Tramlines

Hello,

It's been a long time since I've posted anything so I thought I would take this opportunity to upload some photographs from Tramlines, the Sheffield music city festival. I didn't take many pictures for the whole thing but here is some I have taken of the Violet May and of Reverand and the Makers.

Hi

As you can see I haven't had any time since day 1 of the shoot to post any more, and that is because shoots would start from 9am til gone 2am the next day and it was like that for 4 days. I was shattered.

There were a lot of problems such as people collapsing on set due to the heat of the sun, (I revived people), and me being badly sun burnt from sitting in it, and the director falling through his loft tearing a ligament and fracturing his leg and being to stubborn to go to hospital as he wanted to get the last scene shot. Oh and on top of that, the van we hired broke down too.

The rest of the shoot went well but really stressful. There was a lot of delays but it was a great experience over all, and I would do it again as I have made friends with some amazing people,

Me and Victoria, she's crazier than me, she's great.
I'm looking forward to seeing the end result and I'm now focusing on what I'm going to do next! I'm getting ready to move back to London soon so that's the next big thing on the cards and then who knows really.

I popped down to London the Friday just gone because the collaborative project 'Borderline' was chosen to be screened at the BFI Southbank which was quite exciting. Courses from other Universities around the country got to see it and it was received really well by audiences. A lot of people always say they really enjoy it and want to know what happens to the characters after the film. Keir Brown, the actor who plays David made it down and my cousins did too.

That's about it for now, trying to get my life sorted. I'm going to be looking into getting a website made and working on a new show reel next week and turn all my film files into mpeg 4 so I can put them online.

Nehoo..Toodles

Day 1 Shoot

Day 1 is done and dusted

We got all the scenes done that we needed to do with this character and I can tell you it's been a really long day.

The crew have all bonded really well, we've been on it since 9am this morning and we went all day til 12am.

We had a nice BBQ put on for us by two very special ladies which was a really nice treat so a massive thank you to Marcia the directors mum and Donna the main characters mum for a great feast for us to kick start the project.

Everyone's worked really hard today and we've all communicated well and worked really well together. All have enjoyed their time on set today and are now off to bed to catch their winks for another full shoot day tomorrow.

I had to rearrange the call sheet for tomorrow due to problems with an actor which is very personal and delicate, but he's being a real soldier and is going to trooper on for the shoot.

We're shooting in HD with steady cams for today and omg, it looks amazing!!! I couldn't get over it and kept saying how great it looks all day.

Luke, the main actor for today has been brilliant, he's been focused and on the ball giving us attitude in character and having a laugh with us when not in character. I reckon he's gonna be mega big one day. He follows direction well and has learnt a two page monologue in the space of 2 days.

It's half 2 in the morning now and I have to go to bed, another early start tomorrow and I need me beauty sleep

T'Lion T'Witch and T'Wardrobe

Hi all, It's been a long time since I've update my blog but since I'm on an exciting new project post finishing my course, I've been extremely busy and it's been a bit secretive up until now.

I'm working on a film project for a known Sheffield musician for a month now. My role is creative producer and I'm loving every minute of it. So far my role has involved:

Sending out casting calls, casting and auditioning actors
Creating budget sheets for costumes and props
Gathering props
Making costumes
Hiring costumes
Liasing with a vintage shop to borrow costumes
Liasing with cast and crew
Creating call sheets
Creating contact sheets
Keeping the Director on schedule for the past week
Solving and working our way around each and every problem that arises.

This week so far started off with an amazing audition on Monday in which everybody scheduled in turned up! I know! This has never happened before in my whole 2 years of casting and I was delighted. So we were casting from about 2-9pm and then made our way back to Stoke.

Tuesday I had a semi day off with a nice trip to Alton Towers (gotta have breaks) - however was in close contact with the director most of the day.

Wednesday midday made my way back to Sheffield with the director to start picking and buying things such as costumes and essential equipment, aswell as meeting our lead actor and having a rough rehearsal with him and going to dress him up in a costume, in which we had another actress come along for. I've got pictures but i'll put them on when the shoots done. It got really late on and stayed over in Sheffield so we could have an early start to do things on Thursday but that was great because I got to experience Sheffields nightlife. I went to a gig at the O2 academy and saw a great band called the Crookes (check their myspace out) and then went on to another pub and saw another great band called Shake Aletti (who are brilliant so check their myspace out).

Thursday - Really productive day, and then made my our way back to Stoke.

In Stoke - had to clean with housemate as we're soon moving out, and I don't mean light surface cleaning, this was grotty grease grime hard to reach and places you don't wanna go cleaning. - Nice!

Then had to pack for 5 days in Sheffield on shoot. I hate packing! I never enjoy it and it takes me a long time to think about what I need because I just want to avoid it.

This now brings me to the really long day of today.. up 9am
shower and pack a little bit more and ready for 10.30am to go to town to buy some fabric stuff for a costume.

Back home, burning some music for the van we've hired (Need tunes for the road - Kasbians new album! and Empire of the Sun) then load up the van and go to pick up kit from Stoke campus, then from Stoke campus we went to Stafford Campus to collect the rest of the kit which is ALOT. Traffic on the way to Sheffield and finally made it around 7pm. Had some Yam (mmm Yam) & carried on with paper work. And this is where I've been since.

Rest of the crew arrived at 10pm and we just had a production meeting in the garden. Now I'm writing this and might chill out for half hour before carrying on.. we still need to do food shop for tomorrow eeek.

I've really enjoyed Sheffield so far, but it seems that I'm not picking up the sarcasm as easily as down south because the tone in voice just doesn't change, and they miss out words which makes conversation topics a bit hard to follow. Like Michael Mcintyre says 'The word 'the' just seems to disappear somewhere off the M1 heading up north.

Food time! am off

If I have time I will try and update everyday whilst on shoot as this is a great experience to remember

All over

It's all over for me now, no more student world. I had my last assesment on wednesday for my individual and my collab project and I'm now finished. I'm currently helping out for the degree show which is the 5th of June in which one of my films will be screened along with many others.

Leading up to the deadline of course was a really busy and stressful time, but now it's all done. I want the weather to heat up so i can start enjoying it.

Me and Sam after our assesment.

Delivery Poster/DVD cover

I've been working on the cover for my individual project. It's nice and clean which is what I like about it. It doesn't say too much about the film, there is text on the back along with stills from the film, but for now I thought I'd put the front up. The open box is a nice touch I think, if you see the film you'll probably understand. This is just one idea so far, but I like it. Clean. Simple.

Borderline (Collaboration project)

Great success! Collab shoot is shot and now in post production. The whole shoot went great with out a hitch and without too many arguments from me and sam, however leading up to the shoot was a different story, two tempered italians working together is always going to be heated in arguments.

Keir and Simon; our actors were amazing! I couldn't of asked for better actors who have played the characters so well. Sarah; our camera lady has also been amazing, even though she had her own work to do she was there filming for us which shows great commitment. With her great eye for shots came Andy's great ear for sound, he also did a fantastic job for us and we couldn't of asked for a better shoot.

Special thanks to Stoke property shop too who sorted us with the location, what a great location it was. http://www.stokepropertyshop.com/

Here are some pictures from the weekends shoot.

David and Miguel

Me giving directions for a scene

Mr. West

Sarah on camera

'Friend, car friend, friend'

The two co-producer/directors Me and Sam