Online Premiere

So, we had our online premiere last Sunday and sent the digital download out to backers today. It's that point where it feels like the film is truly finished, and you've shown it to the important people. Of course we hope that it will do well in some festivals next year and that many more people will get to see it but that's the aftercare program once the hard work of taking something from script to screen has been accomplished. It has been a long road, and there have been delays, but all the way we've tried very hard not to compromise on what we set out to do. I have to say that despite a huge amount of collaboration, having one person in the form of Damien directing this project and keeping us all on the same page about what we wanted from teh beginning has been a very unifying way to work. We've had some really lovely feedback so far and everything we've heard has been precious because it all helps us become better at what we do.

Right now, and with the film download gone out, we've delivered most of the digital perks and are working on the physical perks. The comics in particular are taking a bit of time as they are coming from overseas and may not arrive until after the coming holidays but we're looking forward to doing some signing and packaging and posting as soon as we can, but again we don't want to compromise on what we send out to folks and we would like you to love what you receive so we're taking care to get that right.

All in all it's been am incredible process and there's a lot ahead as we aim to get the film screened on every continent. I have some very happy memories from the entire process and I've made some lovely friends along the way. I bump into backers of our project at a lot of events and I keep in touch with many online. The above still from the film is one of my favourites, it's actually not David Schaal in the clip as he had quite bad flu that day and we'd pretty much dunked him in an icy river to boot, so while he went home to recover after his stellar dedication to his craft, Damien put on Bonzo's costume for that tiny part of the film and it works beautifully on screen and is a kind of lovely cameo to know our director is there in the film, even though we can't see or tell it's him. And of course I'm in it too as is Katherine our production manager and a number of other crew, some backers and our awesome cast of course. It feels like a very family film and as the end of 2012 approaches and 2013 begins we hope we'll expand the audience for the film and get it the attention it deserves.

More soon, as further things develop but for now it's enough to say we've reached yet another milestone with the premieres over and look forward to the next, getting the film into it's first festival!

<*:O)

Promo Trailer for Clowning Around!

Clowning Around Promo Trailer.. from summit from nuthin productions on Vimeo.

Our newest promo trailer is now live! Edited again by Lourenço Barsi-Gomes from Granada Filmes, who you will remember did the first promo trailers from our photo shoot, this shows more of the film itself and the plight of our hapless hero Bonzo and his battle with the demon drink and his rival Mr. Fernelli. More news coming soon in September once the clown car gets loaded up again but for now enjoy!

Perkalicious Progress!

Firstly, appologies for the long gap in writing updates. There's that thing that happens after the shooting ends where there are just a director and a producer working through post-production, marketing materials and general juggling of tasks so things can slow down somewhat.

Damien has been working hard to finish the film ready for our BAFTA premiere in what we hope will be September. Olympic fever has taken over London and BAFTA was booked out for the duration by some kind of Olympic company so our plans to have it in July were thwarted. It's given us more time to organise things though and perks are in the making!

Digital perks have gone out via dropbox, those of you owed them should have been sent an invitation but I'll also be emailing the files shortly. In the mix we have the wonderful Clowning Around comic books, behind the scenes stills and film stills, digital poster download, script versions and notes, storyboards, and other summit from nothin films of note for you to download and keep. It's all good stuff and we hope you're enjoying it. There's a PDF book in the making about the whole process and Damien is working away on that, but it will I think be a lovely keepsake and a useful one, and we'll hopefully be adding some more goodies like behind the scenes videos and the poster competition entries in due course plus a couple of extra bits and bobs for you.

The only perk that hasn't really worked is the community forum that we set up, there wasn't really much interest in it and not many people were logging on so with our time to maintain site updates a little stretched right now we're going to admit defeat on that one and keep everyone up to date via Indiegogo, the website, blog and facebook page. It was a nice idea, but like many utopian dreams didn't work so well in practice. Ahh well, Onwards and Upwards as our baker Chris Jones would say!

A film trailer is in the making and after a few tweaks by Damien and our promo maker Lourenco we'll have that to share! The film is looking really great so we're excited to show you the trailer so you can see for yourself that the production money we raised all went onto the screen. We owe so much to our amazing cast and crew and of course the backers who made this all possible. This is your project and we hope you will love it.

The film itself has gone off to some festivals and will be headed to more very shortly! Those of you with the festival choice perk should expect an email from Damien shortly.

Physical perks are arriving gradually as we get them sorted out. Damien has arranged all the mastering (in between travelling to Poland and Brazil with his day job! I don't know how he does it!) and the poster prints (pictured above) have arrived and are currently awaiting signing by cast and crew for our backers. Postcards are currently being designed and we're a bit like Santa and his chief elf right now with lists of stuff that needs sorting out! We'll be posting things all together hopefully so bear with us while we get it all sorted out.

In the meantime, we'll be using August for catching up and some much needed holiday time off to clown around in the summer sunshine! We hope you'll enjoy your summer too and look forward to telling you more very soon.

Keep smiling! *:O)

Picture Locked...now onto sound

As you may have seen from our various Facebook and Twitter updates, we have been both focusing on locking picture and seeking out a sound designer to move "Clowning Around" onto the next stage so we can complete in May.

So far, the edit process has been conducted remotely in that editor Ian Davies has been working on the cuts and then exporting, sending to me and then implementing my notes via email. Due to both Ian and mine work commitments, this was the best way to keep it ticking along without having to arrange and then rearrange edit sessions. But it does make it difficult to discuss a scene or to fine cut, so we met a few Saturdays ago to do just that. As Ian is now on a very time-consuming programme and the main jobs of pacing and selecting the best shots are done (and also because I work as an editor also), I made any final changes myself after that.

There are many people who would say "if you edit yourself, why get an editor in?" but my answer has always been that it adds a sense of objectivity, brings in anothers skillset and adds another contact to your black book. Plus having the skills to put your ideas across to an editor in a concise way (without jabbing your finger at the screen and shouting "NO! Move that bit over there!") is something you need to develop if you plan to work consistently in this industry. Now that has been achieved, I felt fine that I could give it the final pass and lock it before sending to sound.

I also needed to find a sound designer. I used to hold my hands up and admit sound wasn't really my thing but over the past year or so, it is something I have paid more and more attention to so wanted to get someone who was very enthusiastic, got the tone of the film and got the scope of the level of detail we wanted. After putting ads out on various sites, I started to realise how much our project stood out as I received over 250 applications for a role I would usually get less than 25. After whittling them down to 5, I met with each designer to go through ideas and what deadlines we would need to work to.

As with many aspects of the production, I have taken a lot of time to consider each application and meet with people rather than go with my initial gut instinct, so I know that even if I do make mistakes, they have been made properly considering all the information I had at the time, not rushed for a quick fix.

After meeting with the various sound people, I went with Attic Sound who had an impressive body of work and were very keen to get involved. You can check out their website at www.atticsound.net and I have now sent them the relevant files they need. Attic sound consists of Anna Bertmark and Joss Albert and have worked on... You can also follow them on Twitter @atticsound

As I am working on Avid, and they are on Mac, this can be tricky. Luckily working with audio is a lot better than with picture (as Avid deals with OMF/MXF media and Quicktime .mov files whereas both work with. WAV, and .AAF). I exported an .AAF file from Avid which has all the audio media consolidated and embedded in it, with 75 frame handles (3 seconds extra in each audio clip so you can fade in and out if you want to) as well as a Quicktime movie with BITC (burnt in timecode) so they could make sure everything was in sync and when discussing anything could be really specific. I also sent them all the sound rushes and log sheets so that they have all the information about the recorded sound that there is.

I also sent a copy of the Quicktime to the composer Alexis Bennett so he can work with the locked picture and he has now sent me some examples that I can look through (as well as show those of you who went for the 'viewing' perk in our IndieGoGo campaign).

Now that those two processes are moving, I now need to find someone to grade the film so it can be as colourful and cinematic as we originally aimed for.

The last piece of the puzzle is finding someone to be the voice of Clowns UK, who leave a message on the answerphone that kickstarts Bonzo's journey. I have always wanted this to be someone who is known to an audience for their role as a 'comedy legend' so am currently speaking with a number of agents to get the right person on board and will keep you posted on any progress!

That's all for now, but still aiming for that May completion date :-)

Pickup Shots.

On sunny Sunday mornings I usually prefer to sit in bed, preferably in a patch of sunlight and read the film news over tea and toast. Today however I was up and about early to meet Damien and Azul so we could shoot some pick up shots for Clowning Around.

It took forever to get the coin to roll in the right way and land where the camera needed it to be, but when it did we all smiled together, knowing how it would make the film work better. Other shots had their bugbears too, in a busy supermarket who wanted their checkout back our Jack-in-the-box wouldn't work properly, and to find a spare bit of pub floor to film on when there's a Tottenham/Arsenal match on and you're in Islington is just ridiculous. We got there though. And those shots will give us what we need to stimulate the rest and make it work easily.

Here's a couple of videos from before and after the shots from Damien and Myself just explaining what we were doing..

And finally...days 4 and 5 of the shoot!

Apologies for the delay in documenting the shoot days as have been distracted these past few weeks, but thought I would cover both day 4 and 5 before I forget how each day was, as it already feels like so long ago!

Day 4 was always going to be the longest and most challenging of the film, from a logistical as well as a storyline perspective as the scenes we were shooting were the standoff in the film, where Bonzo challenges Mr.Fernelli to a clown off to decide the best clown in town and the resulting battle.

We were filming in 'Woodies' freehouse in New Malden from around 8am until they closed at 11pm so after a nice hot breakfast, we had a team briefing, outlined a schedule and what we wanted to achieve in the day and everyone got to work. One of the first challenges was, as we had to make the pub look as if it was night-time, shutting as much light out of the pub as possible, which is difficult in any location...let alone a pub that opened at midday!

Luckily the owner Linda and her customers were very accommodating as we basically took over the main part of the pub. This was also the first scene we had shot with both Bonzo and Fernelli, and with minimal rehearsal time, we had to get the tone of the scene right, so maximized the time camera and lighting were using to talk it through with the actors. Luckily in actors David Schaal and Matt Jure, we had people who understood the script and are very subtle so they played their parts perfectly.

We ran slightly over time for this scene, so had lunch at around 3pm before most of the cast and crew had a break for a few hours before the big fight scene. Myself and the DOP Azul Serra however, went to investigate the park location for the following day, which he had not seen so far. It was a scene as well in which David had to jump into the lake and stamp out the ‘reflection’ of Fernelli, so in order to make it safe for him, it was only fair that I jumped in first! After being happy with this, he went back to the pub where we briefed everyone about the evening, that we would be working very quickly in order to get all the shots we could in the five hours we could shoot once light fell and the order we planned to shoot things in.

During this time, the rest of the camera and lighting team had prepped everything for the fight scene so at 6.15pm we had everyone in place and could start shooting. One of the trickier things was getting extras to turn up at a pub in New Malden at 6pm on a Monday and stand out in the cold, but we managed to get a crowd to watch the final scene that consisted of my brother, the make-up artist and friends of the cast and crew!

We cracked through the scene pretty quickly, which was amazing considering the amount of crew, the low light (meaning we also had to be careful when moving around set) and that we had to make sure we had everything. The night finished with the one take wonder of the ‘pie-in-the-face’ shot...this was the moment when Bonzo finally gets victory by hitting Mr. Fernelli full in the face with a pie to win the battle and as you can imagine, due to the messy nature of it and how it affected costume and makeup, we only had one go at it...especially as it was 10.55pm and we had to be out by 11pm! Luckily, whilst me and Azul had been jumping in ponds during the afternoon, the production team had been testing various consistencies of pies and frame rates to see what worked best for the shot, which meant production manager Katherine and 1^st AD Greer smelt of jam and cream for most of the evening...

After the final shot had been completed, everyone wrapped double quick so we could people home on public transport as we still had another day to shoot. Katherine had kindly found some space for crew around her parents so people were close for the following day.

The fifth and final day consisted of four smaller scenes and any pickups we were missing. Whilst not as hectic schedule wise, we had less crew, no unit base and tiredness was starting to kick in after four intense days. We quickly shot the park scene where Bonzo awakes to find himself out of alcohol, before moving on to a four shot montage in a nearby newsagents. Breaking swiftly for lunch, we filmed the trickiest scene of the day in which Bonzo walks through the park, only to be confronted by the reflection of Mr. Ferneli in the pond. This was difficult for a number of reasons. 1) the light was constantly changing (meaning the strength of the reflection was also) 2) Matt Jure (Mr. Fernelli) was unavailable for this day so we had to use a stand in and 3) the tree had been broken so it now obstructed the shot. Thanks to a mirror and quick thinking and shooting from Azul, we managed to get what we wanted and then filmed the rest of the scene, culminating in Bonzo jumping in to the pond and stamping all over what he believed was a taunting Fernelli. Ever safety consciouss, we had runners on standby with blankets and warm clothes once David was finished as this was his last shot of the film.

However, even though David was wrapped...we were not. As an effort of good faith to Markus, Dan and all the others who had appeared in the film, I donned a wet and dirty Bonzo costume to take the final steps of the film, which show Bonzo heading towards the pub as light fell. As the rest of the crew started to pack up, Azul set the camera and then I stomped to the pub, doing my finest Bonzo impression (from the back anyway). After a few takes, Azul was happy and I got to say the magic words “Thats a wrap!”.

It had been a long old journey, not just for me but for all the cast and crew who had given up so much of their time to be a part of it. I do think everyone enjoyed and is proud of the work they have done as many kind words were said as we sat down to have a beer with some of the crew afterwards.

With all five days of the shoot complete, it was agreed everyone take at least a week off to get back to normal before reconciling all the production issues, sorting the stills shoot out and cracking on with post production....I think its fair to say everyone deserved it after putting in so much to make the shoot happen. :-)

Day Three of the Shoot..

Day three took us into a very early start at 7am in Islington where we shot scenes in the very accommodating supermarket who had arranged for a security guard to open up early for us to film there before the store opened. Filling the place with lights and crew and actors we made an empty store into a bright and busy one.

After filming the hilarious checkout scene with David Schall and Meddy Ford, the team moved onto the alcohol section of the shop where some funny but poignant points were filmed to show the battle Bonzo has with his addiction. This is one of my favourite bits of the screenplay however, as it was being filmed production was moving to our second location of the day and as it was a match day alternative parking and a new production base had to be found and vehicles moved, including the equipment van.

The late morning and early afternoon shots were comprised of action sequences both outside the store and in a nearby area with a convenient slope to send Bonzo on an out of control journey and ramp up the excitement of the film! We were joined by stunt team Dominic Kinnaird who was stunt co-ordinating and Tom Cheshire, our stunt double standing in for David for a few of the shots. 360 degree and wide shots meant that most of the crew needed to stay out of the way while the stunt and camera team did their work and Damien and the actors concentrated on getting the very best out of the set-ups. I have to say, that during the preparation for the stunts even though they weren't especially dangerous the care and consideration taken for everyone's safety and comfort was thoroughly thought through and prepared for and so the afternoon went speedilly. Damien briefed everyone before we ran through the shots so that everyone was clear as to how it was happening and could be prepared.

For the production team it was quite a busy day with a lot of little things to organise that both came up that day during the course of shooting and that needed to be planned for the following day. And with Production Manager Katherine also having a cameo in the film it was all hands on deck and a very busy day for her, which you'd never have known from her serene performance. All went to plan and we finished with everyone collecting in the production office (a nearby upstairs room in a pub) where a cooling drink was had before heading home for a good rest before the long day we had planned for Monday.

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.

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)

Looking for Bonzo...

We have a little bit of a bad news in that Bill Thomas, who was to play Bonzo in our film “Clowning Around” can no longer commit to the role due to other projects and after a week of myself, Bill, Leilani and Katherine trying to find a way around it, we are going to have to recast.

This is a shame as Bill has been fantastic to work with and brought lot to the role, but these things can happen when working in low budget films when no one is being paid (and therefore contracted) so we are moving onwards and upwards in looking for a replacement. We will keep the poster competition as it is for the moment, but once we have re-cast, we will speak to the winning designer about adding the new actor, whoever that may be.

The production crew had a meeting yesterday to discuss ideas for castings as well as locations and other things relating to the shooting of “Clowning Around” and everyone has specific things to be cracking on with over the next few days so we can make a firm decision on our shooting dates next Monday, and it is great to see that despite the casting setback, everyone has very much rallied and kept up the momentum and enthusiasm for the project.

If you think of anyone suiting for the role of BONZO, please feel free to send to us as well or send a message to us on Twitter or Facebook!

Funded!

I don't know how much sleep I've had this past week. Not a great deal. Certainly not much in the last 48 hours, and I feel kind of floaty as I look at the final fundraising target of $8900.

There's some fees to come off of course, and we need to keep some for fulfilment of the perks we are giving to our incredibly generous backers. But overall we have exceeded our target by $1400 and people who had already backed us kept increasing their donations to the campaign long after we'd exceeded our goal. That will all help a lot with achieving the production value we want. A testament I think to the hard work, diligence and commitment of our wonderful cast and crew who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to create a project and campaign plan that has made people want to join with us and share our journey. And I am over awed by our backers generosity but also I am so tremendously proud of and thankful to all our team.

Serendipity played it's part too. Things seemed to happen in ways that came to be beneficial. My life is very like that sometimes. The floaty feeling is still here and maybe it's not all tiredness. I think a little bit of magic is about to happen!

Right now though I would like some sleep.

Hitting Target! Our Cup Runneth Over!

Yesterday we hit our target on our Indiegogo fundraising campaign. And then we exceeded it. And I'd managed somehow, after an epic week of tweeting, to fall asleep and miss the exact moment! But I was soon greeted with the news via texts and phone calls, emails and tweets that we had succeeded. It all happened so quickly I'm still not quite sure I've taken it in. For once I have struggled to find words. Except thank you. Just thank you. I've been saying that a lot today and rightly so.

The support we have had has been incredible, the tension both thrilling and a little bit scary. Crowd funding, is not totally free money, it takes work and energy that has been given by our awesome cast and crew, our team of backers and producers who've worked hard to support and spread word, and promote the campaign. And most of all our leader, Damien, who's vision for this story, and commitment to excellence, has inspired each and every one of us.

We made a commitment to our backers to deliver the film and the film experience we have promised them. Reaching goal means that we can. Exceeding our target means that we have that little bit extra to work with in terms of providing our team with the tools they need and making sure they are safe and comfortable and as anyone who makes films knows, every penny always counts and so does every person who supports us. We don't want anyone who still wants to join the experience after we reached target to feel that their contribution is in any way less important than the people who got us to goal. It all matters so much and it all helps us enormously to achieve the quality and production value we want to achieve.

And so instead of patting ourselves on the back completely (though we did grin and whoop a lot and are mightily happy!) we are continuing until the end of our funding drive to spread word of the campaign, to keep people informed, and to keep doing interesting things for anyone who still wants to get involved! More about some of those interesting things very soon.

For right now I can say I'm elated and so are the team. I haven't had much time to blog this past week or two and it's quite nice to find space for a few minutes to put in writing the fact that we have done what we set out to do. Maybe now that I've written it down it will begin to feel real.

<*:O)

Promo Trailers!

At our photo shoot, as well as photographs of the characters some promo footage was recorded so that character teasers could be made. Lourenço Barsi-Gomes from Granada Filmes has now edited the pieces together for us to make some dramatic and evocative trailers that we hope will give you an up close feel for our clowns and their tense rivalry. Enjoy!

Making-up clowning...

I'm Kirsty, the make-up designer on Clowning Around. Just wanted to chip in and talk about what I've been up to. So far it's been a lot of fun, giving me the opportunity to work on something I haven't really done before - clown make-up. I love the dynamic, as it's really an ensemble project. Coming up with ideas for the designs, I've spoken many times with the director and costume department to make sure we're all on the same page - with ideas for the shoot and colour palettes. From the beginning it was clear to me that we had very similar views on the look we were going for.
As for the crew, well some I've collaborated with many times before and for others it's a new and exciting experience. The level of creative talent and passion everyone has is great, making the project almost feel not like work at all; everyone is moving to make something great.

Clowning Around All Over The Place!

As our Indiegogo funding campaign has gone along, we’ve had tremendous support from all sorts of quarters, and it’s so nice that so many people are taking an interest in what we’re doing. The feedback on our work and planning has been edifying and encouraging and I am so proud of everything our team has done so far. I’m really working with an amazing bunch of people.

We’ve got some awesome support too, in terms of people interested in helping us talk to a wider audience about what it is we’ve been doing and share our experience, and we’ve there’s a couple of fun things happening that are putting word of the project out into new areas too and just generally making things more exciting and interesting.

Firstly our Poster Design Competition is out there and we’ve got an amazing team of judges from the film & design world, and a number of participants already. We're uploading them all to our facebook page so that all the entries can be seen and 'liked' by the public before the judging takes place. Do head over to the page and take a look!

Only time will tell who the winner will be but it’s really exciting to see what people will do with the images we give them. As visual people, we’re thrilled by the prospect!

Secondly, musician Alex Bloor, who makes Parody songs, is going to record one for Clowning Around! How awesome is that! I've seen some of the lyrics already and I can imagine we'll all be singing the "Clowning Around" song before long!

Thirdly, the very awesome Karen Worden and David Brannin who run the Film Courage radio show and website hosting indie film interviews that inspire, invited Damien and myself to write an article for their site which you can find here and that shares what we’ve learned about preparing a project that people want to support.

Next, the fantastic guys at Media Pulp recorded a podcast interview, again with Damien and myself to talk about our work on Clowning Around and how the project came about. They are just charming to speak to. Really nice guys and it was an absolute pleasure to talk to them. The show goes out on iTunes and can also be found on their website. Do check in and give it a listen.

Then this week the chaps over at Livestream show, Film Snobbery Live, chose Clowning Around as their Indiegogo campaign of the week, praised our work so far on the project, the way we'd set out our page information and suggested people backed us. That was nice of them!

And last, but by no means least, the fantastic people at MUBI Garage have published a production diary I wrote about Producing.

With these cool things all happening alongside our regular Indiegogo updates, social network interactions, checking in with cast & crew, updating the blog, video diaries, website updates etc. etc. etc. it feels like there are clowns all over the shop! And that makes me very happy! And with just 7 days to go, quite busy!

We certainly hope you find something to make you happy too! *:o)

the best sketch of all time?

Last night, Damien and I sat down with Lourenço Barsi-Gomes, who is currently creating some Clowning Around promos for us. We started talking clowns and comedy in general, as I recounted my bizarre bus ride to meet them, which included a bag of roast chicken, some very long sports socks and a threat to knock someone's head off (I would like to point out I was an observer rather than actually being involved).

On the way home I began thinking of the great comic sketches. And for me, this Abbott and Costello standard wins every time. What do people think?

Clowning Around on Film Courage!

The very awesome Karen Worden and David Brannin run the hugely popular Film Courage radio show and website in Los Angeles, specialising in Indie film interviews that inspire.

They invited Damien and myself to write an article for their site, which you can find here, and that shares what we’ve learned about preparing a project that people want to support and the diligence involved in being entrusted with people's support.

Do go and check out our article and the many other insightful, inspiring and encouraging insights that the filmmakers they talk to have to share! *:o)

Locations in New Malden

I met production manager Katherine so we could start looking at locations today in New Malden, which is in south west London, a ten minute train ride from Wimbledon. After we spoke at last weeks production meeting, she mentioned that there was a pub, park and car park in close proximity to where she lives so had arranged to meet there on Sunday at 1pm to have a look.
Unfortunately (for reasons best known to themselves) I thought we were to meet at midday, so turned up over an hour early. As well as make me look rather stupid, it did give me an opportunity to wander round the streets near Berr
ylands station and see exactly the kinds of streets and houses that I would like to show the film, quiet suburban streets with quaint three bedroom terraced and semi-detached housing.

First of all we looked at a park nearby. I liked the fact it was slightly overgrown, quiet and had benches scattered around, but what we are looking for also is a pond that Bonzo can jump into after seeing Fernellis reflection.

Myself and Katherine wandered along the river which runs through the park, stopping at various points to see if it would work for Bonzo to be contemplating his scenario, to have the teenagers nearby and to jump into the water.

Obviously you can shoot the same scene in more than one location and 'cheat' it slightly

, but I always like to keep it as realistic as possible. As well as testing how and when we could see a reflection, we also found a few really nice bridges, which I thought would may be nicer, rather than to have Bonzo walking past the pond, he stops to reflect and sees the shadow of Fernelli stood next to him, which prompts him to attack.

We then stopped at the pub "Woodies" Freehouse (http://www.woodiesfreehouse.co.uk/) which is a nice, country esque locals pub which would be perfect for the end confrontation between the two clowns.

Unfortunately, the owner was too busy in the kitchen so Katherine will call her this week to see if they are interested in being a location for the film.

After that, me and Katherine had a chat about we can achieve within the budget and also backups for our backups as it is important that we aim high and are highly ambitious but at the same time have plans that do not compromise the film, should our original ideas not be possible.

We also had a look at an alternative to a supermarket in a 'Poundland'. If we do not make it a supermarket (as this is always tricky) then the only problem is why would there be a shopping trolley outside the shop? It could be discarded, but would still be weird to me so we chatted about other possible modes of transport as he exits the shop.

So watch out Bill, we may have you on a skateboard or a childs pushbike! :-)

"Clowning Around" ~ The Poster Design Competition!

Today kicks off a poster design competition we've been planning for a little while now.

Since our photo shoot at Tower Bridge Studios where we got some amazing imagery of our ensemble of main characters for the film in full costume & make-up we've been wanting to see them turned into posters. And Damien thought, instead of just getting a graphic designer to make posters to our brief, why not invite people from the online filmmaking and creative design community to see what they would do given the script and imagery and allowed to add their own creative magic. And we can get their creative work seen and out there amongst film and design people and the winning poster design would be used as the film artwork and be seen wherever the film and news of the film will travel. Which we plan to cover all seven continents!

We're also inviting our winner and runners up to the film premiere at BAFTA (or the online premier and Q&A for those too distant to travel) and every entrant will be invited into our online community of supporters and backers where they can follow the project updates from start to finish and interract with us and the rest of the community.

The competition runs from 12th August to 12th September 2011 and will be judged by an amazing panel of film and design world judges who liked our project and were happy to give some time to helping us choose the branding that will best serve our film.

They are:

Matthew Leyland from 'Total Film' Magazine

Chris Jones author of the Guerilla Film Makers Handbook

Ben and Chris Blaine the top UK filmmaking brothers behind Charlie Productions

Chris Patmore Editor of Film & Festivals Magazine

Albert Embankment

So the other night, while rioting went on in other parts of town, we had a very quiet production team meeting in London's Vauxhall. We recce’d three potential locations (one interior, two exterior) that may be workable and Katherine is going to get onto the relevant permissions people to see what sort of prices etc. we’ll be looking at.

We also split up some of the production chores so we knew who would be taking responsiblity for what tasks (although we’ll all be chipping in with it all).

So for now, Graham and Myself are concentrating on raising the funds we need and keeping the Indiegogo campaing flourishing for the final couple of weeks, not an easy task when the only topic of conversation for days has been riots and social unrest. Admittedly it concerns us all but I think most of the team choose to get on with doing what good we can instead of tutting at the bad stuff. Kathering and Greer are working on sorting dates for location recces, camera tests, rehearsals and checking who needs to be there for each, and that they are available. Juliet and Dan are getting onto sourcing potential locations and pooling photos etc. and Damien now will be leaving all the production decisions to us and getting on with more of the artistic decision making and director film prep, such as design, storyboarding etc. etc.

We have a couple of other things in the works that we’ll tell you about very shortly.

All in all we had a really productive evening and even had time for some pre-meeting drinks on a very beautiful London evening along Albert Embankment, where the sun shone hot and the river breeze was cool. It made me think of Bonzo and a moment of the film where he finds hope in the midst of his personal turmoil. I guess there is always a positive side of things there if we take the chance to search for it.

Coming away with tasks in hand that have kept the remainder of the week pretty busy for us. Hopefully meeting again very soon to check progress. *:o)