It's in the Can

Hello angel, 

I like that saying - it's in the can - it conjurs up images of heaving masses of 35mm whizzing as a multitude of camera assistants scuttle around bowing to a Terry Thomas-like Cinematographer. So, in this age of digital tomfoolery, what can we say?  It's in the card?  It's in the hard-drive? Or my favourite quote from this week's shoots - it's on the MacBook Pro, the external drive and the network: I am taking no chances with these babies.

What a bloody wonderful week I have had: in fact I have so much to say about both of the shoots and films, that I may, quite literally, bore you to death - so just take it from me, we all had an awesome week!  I had a very specific 'look' I wanted for each film, and I truly believe the images [now] on screen are a total carbon copy of the visuals in my brain. I said to everyone it was almost quite freaky as it was as if someone was downloading my brain onto the monitor before my very eyes: having seen all the footage again over the weekend, never truer words have I spoken.

My casts were incredible: a bunch of achingly talented seasoned professionals - including Alan Mckenna and Annette Ross playing the leads in "Runner" and "Hostile" respectively, Mary Healey, Mari Gordon-Price and Morgan Deare - who all added a buoyant energy on their side of the lens that just kept me rattling through my shot list like wildfire. My crew were totally fantastic and coped admirably with two vastly different shoots - one being a black comedy and the other being a drama (or in the words of one crew member: a total mindf*ck). The second shoot, "Hostile" was always going to be a sh*t of a design job with so little time and so much to achieve, but Production Designer, Jess Alexander, just cracked on with it all and pitched it perfectly, just like I knew she would. I also always had a suspicion I would work extremely well in this situation with my DoP, Neil Oseman. We have know each other for a long time now and worked on lots of projects from voiceovers to feature stuff - but these occurrences have generally featured me on the 'other' side of the camera or mic and apart from my recent promo, this was new ground for us.  However, I was not prepared for the 'unsaid connection' we have forged which allowed us to virtually mind read each other and therefore set up the shots, look and feel of the pieces with very little communal dialogue. It made the shoots very special and happy for all of us and I think that will show in the end product(s).

And so to Post-production tomorrow and back to driving my Editor mad with stories of how his edit suite feels like he's removing my life force with rusty, fetid, blunt instruments of filmic torture :)  I hope to have a rough assembly turned round for both films pretty quickly in order to be moving towards picture lock, music composition and the sound mixes fairly swiftly.

I have the beautiful set & location stills winging their way to me as I type - lovingly snapped by Mark Spencer - and so will post a couple when I have a minute or so, but for now, I have the terribly mundane tasks of cheque writing and contractual paperwork. Zzzzz.

I love it really - every single good and bad second of this crazy, crazy business - but the scary thing is, I am already getting twitchy about my next project. Crikey m'am.

Have a good week all.

Are We At Speed Yet?

Ahem. Hello there. I've been a little bit busy of late but I'm taking five minutes out of my schedule to check you are all okay out here in the big wide web. All heart me, I tell you.

I have no idea where anyone is, what day it is, what you've all been up to or anything beyond my immediate attention radar, as I have been encapsulated within the big, bouncy bubble that is pre-production, with not more than even a nanosecond being trounced by FaceAche, Twitter or Blogosphere.  

The Tenacious Towers' east wing became one major trip hazard recently as it's been heaving with props, costumes, kit and paperwork for a good while now, however, I don't actually feel as though I live at TT anymore, having spent so much time at the production base and the set being created for...oh right, yeah...I'm shooting two short films, you see - "Runner" and "Hostile" - in two days, next week. 

I am tremendously excited and can't wait to work with the amazing cast and crew who have embraced both projects with so much vigour. I'm delighted to announce Alan Mckenna, Mary Healey, Morgan Deare, Mari Gordon-Price and Annette Ross make up my wonderful cast and amongst the vast array of talent found in the crew are Neil Oseman, DoP, Jess Alexander, Production Designer, not to mention the brave man who has jumped straight in at the deep end, Production Co-ordinator, Peter Getkahn - who has even scheduled my emotional breakdown for later next week, after we've wrapped, of course. Good man.

Well, I need to go now and slowly rock with a shot list in my hand or something. Actually, I really do jest, as I am remarkably calm. Of course, Peter would say it's my calm before my storm. He's probably right.

Catch you on the other side of the tempest that is Production.

Shoots, Logs & Turning Cogs

It certainly has been a nutty week. Busy? Pah! I stare 'Busy' in the face, slap it and shout, "Boo! Betchya can't catch me!". Ahem, maybe not those exact words.

Right from Mega Meeting Monday through Wacky Weirded Wednesday to Forgoodnesssake Friday it's been marvellous, and I am very glad to report an extremely - nay - intensely successful week, all the same.

Wednesday, of course, saw the first day's shoot of many to come, on a small but beautifully formed part of "Project Mute". The day and night went swimmingly and I can quite honestly say I had a blast. The location and it's staff were brilliant, and all the peeps who took part in #twitstunt were fantastic. Realistically, an evening spent with Charles Batho, Dan Rebellato, Elinor, Stevyn Colgan, David Turner was never going to be very dull. Like me, I sincerely hope they enjoyed the whole [if slightly surreal] experience and I do apologise, on behalf of the tipsy or less dextrous Tweeters, to those of you who perhaps accidentally received the odd (actually, very odd) Tweet... ;)  

I am going to take this opportunity to say a huge big thank you to my amazing Cameramen, Neil Oseman and Andy Alderslade who gave me the gorgeous footage I asked for plus more; Cameron Price and Sophie Foster for their expert running skills - and also for Sophie's unfazed response when I decided to chuck her in the deep end by asking her to sit in on the experiment filming; Ben Ottewell for clicking away like a mad man, covering every angle possible for stills, and Glen Cobby for rigging, running, jumping, bowing and crawling at my every demand and then taking the responsibility for the all-important footage data! Every one of you guys really rocked my night. Anyone who followed the evening on Twitter will no doubt have had a few good giggles - as the beer flowed it was indeed interesting to see how loose people's fingers, if not tongues, became. T'was certainly a night I will never forget!  

So, all the beautiful looking HD footage is now logged, imported and awaits the edit which starts in ernest, along with the voiceover recording and graphics work, next week. I am really looking forward to seeing this baby come together now as it officially marks the beginning of a pretty long term commitment for me. Very exciting indeed.

And then, just to top off the Week That Was, yesterday morning, whilst discussing the virtues of organic cakes and some of the footage shot on Wednesday (yeah, honestly), I had one of those really odd 'meant to happen' conversations. This has now led to the very likely possibility of me Producing and Directing a live broadcast/interactive event within the next month or so, which is a totally excellent prospect.

Rock and roll, man. Effing rocking and rolling.

Onwards.