Slava's Snow Show

One of my Christmas presents this year was being taken to see the wonderful theatrical clowning spectacle that is Slava's Snow Show.

The clowning is simplistic, beautiful and quite profound and it reminded me how clowns are such a fantastic vehicle for connecting us with deep human emotions.

Our clowns in "Clowning Around" are not of the same ilk as Slava Polunin and Co, they're more traditional and robust, less simple and staid, but they do have the same depth I feel and I think have proved themselves (if the rushes are anything to go by) as a really good way to deliver the story of addiction that we're telling in the film and in their own right as characters that we can love and love to laugh at and cry with.

As well as being a rather fun Christmas prezzie the Snow Show took me into the new year with a feeling that very good things await our "Clowning Around" clowns as the film comes together and begins to head out into the world.

Red nosed and raring to go! *:O)

Greer's poster pick

There was something about Jenny Law's entry that really stood out to me. It has this real movie-poster feel, while channelling the underlying serious tone of our bittersweet comedy. Also loved the fact that she took our starter images and really made them her own. If I saw this on a wall, I would stop and want to read more.

Two other entries that caught my eye were by Fiona Nash and Andrew Smith. Fiona's was clean and dramatic, with a wonderful depth of colour. A little more text - a tagline maybe - to fill the space would have pushed this into the winning zone for me. As for Andrew's poster, well I thought putting Bonzo in a bottle really captured the very essence of the film. Loved it was so clean and tapped those wonderful Hitchcock posters by Saul Bass. Again I think - considering the graphic concept - that it just needed one more element that told me a bit more about the film.

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.

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?

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.

Welcoming Katherine to the crew...

After a long day at work yesterday I had a lovely catch up conversation with the wonderful Katherine Evans, who has come on board as our Production Manager.
Katherine and I have worked on several projects together, and she always impresses me with her ability to solve any problem. I know she's going to make the Clowning Around crew stronger, as she always sees the bigger picture, loves singing along to Magic.fm and can always make everyone smile.
On our last project we needed an electric screwdriver to solve an art department problem and amid the many people in Shepherd's Bush, she managed to find an amiable man fixing a bus to help us out. She's on a feature at the moment, but will be meeting the rest of our crew at the next production meeting on Wednesday.

The thoughts of Katerina, our costume designer

As the costume designer on Clowning Around, I am really looking forward to starting working on the film

I can't wait to see the characters, on set, alive in their costumes in motion

I'm about to go on my summer holidays, but I am really impressed by the progress of the whole project, made possible by the hard work and effort that all the members of the team have put in so far.

Taking with me the photos of the two clowns in their costumes, my research, mood boards and thoughts, lying under the sun next to the beach, I close my eyes and dream..

Yellow and orange

Dark and blue

Treads and thrills

Polka dolts & stripes in a fight

A touch of whipped cream

A dress in a shape of a cake

An apron wrapped around

Small and big flowers in a dance

A yard full of children as a background

A pile of rubbish as a clown's hat

Tattoos and smells

A strong smell of alcohol indeeed!

But above all

One question

Who wins

In that world of c est la vie


to be continued...

Bonzo the clown confronts Murdoch on first day of Indiegogo campaign...

If only this were true, it seems some other clown has stormed the select committee and custard-pied Mr Murdoch. I still think it's a PR stunt by Mr Cullen - Damien please stand up if I'm right...

grown men in comedy outfits...

It's a tenuous link, but perhaps everyone should start their Monday with a shot of elf.

1 day to launch...

So this time tomorrow our Indiegogo campaign will officially be live. Once it starts, all the other pieces will begin to fall into place. Damien and I are sitting down tomorrow to plan the big what's next on the Clowning Around agenda. This will include location scouting, rehearsals, set design, locating lots of child extras for the school and party scenes, and generally making sure that by the time we turn over in September he feels confident and non-stressed about the whole set up.

Let the games begin...

Post shoot...

I really wanted to do this last night, but after a long and productive shoot at the very wonderful Tower Bridge Studios, I sat down in front of my computer and fell asleep. So here we are today instead. In a very short time we got an astounding amount covered, so thought you might want to have a quick peek at what we achieved. Here's my faves.

Kirsty working her magic...




Katerina fleeing the clowns



The crew watching as Azul shoots the soon-to-be-seen film trails...



Damien and Azul pow wow



Bill lets out his inner clown...



Matt under the spotlight

Photoshoot countdown

This is my first post so thought I'd better pull my finger out and get typing. I'm Damien's first AD, Greer, and am currently speeding through the northern countryside back to London, as we gear up for the promotional photoshoot this week.

After several failed attempts to speak to my director - why don't mobile phones work when you're actually mobile? - I'm cracking on with paperwork and checking in with the different departments on progress. We'll be having one more production meeting on Tuesday before the shoot, so it's important for Damien's peace of mind and the overall smooth running of things to ensure that everyone is up to speed.

Earlier today, I sat down and reread the opening script change that Damien has made. I read it in front of him in a pub on the Essex road - my third meeting in one evening - last wednesday, so really wanted to go back and take it all in again properly. I think the change makes a good opening scene into a really strong one. Without giving too much away, it really establishes that Bonzo's true enemy is the booze rather than the officious Fernelli. From a production perspective I can see it's going to give me one big headache (there are lots of children involved) but it'll look great on screen. But i won't worry about that for another week, in the meantime there are water pistols, balloons and custard pies to coordinate.

A couple of other nice clown films. To get us in the mood.