Chad Taylor

The Dark-Haired Girl



'It's like [Eye in the Sky] when actual rescue is right at hand but they can't wake up. Yes, we are always asleep like they are in Eye and we must wake up and see past (through) the dream -- the spurious world with its own time -- to the rescue outside -- outside now, not later.' 
 -- Philip K. Dick quoted in Divine Invasions by Lawrence Sutin (Paladin 1991)

The Excellent Man




'There is only one situation in which the virtue of the good citizen and excellent man are the same, and this is when the citizens are living in a city that is under the ideal regime...'
-- Edward Clayton, Aristotle: Politics (2005)

(REALITi, Mission Impossible, The Prisoner)

Snapshots





Needle and the damage done


Sunday was the wrap for REALITi. Director Jonathan King finished the principal shoot and pickups with a reshoot of the first scene, going in tighter / darker / better. Big ups to actors, crew and our location hosts for the day, Chow Wellington. After thirty non-sequential days of shooting the micro-budget has brought out the best in everyone.

Now all there is to do is the editing, some digital trickery, ADR, sound mix, colour timing, score...

Got wood? Ed Wood?


I sat down with Jonathan King to view the first and very rough assembly of Realiti, and it's looking good. We have about three shooting days in total to go, although they include capturing something complex that I dashed off quickly. To paraphrase Harrison Ford, you can type this shit, but you can't film it. But I have faith that Jonathan will. He has so far.

The best thing about the movie so far is the direction and the performances. The actors are nailing it, and the images are lovely.

To date, only one corrupted file (touch wood) which our editor Jonathan (no relation) saved by importing it a frame at a time, and one misbehaving computer (cue Wilhelm scream), now reformatted. My role now is mostly sitting nearby saying, 'I'm sure it'll be alright' and, more than once, 'Why don't you just cut that line completely?... Yeah, that's better.'

In the same month, I finally got my writing desk out of storage. It's been a long time, baby.

The dream factory





For the last few weeks I've been working with director Jonathan King on our film Realiti, picking off one day of scheduled shooting at a time. Production on the feature has been made possible by the generosity and spirit of all involved, from location owners to the local film students and hardened professionals who've worked on the crew, and to the wonderful actors who have found time between stage, TV and (very) big film productions to come and be part of Mr King's third feature. When I was writing the screenplay and casually dashing off phrases such as 'EXT. HOTEL EXTERIOR - NIGHT' it never occurred to me that the result would be six people standing on a wet, rainy city street at 11p.m. with their faces turning blue. But stand there they did, until they got it right, and not a complaint from any of them. Honestly, guys, I thought 'INT. NIGHTCLUB' was keeping it simple. And don't get me started on how easy I thought it would be to film 'INT. OFFICE - DAY'.

Realiti is still a work in progress. Without giving too much away I can tell you that I've seen the rushes and they're amazing. But don't tell anyone: we don't want to peak too soon. In the meantime my ongoing thanks and gratitude to Chow and Good Luck Bar; to the crew to date which includes Jack Barrowman, Oren Graham, Joseph Hambleton, Cath Maguire, Kelly Manu, Lee Tolley and Niki Winer; and my admiration and respect to the immensely talented actors including Michelle Langstone, Johannes Meister, Nathan Meister, Miranda Manasiadis, Graham McTavish, Aroha White, Richard Whiteside and Tim Wong. All of whom are being corralled, encouraged and captured by the directorial eye of Mr Jonathan King. Jonathan has been shooting a lot of handheld, and can hold a half-crouch for a really long time.

And hats off, too, to Wellingtonians. Their city might be home to one of the most expensive film productions in the modern world but the locals still brake for a micro-budget New Zealand movie. Literally, sometimes: we've been filming on the street. Sorry about that, chief.

Pictured: Graham McTavish and Miranda Manasiadis between takes at a very special house; cast and extras in the club; Graham, Oren Graham and Nathan in the wind; and Michelle Langstone -- a star and a star on Twitter.

Who's gonna pay attention to your dreams?


Ungraded set pic: Nathan Meister in the passenger seat c/- director Jonathan King.

Shadows and fog





Some more thumbnails from the set of Realiti, the micro-budget SF movie that director Jonathan King is shooting around Wellington and parts of Auckland. Top to bottom: Miranda Manasiadis and Nathan Meister lurking in the shadows; Graham McTavish giving the news; Nathan Meister hearing it; and Michelle Langstone on her way to something that may or may not happen. Jonathan has been shooting in digital in real locations with found light and a crew so small I'm not sure whether to call it a guerilla or a skeleton.

Realiti is pared-back science fiction: my idea, when I wrote it, was that the characters would come into a room and just talk. I keep referring to it as a science fiction film with no special effects, although when Jonathan is through with it there will be some opticals: removal of objects, fiddling with backgrounds, that kinda thing. Much of our discussion about the movie is what it won't be, and what won't be in it. In many ways it's a noir... but more colourful than that: stranger.

I wrote the script for Jonathan a long time ago. We revived the project after putting our toes back in the water by making on a comic strip, City Lights, which I wrote and he drew. One of the many things I love about these images as they trickle through is the way they evoke the director's drawing style. It's a good sign, I think: evidence that the movie's visual style is evolving naturally.

These preview pics are very small and have not been graded. And the shoot is just coming up to halfway: there's a long way to go yet. But the actors are looking way cool and the footage is looking great. Build it simple, fly it slow...

Crisscross




Director Jonathan King has wired some more production stills from REALITi: Aroha White as Jessamine; Michelle Langstone as Holly; Miranda Manasiadis and Nathan Meister as Meg and Vic. Currently shooting in Wellington: it's all coming together. I wrote the script years ago but only now do I realise that these were faces I had in mind.

Watch this: Space!



If you're in Wellington in the coming weeks and spot a film crew not on a $500+ million budget from Warner Brothers, it might be Jonathan King making REALITi, a new full-length feature film. Jonathan will be shooting with a small team in and around Wellington which, through the magic of cinema, will be transformed into a New Zealand city in the kind-of present day.

REALITi is a script I wrote for Jonathan in 2008. It's a talkie: a science fiction film with no special effects; an adult fantasy set in the New Zealand now. Pictured: Nathan Meister as Vic and Tim Wong as Lo.