U.S. Premiere of THE NOTHING MEN

ABOUT THE NOTHING MEN

As a hardened crew of factory workers struggle to see out the last two weeks before their redundancy windfalls, panic runs through the ranks with the arrival of a mysterious man sent to join them. Suddenly fearful that their drinking and gambling will be exposed by the head-office "spy" and rob them of their money, top dog Jack (Colin Friels) and the men descend into a compelling world of antagonism and brutality.

The intrigue and anxious second-guessing is only enhanced when the pacifist of the group, Wesley (Martin Dingle Wall), befriends the seemingly normal outsider, David (David Field). When Wesley discovers David is hiding a much darker secret, however, the seeds are planted for an explosive finale that seals the fate of The Nothing Men.

The Nothing Men, a freshman venture for ALCHEMY Film Productions, stands as a historic piece of work, representing the first full length feature filmed entirely on a RED One camera in the southern hemisphere. In fact, it is in a head-long race with Soderbergh's first RED film, Guerrilla, to become the first to release worldwide. An independent film, shot in Australia beginning in October of '07, produced by Andrew Windsor and Martin Dingle Wall, directed by Mark Fitzpatrick and cinematography by Peter Holland, The Nothing Men is a tribute to the resources and pioneering adventurism of a group of early adopters who, after falling in love with RED's image, saw no other path in satisfying their need for quality while maintaining their independent budget.

When Peter Holland came onto the project, the expectation was that the only way to meet the budget was to shoot on HD. Having had the opportunity to shoot an early RED One (Mike Seymour's #23), Holland knew that the workflow was economical and straightforward, and arranged a small demonstration for the producers and director. If the team had entered that demo skeptical, they left converted. They had seen RED and wanted it!

Martin Dingle Wall had come from an acting background and, confident that the story and players were in place, focused on how the film could offer the production values to trade seriously within the international marketplace, while remaining inside the boundaries of his independent resources. "When we received the call introducing us to RED, I knew that we were facing not only a solution, but also what has proved to be a literal revolution", says Dingle Wall.

Andrew Windsor, fellow producer and actor, agreed, "The fact that you can see the actual footage 10 minutes after shooting, is magnificent. Eliminating film developing chemicals; that's good for the world, not just film makers! The fact that the camera is small and portable, easy to use for location and studio, certainly helped the decision to go with RED in the early days, but the main reason was that I knew I would get amazing back up and support from RED themselves."

Writer/Director Mark Fitzpatrick was able to bring his 10-year-old script to the screen with his directorial debut and felt privileged to be part of the first RED production in Australia. "Although it was untested, I was excited about all the fantastic things it promised. I saw the wonderful images it produced during testing and when I saw the first lot of rushes, I was blown away. It was so clear and the depth of field was astonishing. As a director, it was great to see how the camera could be pulled down to its bare minimum and secured in a Steadicam, enabling the camera to shoot in tight, awkward places or 360˚ smooth capture."

Director of Photography, Holland, was confident that this new technology would not only be superior, but economical as well. "The producers organized cost comparisons with HD. To everyone's joy, both the hire of the camera system and the post-production costs were all significantly cheaper than on HD tape acquisition. What RED promised was an affordable 4K tape-less digital capture camera with 35 mm film-like aesthetics, combined with a workflow that was simple and smart. What RED delivered was nothing less than phenomenal. We achieved a photographic quality that everyone is very proud of, and with a resolution that easily stands shoulder to shoulder, on the projection screen, with film."

Dingle Wall was excited with this new revolution; the reality was, comparing visual results, he had a system that shaved expenses radically, yet delivered incomparable results. "It had not been thoroughly tested in our environment, so there were cliffs to jump off. We knew that we had the opportunity to make our story look as good as any commercial venture."

To read more about the production of the film, click here.


For a map of the USC campus (Norris Cinema Theatre, NCT, is N.10 in blue), please access the following website: http://www.usc.edu/assets/maps/upc_map.pdf