Hi everybody! We released our film (Love Between Storeys) for a week on Valentine's. Along with the film we're uploading a 12-part series covering how we designed, built and lit our elevator set. You can start checking out the guide here. We wrote this guide for newbies and amateurs on the DIY filmmaking scene as an attempt to give something back to the community. Love Between Storeys is a half hour romantic comedy about a boy and a girl who get stuck in an office lift. We produced it with 2200 €, and it was shot with a Canon 550D/T2i for six days in Helsinki, Finland and one day in London. Here's the first batch which introduces our project and what kind of a set we were going for: An Introduction to Making Love Between Storeys Making Love Between Storeys: The Elevator Set The Elevator Set: Concept Concept: Why Build an Elevator? In the following posts we talk about what affected our design decisions, how to make a tiny space interesting for the eye and which light sources we wanted in the elevator. The last part should be most useful for newbies interested in lighting for film. Concept: What Should the Elevator Look Like? What Should the Elevator Look Like: How to Make the Space Visually Stimulating What Should the Elevator Look Like: Light Sources Comments, questions and suggestions are more than welcome on our website or in this thread. I'll come by this thread and say hello when we release new stuff. You can watch the full movie here till the 21st. Here's our teaser trailer: Hope you find this useful! Enjoy! Love Between Storeys on Facebook.
Two new parts are up! The first post is about where to build a set when you have no money for a studio. In the second we discuss how we divided the work before we started building the set. Concept: Where should the elevator be built? Concept: Who does what? The parts up until now have been mostly introduction before we get to the real meat of the guide. I still suggest reading these if you're a newbie on the filmscene. And just a note: the full movie is up on YouTube till tomorrow 5 PM GMT. If you wanna catch it, do it now: Cheers!
Now that we've established what we were going for, it's time to start looking at how we built this stuff. In these three updates we will introduce you to the woodwork part of building the elevator set, starting with the walls and the floor. The Elevator Set: Woodwork Woodwork: Walls Woodwork: The Floor As I side note I just want to say you can also follow our project on facebook! https://www.facebook.com/betweenstoreys Hope you enjoyed this update. Have a nice day!
New parts are up! We're still in the woodwork phase of making the elevator set. This time we have a look at how we built the ceiling, and how we made the doors look like they did. We also cover how we made the elevator doors move in the film, with an important lesson of how you can easily overcomplicate things. Woodwork: Ceiling Woodwork: The Doors The Doors: Moving Doors Have a good read, and enjoy your weekend
In this update we talk about set dressing, starting with the elevator walls and the floor. The Elevator Set: Set Dressing Set Dressing: Making the Walls Look Like Money Set Dressing: Building a Fancy Floor Next update on Wednesday. Enjoy!
Didn't manage to watch the whole film before it was made private but I liked what I saw. I was just curious to know why you shot in Sweden and the UK for what was such a low budget film. Was it coincidence that you happened to be in both countries?
During shoots we were all based in Finland (we're Finnish, not Swedish despite our last-names saying otherwise , but we do speak Swedish as well as we do Finnish), but during the time we decided we were going to make this film my co-writer/director Tom Norrgrann was studying Arts Management in London. So when we did casting and location scouting one of us was living in London and was able to take care of arrangements and have face contact with people and places that needed that. So we shot six days Interior Scenes in Finland, and one day Exteriors in London. The reason why we did that was that it would've been practically impossible for us to get all the (interior) locations arranged and a team assambled in London, as we had no prior filmmaker contacts in London. The second reason was that the story was happening in central London - so we wanted to film the events in central London. The third reason was that we wanted to test if it was possible to do this, and what kind of issues we would run into. It was a good learning experience.
Here's new stuff from the blog: Now we show you how we used silver paper and foamboard to create logo's, and how we combined practical set design with simple CGI to sell our film set as a fully functional elevator. Links to articles: Set Dressing: Details and Logos Details and Logos: Digital Number Panel with Almost No Money at All Next time we move into fully practical effects, as we talk about making the floor logos and intercom design on the elevator console. Enjoy!
In these new posts we take a look at our customised elevator console, and the wonder of transparent overhead sheets. Article 1: Details and Logos: Floor Labels Article 2: Details and Logos: Kingsley Elevator Console Enjoy your weekend people! We'll continue next week.
Currently viewing this on mobile but will soak this all up when I get home, you obviously have been very thorough with your post, so thank you very much for this!
Thanks again for all this info. I hope that more people will document their projects as it is really useful information.
Hey you're welcome. Writing the guide has also been a way for me/us to understand what exactly we've done. Me and John (producer/DoP) have also done filmcourses for teens so it's important for us that we can communicate our work to people. I'm glad people are finding this useful. We still have five or six updates left of the guide, in which we'll dwell deeper into designing details to sell immersion, and after that we get down to how we built our 1 - 2 K top light from a batch of strong bulbs and a gardenplant cover, and how/why we designed a 360 degree lightplan. If you want to follow what we're doing with our project outside of this guide you can like us on facebook.
Three new articles are up! This is the last batch where we talk about set dressing and logo design. In the third article we make a point of that you shouldn't shy away from quick and easy solutions when designing your set as everything in film is make-believe. Article 1: Details and Logos: The Prism Logo Article 2: Details and Logos: No Smoking Sign Article 3: Details and Logos: Tape is Your Friend – Unorthodox (But Practical) Solutions After these we will get to the real meat of the guide as we go through lighting plans and what different contraptions we built to make the elevator believable. PS. If you like these posts and would like us to continue you can show your support by following/liking our facebook page.
Now it's time to talk about how we handled lighting our film set. The first article is a brief intro to the Lighting section of our guide, including a list of gear we had and where we got it from. We also make a point of that we got most of the gear free, either because we were blessed by a natural disaster, or because we just dared to ask. The second article details how we built our soft and powerful toplight. I recommend that article to all Amateurs on the DIY scene, as everybody can get their hands on bulbs and graden plant cover. Article 1: The Elevator Set: Lighting Article 2: Lighting: Making a Soft and Powerful Top Light Hope you liked this new update, and as I said in my previous post - if you like these articles and would like us to continue please follow/like our facebook page.
Here's some weekend reading for you! First off we have a break down on our 360-degree light plan, and in Article 2 we talk about bouncing light during shoots. We also show you how to build your own reflector out of household items. Article 1: Lighting: 360 Degree Light Plan Article 2: Lighting: Bouncing Light During Shooting In the next update we will uncover a set of contraptions we built to make our set feel like a real working elevator. Hope you found this useful! If you like these posts you can support us by liking our Love Between Storeys facebook page!
In this update we take a look at a cardboard contraption we built to shape and block light to match our elevator door light source. We're also covering how we used household fluorescents to create our floorlights. Here we go: Article 1: Lighting: The Doors and Their Cardboard Brothers Article 2: Lighting: The Floor Lights Next update will be about how we made our elevator buttons light up when pressed. We'll also break down the different light modes we used in the elevator throughout the whole sequence. Enjoy! PS. If you like these posts you can support us by liking our Love Between Storeys facebook page!
In this update we show you how we made our elevator console seem fully functional. Article 2 preps our coming Modes and Moods section of our Lighting part of the guide. Article 1: Lighting: Console & Label Lights Article 2: Lighting: Modes & Moods Have a good read! As always - if you like these posts you can support us by liking our Facebook page.
