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)

BAFTA Premiere!

Damien at the "Clowning Around" Premiere at BAFTA from summit from nuthin productions on Vimeo.

So, we finally got to premiere 'Clowning Around' at BAFTA, for industry, backers, cast & crew. It's been a long journey to get to this point and a lot of work has been put in by a lot of people, not least of which by Damien who finally got to show people the film on the big screen.

It should, I suppose have felt like a milestone to get to this point, but the film has a long journey yet to go and I certainly hope we'll have plenty more opportunity for the film to be seen around the world, so if anything this feels like the first leg of another journey. It went down very well on the night, and the feedback was genuinely very positive and uplifting. Aside from the film everyone had a great night at BAFTA too where we gathered after the screening in the David Lean room for drinks and a chance to chat with everyone. We took a few moments to record a video message from Damien above (appologies for my poor camera technique) to thank you all for your support. And our support is indeed heartfelt to everyone who contributed to what we saw on screen.

As Damien said, it was great to finally meet some of our backers face to face and celebrate with them, the evening went by in a blur and I truly wish I had the ability to slow time and have chatted to everyone more fully, but it was a very cool event and a warm feeling to be in a room full of people there to see and enjoy and talk about film.

For those who couldn't be there, our online premiere will come shortly.

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 :-)

Views from the composer

I met with composer Alexis Bennett this evening in "The Wellington" pub in Waterloo. My now standard half an hour late, we discussed numerable ideas about the latest cut and where we would go from here, based on my ideas and what Alexis had sent me a week ago...

"Clowns and music... a long and complicated history. Damien's film brings forward a variety of different possibilities for a composer. A good starting point for me is Bonzo, who has an interesting struggle on his hands between trying to make a living out of being funny while suffering from alcoholism. So musically, what I hope to achieve is that same tension. For me, musical ideas can start with the sound of particular instruments, and Bonzo suggests various things to me, and because of his character these instruments don't necessarily go together very often: tuba, hurdy gurdy, piano, cello. I did also think of a fairground organ sound. At the moment I am throwing ideas around with these instruments in mind. At this point I also have to think about if and when we might have a recording session, and where this may take place."

So, we sat down and watched the film on my Iphone (whilst supping a couple of beers) and will now work out a deadline so we can hopefully get something to Cannes for the March deadline :-)

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!

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)

The support of strangers...an online community

I thought I would share my thoughts after our first week of funding via our IndieGoGo campaign. I think it is important to say first off that I have never really understood the concept of an ‘online community’.

Sure, I am on Facebook, but only really talk to friends who I know and meet up with and let people who know me what’s going on in my everyday life so people know I still exist and never use it for professional purposes really and rarely make friends with people I haven’t met. However, even just this small time we have been campaigning for “Clowning Around” I am starting to see what Leilani was referring to when she spoke of the strength and support of it.

When we first discussed promoting “Clowning Around” via IndieGoGo I knew this would be a big challenge as it is dependent on getting yourself and your project out there for all sundry to see and networking has never been my forte, in fact at most networking events I usually shrink into the corner and wait for people to come and talk to me (hardly the best tactic...).

But as I am so keen to make this film in the right way and the idea of collaborating with more likeminded people really appealed to me, thought this was the best thing to do and over the past 2 months have been making video and writing blogs for people to see as much as they can about the ongoing process of making a low budget short. I am learning as I go and (I hope) as you see more videos they will be a lot more polished and engaging.

I have been watching the campaign like a hawk since it started on the 19^th July, doing my best to thank our backers, post about our campaign, add video as well as see what works and doesn’t. On our first day we got a great start of $346 and the following day another $300, with the last two days of the week heralding $200 and $646 respectively to take us into the weekend on a fantastic total of $1292. As I go back to full-time work (I am started a new job at FA TV for Endemol Sport yesterday and had some time off before) my time will not be as free, but I am determined whenever I can to continue to engage and interact with people to keep the campaign running to this high standard.

I have been genuinely overhelmed not just with the support of our backers, but also people on Twitter who have been talking about the project and encouraging others to support, which has resulted in filmmakers Chris Jones, Joe James Barrett, Daniel Florencio, Stephen Hanks, Greg Wakeman, Andy Carslaw, Graham Inman, Jason Fairley, Alan Campbell, Meddy Ford,, Ben Jacobsen, , Peter Spencer, Susan Williamson, Elsa O’Toole, screenwriters Jared Kelly, Alistair Canlin and Guy McDouall, actors Robin Forbes and Andrew Elias contributing to our campaign. I feel the need to say particular thanks to @CharmedLifeFilm @robertshutter @ThreeTuxedos @JellyMash Films @RumbleGum @remiepurtil and @pitchandroll who have been retweeting and promoting the campaign all week as well.

The three most significant contributions were from Spencer Hickson, a musician from Manchester and friend of actor Matthew Jure, Sharon Guest, who is the Head of Production at North One Television and contributed everyone’s leaving present as I departed there this week and filmmaker Mike Baxter who had been following the project since our script redrafts on www.ottfilmsco.uk. Both Spencer and Sharon are now Associate Producers on the project, with Mike as producer and getting the email showing me their contributions gave me such a lift about how much we can get and reward the hard work everyone involved is putting into it.

As I embark further on my career as a filmmaker, one thing that occurs to me is how consistently surprised I am by the support you get from strangers. You kind of expect the instant support of your friends and family. I know you shouldn’t and should try hard to convince them to part with their cash as you should do any other, but you do. But this unexpected support from the community around the world left me truly overwhelmed.

Sometimes its the tiniest things that make my day and make it all worth while and forgetting the amount of money backers have put in and emotional ties I have to people have supported us, my highlight of the week came from a complete stranger in 18 year old Filmmaker Joe James Barrett (@joejamesbarrett) who runs the Screen Stockport festival who after I replied to thank him for his initial Tweet in publiciizing the film, responded “Don’t you worry, I will make sure we get this film made”.

Thankyou mate, you really made my day.

Comic Books!

After our first production meeting with the crew, DOP Azul Serra brought up the idea of perhaps showing the characters previous history through comic books that we could show as part of our campaign. This was as the film has a certain comic book elements, both in the narrative and how these surreal characters exist in a very real world.

So after that meeting, I started touting around for an illustrator who would be willing to collaborate with us. After posting on a few forums and sending to a few colleges and universities, I got a very positive response from a comic book artist from Cleveland College of Art and Design (http://www.ccad.ac.uk/) who is known online as Phoenix Ryte. He sent me a link to some of his material (http://phenixryte23.deviantart.com/) and from there we started thinking of ideas and styles that would fit the film and comic book.

The back story idea we came up with was that Bonzo appeared at Mr. Fernelli's school, and the young magician was not too taken with the obvious and as he saw, dated humour of the clown and attempts to embarrass him. The after leaving school and setting on his own path as a magician, can't find any work so if forced to form a duo with Bonzo, the straight man to the clown. We then see a third scenario in which the ambitious Fernelli starts to plot Bonzos downfall.

It was interesting putting this together, as I hadn't given much thought to their back stories as I liked the ambiguity of it, but what doing this has done has given us a firm rooting of the characters, knowing a bit more about their motivations and where they have come from and to, and will be interesting to flesh this out not only with the unique comic books we are creating for our IndieGoGo backers but also in the audition process with the actors.

As you can see from the designs, we have used the colour pallette and designs based on our stills shoot, but the characters are not exactly the same. Bonzo's hair is more red than orange (to show thats where Fernelli gets his idea from) and Fernelli is also more the traditional magician, before he takes on the aspect of clownishness into his act and starts to take Bonzo's audience.

Having finalised the character designs we are now working on having the comics finished in the next few weeks.

Costume Fitting - 27.06.2011

As we gear ourselves up for the stills shoot next week, we have scheduled a number of costume fittings and makeup tests. For this, Katerina, Kirsty and Antonia need to see each actor to fit them for their outfit and try out a few options so all elements complement each other and then make final alterations in time for Thursday 7th and Kirsty needs to experiment with her designs so we know exactly what we want and there we are more prepared on the day. First up on Monday, was Bill Thomas who plays the lead character of BONZO in the film.

The ideas behind this costume have changed dramatically, partly through the list of visual examples Katerina supplied me with when we first started discussing ideas. Originally, we were going to have him dressed more traditionally in the sense he had big over-sized trousers and braces and a jacket that was too short for him. But when Katerina showed me an image of Pierrot clowns really liked the simplicity of it and the elegance and tradition it alluded too. It creates a nice conflict in him looking like he is in a big baby grow and yet a classiness and romanticism which I thought added a lot more to the character. You can see Bill's thoughts on the difference of the costume here http://vimeo.com/25768052

In order to fit the costume, Katerina had created a mock-up with Calico fabric, so what we were seeing wasn’t correct in terms of fabric and colour, but in fit and feel. It was a perfect fit and as Bill stood there, you could already see he was trying to fit the character. To accessorize the look, she added frills and a ruff. Whilst I like this addition, one part I was not sure on that she had suggested was the ruff as it looked a bit too camouflagey so we will now try something with polka dots or just a frill. Now Katerina knows this fits Bill, she can dye the fabric yellow and add the correct details (buttons, trim) once I have had a look at a few other options this Thursday when we do our final fitting.

For makeup, we really liked to se his face behind the makeup, so went with just very simply doing just eyes and mouth. The look for eyes was really good, but Katerina thought we should exaggerate slightly and I agree, so will make them a little bigger and more oval at the top.

We then came across a small problem – Bills beard. Bill has another project lined up and dependant on when they will be shooting may have to keep it. If he has to keep it for the stills we will work around it, although fingers crossed the shoot won’t be for a week after our photos so he can grow again as he will appear in the film without a beard and would be good to see this in the photos. Kirsty and Bill both discuss the look of the makeup and its issues here http://vimeo.com/25762525

It is fantastic to see the ideas take a physical form and the effort everyone is putting in to promote the film so this can be something that really makes its mark.

Next up is Mr. Fernelli (Matthew Jure) and Jerry the Barman (Alex Walker) tomorrow!

Costume and Makeup meeting...

I had arranged to meet with costume designer Katerina Dipla and our new make up designer Kirsty Phillips in Cafe Des Amis in Covent Garden today, but my usual habit of picking cafe's that are not open again prevailed and we ended up going to the Machiaveli Cafe on Long Acre, just down the road. This is the third time this has happened to me in a row, I really should pick places I definitely know will be open!

The purpose of the meeting was to marry up our thoughts about costume and the overall colour pallette with Kirsty's ideas for makeup, with a view to the stills shoot in early July. I had sent Kirsty some images as a guide and she had (despite her two day jobs) brought some ideas with her so that we could pin it down and start buying items for the costume fittings and makeup tests, which will be done across three days next week.

We went through each character individually, and came up with the ideas that Bonzo should not be a full whiteface clown as he should come across as a bit more simplistic and child like with curved outline just around the eyes and mouth and also so we could see more of his humanity without being totally covered in makeup. As a contrast, Mr. Fernelli will be completely whiteface with angular makeup with more vibrancy in the colour, in union with his more magician like appearance and to highlight the difference. Another thing we are cementing is that for the stills shoot (rather than the film) Bonzo needs to be more 'at his best' and be presented as a worthy adversary to Mr. Fernelli, rather than appearing more ragged and unkempt, as he will do in the short. After discussing this for an hour or so, we all felt we were going the same way and it is now up to Katerina and Kirsty to source all the items required. We have a textiles factory and makeup distributor who are hopefully supplying us with some free stuff, so hopefully we can limit the budget somewhat!

It will be great to start with items being purchased this week and the ideas becoming a reality. It was also pretty cool to get Kirsty on board as well, as she is someone who always turns up enthusiastic and full of ideas and an awareness of the parameters of how we are working.

As we continue to build our team, it was cool to hear a comment from Katerina, who said the reason she is so enthused about the project is not just because she gets to make outfits for clowns but that every single one of the people involved are not only very talented but also productive, enthusiastic and forthright with their opinions to get the best result for the film. I always like to be at the centre of this kind of team, we don't have to be the best of friends, but there has to a respect and willingness to get it all done the best we can, so its nice to hear!

After the meeting, Katerina showed me a few items she had in mind in some shops on Charing Cross Road, including a stunning orange number which I took a photo of, but will save for showing until we have the costume fitting with Kiki next week!

The 'lomo' look

Since our meeting last Tuesday regarding the stills shoot, a lot of discussion has been had regarding the overall look of the film so we can all head in the right direction. I will come right out and say that this is not something I particularly focus on as a director or that stands out to me, I see the composition, the action, the emotion with the characters and how the narrative is strung together so the story can engage an audience so when it comes down to a colour palette or setting an overall visual style, to be honest I’m clueless.

But this was precisely what was needed. Due to the very visual and partly surreal nature of the film, all departments really needed an image or images that they could look at and focus their direction towards so everything pulled together. I googled images, colours, associated emotions but wasn’t really getting very far and starting to worry that I was holding everyone back.

Luckily, our production designer Bianca Turner is not only a damn talented lady, but very proactive and went and sourced a number of images she felt would work based on what I had said at the meeting, which was that I wanted to emphasise these surreal characters in their normal environment and that whilst the central colours would be vibrant, we were still telling a bittersweet narrative. At the meeting itself, she showed me some photos on her Iphone that had very saturated colours, vignettes with heavily tinted colours and blown out highlights. They were indeed striking images but needed to see a few more before being convinced.

She emailed me a few days ago with a colour palette (above) and both sample images of this look (which I was reliably informed was the ‘lomo’ look in reference to the Russian camera where the style was first developed) and how a normal image can be manipulated to look more so.

The cinematographer (who is a photographer also) Azul Serra then sent me some more images he had taken and treated in this way. One of these photographs (left) was the closest I have seen to how I would like the film to be, vibrant detail yet with a high contrast and an element of darkness to it.

Whilst I still feel some parts of the look may make it too stylised and we have to be careful that it doesn’t suffocate the narrative by distracting from it, I think this is definitely the base of how we want to go with the look, to create something distinctive and visually appealing which will engage our audience further.

I am also thankful to have dedicated members of the team who are really putting so much into the project. I have said from the off that this is not ‘my’ film, but a collaborative effort and this goes to show why and how much influence the other departments have in this film. Not just Azul and Bianca, but also costume designer Katerina Diplas experience and knowledge is giving this film so much more than if I just stood at the top dictating everything, and is breathing fresh life into it with each new idea.

I am looking forward to learning more about the lomo look and what ideas we will play with to create a stunning short film, starting with the photographs on July 7th.

Decisions, decisions...

Taking on a project this size (in that we are doing the campaign as well as the film) is starting to test my decision making skills to the maximum. I have always been a fan of exhausting a few avenues (unless I have an instinctive feel for something) and being open to being proved wrong, so I and others can provide options and not feel stifled creatively, especially in short film where they are usually working to experiment, rather than for the pay check.

However, being across so many different areas, not taking firm decisions is not going to be helping anyone. We have been discussing the costume for the photo shoot for the past few weeks and so many ideas have been put forward, to be honest I have gotten a bit lost and there came a point talking to Katerina this evening that I couldn't see the wood through the trees and was confusing her and myself! The ideas became muddled and unclear as we were trying to incorporate so much of what we had discussed that we were now using so many styles and colours that the overall affect was becoming messy.

However, one thing I am getting rather good at is not panicking and taking a moment to pause and think "right, how do we solve this" without becoming frustrated. In this case, I took a moment to go back to the very basic idea and I drew, rather slowly, how I saw the two main clowns appearing and tried to disregard anything else (see above). I wrote down in bullet point form the main things and directions I liked and the colours I instinctively saw, and that seemed to help both me and Katerina to see just the things we needed to accomplish and focus on that. I tend to overcomplicate things and so have to remind myself...if in doubt, keep things simple!

After today, I think our costume designs are now in the advanced stage and we are ready to start sourcing material from the textiles place Leilani found. I will be confirming our studio shoot date with Tower Bridge Studios (http://www.towerbridgestudios.com/) who have kindly lent us their studio space and then arranging meetings with costume and makeup so we can start trying stuff on our actors! Also in the mix is setting up a bank account for the film, meeting a clown who will act as consultant for the film and getting the website further down the line.

I have to admit I am feeling a little swamped at the moment, but am reminding myself to keep myself and my responses to things simple, succinct and to the point in order to get things done :-)