Outside Production Blog 2: "Could we just find an actress who has a twin?"

Knee-deep in pre-production, I have a meeting with our director, Michael Maxwell and in discussion of somehow getting a severed head, the quoted title was mentioned. While it was (hopefully) made in jest, it got me thinking about what lengths some would go to shooting a film. I imagine there are some who would, and maybe have, killed for the "art". The closest thing that comes to mind is the Italian atrocity Cannibal Holocaust which consists of I think 3 live animal killings only for the sake of getting the brutality on camera. I guess it's no better than a slaughterhouse but at the same time, I don't consider that art. Though that's a rant for another time.

This week has been a bit nerve-wracking (though far from stressful) but reckon I'm doing well, even if the production is really simple compared to the planning of say, a grad film. We've lost and gained a location or two but are now settled at Galina's flat which, like any location, has it's problems but I think we can easily work our way around these ones. It also doesn't have a massive mirror which would have to have been covered up.

After I confirmed with Michael the section he wanted to audition and he detailed the character description e.t.c. I sent a blanket e-mail to the actors of the academy. I learned a couple of things from this. First, this was the first time my "ok, I'll not direct to see if I can collaborate" idea took a step forward: I had created this character and Michael developed the backstory. It feels odd, but very gratifying, the fact that I can create a character and after reading the script and talking a bit about her, Michael created a background that enhanced everything I said. I guess it'd be like doing the line drawing side of a comic book and then someone comes along and colours it in.

Secondly, this was my first attempt at seeing how 'lucky' we really are to be at the academy. One of the advantages of studying at the RSAMD was that actors and such are close-by to help you when casting e.t.c. While this had been told to me ever since Creative Beginnings, I didn't believe it worked until this week. I pieced together an e-mail with my questionable English skills and not only did they understand me, but I got a few replies, two of them almost instantly. It maybe would mean nothing to anyone else but I love the idea that actresses were willing to audition for something which initially was just an idea to go out and shoot something. Even more so, I imagined that the ladies of the acting course would be put off by a horror of any variety due to that stigma (you've read the paragraphs in my other post?) so I was shocked to get any replies.

I was quite nervous before the auditions, as I was last week when we did Zam's directing assessment but I've come to accept this as normality for anytime an ounce of pressure is applied to anything I do but I do my best to cover it up. Laughing is a great one and I also wanted to get into the audition room as early as possible, so that at least I was comfortable. With our first audition I decided to dive right in and just introduce myself as confident and talkative. Usually I struggle with those initial few seconds of an introduction: Smile, be polite, be clear, make sure when you shake hands that you "stay on target" for their hand, eye contact, polite banter and then on to business. It's too much to do all at once sometimes but I reckon after 24 years I'm slowly getting better at it.

So I introduced our first auditionee to the rest of the "panel": Michael and Charlotte. Before it we made sure that we followed Zam's advice, no table, make them comfortable, take your time with them ask them their thoughts on the script e.t.c. and then once you've chatted a little get down to it. Each time it seemed to work quite well, Michael was the general motivator for the sessions and myself and Charlotte were his wingmen (sorry Deborah "wingpeople"), bailing him out when he needed help answering a question or wanted to give the actor another note. I loved the entire process and while I sometimes had to restrain myself from wanting to take over, it felt good to have the 4 of us in the room work to hone the performance in the audition. I do rabble sometimes because I find it hard to be precise in my wording but I did a good job and only once did I have to take an actual pause before answering a question. Instantly though, from that first audition, I was shocked at the quality of the acting. In the same way that I'm shocked about how much we as 2nd year DFTV students actually know, I'm shocked at how much they, as 1st and 2nd year actors, can bring a great performance instantly to the table. They were also EXTREMELY willing to look scared, frightened and unglamourous, which isn't the first place you think young actresses might want to go to in their career. In all, I loved the process and really want to do it again, the hardest part will be telling the unsuccessful how much we loved them but unfortunatly we didn't go with them this time. Whichever actress we decide to cast, I reckon we'll get a pretty good performance out of them.

UPDATE: We decided to go with Emily! Thankfully Amiera (who we didn't go with on this occasion) replied with a nice e-mail and was even polite enough to give me a little wave in the corridor. Good to know there's no hard feelings. That must be what professionalism is like.

I've now booked the moose bars and Black Pro Mist which my good DP advisor reckons will help the look of the film. This week, the plan is to have a tech recce, leave Michael to rehearsing and then...begin shooting! It'll be chaotic but fingers crossed all of the hard work pays off.

Sorry if this post is a bit out of step with itself, I've constructed it over a few nights!

"It was kind of boring for me to have to eat.
I would know that I had to, and I would."
Kate Moss

Outside Production Blog 1: "It starts. You think you know a guy."

So this is my first post where I will try and chronicle current and future productions within and maybe eventually, outside of the academy. I can't guarantee photos or media but I can guarantee bad spelling and grammar, which may well become the main selling point of this. It all sounds quite pretentious but I'm more interested in doing this for myself as a reflective/progression log than for anyone else. Though if other's get a kick out of it, that's cool.

The first production (post-assessable blog), is Outside (I think this is still a working title) which is a short horror based around a girl who enters her bathroom, uncertain of who, or what lies outside. Now on paper, you're not even going to read that over twice to make sure it WAS as dull as you thought it but our intention isn't to have an enthralling premise.

The genesis of the idea came from my own mind (some of my ideas often do) and stemmed from my wonderment of why it was that no-one makes short horrors. Richard had shown us the opening to Scream and while I knew it inside-out and I believe that I have become invulnerable to most horror conventions, I still knew it was terrifying and built tension very well. Like the Bond films, the intro to Scream is almost a short, self-contained story in itself and if I had to see that one scene as a short film I think I'd be quite impressed.

So my thoughts continued, "Why isn't anyone interested in doing a horror?". My final thought (Jerry! Jerry!) was that no-one is interested in making one because of the terrible stigma stuck to them. Horror, traditionally at least, is thought to have low production values, lots of jumps, be needlessly gory, have big boobed, barely dressed ladies and poor writing. Some of which, I believe, are as important to their genre as the iconography of any other genre. I could talk and talk about it but I'll skip the rest of my one-sided discussion.

I then thought how could I do a short horror and one which could be shot in a day or a weekend with minimal locations and minimal actors. My first thought, was that I set it entirely in a bathroom, a room in which we all spend significant parts of our lives and in our home environment, this is somewhere we also feel very comfortable in. The bathroom has also become a staple of the horror genre, EVERY horror has one (the good one's at least) and every film also has a scare or two in there as well. This first thought was the one I pursued though we have no cliche'd cabinet door closes in this.

Now, who is the person inside the bathroom and more importantly, why? It seems a very obvious issue, but why does everything have to be complicated? Since we were telling a short (2-3 minute) story, the character had to progress fairly quickly and while it would be great to go against the grain, the character had to be female. I guess it's sort of sexist, but I'm following the genre signposts in that the strong-willed woman, even with the tears and distress, is the only one who can face and often survive the situation. Even in the 70's, which could be seen as the height of horror, women were in these sorts of roles when most other films made where casting their leading ladies as damsels in distress. Though that might just be my weak excuse for sexism. Since the initial script, a background has been created for the character, though we plan on working with the actress on developing the character rather than painting an overly specific background.

The why was always going to be the biggest problem, since everything has been done. There's no way you can have an original antagonist in horror so I guess the best thing is to go with is what I would find scary. Something which you'll have to watch the film (or read the script) to find out about. And no it's not essays or maths equations.

So there it sat, a basic premise with very little reason for going anywhere but soon, as our scripts began to progress with Richard, our class assembled to talk about extra-curricular ideas. At this, we discussed our ideas (of which there were 20+) but only a few have since been developed. One was ours, obviously, though understandably it wasn't the one that everyone gravitated to. You remember the premise don't you?

I've referred to this as "our" idea throughout and while the genesis is all my own, I haven't been alone. On facebook chat, a little while back, I spoke to Michael about both of our scripts for Richard and we considered developing the "Bathroom Horror" together as a trial run for Michael directing his horror script. I'd love to direct but at the same time, I'm quite interested in the idea of someone else directing something I have written as a test within myself to see how well I can collaborate on a creation, rather than helping hand level. Michael agreed to direct and after the meeting (it was instantly minuted), we started to bounce ideas about between each other.

Sometimes, when your confident in your own ideas, you get a kipper to the face which somehow winds you for a moment or two. The script I was working on for Richard didn't make the shortlist and everyone who didn't make it was no doubt a little gutted (as Adolf himself has publicised) but after the tears, sobs and nights spent rocking myself back and forward in a dark room with a lone candle while cradeling a small firearm, I was motivated. Motivated to have something I authored be made this year. All too often I'm a tech person and as much as I enjoy it, I had it in my head that no-one was interested in seeing, or taking an interest in a story I had originated. I doubt I'll get the chance to do it on an academy scale but I'd like to at least have a few things I've written get made and no-one is going to fix that besides me. As my mother always said: "Stop crying you little sissy and go get some work done before I whup you with the rolling pin". To be honest, I don't mind dealing with rejection, it grounds you a little and forces you to fight a bit better next time.

So one massive failure (I'm over-selling it, but sometimes things read better when they're over-dramatised) led into a massive motivation, and to quote Chumbawamba, showed that "I get knocked down, but I get up again." Ok, poor use of that reference but the song suddenly popped into my head and it was slightly relevant.

Myself and Michael bashed out a script in a few days and then sent the script to the powers at be and eventually got approval. Which is sort of where we are just now. Pre-Production has begun and after a short chat, it looks like I'll be producing as well. I've wanted to give producing a bash just so that when I'm told by a producer how difficult their job is, I know EXACTLY what they're going through. Then I can quickly remind myself why I don't want to do it. If that makes sense. So now I'm writer/producer/DoP. Can I handle it? We'll see. It's only a small project, how hard can it be?

"I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully."
George W. Bush