{"id":25888,"date":"2023-05-20T16:52:55","date_gmt":"2023-05-20T20:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/?p=25888"},"modified":"2023-05-20T17:03:40","modified_gmt":"2023-05-20T21:03:40","slug":"2023-moon-garden-film-review-by-greggwmorris-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/2023-moon-garden-film-review-by-greggwmorris-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"MOON GARDEN Film Review 2023 – Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Bios – Principal Crew<\/h1>\n

Writer-Director-Editor-Animator-Sound Designer, Ryan Stevens Harris:<\/strong>
\nAn award-winning \ufb01lmmaker, editor, and exhibited artist. Studied \ufb01lmmaking in London and at the USC School of Cinematic Arts in Los Angeles, where he co-founded Fire Trial Films, a boutique production company focused on 35mm production.<\/p>\n

In 2016, Harris directed \u201cWhisper,\u201d an animated music video for the indie band Playing to Vapors featured at the SXSW Film Festival. Multi-talented, Harris edited and sound-designed the Lionsgate sci \ufb01 blockbuster, MOONFALL (2022), as well as edited a host of Net\ufb02ix releases including 2307: WINTER\u2019S DREAM (2016), DARC (2018), and THE HARD WAY (2019).<\/p>\n

He also cut WATCHTOWER (2019), which was nominated for two Emmys and premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, and was an additional editor and sound designer on the war-epic MIDWAY (2019), which was #1 at the box of\ufb01ce upon its release.<\/p>\n

He considers MOON GARDEN his \ufb01rst true directorial debut\u2014a lush dark fantasy odyssey with highly stylized art design, shot on expired 35mm \ufb01lm with vintage lenses and featuring his own real-life daughter.<\/p>\n

John Michael Elfers, Producer:<\/strong>
\nGraduated magna cum laude from USC, founded Fire Trial Films with Ryan Stevens Harris, and immediately secured grants from Panavision and Kodak to write and direct his \ufb01rst feature, FINALE (2009). His award-winning screenwriting landed him on the Blood List in 2011.<\/p>\n

Elfers has since made a reputation as a \u201c\ufb01xer\u201d that gets hired to take over troubled \ufb01lms; writing and directing additional scenes to address story issues, increase production value, and ultimately secure distribution. This path led him to co-produce the features BEYOND WHITE SPACE (2018) and DISCARNATE (2019) with A-List producer Harald Kloser.<\/p>\n

Elfers worked directly with Kloser and Roland Emmerich to cut the International Press tour for INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE (2016), a $10M crossover recruiting campaign for the U.S. Army, and a promo to sell MIDWAY (2019) to Japan.<\/p>\n

The high-pro\ufb01le studio work allowed Elfers to invest in a full-scale 35mm independent production package, with Arri\ufb02ex \ufb01lm cameras, vintage Zeiss lenses, lights, G&E, jibs, \ufb01lm stock and more, which he utilized toproduce Harris\u2019 ambitious, highly-stylized feature MOON GARDEN. Elfers resides in Hollywood above the studio where Fire Trial Films is building the sets for his next feature as writer-director, the hyper-stylized art-house meets grind-house vampire \ufb01lm, VORACIOUS.<\/p>\n

Wolfgang Meyer, Cinematographer:<\/strong>
\nA cinema-warrior with a 17-year devotion to feature \ufb01lmmaking. NYU trained, he spent eight years directing, producing, and crewing features and TV in New York, before heading to Los Angeles, where he has focused on cinematography.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s DP\u2019d genre features with legends such as Tony Todd, James Duval, Michael Berryman, Angus Scrimm, Linea Quigley, Debbie Rochon, and Brinke Stevens. On the side, he has tackled music videos written up by Rolling Stone magazine, with such stars as Sting, Moby, LP, and Berlin. His latest feature, shot on Super 35mm, boasts absolutely stunning imagery and camera work. Give him coffee and cigarettes, he\u2019ll outwork and outlast anyone.<\/p>\n

About the Filmmakers<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Writer-director Ryan Stevens Harris and producer John Michael Elfers are the award-winning \ufb01lmmaking team at Fire Trial Films\u2014the production company behind BEYOND WHITE SPACE (2018), DISCARNATE (2018), and FINALE (2010). Harris is also an award-winning editor and edited the Lionsgate epics MOONFALL (2022) and MIDWAY (2019), as well as Net\ufb02ix features, DARC (2018) and 2307: WINTER’S DREAM (2016).<\/p>\n

MOON GARDEN is the latest Fire Trial Films creation, a true labor of love, starring Harris’ own real-life daughter and brimming with handcrafted care. But amid the dark textures and design, tucked in the broken machinery of the moonlit dreamscapes, lies the \ufb01lm’s true beating heart\u2014a tale of family and the radiant magic of youth.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Fun Facts About the Film, So They Say\u00a0<\/strong><\/h1>\n
    \n
  1. The \ufb01lmmakers stockpiled 100k feet of expired 35mm \ufb01lm stock to shoot the movie, starting with a huge batch dug out of a basement in the American Midwest (Omaha, NE).<\/li>\n
  2. The idea initially started as a photo shoot, which evolved into a music video-experimental short \ufb01lm, shot entirely in the director\u2019s one-car The short was then retooled to create the elaborate night-forest sequence in the feature.<\/li>\n
  3. The short \ufb01lm was used as a proof-of-concept to pitch \ufb01lming the rest of the movie in an old recording studio in the Hollywood Hills, slated for<\/li>\n
  4. The \ufb01rst draft of the script was a silent \ufb01lm without<\/li>\n
  5. Haven Lee Harris, the lead actress, just turned four years old when the short \ufb01lm Shooting would last, off and on, until her seventh birthday with a large hiatus between shoot dates as money was raised.<\/li>\n
  6. The \ufb01lm was shot using a \ufb02eet of expired stocks ranging from the primary stock Kodak 5212 (100T) all the way to discontinued 800T. Typically each sequence used a different \ufb01lm stock.<\/li>\n
  7. Cinematographer Wolfgang Meyer utilized a \ufb02eet of 35mm \ufb01lm cameras to make the \ufb01lm. The Arri BL4 3-perf and Arri BL3 2-perf cameras were the main workhorses. Four perf cameras were used for specialty shots\u2014the Arri 35 III for slow motion, Arri IIC for jib and steadicam, Eyemo crash cameras for miniature POV\u2019s, and even a 1920 hand-cranked Devry camera. There’s also material shot on a 16mm Bolex and underwater photography done with a Hyro\ufb02ex housing.<\/li>\n
  8. There were ninety principal photography days in total\u2014unheard of for indie \ufb01lms. The producer invested in a full production package to make the extra long shoot schedule The director and producer also ran a smaller skeleton crew shooting practical FX, inserts and pickups.<\/li>\n
  9. The director completed the animation sequence over the course of a few months, featuring hand-drawn illustrations and elements shot with actress Emily Meister in a milk<\/li>\n
  10. The nighttime skies, clouds, and lightning storms were created in \ufb01sh tanks using evaporated milk, inspired by the old school FX work of Douglas Trumbull.<\/li>\n
  11. There is no CGI in the \ufb01lm. The visual effects were accomplished with simple comps of practical effects and old school \ufb01lmmaking tricks, like prosthetics, puppeteering, and forced perspective, with miniatures built to extend most of the wide<\/li>\n
  12. One shot in the \ufb01lm took four months to capture\u2014a time-lapse shot of rotting<\/li>\n
  13. The producer retro\ufb01t the old \ufb01lm cameras to display HD video, rewired their power to work with modern batteries, and speci\ufb01cally constructed a homemade accordion lens to use in the climax\u2014made from the bellows of a car\u2019s gearshift.<\/li>\n
  14. The director completed post-production on MOON GARDEN\u2014editing picture, sound, \ufb01nishing visual effects, and coloring the picture\u2014while simultaneously editing and sound-designing the studio blockbusters MIDWAY (2019) and MOONFALL (2022).<\/li>\n
  15. The creature designs in the \ufb01lm\u2014Teeth, the Mud Witch, and the Three Faces \/ Knitter characters\u2014were based on the director\u2019s drawings and<\/li>\n
  16. Bad\ufb01nger\u2019s song \u201cWithout You,\u201d made famous by Harry Nilsson\u2019s cover, is featured throughout the \ufb01lm as the tender lullaby the mother character sings to her daughter.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Gregg W. Morris can be reached at gregghc@comcast.net, profgreggwmorris@gmail.com<\/em><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Back to Part 1<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Bios – Principal Crew Writer-Director-Editor-Animator-Sound Designer, Ryan Stevens Harris: An award-winning \ufb01lmmaker, editor, and exhibited artist. Studied \ufb01lmmaking in London and at the USC School of Cinematic Arts in Los Angeles, where he co-founded Fire Trial Films, a boutique production…<\/p>\n

    Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film-tv-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25888"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25909,"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25888\/revisions\/25909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}