Bonzo Begins..

There’s nothing that’s more satisfying to a producer than seeing a smiling director and a happy cast & crew. These are the people who’s job it is to breathe life and energy and feeling into a film and if I can make them happy, I’ve done my job well.

Thanks were in order for all the cast & crew who took part in the stills shoot on Thursday. We had lots to get through in a short space of time and consequently put everyone under pressure to achieve. And they over-achieved. The imagery we have is simply stunning and I’ve only seen a small un-edited part of all the stills we got, and it’s simply a credit to the incredible professionals we have aboard this production, who’ve all gotten aboard because they love the script and want to see it fully realised.

There’s video too. Lots of it, both behind the scenes and with the characters, and I’m looking forward to seeing that and to sharing with our backers.

When I look back on what we’ve achieved together I’m feeling confident that the film we can create for the some £4K we’re attempting to raise, will end up looking more like it’s had £40K spent on it. I know that the work is just beginning to make that thought a reality. I also know that with our amazing team pulling together we can do it.

I hope that as I work with Damien and the rest of the departments to create the plans for the shoot I can make life easy enough for everyone for the things we achieve together to be a very enjoyable process. We’re cracking on with the plans for the funding campaign and beginning to think about the shoot & pre-production. Bonzo and our other characters have just begun. Plenty more smiles are top of my list.

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

Time for your close up...

So today is a big day. We are shooting the photos we want to use as publicity for "Clowning Around" to entice investors and also show people the tone and visual nature of the film.

The idea of this came about from an image actress Kiki Kendrick sent me from her website (left). It just seemed like a more visual and interesting way to show the project with the actors as the characters they play, and rather than as I usually do, making the stills and poster an after thought after the film is shot, to use it partly for us to test out costumes and makeup, partly to raise funding and partly for the cast and crew to start working with each other so that there would be more understanding when it came to shooting the film.

The reason its such a big day is that the initial idea for this film was in 2004, the first script I wrote for it was in 2007, the first auditions in 2009 and now we are finally getting something past all the discussion and feels like we will be ready to start the campaign after this.

What we are trying to get out of the shoot are a number of things. Firstly, we want artwork we can use for our poster. Secondly, individual profile shots of the four actors. We then want 3 individual videos to work as teaser/promo material for the campaign, making of videos for makeup and the overall shoot plus some action custard pie shots (you have to with clowns don't you!) to really sell the film. I also have to do a presentation vid for IndieGoGo, so need to get my thoughts right for that as well.

So, a lot to do. The call-sheets have gone out and am in the middle of replying to a flury of "Yes, we got it" texts from cast and crew, our gaffer was secured at approximately 11pm last night and Leilani and Bianca have picked up all remaining props, I just need to remember the props and make-up I have to bring, meet Kirsty at 12.30 to pickup the wigs, head to Sainsburys to get some food for crew and then head to Katerinas to pick up costume and go to the studio for 4pm...

Wish us luck :-)

Final Production Meeting Before Stills Shoot!

So this evening marked our final production meeting before our stills shoot on Thursday where all the efforts of recent weeks will come to fruition in the imagery we capture of our characters, which will give a feel for the film project we intend to create and the calibre of work we want to share with you.

Personally, I feel this imagery and the things we've done to make the best possible presentation of the work, is really key to our forthcoming fundraising campaign. We want our backers to know that they are backing a solid project being made by people who really care about the story and are fastidious in their work creating it. Because for this collaborative project, it's important that we don't just take people's cash and send a few meagre updates, but that we really connect with our backers and give each person good enough to support us and our work, an insight into the full creative process of the project they've helped happen, the good and the bad, the challenges and the joys.

So we've gone over the schedule with Greer, our 1st. Reviewed the shots/video with Azul our DP/Photographer. Talked props and backdrops with production designer, Bianca so we know who's bringing what and what we still need to get, and covered all the remaining aspects of hair, makeup and costume for our clowns and other characters, the video for indiegogo that we'll be filming on the day also, and perhaps most important, we had the opportunity to ensure everyone is happy.

We have now got Luqman Ahmed aboard the project to do some behind the scenes video and interviews as we progress. He came along for the first time this evening and I'm sure some video will appaear shortly, including an interview with me about where we're at and what we're doing. More anon!

Wigging Out

I'm not really wigging out of course, things have been going fairly smoothly in the run up to the photo shoots. But one of the things I've been doing in the last week is helping Make Up artist Kirsty source a second wig for Mr Fernelli's character. Kirsty is making the wig for our lead clown, Bonzo but with her workload didn't have time to make two so the second one for Mr Fernelli needed to be bought.

Now, there's clown wigs everywhere on the internet if you want a cheap party afro clown wig that doesn't fit very well, but if you want something with a specific kind of look then it's not so easy to get one, certainly not at a reasonable price. Proper clown wigs are made from Yak hair and can run into hundreds of pounds, which we don't want to be spending on one wig. The brief for Mr. Fernelli was to have a more angular look than Bonzo, to work with his make-up design, and preferably in red to give him a very vibrant flashy look when compared to Bonzo's old school clown look. Having scoured the planet for the best quality red wigs available in our price range I managed to find my way into the strange and wonderful world of cosplay and have sourced two straight haired red wigs that something interesting can be done with to form Mr. Fernelli's clown hair. The second arrived this morning, they're both good quality and I hope will fit well and work suitably for the task.

There's been a few other things to sort out, another make-up artist to be on set for the shoot, and a last few props that I'm picking up after the meeting tomorrow, I've confirmed everything with the wonderful people at the photo studio, and we're pretty much all set for Thursday's shoot. I'm very much looking forward to seeing our characters fully dressed and made up and hoping that the resulting photos will give everyone a good idea about the kind of project we want to create with the film and the people involved.

Can't wait to show the world and get the fundraising campaign going so we can start rocking on with producing the film proper!

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.

Final Costume Fitting – 30.06.2011

I write this sat on last tube Southbound on the Northern Line from Old Street to Morden after our final costume fitting.

After fitting the costumes for Bonzo, Mr. Fernelli and Jerry the Barman, the final piece of the puzzle was Mrs. Jenkins (aka actress Kiki Kendrick).

Throughout the process of trying to find funding the film, Kiki has sent constant encouragement to keep going and I have found myself receiving an email every other month for the past 2 years since she was cast asking how it has been going. However yesterday was the first time I had seen her face to face since that audition back in August 2009!

Kiki has also played a big part in how Mrs. Jenkins has been shaped as a character. Originally a bit of a one dimensional suburban housewife, the ideas Kiki brought to the audition got me thinking more of whilst still polite, saucy Stepford wives wannabe who is out to impress but can’t quite get it right, so Katerina had got three outfits which she felt showed this, one shoulder-less number which was red with flowers, a more soft pink dress with patterns and a final tight fitting red dress. Before the fitting I was more keen on a vibrant colour to really show the temptress beneath the polite facade, but seeing the dresses on Kiki it was evident that the lighter pink this fitted the character more, as Kiki instantly felt more at home in it. See the video below for her thoughts http://www.vimeo.com/25844936

But there are a number of things to contend with when selecting these outfits. I tend to focus on how they fit the individual character, what elements show me more about them and how individual colours or elements add to this. But when creating a film as visual as this, we need to remember the overall colour palette and how all the costumes complement each other for the overall story and nothing stands out that it shouldn’t be there. Another thing to think about is that these costumes are for the stills shoot, not the film. This is for still images that will sell the idea of the film and as such all costumes need to complement each other when shown together.

This last bit was the final hurdle. The chararacters will appear in a number of ways, 1. As individual postcards 2. Bonzo and Fernelli together and 3. As an ensemble cast. Both me and Katerina are happy with their individual appearance and colour, and also happy with how Fernelli and Bonzo come across with their differences of styles and looks. But it is this last option that is bugging us. When we crudely put all four next to each other in a mockup of the poster, it looked a bit muddled. We had to take into account the lack of makeup, lights and the roughness of the costume but we played around with the different outfits we had tried on everyone and ended up changing a few elements, things which may not show the characters as strongly when they appear with the background of the film but in a dark studio, where the colours complement each other. We changed the barman’s shirt to a more vibrant pattern, changed Fernellis bow to not be patterned and made Bonzo’s ruff not as much a vibrant yellow.

They are small details but made a big impact in where the eye of the viewer would be. Although a bit crude and rough, the poster we made to the left shows how they could look in a line-up and have sent this to the DOP and Production Designer to get their thoughts too.

As I have said before, seeing things this way is not something I feel instinctively so am going on Katerina's thoughts for a lot of it, but what I am trying to get across is each characters personality and reflect the conflict, emotions and tone in the film so we are trying hard to marry these two ideas together. There is a lot we can do with the other elements and also in post producton but we want to create a base that will be solid so we don’t have to add too much.

I am learning a lot about an element of film production (or marketing really) that I had never really thought about in this much depth and usually have a complete separate group of people with an objective idea away from the film to do, but am enjoying having to examine all ideas and how they come across and think in different ways about the characters and the colours.