Shoot the Sax Player

This past July I shot another USC thesis film, this one was for my friend Mike Tounian.  SHOOT THE SAX PLAYER is a 1930's Prohibition Era Chicago gangster story about a stash of missing whiskey and the men searching for it.  It's guns, booze, women, and jazz!

I had the great pleasure to shoot this short on 35mm with the Panavision Millenium.  We shot on Kodak Vision3 5219 film stock which has incredible contrast and color rendition right out of the box.  For me, I envisioned the film as looking something like a cross between Sam Mendes' ROAD TO PERDITION crossed with a little of Spike Lee's MO' BETTER BLUES plus the gratuitous gunfire of John McTiernan's PREDATOR.

Our production design team built us some amazing set pieces including an underground nightclub on a group of sound stages.  Once filled with our actors in period garb, the set felt like a real place, serving real Prohibition Era hootch and playing big band music.

This was a fun shoot. We were able to bring out quite a few toys to play with.  Big toys too, as the Millenium with a 1000' mag on it ain't no 5D.

Due to the generosity of the good people over at Fotokem we were able to get printed dailies to watch every couple days.  In the digital age, not only is shooting film a rare thing, but to actually see your dailies projected on film is entirely another.  Sad to say, but that might be the last time I get to do that...

Here's a gallery of stills I was able to get from the director while he finished cutting the film.  I can't wait to see this film on the big screen!