 30 fps – or adding a few more frames to the movement actually creates a more fluid look by adding those extra 6 frames per second. So wherever we could we added more frames per second, to add a more graceful look to the movement of the actors.

Speaking of the actors, Mataji Booker, the female lead had never acted before 11:11. She was a dancer with Lula Washington – an LA based dance troupe, and it was this that got her the role. Working with a first time actor in a piece that required real synchronization in all aspects of the filmmaking process turned out ok, I hope. Mataji's focus and dedication really paid off, I hope. Mataji is a talented musician too. Check out her stuff on her myspace page. I will add that link to a future post.

Doug Bennett as Mac Daddy Otto is amazing too. He's an intense and talented actor.

What did you think of backwards?

Lots of stories to tell too. Will post more later.