Day 2...

Following on from Leilani’s diary of Day 1, I thought I would add my own thoughts on Day 2 J

Day 2 was the easier of the 5 and we had scheduled as such as we knew (as with any shoot) it takes time for everyone to get into a rhythm of working with each other. It was also due to the restrictions of each location, for example it was best to shoot in the school on a Friday (being the end of the week), a supermarket on a Sunday and pub on Monday (as these were locations still open for business so needed to pick their quietest day), so we were happy that this would be less intense and put us in good stead for days 3, 4 and 5. We had less to shoot for the second day and were in a more controlled location without a hundred or so children to contend with but it was still tricky as the local train station which was a two minute walk away (Isleworth) was closed so many were coming by bus and tube.

After being picked up with the equipment van by 3^rd AD Blair, we arrived and met with th location owner Arthur and then started assessing where to put kit and people as well as dressing the front room, which was the main interior location we were filming in, as well as our unit base for the day. One of the reasons we picked this particular house was that it fitted Bonzo being a single man and was very quaint, which whilst good for him wasn’t for 20 odd crew squeezing in!

We had an added obstacle in a car was parked directly outside which we couldn’t move, so the production team went to work knocking on doors of neighbours so we could shoot the exterior shots, which are the final ones in the film. After filming this before lunch, it was inside to capture a scene early in the film where Bonzo arrives home, which was constructed fantastically by the production design team.

It was shot quite simply in terms of framing and blocking, but was very important in setting Bonzo up to our audience and getting an insight into who he is and showing his situation through how he lives, as well as conveying the moment his journey is kickstarted. Although tight, it was another day wrapped on time (at 4pm no less) but as we had an early start and a tight timeframe the following day, we had a full briefing with all crew to let them know just how important it was to be on set for 6.45am the next day in Islington, North London for the supermarket scene. I try to get people together to pass on the information as much as I can during a shoot, but it was good that everyone saw the importance of it and stayed to make sure they knew what our requirements were for day 3.

I was glad our scheduling had worked out this way, as it gave everyone a chance to assess where we were at so far and get some much needed rest before the more difficult scenes over the next three days. By this point we had already overcome a number of challenges including supporting roles dropping out, logistics changing at the last minute, exterior locations needing to be sought and technical issues with the lights and camera so was also very glad to see everyone was dealing with things as and when they arose. It is all well and good having a happy crew when things are going smoothly, but it is when things are not going to plan, that's when you find out what you are made of!

Day one of the shoot!

Day one of the Clowning Around shoot found us at two seperate locations.

The first involved a school full of primary aged children for the opening scene of the film and was my Producer’s cameo in the production. I’m an actor by profession rather than a producer so it felt comfortable to be in front of the camera, not so comfortable to be in front of the very good but exceedingly loud children as they screamed for ‘Bonzo’ and Mr. Fernelli. It was actually a little bit terrifying and my appreciation for the teaching profession has increased considerably! All kudos to the children of Pelham Primary who were an absolute credit to their school and patiently did all that was asked of them by Damien. Our crew in turn were able to entertain the children and explain to them how film and TV gets made, explaining the steadicam and how reverse shots get made. They I think entertained us as much as we did them and though there were a lot of shots to get in a relatively short period of time the director and team worked very hard to achieve all they needed.

Following on from that we moved to a local house location to film some more scenes with Bonzo. David Schaal was just incredible as Bonzo and I think for the first day of filming, we all felt very secure in the work he did. And our Associate Producer Markus Meedt standing in as Mr. Fernelli for a few shots proved extremely popular too!

Here's a few photos of the day. More on our facebook page.

Director as camera..
David Schaal with costume assistant Nelli.He's got his clown make-up on here for the first time.

Bonzo entertains the children of Pelham Primary

Damien going through the shots led the team through the movement so that they could work swiftly once the children were in place. Matt Allsop joined the production with his steadicam for just this one day and came all the way from Worcester.

Associate Producer Markus Meedt tries to keep up with the questions..

One of the more poignant moments of the film.. Bonzo the outcast.

Framing up Kiki Kendrick with the steadicam..as we meet Mrs. Jenkins.

It's a Wrap!

So we wrapped the Clowning Around shoot on a cold Tuesday evening but inside we were warm and happy that we'd gotten it all in the can.

There's so much to tell I don't know where to begin, the team worked incredibly hard, maintained focus throughout, and I believe have created something very special.

There's still a lot to do, but for now we are taking a short break to recoup and look over the last few days.. more very soon! For now I want to say a huge, huge thank you to all the people who made this happen. *:O)

The Last Days are Upon Us!

It's the end of Monday and I'm pretty tired right now, but we're getting quite a lot of the final things sorted out, casting (& recasting) some of the smaller cameos and extras etc.. and rehearsals took place today which Damien said went very well so we'll have some video of that coming up for you in due course.

The rest has been a sort of scatterbrained picking up random items currently whizzing through my brain on a constant loop in order to to check off the random itty bitty things and bits and bobs that haven't been done yet.. working out what the vegans will eat, how many people will need breakfast on set and on what days, getting yellow gloves for Bonzo's costume, checking in with people so I know all is going well in their departments, ordering greasepaint, thinking about what's in my wardrobe so I can find a costume for myself to wear.... wondering if someone's sorted a name tag for the checkout girl, talking to Juliet about casting the checkout girl.. and the list goes on and my mind spins round and round! It's a bit exhausting really because even though it's not hard work, it's a lot of mental energy flying about in many different directions.

If I'm perfectly honest I don't cope all that well with pre-production. I never have, I find it draining and actually quite dislike it. But I know that come the shoot on Friday I'll be calm and serene and will enjoy every single bit of it. And so as I head off to bed at 1:30am with an information superhighway whizzing around the perimeter of my brainwaves I am willing that day to come.. and keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be ready for whatever happens and needs sorting out between now and the wrap! :)

Ticking Boxes

Last week, shortly after securing actor David Schaal to play Bonzo, we locked the shoot dates. This is both very exciting and a little scary, as it means the fictional film I have played out in my head is now going to become something very real. It also means that all the team now has a goal to aim at so can schedule their time and deadlines so we know what we can achieve.

For this particular film, we also have some quite tricky locations. A school, a supermarket and a pub to name three and have searched far and wide throughout London to get them. The good news is that thanks to the efforts of all the team, we had sourced a number of options which I went to recce this weekend. The bad news is that they were in every different area of London, so I spent one of the hottest October days on record sat on tubes, trains and buses navigating my way to the four corners of the city! location to film in and unfortunately is also one of the most key as other departments cannot move forward until they know where we will be shooting. Production Design can’t add props, camera and lighting can’t make a kit list, you can’t block or storyboard accurately, the 1^st AD can’t schedule...the list is endless...

The first stop was an option on Bonzo’s house in Hounslow (West London), which took me about 45 minutes. The location was found by our unit manager Markus through the Film London website. The location is quite small but had a charm about it and I also liked the colours, texture and angles we could shoot from. Luckily the locations owner is a stills photographer, so has an awareness of what a film crew being in your house will entail and has given us pretty much the run of the house J

After finishing my nice cup of tea, I headed to Barnehurst (South-East London) which was about an hour and a half away once I had gone through Waterloo and London Bridge to look at Mrs. Jenkins house. As we have scheduled the school (which is run by my mother in law)scene on the first day of filming and we also need children for the Mrs. Jenkins scene we have tried to schedule them together, hence why we needed a house in this area. The location owner is on the school PTA board and both her and her husband have been very supportive in helping us out to make the film. As people who haven’t had a film crew in their house before, I explained everything in detail so they would be clear in what will be going on and how long for.

Then it was off to Russell Square to check out a possible supermarket option, before heading to Crouch End (North London) to look at another, which was another two hours of public transport. The supermarket has been the trickiest of our locations so far and we have tried every big name brand in order to get somewhere, but most either wanted obscene amounts of cash or were worried we would affect the sales in their store and in a film of this nature, it always helps if the location is on board with what you are doing. We ended up asking Londis and Budgens stores, who whilst branded, are self-owned so it is down to the individual if they wish us to film. Budgens in particular have been very helpful across the board and the managers in their Crouch End and Belsize Park stores particularly keen to help. From this we have secured a store to film in, which means I just have to find somewhere close to film the ‘stunt’ part of the scene outside the store.

After I had finished in Crouch End it was approaching 6pm and having spent 5 or so hours on and off public transport, felt I had earnt a nice cold pint of cider so headed to meet my wife in London Bridge. And whilst I did have to wait in a queue 20 minutes to get it, it was good to toast a successful day and that we have 11 days now to secure everything we need for the shoot J

Going Loco!

Things have been really busy at Clowning Around Production Central as we come up to two weeks until filming and there's still a lot to sort out. Truth is that even with an amazing team working hard, we've all been doing stuff in our spare time and probably the trickiest thing has been finding the right interior locations so even though we've been looking for a good while, we began this week with only half the locations we needed.

But perseverance weighs out they say and that's certainly been the case for this film and it's characterful settings. We went to have our weekly production meeting at one of them this week, a pub location in New Maldon that is charming inside and out and has a friendly management who have welcomed us to film there where we'll be using both the interior and exterior for important scenes in the film. Added to the pub, we have a school full of children, two houses (with suitable interior and exteriors of both), a park with specific requirements, a shop, and a supermarket.

Ironically the most difficult thing to get was not the school full of kids, but the supermarket, however from the teams weekend recces today they have finally gotten it hopefully nailed down to a suitable and willing store, both houses are confirmed as well as the pub and school and everyone is feeling happy and looking forward to the next job. Which I'm guessing will be all the props and production design, arranging rehearsal and tech recces, and finalising the costume fittings and logistics etc.

Mostly it's been the production team and department heads working hard, and I've sort of been checking stuff off the lists from afar and worrying and trying to do bits when I can to help things move along and working to help production manager, Katherine with budget stuff, but I've definitely feeling my shortcomings as a producer. Truth is that everyone on this shoot is a working professional behind the camera, except me. I only produce short films in my spare time and I have never had such a big production or budget to work with before and it's a bit of a learning curve. I feel like I'm somehow not doing enough or being enough. I guess it's something I never worried about before because I never felt the stakes were high, but between the crowdfunding backers who've put such faith in the project, the cast and crew who've been working hard for a long time to make this happen, and our director Damien who has been wanting to realise this film for such a long time it feels like there's a lot of expectation of an amazing success, we've worked for that success, and failure is not going to be an option for us. Not that failure is even a suggestion with our awesome team on the case. It's probably just that in my own excitement and anxiety to see everything happen as it should after all this work and time and expectation I am now feeling a bit like an expectant mother pacing about, wishing it were ready to begin already, and hoping it will all go smoothly and the budget won't get caught around it's neck and strangle it and that our team will come out of their work with a film we are all proud to love and show off and all it's fingers and toes will be intact because we haven't had to compromise one or two along the way! I know. I've gone a bit nutty, it's pre-production.. I don't cope well with it!

A cool filmmaker, who happens to be one of our backers in fact, once said the following to me during a particularly tough pre-production challenge on another project that I was directing... "Keep going. The only way is in fact forward. Choose the day, don't let it choose you. You are EXACTLY where you should be. Smile. Go on" and it's good calming advice for any film challenge. Today I'm feeling very glad that I wrote that down and kept it. I admit that reading it back I do feel very reassured.

I might still pace in anticipation though until we're ready to give birth to this baby film.. just a little bit. But I'm smiling at what everyone has achieved today. *:o)