Entre Nos is among the Projects from Emerging Filmmakers at the Tribeca Film Festival Entre Nos (Between Us) a feature directed and written by Paola Mendoza and Glorio La Morte was chosen to screen in the Discovery section of the Tribeca Film Festival held in New York City from April 22nd to May 3rd. Entre Nos is among the 14 projects from emerging filmmakers selected to make their world premieres as a discovery of the festival. Entre Nos was an official selection at the 2007 Independent Feature Project’s Emerging Narrative Screenwriting Program whereby Mendoza and La Morte received a Panasonic/Abel Cine Tech Digital Filmmaker Grant which gave them the use of an HPX500 Fujinon lens P2 media and AG-HPG10 P2 Gear to produce their screenplay. The project also received backing from the Tribeca All Access Program and a grant from Cinereach. The Director of Photography was Bradford Young. Entre Nos tells the story of adoring mother Mariana (played by Mendoza) who has toted her two children from Colombia to New York to indulge her husband's whim. But when he abruptly abandons the family she has to rely on her own imagination and courage – and that of her remarkable kids (Sebastian Villada and Laura Montana in breakthrough performances) – to survive insurmountable odds during their first summer in the United States. “The project is inspired by a true story my mother’s story after my father abandoned us soon after we arrived in this country from Colombia ” says Mendoza whose earlier directorial work has screened at the South by Southwest and Full Frame film festivals. “We wanted to shoot Entre Nos in solid state in HD because we were working with children actors and we needed the freedom to have as many takes as necessary to get the performances just right. Coincidentally our DP had shot on the HPX500 previously and had a fantastic experience with it.” “We shot on location predominantly in Jackson Heights Queens last August which translates into super hot and humid ” Mendoza says. “We finished the film in 18 days which translates into crazy. But on a serious note the camera was terrific because it gave us the flexibility we needed to shoot in difficult very tight conditions. It was light enough so we could run and gun when we needed to but also afforded us the luxury of a quality-looking film.” DP Young’s latest documentary feature Alicia in Africa was shot for Alicia Keyes and debuted on national television during the 2008 American Idol “Idol Gives Back” program. Young was also DP for the drama White Lies Black Sheep which premiered at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival. “In terms of light handling the HPX500 was amazingly sensitive in low light situations so much so that my Gaffer Dylan Willams and Key Grip Chris Koch and I were often in disbelief at how much we could shoot with available light ” says Young. “This was key for Paola Gloria and me because we wanted the flexibility to move with the actors in a liberated way. Being instinctual with all of our tools was critical to our shooting ethos. When an actor sees a light or has to step over a cable they divest from the moment in a particular way; because of its sensitivity the HPX500 allowed us to help Paola and Gloria keep the moment moving without loss of image quality.” “We shot with the HPX500’s 1080i/24PA setting and did our pull down on-set with Raylight ” Young says. “Though we originated with an interlaced signal shooting at 1080i allowed us to use more of the camera’s chips. We decided to zero out all our settings and shoot Cine Like D. Our biggest concern was making sure that we had as much flexibility in the image as possible. I shot a series of available light night exteriors on New York's West Side highway and viewed the footage at Deluxe New York in one of their DI theaters. I found that Cine Like D though a little noisy in the blacks versus Cine Like V provided me with an open gamma to time up and down later in post without introducing any digital noise especially in the blacks. In the one scene where we did off-speed work when viewing dailies we were all amazed at how stable the image was. I usually shoot film and like over-cranking at 60 frames per second which for me is the best speed for mapping subtle changes.” Young says “I lensed Entre Nos with a small set of Zeiss Digi Primes and shot mostly with the 20mm and 14mm – they're amazing optics. In the video village we used Panasonic’s BT-LH1700 17-inch LCD HD monitor which made me confident that what was happening in-camera could be discussed with all department heads without quality disclaimers.” The production utilized four 16GB P2 cards “more than enough for narrative shooting ” according to Young. “Our masterful DIT/P2 tech Jack Stanley downloaded our cards via his Mac G4's P2 slot and then ran all of our footage through Raylight to pull down our 1080i material ” he says. Entre Nos was edited in Final Cut Pro and was projected in HD at Tribeca. “The HPX500 is a high-quality high-performance camera that allows filmmakers the ability to have a beautiful-looking piece for a price that is right for indies a combination that would make any director happy ” says Mendoza. Entre Nos at the Tribeca Film Festival www.tribecafilm.com/festival
