Shot-by-shot description of John Boorman’s neo-noir film (1967), starring Lee Marvin, co-starring Angie Dickinson, Keenan Wynn and Carroll O’Connor.
“The first thing I did when I started working on Point Blank was mark the beginning and end of each shot on the soundtrack: the “montage” came before the images. I had the sound, the film’s shot-by-shot editing, now all I needed was the images. My idea had always been to create a constantly changing, coloured mandala image like an eye – an eye (our eye) reacting as it sees what we can’t see. I worked on these mandalas for months until everything came to a standstill as I realised that their effect was never going to be what I had imagined. I knew I had to scrap the mandala/eye image (I recycled it in another film…), but my mind was a “blank” as to what to replace it with and remained so for quite a while. Until one evening I put on House of Cards on Netflix and it all became suddenly clear… By mistake I had switched to the “audio description” function and I was amazed by how scenes can be so clearly described to the sightless. I immediately knew what I had to do and embarked on the months of writing and rewriting it took to succinctly describe each shot, within the same parameters as subtitles. Then came the colours. That was easier. Point Blank is a very “colour-coordinated” movie. There are green scenes, mother-of-pearl scenes, sky blue scenes, red scenes… When it came to colouring each shot, I tried to strike a balance between the image’s actual dominant tint and the narrative. In short, in everything I did, I tried to remain as faithful to the original movie as possible.”
David Wharry
2 PRINTS IN DISTRIBUTION
distribution format |
Digital file on USB stick (FHD) |
screen |
2,35 - Scope (single screen) |
speed |
30 fps |
sound |
sound |
original language |
English |
rental fee |
189,00 € |
distribution format |
DCP on server (SMPTE 2K) |
version
|
original version |
screen |
2,35 - Scope (single screen) |
speed |
24 fps |
sound |
sound |
original language |
English |
rental fee |
189,00 € |