Short BioMy name is Tristan Pope and I am a photographer/director in New York City. My passion is to combine the everyday with the glamour we see in magazines and films alike. To be able to capture a moment whether it be in a film or photograph can breath life into even the smallest of moments, forever frozen in time.
You can view my work at tristanpope.com
Tristan has worked as a director of Machinima productions for Blizzard Entertainment based on the World of Warcraft and the upcoming Diablo III engine. He has spent the last years building his photography business, and has loved the synergy between video and photography. He sees it as an opportunity to continue to live out his passion for directing and artistry in tandem.Both his personal and departmental accomplishments with Blizzard—the Emmy-award-winning episode of South Park’s “Make Love, Not Warcraft”, multiple trailers, cinematics, commercials, behind-the-scenes DVDS, the chance to work with state-of-the-art video/film/graphics production and post-production equipment—would make him a great investment for this film.
The Film
It has been a dream of mine for the day when technology could get small enough for us to get that perspective I often wish I could capture just with the flick of my eyelid. Imagine if you could record those special moments waking up to the one you love, seeing their perfect smile after a funny joke you told, or just capturing for more than a second when they took your hand on the street during a crisp fall day, feeling the warmth shiver up their body to the slivers at the corner of their eyes. To capture what is often called "The Sparkle in your eyes".
I believe today is the time when that is possible. I have been shooting with High end DSLR's for over 10 years and I am still amazed at what our smartphones can capture. Combined with the right attachments and equipment we can begin to show the world our point of view, with something we hold in our pockets everyday.
I want to use that technology to show everyone, they too have the ability to make truly lasting memories of their lives, loved ones, and the like with the right amount of elbow grease. That instead of saying "Oh put that away" because it is so common place to have a camera out, that like the old days when you broke out the 100lb equipment for your black and white camera and shot on a roll of film that cost half that of our smartphones per minute, you will see it for what it is, a convenience that will help us to remember later on in our lives in a beautiful way. Sure I could shoot this on my DSLR and have the perfect Bokah effects and perfect DoF, but I want it to feel like you are there, like this could be you, like you have been here before, or want to get there soon!
Recently I shot a short film with the iPhone 6 with Dancers all over NYC using the new 240 FPS slow motion shooting mode. The results were better than anything I could have imagined. Take a look:
The Idea
I have always been an advocate for romance and love. I write about it on a daily basis, I capture it all the time, but we finally have the opportunity to get so up close and personal it feels as though you are actually there. "The best camera is the one you have with you".
Without giving away the entire plot, I want to make a short film, filmed exclusively on the iPhone 6 that captures what it means to be in love in beautiful New York City in the fall. With the air turning crisp and the holidays around the corner, it is never a better time to feel the warm embrace of someone next to you under the covers or to take a drive out to the orchard to go apple picking for the season, or nuzzle into someones arm as you cram into a taxi to get home after a long day.
The film will follow our male character's POV(point of view) from waking up in the morning all the way through a day with his loved one in the busy streets of New York City. It will capture those moments you probably have had yourself, where you held someones hand tighter as the light turned and the cars came speeding by, it will embrace the cold mornings on the fire escape as you are waking up to see your beautiful lover sitting in the fire escape wearing your t-shirt sipping on the coffee she blended before you woke up. It will show you the mundane of shopping for new clothes or getting groceries, but embodied with the love and small moments in the air because it is with the person you call your girlfriend.These are all things only a smaller camera could achieve.
How to Achieve This
For the video above with the dancers, it was shot in 3 days and edited on the 4th. Everyone worked for the love of the project and gave their time freely. This time around I would love to be able to pay people for their time and efforts. Considering the smaller size of the cast, the money raised here will go toward the small yet significant accessories that can truly make this kinda of camera shine.
What We Need
A steady-cam rig for walking shots and following shots to give the fluidity of actually viewing life from this person you are watching, but also avoiding the camera shake that you would see in a movie such as Clover-field that will give you vertigo.
A set of attachable lenses for the iPhone to get those close up macro shots and the depth of field telephoto shots, all while keeping the viewer convinced they are looking through someone else's eyes. At no point do we want to make this feel as though you are not seeing exactly how your eyes would see, with a little bit of movie magic here and there of course!
While this camera is capable of some amazing quality it does suffer slightly in low light settings, so we want to be able to rent the proper lighting for any nighttime shots we end up doing.
Extras: Battery Backups, Harddrive Space, and the time and effort of all those who will be involved.
All in all, with this extremely humble budget, we are doing this for the love of the art, not for the massive paycheck return, and we would love if you could be a part of that through your donations!
What You Get
All backers will get an exclusive link to the video when it is completed for a private viewing. Depending on what tier you support us with will grant you other rewards. Take a look to the right to see what you can do to help support us and get a little something in return! From your name in the credits, to a brain storming session over Skype with the director, to full executive producer status. (depending on how much we raise we may even do a meet and greet after the filming is done for a private screening for all the donors of a certain level)
Even if we do not reach full funding we will still be doing this project because it has been a very close to heart idea for a long time and fall only comes once a year, so we have a very tight deadline to get this done!
My Work:
Tristan Pope Photography has been growing steadily since moving back to New York city after being a cinematic director for Blizzard Entertainment in California for 5 years and has a great track record for short films and images that really help to tell a story. Please help us turn this concept into a story worth telling to share with the world. We will be submitting this to short film festivals around the world as well.
View all Tristan Pope Photography's work here: http://tristanpope.com
Risks & Challenges
As with any film you have a concept, storyboards, and then you go to shoot. Will it rain that day, will you forget the put the phone into airplane mode and get a call mid shot, will it #bendgate haha.
I would say no matter what the circumstances, Tristan Pope Photography's years of experience in the industry, being able to excel under extreme pressure, and obsessive quality control over the photos/films released... there is really no challenge we cannot overcome to make this a reality. How many grey hairs we get at the end, there is no way to really know that. Maybe we can get a heart rate monitor start up to sponsor us so we can monitor the stresses of a live shoot to see how our bodies cope with them on a scientific level and input it into the phone we are shooting on!
If we run into an unforseen issues with the iPhone 6 during filming we may incorporate a GoPro 4+ for some of the low light shots that require a higher FPS. We believe even a GoPro is a good representation of the kind of camera "you can have with you at all times" but still want to hold true to the idea of our camera phones being able to produce what we envision.
Other Ways You Can Help
I know some of you are in the same boat as us and cannot contribute monetarily. That is OK.
We will be holding castings for extras as well as the main female lead. So if you can act, there may be a place for you.
We will be looking for the perfect apartment to call "home" to this couple, so if you have a great place feel free to tell us about it!
We are always in need of dedicated interns, so if you would like some experience in a real world short film scenario, contact us.
For the rest of you, word of mouth is the best form of advertisement we could ever ask for. If you could help share this on social media and your blogs, websites, refrigerators, snapchats, etc. We would be eternally grateful.
The best part is Indiegogo has share tools built right into this form. Click one or click them all.
Thank you again for your support and we hope to bring you a truly innovative short film.
SPONSORS
If you wish to sponsor this film by donating equipment such as glidecams, steady rigs, lighting, lens adapters for the iPhone 6, battery packs, locations to shoot, or anything to make this process go smoother, please contact us directly and we will make sure to promote you in the video, this campaign, and all associated social media via proper branding and credits as well as any website this video is released along side.
Please contact us at tristanpope (at) gmail.com, SUBJECT: Tristan Pope Photography Indiegogo
Stretch Goals
9,000.00$ : We will shoot the exact same short film but from the reverse angle(POV) of the male actor.
