Well the awards for the 2 weeks 2 make it competition was last Thursday (16th June). I went to the awards feeling a lot more confident than I had on Friday 20th May when the competition launched. Since then, I had met the band, formed a team with Lou Macrae, Dan Browett and most importantly I got to work with my cousin Francesco Calvano.
I met the band and Lou in a pub and we brainstormed ideas for an hour or two, by the end we had a clear direction and I went away to storyboard the finer details. I found this process particularly difficult as I am not very good at making quick sketches. I met Dan Browett and we thickened out the ideas some more and got made some progress on the story boards.
As it was a bank holiday Monday, we decided this would be the best day to try and film, so all we needed to do was assemble a cast and as much kit as we could muster between us. This was tricky asking to borrow kit from people you don't know for free, is not an easy task. Also, getting people to agree to be in the film, again for free and being able to rely on them being there, was also, not easy.
I went through my Dead Time contacts and manage to get Louis, Matt and Carl to agree to be in it, which was great, then I spoke to a model that I had worked with Torrs, and an actress that I met on fb, Victoria Hopkins, there were both in! We still needed kit, and bank holiday Monday was getting closer. With all the cast lined up, I started to worry that I would be letting them all down by having to shoot on some cheap with no lights, no tracking, no jib.
Thankfully, Frank saved the day at the Eleventh hour, by agreeing to be on board and supplying us with all the equipment we needed!
So we were on! Lou had found some locations and put together a rough shooting schedule for the day, it was looking tight and we knew it was going to be a push to get it all done in a day. Lou had been talking to a pro DoP about being involved, who was warm to the idea, until he saw the schedule, then he was clearly out, believing that there was no way would be able to do it one day. My heart sank a little bit, but I didn't let it show, instead, I used it as a challenge!
Monday came round and I was equally excited and nervous and running behind, really badly. Added to that, it was pouring down with rain. For a moment, I hoped that the whole thing would be rained off, as I was so nervous about making a fool of myself. I phoned Lou and everyone was already at her place. We talked about what we were going to do about the rain, and came up with a plan B of using the tunnels down at the canals! Frank knew about these and had already suggested them. Lifesaver, the shoot was still on.
I arrived at Lou's with everyone already there, the band had brought some mates along, I introduced myself and the other members of the team that I had brought along with me and we talked through what we were going to do for the day and then it was GO GO GO!
By the end of the day we were all tired and agreed on going for pickups the next day to seal a couple of needed scenes. Dan took a copy of the video files to do the edit and I went home having had less than 9hrs sleep in the last 3 days.
Turned out that Dan's computer couldn't edit the files and that the actors weren't able to make the pick-ups the next day. PLAN B! I edited the film after work on Wednesday and Thursday to have it in by Friday. It was a very rushed edit as you can see here
I met the band and Lou in a pub and we brainstormed ideas for an hour or two, by the end we had a clear direction and I went away to storyboard the finer details. I found this process particularly difficult as I am not very good at making quick sketches. I met Dan Browett and we thickened out the ideas some more and got made some progress on the story boards.
As it was a bank holiday Monday, we decided this would be the best day to try and film, so all we needed to do was assemble a cast and as much kit as we could muster between us. This was tricky asking to borrow kit from people you don't know for free, is not an easy task. Also, getting people to agree to be in the film, again for free and being able to rely on them being there, was also, not easy.
I went through my Dead Time contacts and manage to get Louis, Matt and Carl to agree to be in it, which was great, then I spoke to a model that I had worked with Torrs, and an actress that I met on fb, Victoria Hopkins, there were both in! We still needed kit, and bank holiday Monday was getting closer. With all the cast lined up, I started to worry that I would be letting them all down by having to shoot on some cheap with no lights, no tracking, no jib.
Thankfully, Frank saved the day at the Eleventh hour, by agreeing to be on board and supplying us with all the equipment we needed!
So we were on! Lou had found some locations and put together a rough shooting schedule for the day, it was looking tight and we knew it was going to be a push to get it all done in a day. Lou had been talking to a pro DoP about being involved, who was warm to the idea, until he saw the schedule, then he was clearly out, believing that there was no way would be able to do it one day. My heart sank a little bit, but I didn't let it show, instead, I used it as a challenge!
Monday came round and I was equally excited and nervous and running behind, really badly. Added to that, it was pouring down with rain. For a moment, I hoped that the whole thing would be rained off, as I was so nervous about making a fool of myself. I phoned Lou and everyone was already at her place. We talked about what we were going to do about the rain, and came up with a plan B of using the tunnels down at the canals! Frank knew about these and had already suggested them. Lifesaver, the shoot was still on.
I arrived at Lou's with everyone already there, the band had brought some mates along, I introduced myself and the other members of the team that I had brought along with me and we talked through what we were going to do for the day and then it was GO GO GO!
By the end of the day we were all tired and agreed on going for pickups the next day to seal a couple of needed scenes. Dan took a copy of the video files to do the edit and I went home having had less than 9hrs sleep in the last 3 days.
Turned out that Dan's computer couldn't edit the files and that the actors weren't able to make the pick-ups the next day. PLAN B! I edited the film after work on Wednesday and Thursday to have it in by Friday. It was a very rushed edit as you can see here
I got it in, just in time on Friday and to cut a long story short, we didn't win anything at the awards, but I met a load of great people and some not so great, have kicked started some other projects, got to work with my cousin and had a great directorial debut experience. I hope for many more!
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