There once was a fragile young lass,
whose heart, for most men, ran too fast.
She fell into sin,
let an Evil one in.
Poor Annabel discovered her past.
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ABOUT
THE FILM Swatura, the Romany word for fable, is the third short film by BloFli Pictures. The BloFli Boys, always in search of new ways to advance their storytelling skills, held their first-ever casting session for the principal players in Swatura. Over 300 Los Angeles area actors sent in their resumes. Forty diverse and charismatic men and women were called to audition in a tiny casting office in Torrance, CA. Three days later, the decision was made; four talented actors: Deanna Balbas, Michael Joiner, Joseph Tobin and Sam Bologna were cast on October 15, 2002. It was a thrill to see each actor bring their character to life (and a relief for Chris and Matt to stay behind the camera rather than acting in front of it). Also, having finished the screenplay early, they were pleased to not be bogged down by rewrites during the shoot, as they had been with Clean. Just as in their previous films, Swatura's crew was extremely lean. But this time, they had the luxury of having an on-set make-up artist Kat Bergstrom (who stood in as lighting technician a fair amount of times), a multi-faceted production supervisor in Josh Kushins (Josh also became their stunt coordinator and played the role of young Richard Slade) and a new crew member (who had to be torn away from making his own films while studying at Occidental College) Dane Knezek. Swatura was set apart from BloFli's other films in that it was a non-linear tale. In order to tell a story that was constantly shifting its time and place, Swatura's cast and crew traveled throughout Southern California to over 25 different locations in the span of 2 months. The directors wanted the feeling of true authenticity from their locations and in doing so, had to go beyond their traditional comfort zone of filming on locations provided by their friends and families (mainly, houses, restaurants and office buildings.) The cast performed surprisingly well under unpredictable conditions. Not only was weather an issue, (even sunny Southern California can endure a little rain in December) but due to a meager budget, BloFli Pictures had to steal shots from some of their locations such as the carousel in Griffith Park, and the Redondo Beach pier. In true gypsy fashion, there was always a spare eye keeping watch for the law. Working with actors was probably the directors' most exciting and challenging aspect of their new film. It was, in their words, "a truly unique experience" to see people they had never met before take hold of their roles and recreate them to fit their own visions. Whether it was Michael Joiner's rendition of a brooding, emotionally distant Richard Slade or the artistic sensitivity that Joseph Tobin lent to his role of Daniel Burroughs, the directors were given fine nuances of the characters, released from the two dimensional conformity of the written page. Deanna Balbas, could give the directors three different readings of Annabel to choose from, on any given day. Post-production and the editing process was also ramped up for Swatura. In pre-production, Matt and Chris knew that there would be a couple of shots that would have to be reworked by special effects, either during the shoot or after. While they tried to keep all special effects on the set during production, some amounts of compositing had to be done in Adobe After Effects while editing. Chris took the bulk of the After Effects work, leaving Matt with the majority of the editing work in Final Cut Pro. BloFli Pictures released their film in May of 2003 at a local cast and crew screening at the Depot Restaurant in Torrance, CA. While the 30 minute film has been submitted to several festivals, it has yet to be accepted. BloFli Pictures is still submitting, however, believing that a festival director will one day see some brilliant performances and one or two beautiful vistas, mixed with the intriguing plot about a young gypsy-in-training and realize that this film has to be shown to an audience at large. To purchase your copy of Swatura, or to find out more about the film, click on the wagon wheels below.
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