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)

Eureka!

Today had all the markings of a bad day - I couldn't find my oyster card (and had to buy a new one), my train was late and then stuck underground, and eventually when I did make it outside once more it was pouring down with some pretty nasty rain.

None of this however diverted me from my good mood. I couldn't figure out why at first, until, sitting on the train I received first an email from one of our producers Graham, then another from Katherine and a third from our unit manager Markus all in quick succession. All carried one piece of news - we'd reached our target! and with 46 hours still to go.

I'm incredibly proud of all the hard work the production team have put in thus far to make this happen. And also very grateful to all our wonderful backers. Of course now we just want to keep that indiegogo counter climbing.

Anything is possible:-)

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)

James Leckey Q + A about 5D, RED and Alexa

Since the funding campaign entered its final fortnight, myself and the rest of the production crew have started to source the various things we need to make the shoot happen. Our priorities at the moment are locations and equipment.

I discussed shooting format with DOP Azul Serra a few months ago as I was originally going to shoot on the Canon 5D Mk II, partly because it kicks out a great picture, partly because its cheap (both in that we know people who own them and the grip kit related to them) and partly because it would be easier to use for the ambitious set pieces we have planned. Azul's point was that because the 5D is so widely used, it had a certain ‘look’ which people are now used to seeing and to get the full cinematic effect of the film and push the colours as much as we want to, we should look to RED, 35mm or the new ARRI Alexa. Having never worked on the Alexa before (and being the kind of film-maker that likes to try new things!) as well as seeing examples of the footage both on Vimeo and from two other friends projects, this sounded exciting and the way to go.


However, as with every project I do, when it comes to the real technical side of workflow, image compression and logistics I always ask

my very good friend and camera assistant James Leckey for his opinion. I have worked with James on about a dozen shorts since we met in 2007 on my film “Parental Control” (www.vimeo.com/12881846) and he has a ridiculous amount of knowledge on such matters so thought I would ask him some questions about the benefits of the various formats and share the answers with you.

James, first of all what are the pros and cons to shooting short films

on the Canon 5D?

The 5D has always been a great little camera to shoot short films on. The camera is cheap, (around £2000) so many people can simply buy one and make lots of great stuff.

It also has a full 35mm stills frame sensor so it has a high mega-pixel with no modification to the camera. The codec is decent (H.264) and can be used with many different editing systems and it has the ability to shoot 1080p video. It uses

35mm stills lenses so smaller budget productions can produce what we would call ‘cinematic’ material; that is images that have shallow depth of field (when necessary), good contrast and vivid colours.

I’ve assisted on this camera on both low budget short films and high end must say how

ubiquitous this camera is nowadays and I have always been impressed with its capabilities and the quality of image it produces. Unfortunately with something that is that cheap and produces great video there is always a catch and the 5D does have a few flaws that are worth mentioning. Firstly the image itself has some problems. The camera scans the frame progressively. This means that it collects the information from the pixels horizontally from left to right from top to bottom. In theory it does this twenty five times a second to get a moving image. This is in contrast to 35mm film where the entire image is exposed for the same amount of time. The result is an image artefact called ‘rolling shutter.’ If anything in the frame is moving too quickly for the progressive scan to pick up (like a fast pan or tilt) the image appears to slant or shear in the frame. A prime example of this can be found here. (http://vimeo.com/6894404). This is somewhat fixable in post but it is a time and labour intensive process and it doesn’t always work well.

The camera unit itself suffers from some drawbacks. The LCD screen on the camera is not quite up to the task of judging critical focus and since the shutter on the camera has to be up to shoot video the eyepiece cannot be used for judging focus. There are also two outputs on the camera for monitoring externally. One is a Standard Definition composite output and the other is a mini HDMI port. The HDMI port does not output full 1080p image which has always been somewhat disappointing to me. It is above Standard Definition but not full HD. If you use either of these monitoring options you lose the onboard LCD monitor. This means that in order for the DoP and the director to look at a monitor you must mount the camera on some sort of rig with a small onboard monitor feeding out to a larger direcor’s monitor. Many companies, most notably Zacuto, have made unfathomable amounts of money making enormous rigs for these cameras, the most ostentatious of which can be found here (http://bit.ly/pMhOaw)
All in all the 5D is a stills camera that has a full HD video feature built into it. It is great for making something like a small short but for anything more ambitious (like ‘Clowning Around’ in my very humble opinion) it’s limitations start letting it down.

Is there a psychology to shooting on a bigger ‘proper’ camera, rather than a DSLR?

As a Camera Assistant I love playing with toys. The bigger the toy the better I feel! A good camera is nice enough but a good camera on a dolly is better and two good cameras in a 3D rig on top of a massive jib is truly a sight to behold! But that might be just me… There is most definitely a psychology to shooting with a bigger, ‘proper’ camera. As a Camera

Assistant you have clearly defined roles. If the camera is such that it requires assistants then you get on with the job you have to do and everyone works as a team to make sure that the camera is in the best position to shoot

at all times and the image is sharp. Because the 5D is

somewhat a one-man show the assistant’s role is somewhat

reduced to loading batteries and clapping boards. Because the camera can be held in one hand the operator can do quite a lot of the focus pulling and working the menu settings.

I also believe that the atmosphere on set is a lot more concentrated when you have a larger camera there. I think people (myself included) think more of being on a ‘proper’ shoot if there is a Panaflex G2 (which is huge) standing there as opposed to a 5D slung casually over the Cinematographer’s shoulder.I also think that it helps the performers as well, especially on short films where the 5D is king. If they think that they are on a film that is being serious about what it is shot on then they might just give a better performance. That is just my own opinion however.

Personally I love working with larger cameras because I get more toys to play with. A 35mm camera comes in about fifteen different cases when you first get it and you get to build it from the ground up and then play with it all day (professionally of course!) and there is a certain thrill of being in charge of such a beast.

As the 5Ds are so cheap, why bother renting an ARRI Alexa or RED?

Because the RED and Alexa are awesome. That’s why! No, not really but they do surpass the image quality of the 5D and have none of the drawbacks that I stated earlier. The 5D is a stills camera that has a video feature. The RED and Alexa have been designed and built from the ground up to be Digital Cinema cameras. They shoot high quality, above-HD video and have a look and quality that comes close to that of 35mm film. They are designed to interact and work with all of the existing camera and grip equipment that has been around for years and those cameras have already proven themselves in very high-end productions.

I think what scares people off with renting high end cameras is the perceived cost. Yes, they are expensive to hire with all of the accessories that come with them if you wish to pay the full hire rate for them. DO NOT PAY THE FULL HIRE RATE FOR THEM. Not even professional cinematographers with years of high end film production under their belt pay full hire rate for

camera gear. If you talk to the hire companies they can most likely work out a deal for you. I worked on a production with Damien a while ago where we rented a full RED One kit at a fraction of the list price. Hire companies are keen to get a camera out on a hire at any price. It gets them one step closer to paying off the cost of purchasing the camera in the first place. If you have a bit of money to spend then I would always try and be ambitious with your camera kit.

How do the RED and Alexa compare image wise and workflow wise?

The main objective of both of those cameras is to digitally recreate an image comparable to that of 35mm film. That is it. They go about it in different ways.

Like anything that comes out of the United States the RED goes big. It’s got a 4K sensor which gives you a huge amount of information to play with. It also uses some impressive compression to capture the raw data coming off the sensor. This means that things like white balance, colour correction and careful contrast control are not baked into the image. You can do an absurd amount of manipulation of the image in post, even to the point of reframing entire shots. The image quality is very, very impressive but sometimes there is a little noise in the blacks and the highlights can clip suddenly if you aren’t careful. These aren’t nearly as bad as with a 5D or other prosumer models tough.

The workflow with the RED has always been somewhat problematic. The file sizes are quite simply

huge. A 32Gb Compact Flash card only gets you 6 minutes of record time at 4K and getting those files onto hard drives has always been a bit of a night

mare of mine. RED also uses its own codec; Redcode. It uses an R3D file that has all of the raw sensor data on it and then creates Quicktime proxy files that you can use to view the footage with. None of these are suitable for editing and the only software that can use R3D files natively is Adobe Premier CS4 and above and even then you need some massive computing power to work with them. Ultimately transcoding for editing is required and this is a very time and processor intensive on your editing system.

The Arri Alexa is a different beast. It uses two Sony SxS cards and it records 2K in a ProRes 4444 codec. Each card will give you 13 minutes of footage, slightly more than a 1000 feet of 35mm film and you get two in the unit so you get nearly half an hour out of the Alexa before a reload. The camera uses its own version of raw image acquisition called LogC. It hasn’t got quite the same control as RED but it allows for much, much more latitude in the image than any other Digital Cinema camera to date. A recent test put the Alexa against a film camera running Kodak Vision3 500T and the Alexa came out at 13.2 stops of latitude versus films 13.6. That is undeniably close to the range of 35mm film.

Since ProRes is a format that Final Cut Pro can run natively you can view, edit and manipulate the image within seconds of it being downloaded from the camera. I have worked on shoots where the Editor has got a rough cut of the scene we’ve just shot within a few minutes of us finishing it. There is no other system to date that allows that much flexibility.

Do they have any other differences?

The RED One is an amazing camera but it does have its drawbacks. The camera is big, bulky and has to be attended to and taken care of by masochistic Camera Assistants such as myself. As one Focus Puller (who shall remain nameless) said to me; “it’s like taking

care of a rich, elderly relative. You are only doing it for the inheritance.” The camera has its fair share of problems like an agonizingly slow boot-up time and huge power consumption but it is entirely worth it for the final result in all its 4K glory.

It also has its fair share of software problems but it does have a 24 hour dedicated tech support from RED in the form of an online ticket on their website. There is also a huge online community on http://www.reduser.net where you are guaranteed an answer to pretty much every single RED related question you can possibly think of.

The Alexa is a much more elegant camera than the RED. Since Arri have an impressive pedigree of camera manufacture they were able to make the Alexa the most user friendly camera they possibly could. The menu structure is a Camera Assistant’s dream. Everything is laid out so that the most important things like frame rate, white balance and shutter speed are instantly accessible within seconds.

The Alexa body itself is also very nice. It is heavy but it is very well balanced. The bottom of the body is curved inwards so handheld is not a problem. They even have a foam shoulder pad that sticks to the bottom of the rig to make it more comfortable. I have worked with the Alexa many times and I have never encountered a single problem with it. The camera starts in seconds and always works when you need it to. No more constantly checking fan temperatures or drive cradles with it.

What are your experiences of working on the ARRI Alexa so far?

The Alexa is by far the most easy to use Digital Cinema camera I have ever used. Arri have put a lot of effort into the design and ergonomics of the camera. It is designed to integrate seamlessly with pretty much every accessory that is around. It’s also ridiculously easy to get to know. Arri put a simulator of the camera’s menu structure online (you can find it here http://www.arridigital.com/technical/simulator/) so every person who wants to work with it already knows pretty much everything they need to before they even meet the camera.

I’ve worked with the thing in the rain, bright sunlight, on 40°C sets and mounted outside on moving vehicles. Not once has anything, ANYTHING, gone wrong with the camera. I am familiar with all of the error messages it gives you but I have yet to see one in over a dozen shoots with it. For a prime example of how much this camera can take please look at the following picture:

http://bit.ly/nRRLJ7

That is a picture of an Alexa that was in a camera truck fire. It was scorched and then soaked with water when the Fire Department arrived. They sent it back to Arri and guess what? They got it working! That is the truest testament to good camera design. I rest my case there.

How does it compare to 35mm?

The Alexa compares to 35mm very well. No Digital Cinema camera has come close to 35mm in

terms of latitude, colour saturation and contrast but the Alexa comes the closest of all other Digital Cinema cameras in my opinion.

Both the RED MX and the Alexa do, however, have one important factor that sets them apart from

35mm though. They are base 800 ASA cameras. The highest rated 35m stock is 500 ASA. I know you can push 500 ASA film to 1000 ASA but you have to be careful about it. The Alexa does nearly the same job because it was designed from the ground up to do it. It does it very, very well.

As someone who has worked on both, what do you prefer... digital or film?

That is a very loaded question! My professional answer would be that I have no opinion; I work with whatever the DoP wants to work with. I will however say this:

We have been shooting films with the same strips of celluloid that have been used for over a hundred years. This is the first big change in medium since filmmaking was born. I was fortunate to get on at the ground floor of digital filmmaking as I was working at the BBC when they got their RED One in. When I figured the thing out I was amazed at the quality of it compared to the older HD cameras that they were shooting ‘Star Wars’ on and whatnot. Since then I’ve been known as a ‘the Digital guy’ who you get on board when you’re working with a Digital Cinema camera. 90% of all of my work is on these cameras. This is compared to when I was starting out in the industry and I was loading S16mm and 35mm all the time. There has been a massive shift in the industry towards digital and that is because of its flexibility. I personally think that this trend will continue and everything from big budget Hollywood productions right down to low budget shorts will move away from film completely. Film won’t go away completely but it will just get more expensive and reach a point where only big die hards like Spielberg will have the money and power to shoot on it. Ultimately I am fine with either. They both present their own challenges and rewards in different ways.

If you were working on an unlimited budget, what would you choose to shoot on?

Haha!!! If somehow I had made my way up the camera team ladder from a lowly Clapper Loader to a professional Cinematographer with all the money, crew and toys in the world I would be more mystified as to how I got there instead of wondering about image acquisition!

If I had all that money right now I would shoot on 35mm film stock. This is for the simple reason that it is still the best thing to shoot on. Digital cameras have come close and they are getting even closer to that holy grail of film stock but nothing has come close to what 35mm gives you in terms of latitude, colour and contrast. It still remains the best format to make cinematic movies.

The thing is; if you gave me an unlimited budget and all the toys and gadgets and gizmos that I wanted I guarantee the film would be terrible, really, really awful. Limitations breed creativity in people. If you have a small budget then you find creative ways around problems. Some of the best times I have had on set are not the highly paid commercials where the camera department’s every whim is catered for. Its when I was working on unpaid shorts, the light was fading, we had five more shots to get and I am tasked with mounting a RED MX camera upside down on a jib on the top deck a moving bus full of extras (yes this is all real! It was an amzing shot!). H

uge budget means you can just throw money at a problem until it goes away. Having a small budget means you can be ambitious, make every penny count and turn £4000 on set into £4 million on screen. That is what filmmaking is all about and that is why I love working in the industry.

James Leckey is a freelance camera assistant working on

“Clowning Around” and a variety of other short and feature projects, please check out his CV and expertise at www.jamesleckey.com

And having made enquiries about the RED and Alexa (which are still very expensive to hire!) please also check out and help us shoot on either of these formats at www.indiegogo.com/clowningaroundfilm

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! :-)

Location, Location...

I have always found the most difficult part of short film is getting the locations. Kit hire, actors, crew and all the other things you have to find with a limited budget have always been tricky but I usually manage to get by showing the passion and desire I have for the project.

But finding a location that both fits the visual idea of what you want and is contained so you can control th

e sound and light, feed the crew in and get access to at the times you need I always find a headache, plus anyone who has had a film c

rew in the house before knows the pitfalls of the accidental damage that may occur and the sheer inconvenience of having 20-30 strangers wandering around in an environment you own.

Also, until you get a location you are a little stuck with pre-production. You can’t hire lights (as you don’t know what you’ll need), work out where kit will be stored overnight, how the days will be scheduled, how you will feed people, how all production materials will get there and back and which members of crew will struggle to get there.

For “Parental Control”, “The Man Who Stopped”, “The Din” and “Saturday” we filmed in relatives/friends houses, for “The Longest Pint” I used a friends pub which was shut on Sundays a

nd for “Awfully Deep” and “Transference” we paid a heavily discounted fee to use.

For “Clowning Around” we have eight locations we need to source. A school, a park with a pond, a house interior, two

house exteriors, a supermarket, a pub and a carpark and we have been trying to get a location manager to handle getting these, but had no such so far. In our last production meeting we worked out that rather than keep waiting, assistant producer Juliet and co-ordinator Dan would start looking, as well as the rest of the crew who would send any ideas to them.

We already provisionally have a school, thanks to my mother in law (who is Deputy Head at a primary school in Bexley, South Lon

don) but other than that have no real leads so it is of pressing importance to solve.

Katherine (our production manager) had a few places near to her work in Vauxhall which we looked at on Tuesday which would be the park, the pub and the car park all in close vicinity. All three could work, but weren’t perfect as they had the backdrop of a very inner city landscape and I want the film to take place in a ‘normal’ small suburban town, where everyone knows each others business and the characters are framed in the greenery rather than the greyish concrete.

The car park (image featuring Katherine and Greer as Bonzo and Mr. Fernelli) will be night time so you wouldn’t see much of the background, the pub was small and intimate so could work but the park had a concrete pathway running through it and we would have to fill the pond (that Bonzo jumps in) and has a wall he would have to climb over, which doesn’t fit his mood in that scene.

Dan then sent me a list of places he had sourced from Amazing Space and Location Works which were Bonzos flat, the pub and the supermarket. The locations for the pub and supermarket were absolutely perfect and exactly the type of place I envisioned, but the shots of Bonzos apartment felt too grand and open as I would ideally like to have a small living room with connecting hallway, stairs and kitchen to add some interest and depth to the shots (rather than flat walls). I fed back these thoughts to Dan and he will now look for further locations when he returns from holiday on August 23^rd.

I am going with Katherine to look at another pub in New Malden on Sunday and hopefully before the end of August we will have progress on all the locations so we can focus on the other aspects of production and the environment these characters exist in will start to become real.

"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

poster competition launches

It's Friday and the day we launch our Clowning Around poster competition. Leilani and Damien have been beavering away with uploading images and creating copy to produce the wonderful poster you see above. The rest of us - thanks to a little guidance from Blair - have been informing all our graphically minded friends to get involved - the whole point of our campaign after all - and pass it on.

So if you'd like to became part of the Clowning Around team by creating our poster drop Leilani a line and get creating. Alternatively have a read, pass it on, blog, facebook and tweet about it at will.

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)

2nd pre-production meeting

My opening pleasantry before any production meeting is “Thanks for coming”, which is always a good way to thank people for making the effort to attend in their own free time.

However yesterday there was genuine appreciation and awe for our producer Leilani, assistant producer Juliet, 1st AD Greer, 3rd AD Blair and production manager Katherine, who all made their way from various parts of London for our second pre-production meeting in Vauxhall last night. Granted, Vauxhall has not been one of the places which has been attacked by the morons so far, but nearby areas Clapham, Balham and Elephant & Castle had and the general opinion is that you never know where will be next, so I am very grateful for their commitment in doing so, as everyone around me seemed to be leaving work early and head home to avoid possible trouble.

The meeting was to catchup after last weeks initial get together when a lot of things were discussed and new members brought up to speed, so I felt we needed to sit down and work out who would be doing what and a few deadlines on when they needed to be achieved by. We went through a plan for locations and set a deadline for end of August to find them, discussed the logistics of the poster competition) which goes live on Friday and how to start to co-ordinate recces, camera tests and rehearsals as well as any further ideas on how to bring attention to our campaign.

I did question whether to have the meeting with such turmoil and fear around and it may have been more sensible to not as I am not jeopardizing my own safety but also four others but I trusted them all (and they were certainly under no pressure to attend) to make the right call for the journey they needed to take or make arrangements so they would not be in the eye of the storm. I deliberated all the way to getting the tube from Wembley Park whether to go ahead, rather than postpone until things calmed down as I certainly don’t think this film is more important than peoples safety.

However, one thing that kept hanging in my mind is that I didn’t want to let the idiots who are smashing shops and setting fires turn me into a hermit, afraid to continue with my normal life and as I got to Vauxhall that feeling was justified as everyone was like us, cracking on with their evening and we managed to get a little further down the road for “Clowning Around”.

Pre-Production Starts

This week we had our first crew get together since the photo shoot for “Clowning Around” to discuss pre-production on the actual film. Having focused for the past few months solely on the IndieGoGo campaign and the photography, we need to start turning our attention more to what we need to do to actually make the film!
The first thing we need to do is set a shoot date so we all have something to aim towards, can make sure everyone is available for and set schedules and deadlines so we can accomplish everything we need to. Because of both the ambition and complexity of the film, and that we have so much backing and support from the IndieGoGo community, we need to make sure we are as organised as possible so we can make the most of the shoot to create a fantastic film.
For that reason, we have brought on some more organisational production crew, namely Katherine Evans as Production Manager, Juliet Parker as Assistant Producer and Dan Hammersley as Production Co-Ordinator who will help us figure out what we can accomplish with the tools and people at our disposal.
As in any project we are balancing the logistics and creativity involved. We want to shoot on the ARRI Alexa (link) which is the closest digital representative to film and will allow us to show the epic and cinematic tone of the film. We also want to use slow motion for the fight sequence, setup a scene with over 150 school children, strap a camera to a shopping trolley in a stunt scene and get tricky locations like a pub and a supermarket so we need to set our ideas out clearly and marry our creative ideas with what we can actually pull off. This is not matter of limiting ourselves as everyone involved in the project wants to make the project as ambitious and awe-inspiring as possible, but we also have to make sure we are not unrealistic or if there is a simpler solution (that will be no less effective) and will save us time and money.
It was also good to sit down with Azul and Bianca and work through the storyboards and start to break down how we will do certain shots and set pieces, as again preparation is key to everyone understanding what we need beforehand so the thinking time is done then, not on the shoot itself.

So where we are at in the coming week or so is for me to go through the storyboards to make sure there is nothing there that needn’t be and also implement new changes in the script, for locations to start being sourced, a shoot date to be locked and for us to schedule in costume fittings, finalise the makeup and rehearsal...oh yeah and of course to raise another $1,000 at least for the IndieGoGo campaign and get as many backers on board as possible!

Tea & Team!

Bear with me while I tell you a brief story about buying tea bags..

On the way home from a rather fab pre-production meeting last night, I stopped of in the Tesco at Piccadilly Circus to grab some tea bags. They didn't have my usual brand of organic so I had a look to see what else I fancied. I like nice tea and don't mind paying a bit more but I'm not rich so it's always worth looking at the offers, I find. As it turned out I picked up a nice big box of 160 premium quality tea bags at nearly a fiver only to realise that I could get 80 teabag sized boxes for £3 for two. So I saved nearly two quid on the same amount of branded tea bags. At central London prices. Bloomin bargain!!

It struck me right at that moment that it's exactly the same thing you do when you Produce a film. You want quality, you want the best, you don't want to compromise on the end product, but you possibly aren't the richest shopper in the world and so you want to know about the deals and be ready to capitalise on opportunities. If we can find those bargains and freebies as we shop around for locations, equipment and everything else we need on the project, we can stretch our budget further and give our cast & crew the best tools and accessories for their work to shine. That's important to the quality of the product too. If nothing else our main quality ingredient in making this film are the people who've gotten behind the project and Damien's sure vision for making it happen in a collaborative, high achieving and ultimately fun way so that we can all be very proud of the finished film and our parts in it.

Together on Clowning Around our production team, joined last night by some great new members will be working together to make that happen. It's awesome to have a full production team, instead of producing alone, to be part of a shared experience and to spread the workload and have other people to make it fun and bounce ideas around and bring all our joint experience to the table so we can learn from each other and help each other achieve our best.

There's a T in team. And it stands for togetherness. And teabags! *:o)

Looking for a look...

When Damien first showed me the script, I could immediately see a lot of potential. Not just because of the conflict between the clowns themselves, but also because of the way Damien chose to tell the story; being very precise with all shots, and trying to be as slick and sharp as possible.

The script draws you into the world of career clowns, as they develop through life’s ups and downs and the bitter competition for laughs. It's clear for us that this film talks through a comic-book style, but at the same time the narrative and characters never fall victim to cliché, always choosing the more real, less travelled path.

So the question to me is really what look the story needs in order to be told?

Well, this is something that I am in the process of answering in collaboration with the group. Firstly during rehearsals, then through the meetings with all the other departments - together we are starting to build one film within the crew’s collective mind. Ideas and colour palettes are discussed, and as different references and opinions and brought to the table, we are all aware that it is not our personal taste that takes priority, but what the story is asking from us to make it work.

Azul Serra

Director of Photography

Actor Bill Thomas Speaks about Being a Clown

Nobody I know likes clowns. sad is a word people use to describe them. Frightening is a word that comes up. Unfunny.

There is a symbolism about the clown that strike's deep. they are the poor cousins of butterflies and rainbows and balloons - colourful images that represent something deeper than what they are.

When I say I am playing a sad clown people nod. In my career I have played a lot of losers. I have a whole showreel entitled wimps and assholes. Now I am old, overweight and drink too much so I guess I am coming into my own though work is hard to come by and I am grateful for what I can get. Money is tight since the commercials dried up - I was famous in Italy just before the Falklands War for an advert where I played "dirt" and had to sprawl myself on a Fiat - to be chased off by a tall good looking man playing "the polish". ten grand for a days work. mama mia!

The photo shoot was good - dressing up in the gear - the surge of energy when I look in the mirror and see the mask and wig on me.

- the clown is one of the few characters I have played which comes from the outside in...

As I move from the make-up chair the physical grace and elegance I had in my youth trickles into my blood. I head for the camera and suddenly I hit the accelerator and the engine bursts into life - the power of colour and energy kicks in - I am back. I am dizzy with the antics. I have an audience. I am Grimadli. I am Charlie Cairoli. Coco. Buffo. I am cartooning like the old days. People are smiling and somebody laughs - I devour it.

Nourished, an hour later on the bus going home, my face reflected into the window still pallid from the white and my eyes still darkened by the black and fatigue. A young woman, early twenties sits next to me and pays no attention. If she only knew...

Bill Thomas

www.billthomas.co.uk