Mirza Sahiban is one of the most famous stories in Punjabi literature, and one whose origin goes back hundreds of years. It is a story that has been told and retold for generations, so when a film takes up this tale and labels it The Untold Story, ears were certainly perking up among the millions of Punjabis worldwide. The traditional story is one of forbidden love, revenge, and tragedy; not unlike many legendary folk tales from the world over, but this tragic ending is a bit notorious, because of a twist at the end that gives the story a part of its name.
There’s a new trailer out for Mirza 2012: The Untold Story. The film is causing a huge stir in India.
We worked with our good friend, and Vancouver’s best kept cinematographer secret: TOBY GORMAN, to create an action-packed big-budget movie look with a skeleton crew of only 4 guys (which includes a dual gaffer/key grip, a best boy, and two swing technicians). We added a tow-generator, and a 6k Par to supplement the TALCO LIGHTING & GRIP PACKAGE, and that was it.
This is proof that a new era of image-making is upon us. Sensitive digital cameras — tightly knit crew of skilled independent filmmakers — making the most of limited tools — we can create huge budget-like features! We’ve proven this. Watch the trailer above (!).
MIRZA 2012: The Untold Story Theatrical Film Release
Mirza - The Untold Story
Here’s a trailer to Mirza – The Untold Story, a punjabi film we worked on last year over a two month period.
Release Date: April 6, 2012
Starring Gippy Grewal & Mandy Takhar with Rahul Dev and Bunnu Dhillion. Music by Honey Singh.
The director, Baljit Singh Deo, wanted to create a Punjubi film with a distinctly North American large scale production value feeling. He wanted to set new standards for Indian films overseas. Principal photography was in Vancouver, BC.
We had a challenging time creating that big budget movie lighting with a minimal crew and no budget for pre-rigging. We worked closely with our good friend and cinematographer Toby Gorman to use large sources, carefully shaped single sources, and strategically placed background lights. We used condor lighting where possible for our night exteriors to save time and manpower because we had minimal time for setup and turnarounds to rig smaller lights. Throughout the show we carried a pair of 6k PAR’s in addition to our base lighting package, slush truck, and a tow generator.
Filmed on Red Epic. Produced by Inda Raikoti & Aman Khatkar. The movie has been getting a lot of attention overseas because of its cast special appearances, and non-conventional Bollywood production ways.
TALCO returns from 3 weeks filming a movie in Edson, Alberta!
The feature film, BELOW ZERO — starring Terminator 2′s Edward Furlong, horror legend Michael Berryman, and supporting actress Kristin Booth – takes place in a butcher shop where a captive writer (Furlong) gets twisted into dementia when confronted with a deadline he cannot face by his agent (Kristin). Blurring the lines between a depressing reality and a beautiful macabre, the writer’s angst manifests in a gruesome character of his own creation (Berryman) while the writer himself explores a sick fascination with the butcher’s son, a pecular little boy named Golem.
We filmed in a small highway town far from infrastructure which challenged us to improvise. We originally built extended hood rigs on our vintage picture trucks using scaffold pipe and sliding cheese plates, but the gravel roads proved to be too shaky with the old truck suspensions. We had no stabalizers so we ended up building our own process trailer from a flatdeck base, ground up. The night exteriors ended up being a simple task done in a minimalist way using cinematographer Norm Li’s 4k Airstar Helium Balloon Light. A photo of which from us even ended up on Norm Li’s website.
We’ve just wrapped an independent action thriller feature, “Transparency“. The film is produced by our friends at Qube Films. It is directed by Raul Inglis with cinematography by Michael C. Blundell who is known from Stargate: Atlantis and Jeremiah television series. It stars Lou Diamond Philips, Estella Warren, and Deborah Kara Unger, among others.
During the show we picked up a few tricks from Stargate veteran key grip , John Zulisnki, while sharing our TALCO package truck with his team of grips. Many of the cast, crew, and stunt people were also from the Stargate universe making this an enjoyable feature to work on with a tightly integrated crew all around.
We will have more on this film as Qube Films publishes more information in the upcoming months.
A Persian story comes to Vancouver: Iranian Director, Ellie Fox, has posted new stills from her upcoming feature length movie, ‘Under the Apple Box‘ which has completed principal photography in Vancouver, British Columbia. We filmed approximately 20 days in total.
The story takes place in present day Vancouver where a photographer explores a dark past as an orphan girl struggling to make a living with her nanny in Iran.
The girls innocent exploration of art and beauty clashes with Muslim culture and threatens to ruin everything around her.
We have been assured, a new promotional website is soon to follow. In the mean time we have updated our gallery posting on the film with the new photos.
Update: Principal Photography is complete and new photos have been added below.
Here’s a few photos following the first weekend of shooting the second half of Persian Director Ellie Fox’s feature length film “Under the Apple Box“. The first half of the film took place in present day Vancouver but the story is interwoven with a dark past following a young girl, Leila, who grows up in Iran as a non-muslim orphan captivated by the seductive imaging power of photography — during events preceding the Islamic Revolution – known as the ‘birth of the muslim nation’ — where the child’s innocent exploration of artistic photos leads to a controversial judgement and subsequent exile from the muslim world.
For the second half of the film we have been working primarily with Persian and other middle-eastern child actors. Cinematographer Randy Che operates his privately owned RED Camera with Zeiss Super Speed Prime MK2 lenses. We use Tobacco filters on the lens and water based haze from a Radiant Hazer with strong window light sources to create the sunny yellow tones of Iran while on location in typically overcast Vancouver, BC.
The film showcases authentic clothing and decorations which the director collected on her recent return trip to Iran following 15 years of exile. We have been particularly Impressed with child actor Jane Lowery who is making her acting and feature film debut as the young Leila.
Working with young children is nothing new for Director Ellie Fox, who’s short film, ‘A Flower In The Sand’ screened in the 2005 Cannes Festival Short Corner Selection.
The gallery for Under the Apple Box below will be expanded as more pictures are posted from the “Iran” portion of the shoot. Most of the photos below take place in “Vancouver”.
We await the second phase of filming Under the Apple Box, a story about a non-muslim photographer who has left a troubled past behind and fled her birthplace of Iran to try to make something of herself in the west – the film appears to be distantly reminiscent of the life story of the director, Ellie Fox, a film accountant in Vancouver who has handled payrolls for such Canadian productions as Tinman, Earthsea, Pink Panther, Stargate, Smallville, Case 39, Scary Movie 4, The Fog, Twilight Zone and more. This film marks her first RED camera shoot as writter/director/producer and her other credits include a short titled “A Flower in the sand” which was choosen for the 2005 Cannes Festival Short Corner Selection.
The film is currently awaiting the next phase of financing in order to shoot the remaining scenes which will be done in studio locally dressed as Iran using art decoration and props the director has gathered from her monumental return trip to Iran after a long hiatus. Principal photography should be completed later this year.
Below are screen grabs from the first phase of filming which took place in December 2008.
DEC 2008: Under the Apple Box by Elle Fox
DEC 2008: Under the Apple Box by Elle Fox
DEC 2008: Under the Apple Box by Elle Fox
DEC 2008: Under the Apple Box by Elle Fox
