Thursday 19 May 2011

The script

Paraphrasing and halving Hamlet's line, "the script's the thing." But what an ever-changing thing it is too!

After discussing the whys and hows of the story with my colleague, friend and filmmaker Nic Wassell, it has become clear that some of the elements in the script needed a little more tweaking. Albeit the story remains the same, the how we get from A to B needs a stronger why to support it. If all the avenues of why a character does what he does are explored, the how he does it will stand strong, and one can take artistic liberties too. So this week end I shall keep busy rewriting the script and exploring a few more possibilities. It's all part of the process and it's perfectly likely that the script will continue to scream for attention until the very last moment, when we are ready and on set... But that's the nature of filmmaking I guess, and I love it.

Friday 13 May 2011

Locations, locations.

A location manager friend has given me a good piece of advice on choosing locations for the shoot, that is to find them all in the same area. Now, we need an interior in a pub, and interior in a shabby bed-sit, and exterior in a street at night and one in a park during the day. So now I have the arduous task to find all four in the same area. He suggested East London and sent me some pictures. There are a couple that really caught my eye, so I should go and experience the space for myself, see if it's viable with cameras and for the shot I need. I live in South East London and I'm thinking that besides East London, Lewisham is also film-friendly and offers a variety of interesting locations.

So location scouting will be my next job. I need days off to do this, and they are hard to come by as I am (as always) doing five things at a time. A holiday maybe?

Saturday 7 May 2011

So...

OK. First entry of this shooting journal. Yesterday I started looking for a Producer for the short film "Fallen." Lots of work to be done to kick start pre-production. I did a bit of pre-prod myself, but I really need someone who's good at it, persistent and organised. I hope to have a Producer on board soon, so we can start talking about assembling a crew asap. Locations to be found. Script to be read through with the cast. Ideas to be laid black on white, out of my head and onto a hard copy for everyone to see. The storyboard will be of great help, but I want to do an additional "worded" storyboard with the shots spelled out. Mostly for my reference and for the DoP.
Onwards and upwards!