Michelle Tofi

I’ve been meaning to update my showreel for quite a while and yesterday I finally found the time to do it, ahead of a busy week shooting a short in collaboration with the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (Lamda).

Showreels are difficult things to compile for a number of reasons. There will always be clips you reuse, reel to reel, because they’re particular favourites or special to you. That said, each new one cut means dropping older shots to make way for newer work - a showreel can’t run too long because who has time to watch five minute reels when sifting through potential hires?  There always have to be sacrifices in how you present yourself, and for this one the longest chunk in my reel comes from the first feature I shot as DP - ‘In Two Weeks’ directed by Andy Amadi.  That means I’ve had to lose a little of the corporate and live event jobs I’ve done, so the reel is essentially film and music video work, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. 

The final frustration you’ll hear most often from crew cutting showreels is the inability to use footage that hasn’t been released, or approved, or that you signed your rights to away. I would love to be able to show some of my work on a couple of other projects from this year - not least from my second feature as DP, ‘The Watcher Self’, but I also don’t want to spoil those projects ahead of release.  When the time comes, I hope the wait is worth it! So for now, please enjoy my current reel for 2012!

Above is the poster for the official UK premiere of my short film, ‘Sacrifice’, written by myself and Adam Grundy and which I directed in early 2011 with the fantastic Bruno Loureiro as DOP, supported by gaffer Sabrina Rivolta and the amazing camera work of operator Marcela Goldberg. It was a real pleasure to work with this team of dedicated and creative professionals, and I would be delighted if any readers joined me at the open screening on the 19th of June.  We will be premiering alongside some truly amazing pieces of graduate filmmaking, including one film that even got Lady Gaga’s seal of approval at this years Cannes! It should be a fantastic afternoon of film, so if anyone wants to come along drop me an email at michelle.tofi@gmail.com

List of Oscar Winners, 2011 + Inception: An Art Director's Anecdote →

So here’s a list of the major Oscar winners of 2011. Thoughts? Opinions? As an aspiring DOP I was very happy to see Wally Pfister take home the statue for his work on Inception. Here’s an anecdote for you from my advanced screenwriting tutor; apparently Nolan’s iron-fisted control over who knew what about the film was so tight that he prevented major crew members from even owning a copy of the script. A friend who worked on the art direction for the film was instead lead into a sealed and guarded room, searched for cameras/phones, and then allowed to sit with the script for a certain length of time, making notes for the art direction on a pad. This story for me brings to mind a certain scene in Citizen Kane… I’m sure you all know which one. Irregardless, I thought Inception’s art direction was breath-taking. 

afternoonsnoozebutton:

• Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale (The Fighter)

• Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo (The Fighter)

• Best Actor: Colin Firth (The King’s Speech)
  

• Best Actress: Natalie Portman (Black Swan)

• Best Director: Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech)
  

• Best Picture: The…

I'm selling a U-Flycam DSLR stabiliser, really cheap. →

Why am I selling such a fabulous bargain item? Because it’s really heavy for me. I’m like, 5 foot tall and have dainty little hands (perfect for a DSLR DOP reaching those little buttons and click wheels - terrible for carrying stuff). It’s great for stabilising shots for your average human/cinematographer, but I’d like something with a bit more support.

But also, I’ve gone up in the world. I’ve bought a much better shoulder rig/rails system that is on its way from the US as I type, so I really don’t need this any more. I’ve not been using it much anyway since I’ve not been doing a lot of steadicam type work - my films have recently required handheld shots that tend to look more handheld than gliding. I also plan to (maybe, hopefully, one day) pick up this beauty Glidecam HD 2000 - seriously, watch that video and try not to crave one. That thing looks amazing for the price. £350ish? Bargain. 

So anyway, here’s that link again: Buy my DSLR steadicam! Tell your friends. Discounts for mates! Not really!

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The Ten O’Clock Live studio! (Taken with Instagram at BBC Broadcasting House)

Yes, we went to see the taping of Ten O’Clock Live (a channel 4 show shot in a studio at the BBC). As any filmmaker will tell you, sitting in the audience for the taping of a show is a pretty itchy experience. This show in particular is sent out live, so you’re really expected to be looking at the presenters, clapping along etc, but I couldn’t help but watch the crew interact instead. For example, watching the stage director orchestrate the multiple cameras was really interesting, especially observing the silent tension when one operator dropped his focus for a moment, forcing a cut to a different POV. Anyone wanting to get into TV work will have to get used to this kind of high tension environment, and the ability to anticipate the moves of the other camera operators around you. It’s something I’d relish. Anyone out there looking to crew a new TV show? I’m your girl!

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Full dress rehearsal today with the cast of ‘Sacrifice’. Today was a long tough slog but the scenes are really coming together well and there’s a genuine sense of chemistry between the cast members. As exhausting as this week has been, I’m excited to start filming next Wednesday. Our crew deserves our hard work, let’s hope we’re able to fulfil this film’s potential.

Film Directing 101.1

Well it’s 3:10am on a Friday morning and I really should be asleep. Shooting begins on my ‘proper’ directorial debut Sacrifice in 5 and a bit days, which is pretty scary as I’m still breaking down the scenes into shots. Here’s a tip, would-be-filmmakers: do this earlier! 

My excuse for such tardiness? Exhaustion, mostly. Myself, our DOP Bruno Loureiro and writer/co-producer Adam Grundy really worked incredibly hard in the months before Christmas to get this labour of love off the ground. We’ve been doing the jobs some other indie films would have spread across a team of twenty and I couldn’t be more thrilled to begin to see our work pay off. We’ve also been blessed with some wonderful contributions from our art director/costumier Emma Witter and on-set artist Michelle Sabev. So Christmas we allowed ourselves a rest. It was much needed, but if I had the chance to do it all again I’d have postponed Christmas till some time after next week!

In the last couple of days production has really stepped up a gear. We’ve had our first full rehearsal/read-through, first cast visit to the set, booked all of our studio lighting, dolly, glide-track etc, shot some sound tests with the radio mics and Zoom H4N, practiced synching sound in FCP (thank you, PluralEyes!), steadily received a stream of costumes, props, set dressing etc through the mail and held our first costume fitting. This coming Sunday we have our first full dress rehearsal and then it’s no looking back as shooting begins just a couple of days after, ready or not.

So far is it worth it? Of course, I wouldn’t be trying to get into this career if it wasn’t. It’s been magical. The costumes, the period details, seeing our art director begin building a confession booth (!), the little idea I began with that Adam developed into a whole complete story is really starting to come to life. I can’t wait to share it with you. 

Sacrifice - A Short Film about Hope →

                  

Students eh? What are we like, always on the lookout for something from someone else. Well, today there’s good reason. We’re right in the midst of pre-production for our latest short film, Sacrifice - and we need your help! Yes, for just £2 a month, this month, just one month (or less, we’re cheap like that!) you could help us hire the very best film equipment, period costumes and props a student budgeted film deserves to have.

Ala Rachel from Friends: “Here comes the science, concentrate”: we really do believe in our film. We’ve got a professional crew on board from Brasil flying over to help us shoot. We’ve got a really talented cast together who are amazingly working for just the bus fare to the set and a hot meal. We’ve secured a fantastic period church for the whole shoot, paid for from your donations so far and we are truly humbled for that. But you know what they say on the internet: Moar! Enhance!

We want our film to look amazing leet. Our story is sensitive and serious. Our script is original and fresh. We have the cast and crew to make something special, but we vitally need your meat cash injection to help lift us off the ground. We need set insurance to be able to hire specialist equipment, and we need specialist equipment to get the shots we’ve storyboarded. Help us out with a donation and I’ll send you the storyboards myself! We need financial help to get our film seen too. We don’t have a lot of favors we can call in, or a distribution team to get our short in cinemas. With your help, we can hold a screening at a top London cinema, or hell, we’ll take a small one, and we can (this bit’s important!) enter our film into the festivals we really think it belongs in. Prints and publicist packs and shipping fees and festival entry fees are too much for us to afford alone. Even a little small change goes a long way on a short film budget, and we’d be eternally grateful. Just think, once we’re mega producers in Hollywood we’ll owe you a solid. Yes, I will send you Angelina Jolie’s number. You have my word! Thanks for considering us in your weekly shopping budget this week guys - we love you! Remember, pass this link along [http://indiegogo.com/sacrificefilm] to all your friends and frenemies. Tell people who hate you that you really hate our film and hope it sucks. Hopefully we can get some vengeance support too!

Yours in sickness, health and student film-making, Michelle, Adam, Bruno and the cast and crew of Sacrifice

At the weekend, our flat got productive and made a film. Here it is, in all its unbridled glory. Yup, there is even an awesome cameo from yours truly!  We shot this on my Canon 550D/Rebel T2i in full HD and I have to say for something conceived as a bit of a mess around for a Sunday afternoon, the results look great. Enjoy!