The Grey Cloud Reveals Its Silver Lining

Cameron Ford, Cinematographer

Over the past fifteen years John Polson’s Tropfest has steadily grown to its now mammoth international proportions and offers incredible visibility for Australia’s ambitious new filmmakers.

The Grey Cloud a 7-minute ‘noirish’ film written by Matt Peek and co-produced and co-directed by Peek and Cam Ford was one of this year’s sixteen finalists and took out the award for Best Cinematography earning the filmmakers $1,500 cash from Kodak.

The festival’s famous T.S.I. or Tropfest Signature Item has a unique capability of encouraging original production due to its changing nature and necessary inclusion each year. This year it was a sneeze and Peek and Ford addressed this with originality by having a bartender slam down a bottle of “Jimmy Sneeze” whiskey.

The film is the second Tropfest success for the filmmaking duo who were also finalists in 2005 with their entry, Too Far, which is now being developed for television.

The Grey Cloud, shot in Melbourne during November 2006 and starring Mick Preston, Katie Astrinakis, John Richards and Brett Cartlidge, is set in a crime-ridden city and opens with a man walking alongside a woman down an alley. Nearby is a mysterious piano bar, The Grey Cloud, a place where the music can simply take you away.

“Conversations between Matt and I almost always included words like ‘dark’, ‘moody’ and ‘mysterious’,” recalls Ford. “We re-watched several of our favourite movies from the genre and era we wanted to replicate; classics such as Chinatown, The Untouchables, and Carlito’s Way were on high rotation in our DVD players. Interestingly, the films we referenced provided a clear distinction of both time and place whereas with The Grey Cloud, our intention was to give the film a timeless quality, which I think we achieved.”

Ford, who earned his Bachelor of Contemporary Arts from Deakin University in 2001, also served as cinematographer. Working in the Super 16mm format with an Arri SRII camera, generously provided by Cameraquip’s Malcolm Richards, he shot the film using eight rolls of high-speed KODAK VISION2 500T 7218.

Produced by 3AM Studios on a self-funded budget of only $14,000, the filmmakers had little opportunity, or budget, to experiment. Production took place over only three nights in Warburton Alley (off Little Bourke Street) and ‘The Paris Cat’ jazz club in Goldie Place in Melbourne’s CBD.

“We had to lock down Warburton Alley, hire a generator and light up the whole street from scratch in a 1940ish style,” explains Ford. “I used HMI Fresnels, Dedo’s and china balls including five ‘Chinaman’s Hats’ which functioned as ‘practicals’ within the scene. In principal this may not sound very difficult however, due to the extremely tight nature of the schedule, we had to set every single light in position while the sun was going down and then, as soon as it became dark we made a few minor adjustments and began to roll.”

Not having shot 7218 before, Ford relied heavily on research via the Internet and American Cinematographer magazine however, with his understanding of the capabilities of today’s modern post production technologies, he worked without any filtration saying, “I prefer to shoot ‘straight’ and work on the image in post. That way, you don’t back yourself into a corner.”

The production ran into difficulties within the first half hour of day one when the video split broke down and Ford had no choice but to quickly learn to trust the film stock. The limited budget also presented the brave filmmakers with other challenges.

“There were three occasions where time constraints afforded only one take,” says Ford. “This is risky at the best of times, however, on top of this, we did not have the budget for ‘dailies’ either, so we just rehearsed the action and associated camera movements as well as the focus pull about eight times, then went for it! Crazy stuff in hindsight, but sometimes, especially on a low budget short, you just have to invest in a little bit of blind faith.”

Blind faith or not, it would seem Peek and Ford are definitely the ones to watch.

CAST AND CREW:

Camera Department: Cam Ford
Focus Puller/Camera Assistant: Michael Scott
Clapper/Camera Notes: Wes Kerr
Costume Designer: Rani Clarke
Production Designer: Amelia Mescaro
Sound: Matt Gearing Thomas / John J Kassab
Score: Craig Bryant
Stills Photographer: Kerry Pryor