Earth Attack - Quick Q&A with Arnaud Martin

It's been quite busy with Arnaud Martin but can we blame him? He was out putting the finishing touches on his film Earth Attack and we can't wait to see it. To refresh your memory, Arnaud snagged the top spot in our LomoKino rumble back in 2015 with his amazing camera work and total dedication to the project. Now that we finally got a hold of him, we talk to him about his work, what he's been doing, and how he managed to go through 400 rolls of film for Earth Attack. He also gave us a sneak peek of the behind-the-scenes, how cool is that?!

Hi, Arnaud! What's been keeping you busy lately?

I've been shooting scenes of Earth Attack, it takes a lot of time to organize the filming because there's a lot of sequences in the script. We've shot both live and animation scenes and as the process are different, it requires different ways to prepare filming.

I've also been scanning a lot, as we've shot a large amount of rolls. It took me months! As well, I've been working on promotional videos for different companies, music labels, and sports organisms.

It's been a while since we last talked about your LomoKino movie, Earth Attack. How long did it take you to complete this project?

I had the idea of making this movie four years ago. At this time, I didn't know it would take me so long to achieve the project. When I was writing it, I wasn't aware that each sequence would require such a long time to prepare, to shoot, to digitize and to edit. But every time I see some result, I find that it worth the engagement!

Tell us more about your concept and inspiration for this movie.

As I've had already shot very short movies in LomoKino, I wanted this new one to be a kind of achievement, for me, in this specific technique. Actually, I wanted to make a LomoKino blockbuster. I had this idea of aliens visiting Earth with the aim of cleaning it, destroying everything they found unnatural. It would allow us to use live action, animation, and old-school special effects.

I was also very excited at the idea of carrying a small flying saucer attached to a fishing rod, like Ed Wood did. This movie is also inspired by films like "The day the earth stood still", "Earth VS the flying saucers", or more recent movies like Independence Day or Mars Attacks.

Any behind-the-scenes stories that you'd like to share?

Making Earth Attack's been a huge human adventure, and I couldn't have shot a single frame without the help of my friends. Everybody brought ideas to improve the movie.

Rodolphe Pauly, the main character, is very willing. For instance, we were shooting a scene with a small truck in the country. He proposed to make a shoot gripping the looking to a car, and then he would climb the drive-by truck and ending the scene on the roof. At this moment I found that would be complicated, but in two minutes, the crew gripped the looking on a car and we were ready to shoot this improvisation. It's a very impressive shot of Earth Attack.

Sometimes the crew was composed of three people. One of the lasts shots has been shot by the cinematographer Alexandra Sabathé and Vivien Ferrand, a talented assistant director. He wore the robot suit in the street, and people started to come to us taking pictures, as they would do for Mickey Mouse in Disneyland.

I remember a weekend while we were shooting animation shots. We were supposed to end the shooting by Sunday at 8pm. I had a small commercial video to shoot the following Monday. Finally, we shot all night long and ended the shooting at 9 am the Monday morning. I was exhausted, I went back home, took my stuff and jumped in a train to work all day long!

How was it like, using the LomoKino for this movie?

I remember having read a Kodak Guide for young filmmakers. They explained that when you shoot in film, if something is broken in your camera, you could be able to repair it.

We've broken several cranks of LomoKinos. When you break your crank, it's always at the worst time to do it, because you're speeding to keep the sunlight, because your actor has to go early, because of something always very important. Well... We were in the car grip I told you about earlier. Rodolphe is on the driving-by truck, he climbs it, and just before he gets on the roof, crack! The crank ends up in my hand. Broken... It was the last working looking we had, and we had to repair the crank with what we had around me. If you know MacGyver, I felt I was him when I've finally been able to repair it! I now have three or four repaired LomoKinos, and the way I can repair them now, they will never break again!

Shooting with a looking is also very fun for everyone around. Even for the professionals, shooting in 35mm with this kind of camera reminds you of the very beginnings of cinema making.

It's also been exhausting in the way the post-production takes a lot of time. Once you've shot your 40 rolls a day, you have to send them to the Kodak lab, then you have to digitize the films, then you have to cut every frame in Photoshop... A few months ago, my friend Alexandre Morgand created an algorithm that cuts every frame automatically. It saved us a lot of time!

How many rolls of film did you use?

We used 400 rolls of film to make Earth Attack! I had a 300 box of B&W 100 ISO at home, and it's huge! I had to complete those three hundred 100 ISO by 400 and 800 ISO, depending on the lighting conditions.

We're looking forward to seeing the full-length movie; when are you launching?

We achieved a teaser, I'm currently re-scanning a few rolls because of small problems we had at first, but I already have a first draft of the editing! We now have to adjust it, to replace some sounds and to re-record some voices to fit better on the pictures. The soundtrack is also currently composed by Thomas Deborde.

I'm glad to say the film will be ready early 2018!

Watch the trailer here!

Jump start your own directorial debut with the ever lovable LomoKino! Put the spotlight on your loved ones and create movie magic out of your footage on different 35mm film. Hit the Online Shop to get your very own LomoKino now!

2017-11-10 #news #videos #film #movie #stop-motion #25thanniversary #lomokino #arnaud-martin #25yearsoflomography #earth-attack #big-omokino-rumble