movies

Locations / Relationships

/ jonesxxx / Leave a comment

Filmmaking is a strange occupation. When I was writing the script, some weeks I’d write only a few paragraphs, yet I felt like I’d made real progress. Other times, I’d write pages and feel stuck. Now I’m in pre-production and it’s much the same. Last week I felt busy, but did I actually move forward? It’s hard to say.

I’ve been meeting with actors to talk through their characters and how they connect with each other. Some meetings are one-to-one, others are in small groups, especially when the relationships matter to the story. For example, the IT Director and Finance Manager have worked together for a while so have a longstanding friendship. But the new CEO? No one’s quite sure where he fits in yet. He’s a dark horse, so that’s still a bit of a mystery.

I’ve also been out and about location hunting. While wandering around Moulsecoomb, I found a great public space that screams plain, structured conformity, which may be perfect for the tone I want to set. I’ll go back at night to see how it feels in the dark. I also tracked down some good office spaces, a fantastic corporate café, and what seemed like an almost perfect flat. But the cafe isn’t available until later in the year, and the flat, great in some ways, has a huge window looking over a beautiful harbour with expensive sailing boats. Not exactly soul-crushing monotony. GREEN SCREEN? Yes, yes, yes! I’m exploring this as a solution.

I have also engaged someone to help with social media. Julie Russell has a background in clinical microbiology and now runs a tattoo studio in Muswell Hill, so is ideally placed to shape my scattered thoughts into something presentable to the general public. (NOTE: she’s barely started yet!!)

So, writing all this out, I actually feel a bit better. It seems I did get more done last week than I thought.

This week’s to-do list: Agree the flat, confirm the truck, secure the café, and find a petrol station.

That agenda should keep me busy for the week.

Director of photogrpahy (DoP) Engaged

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I have a script, I have some actors, I have some locations… hmm…. I’m ready to make a film… I just have this niggling feeling that I have forgotten something… something important….. script… actors…. DoP!!!! Of course. Someone to shoot it! Someone to handle the camera and the lights. Someone to twist the knobs, press the buttons and talk about depth of field. Someone to film the bloody thing!

In previous films I’ve worked with Bill Mittman, an old friend from Brighton Film School (now MetFilm), but this year he  has had the temerity to get married right in the middle of my project. Of course I wish him well and he will be helping out but, after various enquiries, I have now engaged Morgan Andrews as Director of Photography (DoP) for my new feature Automatic.

Morgan is a Worthing based cinematographer and has been making videos since he was a teenager. These days it’s his business. He has worked on films such as The Cellar directed by Jamie Langlands and Betrayed directed by Ewan Gorman and Dagmar Scheibenreif and I’m very happy to be workign with him on Automatic.

I am now stepping up efforts to find the final few locations and hoping to start shooting sometime from June onward.

Location Scouting

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Thanks a million to Mark Tournoff for doing a fantastic job of getting the main office for the film Automatic. The bulk of the film will be shot here. However there are other locations we’re still looking for. None of them should be too difficult. Mainly flats & houses but the closer we can come to the original “vision” (ooh Get me!) the better.

In short, I need a house with an old kitchen, an untidy living room, a garden and a conservatory. I need an ordinary flat, the duller the better, ideally in a block. I need a fancy board room and a corporate office. Oh yes, and an artist’s studio…..in Brighton this should not be a problem! Ah but here’s the rub, I want a petrol station shop or somewhere that will pass for one and I need a corporate style cafe.

I’m mainly looking in Brighton but anywhere close would be of interest. If you would like to see your home or office on the silver screen then please get in touch. A full list of the locations we’re scouting for is listed below.

Grandparents House

A suburban house / bungalow

An untidy living room. It can be a bit grubby but doesn’t have to be.

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An artist`s studio / work room

A room used as an artist studio / work room. Ideally it would have paint and art everywhere and an old arm chair but we can organise that. A table with art stuff would be good.

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A conservatory

A tatty conservatory with plants and gardening equipment. Nice to have trays of apples, watering cans etc.




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A garden

A large or long garden with a flower border. Nice to have an old child’s swing and/or a shed. Anything that suggests this has been a family home for a long time but the kids have grown and gone.

An old fashioned kitchen

An old fashioned kitchen. Doesn’t have to be traditional, just the sort of kitchen that your grandparents have. It would be nice to have lots of clutter.

The Office

A board room / meeting room

A corporate looking meeting room with leather swivel chairs. The more expensive looking the better.

A corporate looking office

A modern private office. It doesn’t have to be as pleasant as this picture but ideally would have a desk / chair etc.

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A cafe

A cafe which looks like it might be in a large corporate office. A counter holding biscuits and cake and staff selling coffee.

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The Streets

A petrol station

Forecourt with pumps AND inside the shop. Or maybe a small shop which could pass as the inside of a petrol station shop.

Flats

An ordinary flat / apartment.

It would be great if it were in a block. Nice to have a big TV.

Story Boarding

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I have been story boarding for the film Automatic. A while back I had thought maybe I wouldn’t bother too much with this and just wing it on the day. Yeh, right! My prospective DOP told me I needed to story board so that he could generate a Shot List. So I set about it. I found an arty friend who was willing to do the drawings and we started off pretty well. Initially she spent time filling in details which looked good but took too long. Eventually we got down to some excellent little sketches. showing just enough detail. However, I realised that I was having to draw out camera positions to show her what to draw and that meant more work for me!

I started to lay out the scenes, the actors, some of the blocking and the camera angles using PowerPoint. There are apps fro this but I realised that by the time I’d learned them I may as well have done it in Powerpoint. Now I’m starting to understand that the more camera angles I put in, the more time it will take and the more it will cost.

I had a chat with the DOP and agreed that the powerpoint documents would be sufficient but I still had a lot of detail so I started playing with the idea of deliberate limitations. There is a film making movement known as Dogma 95 which sets very strict limits on the camera. I think the rule is something like one hand held camera and one light mounted on the camera. Maybe this is going too far but I am wondering about the idea of limiting each scene. Perhaps a wide establishing shot and then back and forth between the actors? It sounds very basic and could lead to a very dull look but I was watching an old 1963 version of The Caretaker the other night which had very basic camera work and was still very watchable… to me, at least. I guess that the script and the acting also had something to do with it’s success. Some of my actors may be a budding Alan Bates or Donald Pleasence but I’m no Harold Pinter and that was fifty years ago.

Today the public expect much more from cinematography and I have some off the wall ideas for the visuals so I shall persevere but I have enough to start planning out a schedule. So that’s next on my agenda. That and maybe ramp up the social media a bit.