The best part, getting to watch film, read about film, go down rabbit holes, and generally mine the shots, sequences, and setups from moments in film that have stayed with me.
I started my research my going through my own personal library for all things Tippett and Troopers. The Mad Dreams and Monsters is an exceptional book, more of a tome and that had lots of really great inspiration to get me in the mood for designing the film.
I went through my film collection and re-watched the original and several episodes of the animated series, felt a little like a kid watching Roughnecks, hadn’t seen it in 20 years or so. Particularly enjoyed the commentaries, lots of interesting tidbits about the production cycle. Tremors is a film I thought of a lot when thinking up ideas, I wanted to try and make this film using grounded camera angles and moves. Nothing overtly CG in the camera moves, almost a documentary following Nico go through it.
I first discovered Akira Kurosawa in my late teens, just before heading to University and it wasn’t until then that I managed to watch and get through most of his filmography. Throne of Blood is a beautiful film and easily one of the best reimaginings of Macbeth there is. Kurosawa was a master of natural staging and using real-world phenomena to keep his frames alive. I wanted the dusty, smokey world to be a character to help keep the shots alive. I tried also to emulate Kurosawa’s cutting style and trying to cut on movement.
I wanted moments of calm, the sense that something big was going to happen, but we had to wait for it. The Grey is probably one of the few modern films I’ve referenced in Red Smoke, I enjoyed that film immensely and that last scene, after Neeson has lost all of his friends and he’s in that battle to the end, and that was the inspiration for the cliff edge shots, just Nico wounded and armed only with a knife, to fight the Bug one last time. The wind in Yojimbo and Harakiri is so evocative that it brings such an extra dynamic to the showdowns in the respective films. I was also drawn to the black and white palette. The palette for Red Smoke was colour but it was limited and that is a result of trying to capture that.
I was also looking at real references of sand storms or wind in a sandy in environment. I found several images from an old gulf war newscast and an image of a lone soldier during a more recent conflict. The colours are especially interesting and I liked the shapes that were created as the light was almost totally diffuse in these images.
A few months back I rewatched Another 48 Hours, the start is brooding and really nicely set up. I always like a frame within a frame and the shots from inside the bar gave me ideas on how I might be able to use the Bug’s enormous frame to create pockets around Nico in certain moments.
Previs by it’s nature is pretty low res. I was keen on making Red Smoke look more filmic and ironically I went with something that is rooted in the 90’s. I have distinct memories of a couple of PC games from that era. Crusader No Remorse and Command and Conquer, both had this CRT, scanline appearance in the FMV and I thought some essence of that would suit the short as it’s based on the 1997 original.
To be able to make films, writing a script is important, I don’t have huge experience in this part of the industry but it sure does help to put your ideas down in script form. This is from an early draft, a script cements your idea and it starts to feel real. Having a script helps improve the visy skills and you get used to creating shots from words and ideas that might not be present on the page.
Here is the first test I did, probably around December 2022 when the idea first popped into my head. Seeing something move got me excited and Red Smoke was born. The film was made in my free time and after work, it’s been a passion project for almost 18 months, I’m very happy with how it turned out and do hope all of you enjoy it.