Mixing Things Up: Nathan Stone's Filmmaking

17 February 2009

Animation Centre

FTI Member Nathan Stone is one of 16 Tropfest finalists competing for prizes worth close to $200,000 this Sunday 22 February. Nathan generously gave his time to speak with FTI and what follows is a two part article on his filmmaking methods, priorities and passions.

Nathan’s Tropfest entry ‘Blue’ is a simple film about a young woman with a secret she is keeping from her partner. “It was very spontaneous film”, according to Nathan. Having landed a VFX Supervisor role on a West Australian independent film, Nathan was due to leave Germany to return home to Perth. “I always wanted to make a film in Germany and utilize the snow. It’s so beautiful and I find it fascinating”. The urgency to make the most of the local landscape increased with Nathan’s impending departure. Waking up after a huge snow dump in Germany just before Christmas, an idea was sparked and Nathan jumped out of bed, asked his girlfriend if she wanted to be in the film and shot it that afternoon. It was cut the following week: ten days from conception to completion.

Nathan has wanted to have a film screen at Tropfest since 1998 and has entered three times prior, including having another 2009 entry in competition; a film with several months worth of post. His fist attempt at Tropfest was in 2001 with a film that was co-written and co-directed with a TAFE friend, Stuart Campbell. It was called ‘Life Without Lucy’ and was a fantasy action spoof about a boy trying to rescue his pet frog from the school bullies, armed with an arsenal of Nerf guns. ‘Life Without Lucy’ made the shortlist but not the finals. ‘The Tooth’ was to be entered into Tropfest 2003 when the theme was ‘rock’ but took about a year longer to finish than anticipated: eighteen months in total. Nathan thinks it would have been very popular but as the film has done very well at other festivals worldwide, says he can’t complain.

Having also dabbled in stop motion and hand drawn animation while studying, Nathan’s focus has been 3D.

I started using Softimage 3.7 way back in 1997 and at some point transitioned over to Maya which I am now very comfortable in. A few projects have required me to use XSI – also good. Being a film maker in the no budget realm means learning a lot of different skills. Things move a lot faster if you don’t have to rely on other people for favours so I tend to learn to do things myself most of the time. I’m familiar with Maya, XSI, Photoshop, Shake, After Effects, Premiere, Final Cut, Avid, Boujou, Dreamweaver, Color, DVD Studio Pro and Notepad.

For Nathan planning is everything. His approach is to always piece the film together in his mind before shooting, storyboarding the whole script. “If I think a scene is going to be tricky I’ll throw an animatic together using the storyboards or I’ll mock up something in 3D.” ‘Late’ (also a Tropfest entry) included a multi car pile up involving a petrol tanker and Nathan made a 3D pre-vis of this scene before hand which proved invaluable.

Like other low budget filmmakers, Nathan does not shoot alternative coverage, instead he knows beforehand how the film will be told and makes sure he has every piece of the puzzle using storyboards. “If everything goes more or less as planned I think you get a result with a much more crafted feel”.

Nathan claims to be more of a visual director but insists that performance is extremely important. His approach is simple: use good actors. This doesn’t mean getting well-known, expensive actors. It means resisting the temptation to put the “10/10 super hotty in your film over the girl who really listens to what you’re saying and actually changes her performance after hearing it”. Nathan has always used message boards, like FTI’s forums, to find actors and has found it easy to get great talent willing to help out on his no budget films.

Nathan shoots mainly on miniDV and now HDV and edits on his MacBook Pro using Final Cut which he says is a seriously good investment if you’re planning on making films on a regular basis. Nathan paces his films to mimic what’s happening in the story. “Cutting is kind of like the heartbeat of the film. If the scene is exciting and suspenseful it feels right to cut things quickly and conversely slow pacing suits more tender and quiet scenes.” Though Nathan also states that it’s whatever feels right. He says he is often tempted, as visual director, to go for perfect shots rather than perfect performance, but that nothing screams low-budget-amateur more than bad acting or bad editing choices, so he always tries to go for performance.

When it comes to music Nathan uses message boards to find composers and has been really lucky to work with some very talented composers. Nathan gives them a general brief and some examples as well as pointing out the parts of the film where the audience should be feeling certain things. “It’s actually a very exciting part of the process when your film comes back with music. A whole other dimension gets added: very exciting”, says Nathan.

Nathan’s advice to other filmmakers is, above all, not to compromise. While it is hard to tell a good friend that you are going to cast someone else because you think they could give a better performance, you have to make that hard decision or you will end up with a muddy version of the film that is in your head. He says, “You’ll regret it every time you watch it”.

Having given a brief version of how he usually makes a film, Nathan explains that ‘Blue’ was a departure from the usual, being experimental, completely spontaneous, with no storyboards and even no script. “‘Blue’ is a completely different style in terms of shots and pacing. Sometimes you just have to try different things, mix things up a bit so you can learn alternatives.”

FTI wishes Nathan the best in this year’s Tropfest and will be watching the competition from the Bohemia Outdoor Cinema with fingers crossed. Gates open at 6:30pm with the films starting at 8:30pm. Head down before hand for FTI’s special ‘Best of the West’ presentation – the best WA Tropfest entries, never before seen! ‘Best of the West’ presentation is indoors at the Port Cineaste Cinema from 4pm – 6pm.

Read more about Nathan’s career path and influences

You can watch some of Nathan’s older films here