DIRECTOR'S NOTES

Frequently Asked Questions

Gloria began life as a 48-Hour Film Project in the 2008 Providence, RI competition, the weekend of July 18-20, 2008. We have since re-cut that film into the Director's Cut, which we have posted on this website. Be sure to check out the full cast and crew list. Everyone deserves a big round of applause!

A lot of people have asked me questions about Gloria and I thought I'd put them all together for everyone.

How did you do the opening moon shot?

We tried to do a live shot Friday night of the 48-hour, which we knew was going to be a full moon, but the weather didn't cooperate to get the whole shot. We ended up having to film Frank on a hilltop then dropping in a high quality still photo of the moon, which our digital FX guy, Michael Critz, then animated.

What genre did you draw?

Drama

What camera did you use? What editing software?

We shot Gloria on a Panasonic HVX in 720p. We edited on Macintosh workstations and laptops using Final Cut Studio. We also used Adobe After Effects.

How many people were on your team?

There were about 35 folks on the team and we couldn't have done it without every single one of them! Special thank yous to co-producers Eric Ryan and Noreen Anastasia of Layman's Terms Productions!

How did you plan for the 48-hour weekend?

We pre-produced as much as we could within the rules of the 48. We had a basic idea and chose from the beginning to spin it for holiday and historical genres as we figured those would be the hardest to do at the last minute if we drew them. Thus, the film is set 4th of July, 1958.

I also wanted to feature kids and older folks, because I figured not so many teams would be doing that. We also planned for the film de femme genre in that we could switch out the roles of Frank Budelman and Joan Curran if need be. Our writers had some ideas of how we might spin for other genres, but we were lucky to draw the best possible one--drama!

We shot scenes late Friday night that required no dialog while our writers worked all through the rest of the night, then we tackled shooting the meat of the story Saturday through about 2 a.m. Sunday. The editing began after the Friday night shots and continued through Sunday late afternoon, led by editor John Guilmartin.

Did you CG the ascension scene?

No, this was actually filmed on Friday night at Camp Ponkapoag in Canton, MA on a high ropes course. Our stunt coordinator, Ross Ruben Morgan, just happened to be working at the camp over the summer, running the high ropes course.

With key grip Rob Richard's help, Josh Hays' lighting really set the mood.

Ben Skinner was strapped into a harness that was on the outside of his clothing. Our digital FX guy, Michael Critz digitally removed the harness in post. I was disappointed when I saw the scene Sunday afternoon that it looked fake--cg'ed. In fact it wasn't! I changed the edit in the director's cut to cut to Frank quicker after Ben launched to redirect the viewer's eyes to Frank.

For Ben's ascension POV shot, our stunt coordinator strapped in and filmed the ride up!

How did you shoot Ben's POV?

Although Matthew Dorris was our talented DP, we strapped our stunt coordinator into the rigging and pulled him up, filming the whole way!

How did you come up with the ideas for Gloria?

When we came up with the idea we were thinking about some sort of Twilight Zone thing. One of the reasons I picked Twilight Zone is because I remember it so well (yeah, I'm old! ha!). Within that series you might find a drama, a comedy (dark, usually), a romance, anything, but it would have a twist at the end. So, we decided to set up a story that could work like a Twilight Zone story, depending on what genre we drew.

What did the story end up being about, actually?

Well, I like to create movies that have people talking about them when they go out for coffee or drinks afterward. Even better if they're still talking about them a few days later. The universe is such a mystery to all of us and I wanted to capture some of that delightful, electric mystery.

I didn't want to spell out whether our mystery man was an alien, angel, or avatar, and we planted hints that could spin it in any of those directions. The idea was for the movie to be about what the person viewing thought it was about. If you saw ET or the second coming of Christ or the Angel of Death, well, you each might be watching a different movie! Did Frank die and go to heaven, get taken away in an alien spacecraft, or just go back home? You can decide. I still haven't decided! Ha!

What hints did you plant?

Well, the title of Gloria was the first. See 9 for more info on who Gloria is. Then there was the strange celestial event that knocked Frank over. Then the Drake Equation (Astronomer Frank Drake invented this in 1961, actually, which predicts that there is a lot of intelligent life out there. It became the foundation of S.E.T.I.).

Then there were the quotes that Ben spoke in at the end. Quotes from Jesus, Buddha, Shakespeare, Einstein, and the hand gesture Ben used, which is on the Pioneer Spacecraft--the universal sign for peace/friendship. Frank had a quote from Tolstoy as well. Thanks to Matt Griffin and Noreen Anastasia, we got the script done in time.

The fact that the Drake Equation and Pioneer happened post-1958 added a hint for alien or avatar, I thought.

After I realized that people didn't get this in the 48-hour, I ended up putting these in the Special Thanks to try and give a bigger hint in the director's cut. I also added the Carl Sagan quote up front to try and set the stage for that.

We didn't realize until later that we had not quoted a woman. We were going to do that for the re-cut, but discovered that Ben had gone to Florida for six months for a job. So it never happened. :-(

Did you accomplish what you set out to do?

Yes and no. I had decided before going into this 48-hour that it would be my last film race. I got hooked up with Eric Ryan and Noreen Anastasia of Layman's Terms Productions and taught them and the rest of the folks everything I knew about film racing, so I feel like I've passed on everything I could. It was important to me to do that and part of the reason why we had such a large crew and why I also sought to do big, crazy stuff--to show that you can really go outside of the box, not only in the 48, but in how you think about production on a shoestring in general.

Hopefully this younger crowd will now have more success in the 48-hour format than I did as far as winning, particularly with up and coming directors Eric Ryan and John LaDue! So yes, got that task accomplished, I think.

I also feel like I accomplished my task of having people talk about this film afterward. For a couple of weeks, I heard from a number of people asking me if Ben was an angel or alien, so I guess that worked.

Experimentation was also high on my list of goals. We did some things I've never done before, so all of us learned a bunch of new things. So that is a go.

Getting it done on time. That worked out.

What didn't work out was probably what is the biggest problem for the whole film. I like to make movies with multiple layers or levels of meaning. Those who want to be entertained will see an entertaining movie, enjoy it, and that's that.

But those who look for deeper meaning will find many layers of it to be intellectually stimulated. (Of course, ideally, those who come just for a good ride will end up having a deeper experience!) I'm afraid in Gloria that I didn't accomplish the former part of this--making a movie that was a good ride on the most basic level. :-(

Our digital FX person, Michael Critz, put it this way. "You know the NY Times crossword puzzle starts out easy on Monday and by the time you get to Sunday the puzzle is very difficult. I think most folks want a Tuesday or Wednesday movie. You made a Sunday movie. God bless you." I think this is a good analogy and illustrates where I fell down in my plan.

I was pleased with everyone doing a pretty good job of recreating the late 50s, although there were only four of us on the cast and crew who were even alive back then! The mood was created largely due to costume and prop help from Noreen Anastasia, Lauren Joyce, and Tannis Boyajian. We had tried to score 1950s automobiles and came very close to pulling that off, but no one showed up on Saturday morning!

I think the pace of the movie was also 1950s. This may have been another reason why Gloria was not selected as a Best Of. People today are just not used to the slower paced/slower cuts type movie. But, it would have been weird to me to make a 1950s movie with modern pacing and fast cuts. Oh well.

Did the film work?

I'm not sure. The 48-hour judges didn't like it so it has not had as much exposure as I would have liked. I don't think the younger crowd likes it, so no, it probably doesn't work in that sense. But it would have been wonderful to have had it played at the Best Of because there were a lot of middle aged and older folks in the audience that night because of RIIF. I would have loved to have had their opinions because I think it's probably slanted a little more to the older crowd than the younger crowd.

I didn't intend for Gloria to appeal just to the older crowd more, but it ended up that way, I think. Time will tell. I'm sending the director's cut into a couple of very targeted film festivals that should answer that question.

Why did you pick 1958 and Sputnik?

Again, knowing that we could draw the holiday or historical genres, this seemed a do-able thing. I've also been toying with a script for a short about a telescope, a college student, and an alien (and other things) for several years.

The Twilight Zone idea influenced this as well as my own childhood. Born in 1955, I remember people watching the skies, and I made clay Sputniks to play with. It was nostalgia that drew me--a nostalgia that didn't carry over to the younger crowd, apparently! But the world changed when Sputnik was launched. It changed forever. All of this left a lasting impression on me and probably impacted why I later became such a huge science fiction fan.

What major differences are there between the original 48-hour movie and the director's cut?

Two scenes got added footage that had been shot but not used: 1) the window scene in the beginning; 2) Frank walking into the clearing to watch the skies. We cut the pears and the phrase, "If you see him again, tell me." I tightened up a couple of edits.

Most of the new work was concentrated on some digital FX cleanup and sound work. We did a lot of work on the soundtrack, thanks to recordist and sound editor Jonathan Gourd, including adding ambient sounds, some special effects, and a couple lines of dialog for Frank as he's getting up off the ground. Oh, and the Carl Sagan quote at the beginning.

What is one secret of getting to the finish line on time?

Craft services. Thank you, Mayoka Takemori!

Can we get a DVD to compare the original 48-Hour Gloria with the Director's Cut?

Email me at zee@ziamar.com.