THE RAVEN ON THE JETTY

In the midst of separation, one boy’s silent longing has the power to change everything.

On his 9th birthday, Thomas travels with his mother to visit his estranged father who, since an acrimonious divorce, has abandoned urban living in favour of an isolated rural life in the English Lake District. The bitter separation of his parents is not something Thomas understands, nor does he understand his own dysfunctional behaviour as a silent cry for help. As a digital native city boy, Thomas’s encounter with the natural world, and his gradual understanding of the pivotal connection he provides for his, ultimately, lonely parents, leads to realisation and discovery. There are things his parents don’t know about each other that only he can reveal. Perhaps he has the power and the means to change everything.

Fiction, 88 minutes, 2014

STARRING

Connor O’Hara | Robert O’Hara | Helen Teasdale

PRODUCTION TEAM

Writer, Director, Cinematography and Editing - Erik Knudsen

Line Producer - Janet Knudsen

Assistant Director, Cinematography and Editing - Mark Duggan

Sound Recordings - Amanda Belantara

Sound Post Production - Michael Cacioppo Belantara

Art Director - Madeleine Millar

Book cover for The Raven On The Jetty Scrapbook

The Making of The Raven On The Jetty

In this Vlog, Erik Knudsen and Mark Duggan discuss the development of Erik's forthcoming feature film, The Raven On The Jetty. In particular, they discuss the influences of Robert Bresson's Mouchette and Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Kasaba on the visual style of the film project.

Mark Duggan and Erik Knudsen visit a number of locations in the Lake District of England and discuss these locations in relation to Erik Knudsen's up and coming film, The Raven On The Jetty.

Mark Duggan and Erik Knudsen visit a location in Morecambe and discuss these locations and how they fit into Erik Knudsen's forthcoming film, The Raven On The Jetty.

On the 15 and 16 December 2012, One Day Films held auditions at the Rheged Centre in Penrith for the leading actors in our forthcoming film, The Raven On The Jetty. There was a fantastic turnout and we saw many boys with a parent. We are quite keen to cast a 8 to 10 year old boy with one of his parents, so the auditions also included the search for either a father or a mother for the film. This Vlog, put together by Mark Duggan, looks at part of the process of auditioning and selecting our main actors and includes an explanation by the Director, Erik Knudsen, of his approach to casting for film.

Amanda Belantara and Michael Cacioppo Belantara join The Raven On The Jetty production team as sound recordist and post-production sound designer. Amanda and Michael are sound artists based in New York City and here they talk about their work with their sound collective Kinokophone and their involvement with the forthcoming Erik Knudsen film, The Raven On The Jetty.

Erik Knudsen and Mark Duggan brave the cold weather to go and do some simple camera tests in preparation for shooting The Raven On The Jetty. In particular they look at focus pulling and test the focus pulling setup. They also discuss choices of camera lenses for the film and their preferred choice of camera, the Canon 5D Mark iii.

Art Director, Madeleine Millar, and Assistant Art Director, Taddeus Walsh, visit one of the key locations for Erik Knudsen's film, The Raven On The Jetty, as part of their preparations for the shoot. We see them in action and they talk about what they are doing.

Mark Duggan talks to Art Director, Madeleine Millar, and Assistant Art Director, Taddeus Walsh, about their preparations for Erik Knudsen's The Raven On The Jetty. Madeleine also talks about her other work in theatre, films and opera.

Mark Duggan joins Art Director, Madeleine Millar, as she meets key cast members of Erik Knudsen's film, The Raven On The Jetty, to discuss costumes. In line with Erik Knudsen's way of working with actors as themselves, costumes are explored in a similar way by building the costumes from the actual wardrobes of the actors.

Erik Knudsen discusses with Mark Duggan the storyboarding process for his forthcoming feature film, The Raven On The Jetty.

In this Vlog, Erik Knudsen talks about the changing of a key location for his forthcoming feature film, The Raven On The Jetty.

On the eve of moving the production team to the Lake district for two weeks of principal photography on Erik Knudsen's forthcoming feature film, The Raven On The Jetty, this Vlog shows Erik Knudsen and Mark Duggan discussing some of the final preparations for the shoot. Including our final pre shoot cast meeting, setting some of the sets on one of the key locations and some final decision about lens choices.

On the eve of principal photography for Erik Knudsen's film, The Raven On The Jetty, the film's star, Connor O'Hara, undertakes a special ritual with all the crew and some of the key cast in attendance. This Vlog covers this event.

The first day of shooting Erik Knudsen's feature film, The Raven On The Jetty, proved to be a hard day for all concerned. The cold windswept location and the gruelling scheduled tired everyone out. By the second day, everyone was getting into the swing of things. This Vlog chronicles the first couple of days shooting.

As the title of the film suggests, a raven plays a very important part in the film. In this Vlog, we see some of the shooting involving the raven, Marvo, being handled by Richard Cooper, as well as one of the important settings for film, the jetty on the lake. Shooting with the raven and on the lake was very complex and proved to be one of the highlights of the shoot.

In this Vlog number 17, there is an extended look at our sound recordist, Amanda Belantara, at work on location for Erik Knudsen's The Raven On The Jetty. Also, some of the leading actors talk about their reflections on the process of making the film while on location and we see a number of scenes being shot.

One of the last days of shooting Erik Knudsen's feature film, The Raven On The Jetty, took the team and cast to Morecambe. In this Vlog, we catch glimpses of what was involved and conversations with cast and crew gives some more insight into the production process.

A raven plays an important part in Erik Knudsen's film, The Raven On The Jetty, as the title would suggest. But it's not just a raven. Birds provide strong thematic imagery. In this Vlog, there is an opportunity to see some of the shooting of scenes involving budgies specially bred for the film by Barrie Shutt.

The Raven On The Jetty stills photographer, Richard Mulhearn, talks about his photography and the work that he did on the film.

Students from Brooksby Melton College created a short animated game sequence for The Raven On The Jetty as part of a live brief assignment. This Vlog 21 gives an insight into how they went about creating these sequences and how it was incorporated into their coursework.

This Vlog documents the final days of principal photography on the feature film, The Raven On The Jetty. This was an amazing shoot on so many levels, made possible by a wonderful cast, dedicated crew and warm help from very many people in Cumbria.

In the second of two Vlogs about the editing of The Raven On The Jetty, Erik Knudsen talks about some of the creative and aesthetic considerations he employs in the editing of the film.

As part of the ongoing production of Erik Knudsen's feature film, The Raven On The Jetty, our Vlogs continue to give some insight into the process of making the film and the people involved in the project. In this Vlog, Stuart Samuels talks about his involvement in the creation of visual effects and titles for the film. He discusses his work as a musician and how he came to work with visual effects as well as his approach to working on The Raven On The Jetty.

In the first of two Vlogs about the editing process, Erik Knudsen talks about the tools he is using for editing and how they help him organise his material and prepare for the creative part of the process.

We are inching our way to the completion of The Raven On The Jetty. In this Vlog, Erik Knudsen and Mark Duggan talk about the cinema projection test screening of the film. This was a test screening done at the Odeon Printworks in Manchester. The gold standard for the grading of the film and checking all the cuts is the cinema experience. From there we will then test the film on a number of other screen types and then make final adjustments to the colour grading of the film.

As one of the final stages of the film production process, Sound Dubbing is a vital aspect of a project. In this Vlog, we see Erik Knudsen working with two highly experienced Dubbing Mixers, Mike Stewart assisted by John Wood, as they mix the sound for The Raven On The Jetty at the Sound House studios at MediaCityUK.

In this Vlog, Erik Knudsen and Mark Duggan explain the process of colour grading; this is one of the final stages in the post-production process that involves balancing all the colours and exposures of the shots and selecting an overall visual pallet for the film. By giving a few examples, they discuss the importance of colour grading the images, the kind of issues that influence how the colour grading is done and what effect they hope it will have on the final film. Following an initial grade of the film on a computer monitor, the film is then tested on a variety of monitors and in a cinema before final adjustments are made and the picture is completely locked off and completed. Only the sound dub and the editing of a trailer will follow.

This is the first part of an interview in which. Mark Duggan talks to Erik Knudsen about his new film, The Raven On The Jetty. This is a reflection on the the aims of the project, the approach to development, scriptwriting and production and some of the techniques employed in the directing of the film.

This is the second part of an interview in which Mark Duggan talks to Erik Knudsen about his new film, The Raven On The Jetty. This is a reflection on the the aims of the project, the approach to development, scriptwriting and production and some of the techniques employed in the directing of the film. Erik also reflects on the film's achievements and what his hopes are for the film.

The end of the filmmaking part of producing The Raven On The jetty came with a preview screening for cast, crew and friends at the Odeon Printworks in Manchester. It was fantastic to bring all those together who had been involved in the film. This Vlog briefly captures this screening event. Now the film starts a whole new life out there in the wide world. I'm afraid to say that this is the last Vlog about the making of The Raven On The jetty. May thanks to Mark Duggan for putting these together.