Able Edwards - Production

Production

Able Edwards was shot on mini DV (Canon XL-1) at a small green screen stage in Hollywood. No physical sets were used.

"I had always been intrigued with the idea of adapting old films to new settings," said director Graham Robertson. As literature has stories that have been retold with modern views, the cinema has classics that are ripe for revisiting. Able Edwards revisits the spirit and structure of Citizen Kane. But we didn't have a lot of money to spend, so using consumer technologies and truckloads of resourcefulness, we managed to shoot the entire feature in 15 days with a budget of $30,000. The plan was this; get a green wall, get some actors, scan some photographs to use as backgrounds (sets) and shoot a "big budget" looking film for no dollars." For starters, I spent a good chunk of time at the downtown branch of the L.A. library going through piles of architecture books; collecting and scanning the images. Elements of the existing photographs were photoshopped and composited to create new, unique environments- the futuristic world of Able Edwards. Twenty-three dollars in late fees and a month later, we had our sets." After getting the footage in the can, I began the long process of importing the green footage and editing it. About this time, a friend told me that she had spoken to Steven Soderbergh about the project and he was interested in our process. Next thing I knew, he was at my house in my office, watching EXTREMELY rough-cut sequences and test composites. Forty-five minutes later, we had a new executive producer." I spent the following year chained to my office chair assembling, editing and compositing the film. There were many days where I felt like Dick Van Dyke's one-man-band in Mary Poppins. It was true desktop cinema."