Pickup Shots.

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

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

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

Day Three of the Shoot..

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

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

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

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

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.

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!

Skype Chats

One thing I've never really used that much in filmmaking is skype but I'm finding we're using it fairly regularly for Clowning Around because it's a great way to have almost face to face meetings with Damien while he's travelling all over the world filming the Velux 5 Oceans. Even in the UK it's just handier a lot of the time to chat on skype and not have to travel or wait for a meet up.

And actually, just speaking just clarifies a whole lot of things when you're buried in emails and you're trying to type thoughts and ideas about a lot of things into various messages and get what you mean across clearly. It's so much easier to just be able to say 'huh?' and have an explanation if you don't understand something or ask a quick question and most importantly when you speak to someone rather than writing an email to them, it's much easier to get a decision made.

So, after a bit of a chat today I'm feeling less buried in information, I've found out a few bits of good news from things everyone has been working on that have started to pay off and I'm liking that everything is on track for the photo shoot and getting something up webwise as soon as possible so that we may begin to share things in a more efficient way.

So, yes. It's all looking shiny! Smiling. *:o)

Taking and Giving

So this week I feel like I've been running to catch up with projects and promises. I've finished some writing of a short script I promised a 72yr old in California who wants to make his first film. I've gone another step on my short film 'Butterflies' to get the voice recording done and to work with the producer on improving the location space for the rest of the shooting we need to do. I've been dropping back borrowed equipment from my previous shoot. I've got a script to write for another project and the film group has had a lot of things taking up my mental resources. Plus I've of course been looking at what needs to be done for Clowning Around and trying to get more organised.

I still feel a little bit of a step behind and buried in emails about Clowning Around. I want to check on this or that bit of information or put the reserch I'm doing in some semblance of order and it's taking me ages to find the email it was in or the doc I typed the search stuff down on. A content management system is very much needed for my own sanity at least.

I looked over the budget last night with fresh eyes to try and give myself an overview of where the money goes and what we need to achieve and where in that I personally feel I can be of most use in securing any of those things.

I've been feeling like I've been writing emails and getting nowhere, so I changed tack a little on the type of wording I've been using to be mildly more direct about what we need, and I fired off some emails to photographic studios to see if I can get us a proper space for taking the stills. It's really important to getting the help we need to make this film, that we can give people a visual idea of the calibre of the project and when asking for help I personally feel (and I know Damien does too) that I want to have something to give to people so that we're not just hustling for cash and help but providing something valuable to the people who support us in return for the help they can give and showing them the kind of people they are getting involved with (because we do hope people will get involved and take interest in the work we're doing and what we share about it. And when I say valuable I'm not talking t-shirts and swag, but something that may benefit their work as much as it does ours as well as something honest and fun to engage people to really collaborate in this work and learn through it along with us. It's a tough call because before we've raised funds we don't have money to hire resources like a photographic studio to show what we want to create.

The slight change of email wording may have helped, or maybe I just caught the right person at the right time with one of the emails (the first I sent as it happens, as the space inspired me to email immediately) but anyway, this morning I had a reply first thing from a fantastic photographic studio who, having looked at what we've been doing, may be able to assist us. I'm going to go down this week have a chat in person and see the space and hopefully they will be able to help us out and we can share the process of the shoot there and how we will use the imagery and why it's so important to us to have great pictures & the benefit that help gives us as filmmakers.

Damien is off in France working horrendous hours in his day/night job, but has sent emails about what we're planning to achieve and pointed out, quite rightly that together we need to start ticking things off the growing list of stuff to be sorted out so I'm looking at what jobs I can do and what I can leave to other producers so we don't double up on work. I truly admire his ability to lay things out clearly. My head is a puddle of mud right now with a lot of plans and random fluff in it, but I'm slowly getting a little more organised and I think I'm learning how to be a better producer. Which is just one of the reasons I chose to get involved with this project in the first place.

Trying to smile. Feeling a bit tired. Elated that someone replied to an email. More anon. *:o)

Foot on the road..

When you are alone making films you have to be very brave, but together with other people you get stronger and when someone has faith in you a determination takes hold that is truly enriching! Clowning Around is that kind of project. *:o)