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 :-)

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..

Prepping the Edit

Since the shoot in October, I have been researching and setting up the best deals for us for post production. Some people mentioned during the prep that this was something I should have sorted beforehand, however with the nature of low-no budget film-making, I tend to take each step as it comes as otherwise you can end up with someone who agrees to it and then either backs out or goes through with it but without the same enthusiasm as their priorities may have changed.

I really wanted to work with one post production facility for the whole of post as it would make it easier to manage, enable us to showcase any problems we came across and to build up a relationship for future projects. Unfortunately, even though we went back and forth with numerable post production facilities, we couldn't reach an agreement that fitted us and them, although we did come very close! At the same time, I posted adverts out to find an editor who could do the offline process. From the 50 or so applications I got back, I met up with 7 of them so I could ascertain their availability, preferences and how enthusiastic they were about the film.

Both these processes (finding a post house and editor) took me through November, December and early January. Although in that time we could have made headway with the edit rather than meeting people, I really wanted to not only make sure I had got the absolute best for the film, but also find out what I was looking for in an editor and a facility. Like every other part of the film, this was valuable experience as with each interview I went into it a bit more prepared.

From an editor perspective, what I most impressed with were those who challenged me, and concentrated on asking me questions on the narrative, the tone and where the film would end up being screened, in addition to having experience cutting short-form material and believing the project would be as important for them as it would be for us. In the end I went for editor Ian Davies, who has worked at White House since 2005 (http://www.whitehousepost.com/editors/representation/ian-davies/reel/). It was not an easy decision, as I had narrowed it down to three editors from those I had met, but Ian's easy going nature, emphasis on the heart of the story and commitment to it timewise, swung it for me. He has now completed a rough cut and will be doing a second pass on Monday, so we can complete the offline by the 10th February. As I edit on Avid myself, should we need to make additional tweaks past that point, I can do those myself, however I felt it key to get an objective eye to put together and pace the story.

We are still on the lookout for people to help with the sound and online, so we can complete by May, but I am happy that once the picture is cut together, we will be able to get people on board for this by showing them the work so far.

A "Clowning Around" Family

Preparing some of the perks for backers I'm reminded of how many people worked for so long to bring this film to fruition. It's been a truly collaborative effort over a long period of time to get this far and so many people have helped along the way, excited to be part of the ongoing team we've accrued around "Clowning Around."

One of the themes of the film is that it's easy to do something for a day, but it's much harder to keep up good work when you're alone. Having our backers, supporters, and all the people who have worked on the project, given up their time and talent to it and just been there throughout has made the process to date a very warm experience. People have put huge pieces of their own hearts into the work we all wanted to do and we all adopted Damien's initial project as our own and joined his vision for what the film could be. I couldn't be more proud of our "Clowning Around" family or more grateful to be part of it. Looking at a rough cut of the first few minutes of film I'm acutely aware of how effortless it seems despite the effort that went into bringing it all about. Happy days and busy days with wonderful people.

Post production always seems like a quiet time where there's much less to speak about on a project and a lot of the team have moved on to do other work and aren't so much around, especially for me without the production team meeting every week I have missed the bustle of regular face to face meetings, but the wheels have kept turning and so much is ticking along that it's exciting to think of the things we still have planned. Right now it's about looking after our family of supporters and sending some of the digital goodies like the online comic book out! That has been a real labour of love by Damien and Phoenix Ryte and I truly hope everyone will love them as much as the guys have enjoyed creating them. There are two comic books in one double edition, sharing extra stories about our clowns for our backers to enjoy!

More funs soon!

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)

Post

Damien and I met this week to go over what we are aiming for at the moment with post-production and perk fulfilment. There's been lots of things going on like transcoding of rushes and talking to editors and post houses, some screenplay feedback and other bits and bobs, a lot of which hasn't been that exciting but we're almost ready to crack on with the nitty gritty of post and it was good to catch up in person and have an overview of what we still need to achieve. Damien had some exciting ideas too, which I'll keep a lid on for the moment but it sounds like post is going to be as fun as the rest of the process.

Photo shoot Mark 2....!

Last Wednesday, we had another session at Tower Bridge Studios to shoot some stills for “Clowning Around”. We did do a previous session in July, where we captured images of the protagonist Bonzo, as well as three supporting roles so we

However, shortly before the shoot, the actor playing Bonzo withdrew from the role and we re-cast David Schaal and with such little time to prepare, we focused on the shoot and then after a short break, contacted both David and the studio again to see if we could arrange a few hours to put him on the poster. could show the visual ambition of the project to IndieGoGo backers and so we could finalise ideas on costume, makeup and the overall colour pallette.

The planning itself for the shoot was a lot simpler than last time (or so you would think) as we only needed half a dozen crew and had all the designs and equipment to make it happen, and all this had been tried and tested in both the stills and film shoot.

However, the reality is that after some intense shooting of the film, people had moved on to other projects, so bringing them back in and motivating them in the same way was more challenging. Whereas before we were heading towards production and the creative side was still being explored, this was more of a functional session with momentum heading into post production. Add to this that this time of year is very busy for freelancers and it makes t very difficult for people to commit free time. Over the course of the 10 days planning for the shoot, a complete crew dropped out twice and with just under 36 hours left to the shoot, I had only asst producer Juliet and proucer Leilani on board still! Luckily, even if people couldn’t help, they tried to find someone who could, so we managed to get photographer Bruno Figuerido, gaffer Ian Jones, costume designer Karmjit Kalla and make up artist Annie Popplewell onto the project with very little notice!

What this experience did remind me was not to panic. Things go wrong, and all you can do is try your best with the cards you are dealt. Plus, it is always reassuring to know you can get around what feels like completely unrealistic obstacles J

The shoot itself presented a couple of problems in that, whereas last time we had the larger studio and a lot more lights, this time it was being used by another company (and as we were using for free couldn’t really complain!) so we had to improvise a bit. Also, whereas the previous Bonzo had Matthew Jure (Mr. Fernelli) to bounce off, David had to work harder for the same effect as he was on his own.

Despite this, we managed to get more than enough images (unfortunately however no video) so we can finalise our poster and artwork and feel like we can finally move into post production. We also found time to meet up with some of the crew from the film shoot later on at the pub :-)