Everybody has dreams. The big question for me was why so few people ever fulfill them. This is really what the Luella project is about, defying the trend to actually fulfill our dream of making a feature film.
It all started on a dull day in early November 2011. It was the first time in over a decade my friend Ben Nash and I had seen each other. We had been close friends in primary school, but, as is often the way, had lost touch through the years. By some quirk of fate, we found we had both become aspiring young filmmakers. Clearly, we were meant to work together as by the end of that first meeting we had penned, or rather typed, the first draft of what would become the short film Luella.
Evolution
It has to be said that the very early version of our film was absolutely nothing like what it has since become. In fact, it didn’t even have a name and existed under the working title “Dragon Apocalypse”. By the time we came to principle photography on the short, the script was probably twice the length and the story and emphasis of it were vastly different.
At its inception, Dragon Apocalypse was a fairly classic short film idea. Ben and I both like the post-apocalyptic genre of film and it fits nicely into the low budget filmmaker’s budget as it often involves empty locations and very few actors. We wanted to do something a bit different though and that’s where the idea of setting it in a medieval world came from.
After that came the dragons. Every apocalypse needs a trigger and, in this case, dragons were quite obvious. Although difficult to do on a shoestring budget, we felt that between us we had at least enough ability with visual effects to have a decent go at it.
We had originally planned to film the short in December of 2011 but for various reasons we couldn’t. In many respects, this aided us a huge amount both practically in terms of organizing things and also for the development of the story.
It was that extra time that really allowed the biggest change in the project from a simple short to a proof of concept for a feature. In that time, I really developed the back story a lot more and consequently changed the short’s script to include more. First time round the character Luella was fairly insignificant but it was decided that the focus should be shifted to her and her life. The supporting cast grew in personality and purpose and now play a key part in shaping Luella’s existence.
What was once a simple story about the discovery of a dragon’s egg has become an intricate story about a young woman’s life. The egg is still an important device, however, for both story and practical reasons (a hatching baby dragon would be a nightmare to pull off), it takes on a more symbolic role. There are more psychological elements as the characters struggle to deal with the world and each other, something I feel is both more realistic and more engaging.
It’s possible to make amazing films for little to no money but it’s always easiest when you keep it about people and not places. It’s that old trick of establishing where you are then keeping it nice and close so no one can really tell! The story of Luella is like that now with incredible locations seen very briefly!
Shooting the Short
We never really did a proper budget for the short and were relying more in keeping costs to a minimum. In fact most of the money we did spend went on food, fuel and a dodgy wig we bought but ended up not using. There were a couple of props we bought such as the small chest the dragon’s egg is in and the materials for the costumes. Other than that everything, including all technical equipment, were things that members of the crew already had.
The fantastic costumes you see in the film were made by James de Paula Hanika and his wife Rebecca. In a very short space of time they produced fantastic quality and we literally couldn’t have made the short without them. There were three costumes and a cloak, bits of which were rotated when someone besides the three main characters turned up. James also has a cameo in the short as the character Eldin.
Principle photography took place over three days on two weekends. We used every second of available light on all of those days and indeed pushed it a little further than perhaps was ideal in some cases. We had a couple of fairly cheap reflectors which were immensely helpful to us in trying to effectively light our scenes.
We used two cameras, a Panasonic GH2 and a Sony NEX-VG10, with a variety of lenses on both. I’ve always pushed to shoot shots with movement and that are generally dynamic and with that in mind we used a dolly and crane where we could. Both are DIY creations of James de Paula Hanika, a multi-talented man indeed!
We had two make-up girls who did a great job in roughening up, bruising and scaring our main characters without using physical violence! They also did an incredible job aging Ike Khan who played Rudyard by thirty or so years to make him into the old warlock he was meant to be. He was pretty much unrecognizable by the time they had finished with him.
Massive praise has to go to the fantastic people who worked on the short despite freezing conditions, long days and very little sleep. Both cast and crew did an extraordinary job. The real crux of low budget film making is having talented people who are willing to give up their time to help you out and we were lucky enough to have that on Luella.
We shot the short in two main locations in South London, as well as a bit in a back garden! Being the modern metropolis that it is, green space in London is at a premium and it took a fair bit of scouting to find the places that we wanted. You’d be surprised what you can find, even in a big city, if you put the effort in. We’ve ended up with a nice mixture of open grassland, woodland and, with a bit of help from the weather gods, an icy, hilly tundra.
Except for the garden, we were shooting in public places and so had to negotiate our way around members of the public. It is just one of those things you have to put up with in low budget film making when you can’t control the environment in which you are shooting. There were plenty of walkers and their dogs who showed an interest in what we were doing and more than a few takes that had to be abandoned because of this.
Due to lack of time and light though, there were times when we had no choice but to push on. People in the distance will be removed in post and sound may have to be redone with additional dialogue recording (ADR). I was always of the opinion that sound can be recovered so it’s better to get your camerawork, and most importantly the acting, right first time.
Trailer
Visual Effects
As much as I love the power of VFX I have always subscribed to the theory that you should try to do as much in camera as possible. That being said, the VFX aspect of this project is, ultimately, going to make a big difference. Even with the backing of a major Hollywood studio and $100 million budget there is no way of wheeling a dragon on to set for obvious reasons – they’re a nightmare to work with!
With that in mind from day one we were looking for solutions to bring dragons to the world of Luella. There is very little choice but to have animated 3D dragons as I see it and that in itself will provide the single biggest challenge in making Luella. Whilst I have been doing VFX for many years, 3D modeling and animation are not my forte. That being said this project is very much a good excuse to learn some new skills!
I would like to model, rig and animate my own dragons but, given that would take a very long time for someone who’s never done that level of 3D work before, there is another option. You can get 3Dmodels of all sorts of things from websites such as “Turbosquid” that you can use under Creative Commons licensing. I do have a couple of dragon models which I got for free and may be used for some shots, though with some level of modification.
On top of that was the fact we were filming in and around London. Whilst the dragons are the hardest, the vast majority of VFX work on the short will be to remove all traces of modern city life that often popped up in the background. As hard as we worked to find good, natural looking locations, the inevitable tower block turns up from time to time. Also, the fact that we were filming under the flight path of one of the largest airports in the world was unhelpful to say the least.
The other big thing that VFX will be used for is to make the impossible, possible. A rather sweeping statement I know but we see Luella as a chance to really show off what we, as filmmakers, can do. Whilst none of us are fantastically talented landscape artists, putting together a decent background matte painting isn’t actually that hard. With the combination of photographs and 3D generated imagery, we can assemble some apocalyptic looking backgrounds to help create the world of Luella.
For a great story you need a strong beginning and a strong end and with that in mind, and taking some inspiration from the very best, we’re making the short a tale of two cities. Both opening and closing sequences in the short will center around a city which will be entirely made by VFX. One will be an ancient city, burnt to the ground by the dragons and broken down over the years. The other will be the underground city of Angari, a hub of civilization in a world where there is very little, built underground as the ultimate protection against the dragons. You can follow our progress in making Angari come to life on our blog.
Looking Ahead
The Luella Project has grown organically from when it first started and is only going to get bigger. We are looking to push boundaries with the short film to show just how much can be done for almost nothing. But we know, even after we’ve finished the short, we’re only just getting started.
Whilst the script for the feature gets longer and more fantastical every day, the ultimate truth is that this entire project had to be planned on the assumption we would have no money for it. We will try our utmost to get as big a budget for the feature as possible but we are prepared to make it on pure graft alone. Dare to dream and you might just be surprised what you can achieve if you act on it!
You can follow our progress and maybe even get involved on our blog: theluellaproject.wordpress.com
OR on Twitter:
@LuellaProject
AND on our Facebook page
On Youtube or Vimeo type in Luella Project and you’ll find us.
And a big thank you to MicroFilmaker for taking this article!
Thank you for reading,
Josh Baker-Mendoza
Director/ Producer on Luella
Benjamin Nash
Benjamin Nash a former student of the London Film Academy, initially started doing visual effects and 3D. Soon becoming an expert in visual effects, Ben wrote many articles on the subject and regularly published software reviews. He also provided free tutorials via his website www.effectsportal.net. Following his passion for film he directed and produced 12 short films, two of them 48 hour film challenges. The @LuellaProject is his current project with Writer/ Director Josh Baker Mendoza.