Day Four of Shooting

Yesterday we finally got to see the roche boutique! we set up camera and shot the product before opening. unfortunately the shop was a bit too tiny to be able to film while customers were inside, so as the shop activity grew we were forced to shoot elsewhere. and after there was simply no other exterior angle of the shop and surrounding neighborhood to be shot, we felt satisfied enough to allow some time to dedicate to tourism.

we didn’t get to see the eiffel tower or eat a croissant while wearing a beret, but we found a mask shop and got to wear a hose head while climbing the 300 steps of the sacre coeur and saw the moulin rouge. there is plenty of art hanging in the louvre which were made with roche pastels, so tomorrow we plan on returning to the city in order to get some of those visuals.

today we plan on finishing up all of the interior shots of the maison du pastel, and if the process of gradating the colors goes smoothly for isabelle and margaret, then we will be able to have the entire process of inventing and new color on film. they also have yet to name this color, but if that also manages to be solved today then we may be able to have a labeling sequence. in any event, we have enough now to compile footage from other colors to illustrate the entire process, so today will be getting the substance that will make the film more than just an illustration. this is turning out well and is forming a wonderful and lighthearted film that we both can be proud of, but today we plan on capturing whatever mystery footage that we can all feel we are lacking, in order to really make this special. so that is our very vague goal for our last day, and probably most difficult, but we’re optimistic that we’ll get it.

Day Three of Filming

Yesterday we shot some amazing footage, despite technical difficulties with phone/internet/importing footage. We were able to film the pressing and rolling of one of the two colors we’ve been following this week: a beautiful blue-lavender shade. The other color, which has yet to be named as it was just created by Margaret (a very intense trial-and-error process we hope to interview her about) this past week is a deep, vibrant violet.

Zach found some amazing things in the attic—diagrams of products that haven’t been available since the 1800s and books of color samples from the collection at the time. (As he and Leah were carrying these heavy boxes up and down the steps to the attic, Leah’s happy spine was thanking Mrs. Mccourt!)

Today we’re very excited to be traveling to Paris, where we’ll film at the shop and get a chance to see the product in a new context. We hope as well to film how they label the colors and hopefully we’ll catch some willing, returning customers to say a few words about the product.

Enjoy the photos, and thanks again for your support!

We’re here!

Sorry for the lack of the promised update! We now have internet, and my brother, the DP has an update for all of you on our adventure in France:

hey everyone! we’ve now overcome our jetlag and so can coherently begin our log. we got picked up at the train station yesterday by isabelle roché and margaret, who gave us a quick tour of the town. they want us to keep some things, like the name of the town, to ourselves but its just like how you’re probably imagining it: theres a big old church and a little castle and very few people and is all just as charming as the little european villages are in the movies.

we got a tour of la maison du pastel yesterday as well, which is a very strange and very interesting place. the property has two buildings, one of which is the house where the roche family has lived for well over a century, and the other is the pastel studio. the walls in each room of the house were painted with their pastel pigments, and though the nazis left the house a bit in shambles after occupying it during the second world war, a small part of the house was left habitable which is where isabelle and margaret now live.

we were introduced to the house mascot “Smoking” who`s the seemingly ever present black and white cat who wanders the village and makes himself comfortable in the back corner of the courtyard between the house and the studio building.

the studio building was a huge treat, and anyone who enjoys art materials would appreciate the fantastic collection of what has accumulated in the attic for the past hundred-plus years. we found all sorts of ornate makeup paints and vessels for water colors and hundreds of ceramic bowls and glass containers, all beautifully decorated and packaged in ways that no company today could economically sustain. margaret said that while the nazis were occupying the grounds they had attempted to create their own pastels. apparently they lacked the nack for color-making, because the roche family decided not to produce any “nazi-lavender” for their customers.

also, one of isabelles great aunts had been a very talented pastel artist, and we found many of her surviving pieces, which though a bit damp by the attic space, have survived very well over the years. the whole collection of things was a bit overwhelming, but we hope to get as much as we can in the film.

all in all we had a lot to take in by the end of the day, and over lunch we discussed our plans and created an agenda for the week. we apparently had excellent timing in our arrival, because they just received a new batch of pigments and so we’ll be able to document the whole process of the pastel production from the beginning stages. so today, margaret and isabelle will begin experimenting with new colors and we will begin documenting!

Enjoy the pictures (compliments of the DP). we will post more after the workday.

Ready for Take-Off!

First of all, a big big thank you to all of you!

Particularly, a BIG thanks to our funding producers! You can update your IMDBs once we enter this in a festival.

We are, as of this writing, looking at $2,330 in donations toward making this film, $1830 of which were given through Kickstarter. My brother and I can’t possibly communicate how excited we are.

We fly on the 10th of March, and starting the evening of the 11th (Paris time) we will be posting updates every day of shooting both here and on the Kickstarter. Once we get back, we will be posting updates about how editing and scoring is going. Also, we will post pictures of our lovely(ish) selves modeling the tshirts that you will all receive soon after!

Again, thank you so, so much, from the bottom of our hearts, for making this film possible.

~

Zach & Milo

 

UPDATE!!!!

As of now, $2694 has been donated through Kickstarter, and another $500 through direct donations. That makes $3194 in donations! Thank you thank you thank you!