Last Monday, 2 November 2009, we shot the last of the scenes with a speaking part. There is still a little mop-up to do, but we are effectively finished and in post.

Not that everything went perfectly smoothly since last blog, it never really does. The 25th October shoot was intended to be the last with the primary actors, but an interesting combination of people didn’t show up. There was a set of three extras for one scene, who could double as background extras for another. They included a good friend of mine who I know to be reliable, but transportation issues stopped them in the end. The other scene required a supporting actor who also didn’t make it due to mis-communication. I thought he was all set, he was waiting for confirmation. It happens.

As it happens, we ran out of light as we finished the scenes we did get on the 25th. Doing those other two scenes may well have delayed us enough that we would have had to call back an actor who I was actually happy to finish, as part of the delay was due to his inability to study or remember his lines. The other part was one of those comical situations that make it all worth a good sardonic laugh, although those with the wrong temperament might get stressed.

We were shooting in Elm Hill, a popular tourist location. Another recent shoot there had given us the impression that tourist season was over and Sundays were now very quiet at the location. Well, it was very quiet on that previous Sunday. But on this particular Sunday, there was a last surge of tourist activity. The shops were closed, but they come anyway, because the street itself is beautiful and very old world.

This of course is exactly why we wanted the location.

In the end, we got the shots. Hopefully we’ll have enough cut-away material to cover the times we had to prompt the actor mid-sentence. I don’t regret using him, he looks right for the part and we needed someone with reserved expressions for a mystic, but lesson learned. Always do full auditions. We didn’t really have the luxury of that for a late addition.

And no worries about the performance. Yes, lines repeated parrot fashion are not going to bring out emotion. But it all has to go through dubbing anyway.

How best to do that when we don’t have money for a recording studio has been working at the back of my mind. The actors have to see their own lips move as they speak into a microphone. My computer has the fan noise which we don’t want in the background. My daughter is going to see how much noise her laptop makes. I’m looking into possibilities for a projection device that might be able to be physically placed far enough from the microphone to avoid noise. My business networking may come into this one.

Anyway, with a certain sense of urgency, I quickly set up a new shoot to do these other two scenes. I did actually consider cutting them. I was exhausted at the end of the shoot on the 25th, and was ready to simplify things. We even skipped the shot with the cat as we were out of light and everybody wanted to call it a day.

But one good sleep later, I was sending emails around and Monday’s shoot was set up. I even worked out how to do the shot with the cat using a stand-in.

Everybody showed up on time pretty much. There was a slight complication in that the one person not available was my driver and the leading lady was collecting the DP on the way in, plus the leading man has moved out of Norwich and stays in different places when he’s in the city. I had a text from him in the morning saying he was in a pub on Dereham Road and could he be picked up. Having no idea how far down Dereham Road this pub was, I sent him a text asking how close to the DP he was, and one to my leading lady asking if this pub was on her route.

I assume communications occurred directly between some combination of them, as all three arrived together. I had had no return texts so really didn’t know what had been sorted. The important thing is that it did get sorted! My daughter even appeared early enough to help with make-up, which I hadn’t expected as she had uni that day.

The shoot went very smoothly. The weather was bright but cold, so we had good light, no rain on the camera, and minimal bystanders in another public place. The few that did go by didn’t pose a problem and mostly happened by when we were just focusing. The new actor commented later that he was amazed at how quickly it went. He knew his lines perfectly and gave me some great expressions. I’m pleased not just for this project, but because I’ve had him in mind for an important role in the next one. I think he’ll do brilliantly.

So, what is left to do?

One last hoard of zombies to storm the church.

One last try at a group of specific girls.

Two effects shots that just need a little working out.

One stand-in shot with the cat.

Meanwhile, I’m putting a rough sequence together to pass to the editor with the logged shots. The process will also allow me to pick out shots for the first trailer, which I intend to be no more than a minute long.

The editor is already at work on the Capoeira sequence which will be used for a separate video as well as the film. This fulfils a promise to the Capoeira teacher who made that sequence possible.

Once the full sequence is set and locked, I will work with the ADR (dubbing) while the editor is working on the Day to Night conversion and other effects. This is his chance to shine. I’ve been tracking down sound effects for foley. Many I have in my own files.

I will have him do the effects on the trailer sequence first, so that I can launch the marketing process while all else is going on.

Oh, and the documentary that started all of this off is to be finished as well. We just needed the presenter, who is also the lead actor for the zombie film, to read some introductions for interview segments. He and the DP, whose degree is in Documentary, went off to do that after the last shoot. I’ll be interested to see the result as it probably won’t be at the location I had in mind as they had to do it quickly to get their lift home.

But the pair of them are very capable. Baz does fantastic presenter, he’s a real natural. I could see him turning out to be a television personality. Once this tape gets downloaded, I’ll sequence that as well and the editor will have yet another small job to fit in while getting the main film done.

So we’re all going to be rather busy for a while longer. Well, not all. Our main cast are done apart from ADR. They can relax. I, on the other hand, have already set up the Facebook group for the core group of the next project. It will be developing over the Winter while post production and marketing for Graveyard Shift are in progress. No rest for the wicked!

Tomorrow is the last major shoot for the production. I have a few peripheral shots to pick up, but basically we wrap the main characters tomorrow and have most of production done. The editor is starting to put the sequences together.

Getting to this stage has made me reflective. What we started out to do was a shadow of where we’re going with this now. But we accomplished that original goal, which was to learn from the experience.

If you take up filmmaking, people will tell you to make a few short films to learn from it. I think I needed the demands of a feature to get the real benefit. And not just me, I’ve watched the progress of other crew members as we have moved from a rag tag bunch of amateurs to a working group that communicates well and gets some rather good results.

We never expected to get the polish of a high budget production, but what I see now that I can look at the shots to date has real promise. I think it’s going to be a good movie, with a wide appeal. Oh there will always be the troll types that pick out any little flaw they can find, but the general audience that goes to find entertainment is likely to get it.

If we had made a short, a lot of those first shoots would probably have been used as is. One of the advantages of a longer film is going back to locations and re-shooting parts that I know just weren’t good enough. I mentioned long ago that I saw a low-res version of the first shoot, and I think that tripped a switch in my producer brain that said “No, this has to be better.” Unlike the one-off chance we had when we made the goblin trailer, the opportunities to fix the things that weren’t good enough would be there over several months.

We started actually shooting in May. It’s October now, and we’re near the end. It has been a very fun summer full of laughs, partly at the comedy elements in the script and partly at the things that you just have to be there to appreciate. Even a good blooper reel can’t fully transfer the experience behind getting those comedy shots, and the spontaneous antics that happen even when we’re doing more serious segments.

Looking back, I think I started looking at the project as more than a learning exercise when we advertised for actors. The original plan was to use a few local friends, but we needed some roles filled that couldn’t be done this way. Suddenly, instead of an exercise it’s a production. And the quality of my lead actors makes me want to make it well worth their while. I have a strong sense of responsibility when I’m roping other people into my schemes. I want to see them benefit from helping me.

Our locations have either been public places, or places owned by generous people who have been very accommodating and supportive of the project. This is an advantage that I fully appreciate. Many filmmakers have to guerrilla their work wherever they won’t get in trouble for it. I’ve had the good fortune to be in a beautiful medieval city where the arts are promoted and expensive permits are not required for film students or small independents to do a little non-obstructive shooting. I have the mainstream business networking to thank for the inside locations. Sometimes it pays to do something practical even when it seems less glamorous than just hobnobbing with other artists.

We’ve built a local reputation with this project as well. People who spend a fair bit of time in the city may have seen us around shooting. Some of them stop me on the street and ask how it’s all going. Many have heard of us even if they haven’t seen us. I expect that whichever local cinema gets our premiere will attract a good sized local audience, as long as we get the publicity out there. And we will.

I had hoped to have the first trailer out there in July, but technical problems prevented us from downloading the shots for a rather long time. Again, having the luxury of time gave us a chance to find a solution. I’m being nagged by various interested parties now to get that trailer out and I’m very much wanting to do so, but I’m not going to rush it to the point of doing a hack job of it.

We’ll need to use clips that have good sound unless we want to further delay the process for some ADR, which will definitely be necessary in some parts of the film. That’s the price of using public locations. One of the shots I want to use is among those to be re-shot tomorrow. The previous shoot in the location did not give me what I wanted. The other director had blocked things very differently than how I visualised it when I wrote it, and it just didn’t work.

So, that tape will need downloading and logging before we can put together the trailer. I also need to get a solid agreement with the composer so that I can use his title song for it. We’ve had slow moving discussions in progress, but this will become a priority after tomorrow. Collecting any outstanding contracts and adding up the spreadsheet and receipts for out of pocket expenses will feature highly as I plan out the last few shots. Everything will be very much in order by the time we talk to cinemas and distributors. Admin is what I do for my ‘day job’, I’ve kept contracts and releases in a lever-arch file and updated the spreadsheets regularly.

One of the things I decided yesterday while walking to the day job was that we need to re-shoot one quick shot of the kids in the shop. The complicated shots that follow all came out fine, but the first easy shot, where all they do is turn around so you see they are zombies, was rushed. The BBC were underfoot pressing us to give them material for the Dragon’s Den on Tour segment, I was trying to stay out of the other director’s way, and the kid’s dad was saying they would have to leave soon. I had planned to do the kids first, but the other director hadn’t appreciated the need for this until the threat of losing them completely loomed. So, knowing the shop and the kid’s mother will be amenable, I recognised yesterday that this had been niggling at me for months and just has to be re-shot. They smiled you see, and I know they can do wonderfully creepy zombie expressions as they were showing me before the shoot.

If we had been doing a short, I might have gone with my first thought, using shadows to make creepy smiles. But the growing perfectionism that the feature demands isn’t going to settle for that. This is a sufficiently important shot that it’s worth the extra effort.

That’s what can make the difference in an independent film. Making the effort to get the shots right. Take an extra one, work out how to get or make the props and costumes you need, look at it in context of the finished product. That’s the real key.

When we started, I hardly knew my DP. He was a friend of the lead actor and other director, who had a camera. Five months later, we work together really well. He’s learned a few things about his own equipment as well. The shaky shots that characterised the first shoot are no longer an issue. We’ve all learned a lot. And in the process, we’ve created something that promises to be worth all the work and personal expense.

If it makes enough profit, it won’t just be the financing that makes me ready to make my goblin film now. I’ve learned that I can direct, and how to get my vision across to a DP. I’ve had five months of intensive training in how to set up a shoot and look after the cast and crew. That part was easy actually, organising and admin were always my strengths. But I’ve got the experience of making a feature and fielding obstacles, no shows, weather, and any number of things that are part of the filmmaking experience.

It may not make me Spielberg, but it makes me ready to do it all again, even more efficiently. But first, I need to finish and sell this one. Tomorrow’s shoot, two peripheral shoots, a quick re-shoot and post-production to finish.

Piece of cake… ;)

For a project without a serious deadline, this one is beginning to become a delicate balance of timing.

After our battle at the bridge with jelly brains and coke which I described last blog, my stubborn streak kicked in and I got in touch with the friend of the friend who could get dry ice. We wanted steam coming off the conquered zombies you see, and although it can probably be done with After Effects, I really did want to give the dry ice a go. It just felt like an opportunity that might slip by.

So, after juggling between phone messages it was arranged with the very kind friend that she would bring some home from work on Friday. The question was, how long would it last, and could I get the zombies back?

Having never worked with dry ice, I did some essential research on health and safety aspects. I’m glad I did, it emphasised how important it is to keep it away from direct skin contact. I worked out for myself that a T-shirt was not adequate protection. One source mentioned handling it with oven glove protection. But of course first I needed to have the zombies to protect!

I contacted them all through Facebook. It seems to be my film organising tool these days. One definitely couldn’t make it. So, I worked out from the photos that wonderful Julie had taken with her phone on the day what he had been wearing. A long-sleeved black T-shirt and a wig from my goblin supplies would make a sufficient melted version of him, with a little crumpled newspaper stuffed into the shirt for lumpy remains.

The one with the odd-coloured shirt was available, this was a stroke of luck. Trying to replace him would have been more difficult. The third showed no signs of logging on to Facebook during those few days, but the one who could come had a friend visiting who could come along. I had no idea of his description, but three guys squirming on the ground amidst steaming dry ice could cover a lot of discrepancy. I had a dark jacket of my own similar enough to the one the third zombie had been wearing.

We did have a shoot scheduled for Sunday and I could have waited until then and got more of the original zombies, but the friend getting the ice sounded very unsure about whether it would last that long, even in a freezer. My instincts told me, do it Friday! I was doing ok with organising all this, then learned that my cameraman wasn’t available. Sometimes it really does feel like a test. Everything within me says it can be done, but one obstacle after another has to be overcome.

A few minutes of thought and I remembered Sam. Sam is an old friend who popped up recently. He is very much into acting and has the male lead role in my next project, but he also has a camera. The chances of him being available on a Friday evening were pretty slim, but it was to be done early, before dark, quite near his flat. He was all too happy to come out to do a shot before going out for the evening. I had done it! Camera, zombies and dry ice all sorted.

Unfortunately when I was researching health and safety, I didn’t look up enough technical information on making the dry ice do its steaming thing. I thought you just add water and it steams away. Not so.

I set everyone up and poured the water and we got a few gentle wafts. Hmm. So I got some hot water from the pub next to the location, having already distracted their attention as I learned, and poured that. It wafted more! But no pouring steam. Worse, the white pellets of dry ice were still clearly visible on the zombies. They were supposed to evaporate into the steam! I tried pouring quite a lot of very hot water onto my melted zombie and still only got a meh result.

There comes a time when you have to accept that you’ve done all you can, like when the arms were falling off my Baphomet statue. Whether anything could be done with the shots would have to be worked out later. I know there is a colour change facility on the editing programme which could turn the white pellets to the colour of the clothing they are on. There is also a smoke effect on After Effects that may be able to add to the gentle wafts of real steam. The worst case scenario is that it just can’t be salvaged and we have our original battle without melting zombie effects.

I still have the triumph of successfully organising the shoot on short notice. Oh and the rest of the dry ice had evaporated in my freezer by Sunday!

So, Sunday came and we had our first shoot with a new actor. We had been shooting around the role of the Mysterious Hermit all this time as he generally stands apart from others. He does need to be in scene with the main couple for a couple of scenes, but we’ve organised those for the 25th and could get his close-ups and the scenes alone on a day shoot which would make the rest easy.

This one was a replacement for a younger lad that was a friend of my lead actor. I was actually pleased about that as the character is better as a little older. I was recommended to him by the actor who played the modern priest. He certainly looked the part, and I had him read a bit over the phone. Apart from speaking a little fast for a mystic, he was fine. I could direct him to speak slower.

So, Sunday comes round and my actor shows up on time, Yay! My driver with the cameraman is running a little slow. It’s just half an hour, but this time it matters as we want to shoot the clock tower as close to noon as possible so that it can represent being just after midnight. The clichés are thick in this one. While we’re waiting, I explain the character’s back story to the actor and he admits to me that he’s hardly glanced at the lines. Uh-oh.

Experience tells me that actors who don’t study their lines don’t give their best performance. Let’s just say that there was a lot of prompting. But, there were also several scenes that had no lines, that just required driving to various locations and filming the character walking or doing other things at specific places. Those are definitely covered now.

The dialogue scenes were the close-ups for scenes he will be doing again with the lead couple, so it was probably worthwhile. He’s promised to study the lines for the next shoot. And of course there is ADR still to come, as the locations sometimes are in places where there is no chance of getting good sound.

I mentioned timing. Until this month, my lead actor was living round the corner from me. That was very convenient to say the least! Just before my most recent shoot with him, he told me he was moving to Diss on the first. Now a sense of urgency creeps in. I have just this shoot on the 25th and his epilogue scene to do, and Diss is only 20 minutes away by train. We mustn’t panic!

Then I hear that he will be moving to London next! Now it gets worrying. So, I’m working on getting his epilogue scene done before the shoot on the 25th, juggling the need to have his hair grow out a bit for that, getting the shots I need to make sure I’ve filled all the gaps as well as for the documentary we started so I can get him to do the narration for that, then get him to get the Keith haircut just before the last shoot and hope we don’t need anymore re-shoots. Of course there is still ADR!

So, I have a couple of weeks to catch up on logging shots and get my breath, yet a driving need to organise these shoots. The 25th is set, I even have some hippies appearing to pick up that scene which was missed when the extras didn’t show before. I have one other actor to hopefully schedule in that day as well, for another small scene. My ability to pick up these scenes later is steadily evaporating as my leads get busier and further away. Yet we are so close to finish!

There is just a little more to do once the leads are finished, but no urgency on that. A hoard to attack the church, a group of girls, and some effects shots and we’re done. It’s a good feeling.

I keep saying it gets easier as I go along. That statement doesn’t include yesterday’s shoot, which was actually one of the most complicated shooting days I’ve set my self up for. Yet the story will have a happy ending. Mine that is, not necessarily our main characters.

It was, admittedly, a fairly ambitious day. The plan was to shoot a short peripheral scene that required three zombies, followed by making use of them in the background for the end of another scene where I had originally written two zombies in. Then we would feed this group of extras while my human characters came along to do the most complicated part of the church scene.

Now this involved my lead couple plus two other lads, which I mentioned last blog. We needed a new actor for the role of Russell, and I had arranged the person I originally had in mind for the role. I was feeling pretty confident despite his history of being occasionally unreliable, but even better, I had a back-up. Someone else had answered the call for an actor just after I had given it to this lad, and I had asked him to come along as back-up with promise that if we didn’t need him for that, we would at least put him in with the afternoon zombies.

He was very keen, I had every reason to feel this role was covered. Then we were scheduled to break for lunch, at which point my two lads would be finished and four more zombies and a victim would be waiting for us as my trusty make-up team would be doing the zombies while I was shooting in the church. We would go off to the battle at the bridge, then come back to yet more food and a feeling of victory.

This was the part where I started to feel like I was about to drop the ball. The person I had in mind for victim wasn’t responding to messages, so I speculated that I could do this scene with three zombies if necessary and use one of the extras for the victim. Plus my back-up lad from the morning would be available if he didn’t have to fill in the role of Russell. Meanwhile, I also had a sudden surge of interest from people who wanted to be zombies. The mother of the two children we used back at the shop had started spreading the word, and the emails were pouring in. Many of these were from women, but there were a few men included.

At one point I was wondering if I had too many zombies lined up for the afternoon, as I was trying to be kind to my make-up crew by using small numbers in two different batches. Besides, these were all I needed for the specific scenes although an extra zombie or two can always be thrown in.

So I started telling these new recruits that I have another scene to come that will require a random hoard, which I’ll be scheduling in a couple of weeks. Fine, easy to form that one now. There was one pair, a girl and her father, that were prepared to be back-up zombies for yesterday as well. I was covered. I had three confirmed zombies for the afternoon and one more that I thought would come, and back-ups. Sounds pretty good!

Now the trouble with a Saturday shoot is that I work my day job Wednesday – Friday so preparation has to be done in the evenings after work or the morning of the shoot. It’s much better to have a day before the shoot for doing these things. Some things like putting labels on bottles can be done in advance on my days off, but the real work involves food items which need to be fresh. This includes food for the crew and many of the props.

Thursday and Friday evenings saw me baking cakes and cutting chicken wings and making zombie brains, both slingable and a solid brain to be eaten. I put a little too much cream in this, so it wasn’t going to entirely hold its shape. But it still looked pretty gruesome. Of course we had to get a shot of the producer eating zombie brain. But I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s go back to a peaceful morning of preparation and order…

I had three people for make-up to make it easier on everyone. I think we’re all getting a little fed up with doing zombie make-up at this point. My beautiful daughter Wendy was in charge of home crew and two very reliable friends came along. These are both brilliant people. Julie has been a friend of both myself and my daughter for years, and taught my daughter much of her early hair styling among the Goth crowd. She does wonderful things with both hair and make-up for her own enjoyment. Henri was a friend of a friend when we did the Goth club scene, but her enthusiasm and talent has made her core group. She does make-up, acting, costuming and has a selection of cloaks and such around, not to mention elf ears. These are the kind of people you really want involved in a project like this.

Wendy stayed over and Julie and Henri appeared bright and early, ready to make magic happen. Great start. The first group of zombies was due at 11am. Around 11:30 I started wondering. No sign of them, and no way to contact them as one I spoke to through Facebook and the other two were friends of his who were coming along, so it was an all or nothing deal. In short, they didn’t show. So apologising to my crew for getting them out of bed too early for nothing, we awaited our human actors who were due at 12. One by one they appeared near the appointed time. Except the lad who was to play Russell, and the back-up. I started commenting that the role was cursed.

First the first actor I gave it to didn’t show, then the lad I recruited out of the extras on skate park day evaporated and couldn’t be found for the other scenes, now not one but two actors weren’t appearing and both had their phones turned off. So, with the morning passing and absolutely nothing accomplished, Goblin central saw four people frantically ringing everyone in their address books who could possibly play a stoner lad. Several aspiring actors were tried, then random friends, and eventually a friend of Wendy’s said yes, we could pick him up at 1:15.

He was actually rather good. He looked the part with long hair and that general young person look. The poor lad was thrown in at the deep end. Wendy hadn’t told him there would be lines to do, but she had promised cake. Luckily I had made two this time. Plenty of cake for everyone. The lad hadn’t done any acting since high school so wasn’t feeling that confident, but it was an easy role with just a few lines and the voices would probably be mostly dubbed later as we were shooting in public places again.

He quickly caught on that it isn’t like a play where you have to memorise all your lines for the performance. Just note your cue, and one or two lines per shot were within the capacity of short term memory. He did great. This shoot actually had all the most complicated scenes for the church. We had to move bits and pieces around to clear one area at a time, to show what each of the characters was doing while the lead is having a stand-off with the nemesis.

Having already done the nemesis and much of the leading lady’s shots on previous shoots simplified it. We had them all enter, then went through one lad’s part, then the other. We found a position for the lead to stand that put him in perspective with the scene and did his lines for the confrontation. But then came the complicated part. We had to have two of them take the girl from her levitating position and all of them rush out a back door. Working in tight shots of course.

It took a little trial and manhandling of the girl, but we got the scene done in amazing time actually. And I think it’s going to look good.

So all of the scenes that involve these two lads got done, and we got back to home base just an hour later than planned and found our zombies waiting. Three of them. I had tried ringing my back up pair earlier as I still hadn’t had confirmation from the fourth, but the father had gone off to work and there was no transportation for the daughter. I had three zombies, and needed a victim. Ironic, as I probably have 10 people on waiting list for the next hoard but most I already knew weren’t available on short notice.

Henri had been put in too many roles already. Julie had also already been in twice and has distinctively bright red hair, and wasn’t too keen on the idea. It came to Wendy, who had also been in a couple of roles already but had changed her look a fair bit. So, off we went to the bridge with my delicate jelly brain trying to split all the way. Without giving too much of the plot away, this wasn’t the only planned food play for this scene.

If you’ve ever looked on YouTube with the search words Coke and Mentos, you’ll know that a certain explosive reaction occurs when you mix the two. We had quite an elaborate scene planned that involves using this effect rather extensively. The zombies had been warned, and I brought towels. Just as well, as my first attempt to add the mints to a bottle of diet cola resulted in my face and hair getting a good soaking. I never ask my crew to do anything I wouldn’t do myself. I had a fair bit of cola and jelly brain on me by the end of the scene. I’m so glad I thought to bring the towels.

The expert on how do work with these materials happened to be our leading lady. With her instruction and a bit of shared logic from all the guys, we all became experts in the use of this particular non-lethal explosive device. The result should definitely be good for some laughs in the finished product. We used all ten bottles of cola I had brought, which was just as well as I won’t drink the diet stuff after reading up on Aspartame, yet that is part of what is needed to get the chemical reaction.

One thing I want to mention is my daughter’s brilliant performance as the victim. I hadn’t seen her act since she was twelve years old, but she has been spending a lot of time with LARP groups recently and has come out of her natural shyness. Her reaction to being attacked and realistic shrieks had my maternal instincts wanting to rush in and save my daughter from the big bad man, but I managed to control myself. I think she loved doing it actually. He didn’t hurt her at all, although it looked pretty brutal.

So we cleaned up all of our rubbish and people dispersed in different directions with just a few of us going back to home base to collapse and eat up some of the left over food. I cooked another tray full of chicken wings and we just about managed the strength to eat them and more of the cake.

The end result is that we got two of the most complicated scenes of the film finished off. The little scene we didn’t get from the morning can be wedged into another shoot pretty easily, I just need to find another three long haired guys. Pity, the lad who ended up playing Russell would be perfect. But hopefully there are more where he came from.

I did get a message later on Facebook from by back-up lad, he had been clipped by a car on the way out! So, I was right about him being dependable, but a trip to A & E had intervened this time. I’ll have a nice little speaking role for him when he’s on his feet again. I just hope there’s no permanent damage as I already feel awful that it happened when he was coming to help with the project.

Overall though, it was a very successful day. Now if I can just get the tape from the cameraman before it has a chance to get lost…

I keep talking about filming being fun. Sometimes it goes a step further and gets seriously funny.

Last Tuesday we had a great shoot. There were five locations, filling in gaps where the lead couple needed to be together. Fairly ambitious, but we did it all in the end. I had been prepared to bump a scene or two if we ran out of time, but we finished just about 5pm when the light was just about to fade.

So, being practical, I started us at the furthest point from home base: the shop. It was just a minor re-shoot there, only slightly complicated by the fact that no one knew we were coming. The owners were on holiday and hadn’t got the email. No problem, one of the managers who knows us was there so we got our shot and away we went, across the street.

The shot immediately after the couple leaves the shop had been done by our original director in a way very different from how I wrote it, so I decided it was worth re-doing in the original way. It would only take a couple of minutes…

You would be amazed at how many people can come out of the woodwork on a quiet Earlham street. One by one, the old lady, the woman on her phone, the shoppers looking at things in the baby shop just out of shot that for some reason had to walk back and forth along the street…they all got in to the numerous takes that we had to do to get just two lines.

This is filmmaking! It began getting funny after the same old lady paraded up and down the street for the umpteenth time. We would just about have the shot and she would return to spoil the very last few words…it should make a great sequence for DVD extras as we start to giggle on some of the last shots.

We finally got a take that only had one car whip right through behind our heroes in the middle of it, and decided we had enough takes that we could certainly piece it together by then.

So off we go to the graveyard. I’m not saying which one, but it was where we had the Capoeira fight and we needed to do shots for the lead couple to enter and exit the scene. It would be simple enough, if I hadn’t come up with a funny idea in the meantime to extend the scene a little.

I don’t want to give away all the best bits of the film before you have a chance to see it, so I’m not going to say what needed to happen. Only that the zombie would come out from behind a gravestone close to the lead actor and something that would probably require a few takes had to happen. It couldn’t possibly go right on the first try.

The zombie was played by our DP, as he has wild hair and that would add to the comedy of the scene. I also seem to be pushing all the crew members in somewhere, in complete reverse of the cliché directors who always do a cameo in their own film.

It was the way in which it managed to go spectacularly wrong on a few takes that resulted in a bad case of the giggles. One take in particular really set me off.

Not just on set. Oh no, although I did fall into a hopeless gigglefit that took a few minutes to recover from. No it wasn’t that simple. That particular take stayed with me, you couldn’t plan a shot like that. There was just something in the way the zombie fell over that pushed the giggle switch every time I thought of it. For two days I spontaneously broke out into gigglefits while walking around the streets of Norwich, probably frightening bystanders who undoubtedly thought I was one of the local mental cases that give Norwich part of its charm.

After the second time waking at 3:30 am with the giggles because this shot kept replaying in my head, I decided I had to use it. I worked out that the timing could work to have the zombie fall over, then rise a second time to meet his intended fate. The scene would work, and be significantly more hilarious than the original plan. The audience will roar with laughter.

And I could have peace. At last, I could sleep uninterrupted by giggles and walk around in public without people crossing the street to avoid the mad person laughing at apparently nothing at all. At least until the tape gets downloaded and I see that shot again in a repeatable form.

We broke for lunch after the graveyard shoot, and related the adventure to the home crew. More laughter ensued. There were two scenes yet to do. We were in a silly mood by then, and thus we went back to the arch where our favourite security man dwells, protecting the lawn.

Now remember I had patched relations with this particular security man. But that didn’t stop our leading lady from talking into camera as he approached, relating his presence as comically as one could expect at the time. That will certainly make the extras.

We had our obligatory chat, he pointed out that we were blocking the drive slightly and would cause complaints. We really did need the characters to stand there…so I gave him my best puppy dog eyes and asked if we could have three minutes. He smiled and turned a blind eye and we got the shot quickly, then another that didn’t block the drive, and away we went. Finished with the arch at last, barring technical problems.

The last shot of the day was at Chapelfield Gardens, connecting Keith and Suzi’s exit from the punk zombie battle to another part of the park where they meet the priest. This at least was uneventful. Minimal bystanders, but each one was a new joke stemming from the morning near the shop. And at last we finished with a sense of satisfaction that only comes from a really good day of shooting.

Whatever happens with this film, the experiences in making it are worth all the work, the expense, the cast and crew juggling, and everything else that goes into it. I can’t think of a better way to be spending my time. With good joss, the end result will be something that can share some of this fun with a wide audience. But we’ve already had the benefit, and more to come.

Next week’s shoot is another ambitious one, involving two separate groups of extras and multiple locations again. I’ve got props to gather and make, tests to do, people to follow up, and the food to make for the revolving population that will be passing through my flat at different times of the day. I’ve got two more roles to fill in a week. One would think I would have the decency to be nervous.

But I’ve obviously gone mad, I’m already giggling about what we’re going to do to them.

Last blog I wrote about the big zombie battle we were shooting on Monday.

Well, with my aerial battle plan and an overflowing flat full of zombies, we did it. I would say without a hitch, but actually there were a couple of them that got sorted.

After a desperate plea on Facebook, I did get confirmation from my cameraman and a couple of other essential people. No problem, it always falls together in the end.

What did go wrong though, was that one of the lads in the supporting roles didn’t show. I still haven’t heard from him. This is confusing as he was very keen to get into acting and this was a real break for him.

This of course left me with one essential human short. Specifically a skater. At one point I decided there was no point in waiting longer for him and looked to see who among my zombie extras didn’t have make-up on yet. There were two lads.

I asked if either of them had serious acting aspirations, one said a sort of maybe that sounded like a dream he didn’t want to admit to in front of his friends. He was recruited into the human role. Wouldn’t you know it, he just happened to be a skater and just happened to have his skateboard with him in the car!

So, we got over to the park and shot the human dialogue that comes before the zombies appear. Of course being just across the road from home, I kept having to send my PA back to get things, including a large branch that was the size of a small tree, scrounged from my own front lawn when the gardeners trimmed some trees. Doesn’t that sound posh? It’s a council flat, the grounds are looked after by the city. But it was very decent of them to leave me the ideal prop at just the right time.

Anyway, the zombies were called over just as they were finishing make-up and I used my trusty aerial map to explain what I wanted them to do. I split them into groups to emerge from different points, at which point they were to stop while I did the other groups and to continue forming a hoard after a camera move.

They were perfect. That whole sequence is done in one take for each shot.

At the end of the hoard approach, they were to split off in slightly changed groupings to show a little randomness. A couple of people went a different direction than planned, but it just added to the intended chaos of the scene and the one that really needed to end up near the skating ramps just got redirected in the closer battle shots so that he wanders off the right direction.

Three human characters had death scenes, only one was a trained actor. But they all did brilliantly! Considering that I was working with eleven zombies and five humans, the shoot went unbelievably smoothly. Even the stunt was fairly easy, although we did do a few takes to get the timing just right.

We were finished by 2:30 (having started with an 11:00 call) and might well have gone on to do another scene with the humans, but the new recruit had a job interview to go to. No worries, I had planned for that scene to be a maybe, as the battle could have taken all day. It would have been outside the church, which is closed on Monday, and we have to go back to do a scene inside the church as well, so it’s just as easy to do both of those on another day.

We managed lunch rather well for such a crowd. Good old bolognaise, one pot with meat and one pot veggie, plus the pasta. I even had a vegan zombie who was happy with the veggie version. Then in twos and threes they went away, some of them into the city with make-up still on. Imagine running across punk zombies in Norwich...well, some of you might have actually. The thing about Norwich is that it isn’t that far off normal.

So, with all this planned and executed, I had another shoot on Wednesday. This was in theory a simple shoot, just an epilogue scene with two main characters. It finishes off the Dark Lord, apart from ADR. He had been dying to get his hair cut.

The complicated bit was getting yet more extras, as I needed a small group of role players. I know loads of these, but most of them were off to an event! The night before the shoot I was on Facebook, still recruiting. But they came through in the end. The morning of the shoot the last one was confirmed.

I met these in town, which I think was easiest for all concerned. What was I saying about normal for Norwich? Three role players in fantasy costumes (including elf ears on one) appearing in the bar at the Playhouse is not very unusual. It’s by the art school after all. The fourth was filled in by my PA, who has a rather good costume that I made for him some time ago for a SciFi convention. It was a good chance to show it off.

We did a few takes for that shot, as again there was a bit of timing in the entry to the scene that was crucial. But it still only took a short time, and we were joined at the end of it by an observer who is considering becoming a small investor in the company. He’s also an actor, so we got a chance to discuss the part I’ve got for him.

We did need to pick up one other shot with the Dark Lord while we had him, as he needed to interact closely with the leading lady in one shot in the church. So, off we went, walking as it was too close to drive.

More time was probably spent changing make-up than getting our shots. The shot with Dave and Louise really was a simple one, despite timing. We practiced it a few times until we had it right, and did a couple of takes to make sure we had a good one.

Then as long as we were there, we went ahead and did another one with just the leading lady (Louise) that actually was experimental. We had to make her float up into the air in a trance. That gets tricky. But we got it in the end, although the way we did it is worth a story of its own. It needs pictures. When we go back to the church, I’ll be sure to get a still of the piece of modern art that made it possible.

What’s next? Getting those four actors back to the church together. Now that’s a challenge. I’m waiting for confirmation from three of them still, and it’s planned for four days from now. Typically, I’m planning two shoots at once as it is possible that we’ll end up with my lead couple and one of the lads might not make it, which would mean a change of plan to do some of the other scenes I need these two for. There’s a healthy list of those. Only a couple of them require zombie extras.

So fingers crossed, if Louise doesn’t have to work, we have a shoot Wednesday again. The question is, which one! I’d like to get the church scene finished. Juggling too many people is probably the most complicated part of planning. But that’s life in independent film where actors have day jobs. It’s very different from a big studio production where actors are contracted for a block of time.

But then, completing the film despite all the little obstacles is part of the fun.

I seem to have hit on a good idea for the front page of my website. Making a photo collage of the current project and placing it between the header and footer actually comes out rather well. I’m not quite satisfied with the entry navigation yet, but tinkering with the website is something I do enjoy, so I’ll come up with a workable plan soon. A simple ‘Enter Website’ icon would do the job.

My daughter’s boyfriend has been doing some design for the website with a view towards having an example for his work to move into independent contracting. However, the time scales between work sessions are such that I’m back to doing my own tinkering. He did make a brilliant picture for Dance of the Goblins though, which I expect I will use when that one goes into production. By then, Graveyard Shift will have been released and made enough profit to make that happen.

Meanwhile, the last few shoots are just ahead of me. We’re nearing the end of production. Naturally, some of those last shoots are proving a little complicated to organise. The odd person becoming difficult to find available can delay things and make the juggling more of a challenge.

This Monday, we have a big zombie battle. It involves our two lead characters, two other supporting characters who haven’t been in the previous shoots, one of our crew who did a walk-through on a previous occasion and was written into this scene at the last minute, and 10-12 zombies. Numbers are always approximate in large groups, as someone might not show up at the last minute and others might or might not bring a friend.

This is the scene where my punk zombies get in on the action. I had actually given up on them and started recruiting zombies elsewhere as I had not heard from them. Then one of the girls contacted me by email, in leetspeak of course, and she put me in contact with some of the others on Facebook. Ironically, I haven’t heard from her for a while even though she knows when the shoot is. Never mind, I got some of the guys with the mohicans from the original encounter and have even accommodated the schedule to allow for one of them to finish his college induction in the morning before we start their part.

Now, my day job is admin and I’m very efficient about organising and confirming all the people needed etc. I do find that many young people are not so good at responding to emails and messages. They know they plan to come, but they don’t always say so which helps my planning. This doesn’t just apply to the extras, but to regular members of the crew as well. I’m still waiting to hear that I definitely have a camera for this shoot, now that I’ve organised 22 people for it, and that my lead actor will have got the haircut associated with his character.

No doubt it will all turn out fine in the end, it always does. But something in the stars seems to be making everybody hard to contact at present. Even a lad associated with the next project that I was asking to do a walk-on extra part for some pick-up shots next Wednesday seems to have forgotten how to type. And they’ve all got their phones turned off recently. I could get paranoid and start thinking they were avoiding me if it wasn’t for the enthusiasm when I do manage to get hold of them.

As usual, it will all be sorted by the shooting day.

This next one promises to be great fun. Back at the beginning of the project, I had no idea what the fight moves would be apart from some general ideas about the leading lady pushing zombies away with a tree branch and one of the supporting lads trying to climb a tree and getting pulled down and eaten. The lead lad will be busy with his crowbar as always.

However, finding the skate park that I wrote about two blogs ago made it all fall into place. The tree configurations are perfect for groups of zombies to emerge. I’ve written a detailed sequence and marked an aerial map for movements so that it’s all nicely planned out now. I even worked out a dead simple stunt that will add drama and end up with a zombie on a skateboard, which you just know has to be done.

The only worry is that any one of several people could make the whole plan fall apart. It’s essential to have all the human characters. I’ve had confirmation from all of them, although two of them I haven’t worked with before so I will soon learn how dependable they are. The cameraman of course absolutely has to be there or it’s all for nothing!

But as time grows close, I will hunt him down and squeeze confirmation out of him, as always. He is actually available most of the time, especially as it’s a weekday. And last time there was a conflict with a weekend party, he lent his camera and we used my student lad as cameraman. As he’s already coming to share his skateboarding skills, we sort of almost have a back-up plan.

First order of business when the company makes a profit from this is to buy a good company camera. That will save on stress, as I have several camera operators I can call on. It’s just as well I don’t do stress. But every shoot is another step closer to finish. A few more colour changes on the spreadsheet, where I keep track of what is left to do. We are getting very close now.

Oh, did I mention I came up with two more scenes to write in? Both easily slipped between existing scenes and added for more comedy value. I must really enjoy punishment...

One of the many details I have to keep track of is making sure we have the right props and prosthetics ready for each shoot. Most props are easy, just gather them in a box ahead of time and there’s no problem. But some things need to be made near the time, like loose flesh prosthetics and zombie brains.

Now most recipes for good zombie brains are made out of edible substances. Gelatine often features. For splattered brains, other things are often added for texture. Oats, cottage cheese with black food colour (very effective!) or any number of favourite home recipes. We’ve had great fun splattering zombie brains here and there through the making of this film. It always tends to finish with uncontrolled laughter which will have to be cut from the sound.

I came up with a silly idea recently that is just going to have to be done. It involves making a mould for a brain, mostly intact. Zombies do have to be seen eating brains after all…

But I also came up with a recipe idea (based on experience so far) that I think will not only look good for this but will taste wonderful. I’ll be doing some experimenting very soon. One thing I have learned though, is that gelatine doesn’t keep all that long, even in the fridge. I’m going to have to throw away another batch of unused zombie brain splodge today. Such a pity…

Speaking of zombie brains, I’ve been a little distracted by a soap opera at work, involving yet another restructure. It’s the third I’ve seen in just a few years. My only worry is where I may end up sitting, as there was some mention of putting me in a particular office presided over by the one woman in all the organisation that I could not bear to share space with.

It isn’t that I don’t like her. We were once on the same team and got on ok. But her voice is loud and whiney, and drives me up the wall. Worse, she's under the mistaken impression that she can sing, which makes the room unbearable.

I’ve actually mentioned to people involved in the situation that it would be totally inappropriate to put me in there. High ranking managers were taken out of the room because the important conversations of this woman required complete confidentiality. I’m a low ranking admin assistant with well-known direct involvement in the media. What’s wrong with this picture?

Apart from that, ever since this woman got herself promoted (with a lot of help from stealing credit from my friend Jenny, another member of the old team, for all the work she did towards learning to understand the funding process) she’s been rather above us all. She has a reputation among the managers for displaying rather too much self-importance. One person was heard to say they had enough of this annoying attitude from her without her swanning in to meetings as if to say "I am the one!"

Yet another case of nobody competent applying for a position so they gave it to someone ambitious enough to want it. Pity that Jenny isn’t more ambitious, she has the ability to sort out a department and make it run smoothly which I’ve witnessed more than once. She would probably be pleasant to work for as well, as she actually cares about the work and isn’t the sort of person to become full of herself.

So, it’s a matter of wait and see at the moment. If a decision is made to put me in that office, I intend to make my case to HR and senior management. I don’t make a lot of waves, but when I do, I know how to make it count. I can’t think of why she would want ex-team mates in the office with her anyway, except perhaps to lord it over. But logic was never her strong point. We of all people can still see the brown stains on her nose, and remember the work that Jenny did and never got credit for. I also remember having to follow-up on a lot of her work as she took short cuts and missed details.

Anyway, getting back to prosthetics and props, I have this big zombie battle coming up that I mentioned last blog. I made contact with one of the punk zombies who wanted to do it so much, but have I heard back? No. I need to have at least 10 zombies for this one. Several of those will have latex scars or bits of flesh that I have to remember to make a day or two before the shoot. There will also be lots of zombie brains flying around. So, those will need to be made and put into portion sized bags as part of the preparation.

I have four zombies from my own closer circle, but by end of tomorrow need to make sure I’ve got the rest in one form or another. The trouble with this project is I can only recycle extras a very little, as most are seen to have been destroyed in one place or another so I need fresh bodies. I’ll be keeping this in mind on the next project. The core group of actors for that one have been partly chosen from some of the more dependable extras I’ve used for this one.

Also, one of the supporting actors can’t take any time off work and the locations we need would be difficult on a weekend, so I’ve shifted him to another role and need to find a lad in the next week to fill this other role. I have great expectations on that one, I’ll advertise it on a popular casting site.

Isn’t this fun? After several really easy shoots, I’m putting together a real juggling act. But it’s under control. Honest guv.

Planning a major battle in a film is essential. You don’t just go out to a location and make it up as you go along. Well, some people do, but it nearly always looks very amateurish.

We got lucky with the Capoeira battle. The instructor in charge had a natural talent for planning a sequence, and extensive knowledge of the abilities of his fighters as well as familiarity with the location. He did a brilliant job in very little time.

But there is another battle that occurs in the film before that. One with much less fighting expertise, and more struggling by the film’s heroes. Planning this one falls to…me.

Now, you may say that planning a battle scene requires an expert fight planner. But we’re not talking about sword fights or kung fu movies here. We are depicting an ordinary group of people attacked by a large mob of clumsy zombies. With the help of Google Earth to get an aerial map of the location, a simple sequence plan for the movements of all involved is more than adequate. Plus plans for the individual skirmishes, who dies and how.

So, between trying to get myself to do the other little jobs I mentioned last blog, I’ve had this mental vision of the zombie fight working itself out in my head. I actually woke up this morning with the sequence clear in my mind, and immediately went on Photoshop to mark the aerial view of the location with battle movements.

This includes camera positions and a detailed written sequence of filming order for all the shots needed, apart from the last ones which I need to work out with a couple of people doing, um, stunts.

You see, the original script says we have this battle, including some general moves of who does what during the fight and the heroes running away to another part of the park where they see the Priest, who we filmed in his part of the scene recently. My original plan was to do it all in Chapelfield Gardens, even though the battle would be tricky to do around bystanders.

So, in one of the weird flukes that I’ve got used to happening in my life, I actually discovered a better location for the battle itself which will work seamlessly with the following shots with the priest, as the tree cover is very similar in both places.

I was out with a friend looking for a particular arrangement of foliage for a shot we wanted to do for a music video. Not a professional one, just some YouTube silliness with my little tourist camera that I used for my kitten video. I live near Mousehold Heath and have plenty of forest just a few steps away from my front door.

We went into the forest looking for what we needed, and found an open area that turned out to be a skate park! On a Monday afternoon, it was empty. We went back Tuesday and a few people were there, but not vast crowds. This is a couple minutes walk from my door, which can be convenient when you need to transport large groups of zombies. It also appears to be sparsely used.

Plus the skate ramps add a new potential to the scene. I had already planned to use my student cameraman in the scene as he had filled in as a random extra in an outside clubbing scene. It seems natural to have him going home from the clubs, and stumble into a zombie attack. Especially as he knows jujitsu and can do some good fight sequence moves. Those too will need to be worked out.

He’s also a skater. I see some silly comedy coming.

Now, the friend I was with has already been a zombie, but he can change his look to be a different zombie easily enough. He also skates a bit. Add to that a local lad who has been brought to my attention who wants to break into acting. He has some training and experience, enough to do one of the supporting characters that are in this scene. He also skates a bit.

So, we’ve got two human characters and one zombie who can ride a skateboard. The potential is awesome. Exactly what is going to happen is something I need to work out with the guys over on the ramps, but the sequence leading up to it is all worked out and marked on the map in military fashion.

The health and safety issues haven’t escaped me. We will be careful and keep the action within boundaries according to the skills of my skaters, but one doesn’t have to do dangerous tricks to make a good skate sequence. I’ve already worked out a move that will end up with a zombie on the skateboard that is so simple that I could do it myself. The rest is a zoom shot and some panic in the moan, dead simple, so to speak.

Oh and just to add to the weirdness, the branch prop I wanted for this literally fell into my hands already. Some tree trimming was happening recently where I live, and the ideal branch was left behind just long enough for me to find and claim it. It’s big enough to count as a small tree itself, and currently decorates my living room, along with Templar robes, Alchemy books and other props and bits of costuming.

Life just keeps getting weirder, but it is so much fun!

I’m getting a bit spoiled with these half day shoots. Getting the ancient and modern priests shots wrapped up actually became easy in the end. We did our Saturday shoot that I mentioned in the last blog, and barring any need for re-shoots, we wrapped the character. We may need to do some ADR, but now it doesn’t matter how much he changes his look.

We got some of his best acting that day. The cameraman described his invocation shot as “epic”. Funny that shooting upwards to avoid seeing ‘stuff’ around the church actually results in some pretty intense camera angles.

Then all too easily, we slipped into the following Friday to do the Dark Lord’s zombie shots in the church. This time we were shooting in a couple of places that didn’t have the open church behind them. One scene was based around the pipe organ (yes, a real working pipe organ) which has beautiful woodwork around it, and that made a great background for his part in the scene.

The other scene was by the door, so once again no bystander problem. Especially as the scene by the pipe organ seems to have scared everyone out of the church, the natural reverb in that church mixed with a superb performance had the actor’s voice booming with the kind of drama you might expect from Christopher Lee.

We do have some excellent actors in this project. David Anderson, who plays the Dark Lord, is one to watch. He has another project in post at present, called Breathe. He starts a new feature in September/October. We’ll need to get just one more scene out of him before then, as he needs to cut his hair and we want it as long as possible for our purposes. Just have to schedule him on the same day as Louise, our leading lady, for his last shots. The cameraman returns the 25th August, so we’ll give that priority when we start up shooting again.

Having the cameraman as well as the lead actor on holiday in August means I get a little break as well, sort of. Last time I had a couple of weeks between shoots, I was frantically making costumes and props for the next shoot. Not so this time. We have everything we need now.

However, I am not without things to do. There is some admin to catch up, and some experimentation with a couple of effects shots to play with. I also need to scope out an exact location for one of them, but I know where to look. And there are a couple of minor props to collect rather than to make. A fallen branch for example is needed for a zombie battle in the park, and there is a patch of wood up the road from me where it’s highly likely I can find something suitable.

So, I have a little time to deal with the details. I also want to do some minor re-writing on a couple of scenes, and to add one in that occurred recently. I’ve got about five more shoots to finish production now, barring scenes getting bumped from one shoot to another because of location juggling.

Oh we’re not done with the church yet. I’ve got two more characters to bring in on the other side of the room and the main characters still need to do their bits. But the current tidy-up is helping make that easier. I volunteered to help with that and did a bit of work last Tuesday, along with my current houseguest who I recruited. He’s been helping with make-up and hospitality as well as stepping in as a zombie extra. It’s not safe to come near me during this project, I’ll turn anyone into a zombie.

Helping the tidy-up not only makes me feel good, but it gives me a chance to really scope out shooting angles and what needs moving from any specific place for my purposes. Always the Producer. I did go in yesterday just to take some photos of some of the lovely features of the church, with a view to donating the shots if they come out good enough. They are thinking of making post cards to sell to the tourists. I have some old photos from when the church was empty that shows off the architecture rather nicely. I’ll donate those images as well when I find them.

The arts community here in Norwich delightfully reflects British Independent Filmmaking in the culture of mutual co-operation. We all support each other. This is part of what makes all of this so much fun. It isn’t just me making a film, or even my team. We are part of a larger picture. One of the people involved with the project has started a local film festival, which premieres in September. I’m looking forward to seeing the entries. The church is sponsoring a filmmaking group of its own. The local community radio stations support and publicise these efforts, as does the city newspaper.

We are all part of the creative process, and of a co-operative vibe that is growing rapidly. More and more bigger films are choosing Norwich as a location. People generally perceive Hollywood as the centre of filmmaking and London as the centre of British filmmaking, and the amount of activity in both places justifies this, but Norwich is making its place on the map.

Oh by the way, have I mentioned that this zombie project has become a trilogy? Not sequels, but separate films based in the same city. More details on the other films later. I need to keep my focus on one project at a time. But when you go out at night in Norwich, look among the crowds. In time, you may begin to spot the zombies, vampires and werewolves that walk among us unnoticed in the streets, if you haven’t already.

Another weekend, another shoot…or two.

Two of my actors are nearly finished with their scenes, my ancient priest-magician and the modern renegade priest. You would think that finishing off their scenes would be dead easy (so to speak), but life in film land never works that way.

I planned a fairly simple shoot to finish off the modern priest, as he’s working on another project, constantly changing his look, and infrequently available. It all looked very simple until I found that one essential location, the church, was closed on the day I was able to get the actor.

So, after a bit of juggling this and that, I worked out that I was going to have to split the shooting day and get the non-church scenes on one day and the church scenes on another. Keeping in mind of course that originally I wanted to get both priests in the church at once as they do actually have one scene together.

That was not to be. My ancient priest has a day job and the work schedule is peak right now, plus he drives a fair distance. His free days of course cannot match the other actor’s free days. If they do, they have to fall on my own day job days. This is the way of it.

So, a little film magic and creative use of stand-ins and people who never meet do scenes together, it happens all the time in Hollywood.

Meanwhile, I had tried to change the day from Monday to Tuesday when I learned the church was closed, but the actor wasn’t free on Tuesday. Then I tried to schedule him for next week, but the church is actually closing for refurbishing in August! It will be open Fridays and Saturdays, but Fridays are one of my full work days at the day job and Saturdays are when all the tourists come out and clutter up the city worse than usual. Trying to shoot around bystanders would be very tricky in some of the locations we had planned, like Chapelfield Gardens.

The solution became clear. I scheduled the shoot on Monday after all, without the inside church scenes. I even worked out that most of the priest’s dialogue needed to occur outside the door anyway, including some bloodcurdling screaming, so we could get that in close-up even with the church closed.

So, we started Monday with a small panic when the cameraman was missing due to the all the switching around causing him to expect the shoot on Tuesday instead of Monday. That and the heavy rain in the morning, plus one extra running late and having trouble finding the place, accentuated the wonderful chaos that is independent filmmaking. But we did the two locations in town with no trouble from bystanders. Having a fairly rainy day meant that they were as minimal as it gets in Norwich. We did have a couple of curious bystanders who didn’t interfere, but stood aside and watched.

Now, we travel around in a single car. There is room for 5 people maximum in it, sometimes we have more and make two trips. In this instance, the locations were close enough together that it was actually quicker to have two people walk from the first location to the second, and a few others walk from the park to the church.

So, after doing our first scene for the day, myself and one of the zombies walked through the town centre. It’s funny watching people NOT react. A little thing like someone in zombie make-up is not so unusual in Norwich. Probably just the Goths again…

We did our scene in the park, choosing a location that would pretty much eliminate any problem with bystanders in shot, and then the people needed for the external church shot walked over while the others were shuttled back to home base to have a rest before lunch. This time the people did look as we walked across the town centre. A zombie is no problem, but a zombie and a priest together does pique curiosity.

Getting the close-up shot was no problem. The screaming hardly bothered anyone, despite the fairly dense population in that part of the city. It’s amazing what you can do when you have a camera. Then there was something a little trickier. I needed a shot of the priest striding up to the door. This required having the camera face Pottergate, a very busy pedestrian street. However, we did get the shot. There were a few takes as we would just hit a clear moment and start the shot and people would come out of somewhere and walk into it. But we did get one that only had one bystander breeze through which we can easily cut out.

Meanwhile, I was busily planning the next shoot in the church. The actor was available, the driver was available, the church was open, the shots are such that doing them on a busy Saturday actually won’t be a problem as we were going to aim the camera either close up on an Altar or towards and upstairs stained glass window (to cut out all the modern art and bystanders) so it didn’t matter if it was 3 or 30 people in the church, we won’t see them either way.

The cameraman is busy Saturday.

But one of the wonderful things about chaos is that a solution can rear its head from unexpected directions. My DP decided he trusts our student cameraman enough to lend his camera. AND, the lad is available and looking forward to it. So, all is saved. We’ve got the other half of our priest shoot.

As for my ancient priest, for a while he’s only available on Thursdays and Fridays and the church is only open Fridays and Saturdays. It looks like I’ll be taking a Friday off work. Now if I can just get it organised before the DP goes off on holiday in August, or borrow the camera again, we’re on!

I’ve decided to take a weekend. Oh yes, I’ll be e-mailing three actors to update availability dates and planning the next couple of shoots as usual, but I’ve just finished a very intensive month and a half of constant shooting, making costumes, making props, making food, juggling actors and large groups of extras non-stop. I’m ready for a mental rest.

Meanwhile, our Director has dropped out of the project which is actually going to simplify things, as I’ve been co-directing and we seem to have been working with different visions at every step. We each have our strong points; she has been trained to direct actors (for theatre) and has a talent for that, while I’ve studied camera angles and have a good directional sense. I read maps well.

But, despite planning meetings and aerial maps that in theory have had details all worked out before each shoot, the plans haven’t been translating to real time and space as smoothly as would be desired. The actors know their characters now, so we just have to finish up the rest of the scenes so that they’ll fit together.

This of course is complicated by the delay in getting the shots in my hands, but I’m about to sort that. With the help of a friend who is happy to help me download any remaining tapes, I just have to get all the materials from our editor so that I can refresh my memory on some incomplete scenes and we’ll have what we need to establish continuity.

It will be interesting to see how the combined influence between myself and the Director will come together. Ironically, I think it may work well even though it was getting to where we didn’t work that well together. We’ve all been learning from each other in this adventure, as you do on a project like this.

I got my second Ed Wood merit badge the other day. There was a bit of architecture we wanted to use for a couple of scenes and while we were setting up, a security guard appeared. As is the case with many pieces of city wall in Norwich, the piece was sitting on the property of a large company.

This needn’t have been a problem. The guard was perfectly happy for us to shoot the architecture, as long as we leave out the building. This is actually exactly what we wanted to do. Many of our locations are medieval wall and we’re cutting out modern buildings as much as possible, which should make an interesting picture of Norwich as a whole to the audience who are not from here.

What nearly caused a problem was that a friend I was using as an extra started to argue with the guard. He works in television and knows far too much about media rights. NEVER ARGUE WITH SECURITY! This is important. True that it was a little petty that we were told we couldn’t sit the camera on the grassy lawn around the architecture or have the actors walk on it when we wanted one of them to come from behind it, and it probably was well within our rights within some distance of the wall, but you just don’t argue the point. That’s how you can get yourself removed from a property and all the police will see is who is acting aggressively.

I have a very calm disposition, so I’m rather good at dealing with these situations, but I had to shut this friend up. Preferably without offending him and having him walk when I wanted to get that shot. I managed it, by establishing that it was me that was in charge and that we would happily comply with the stated limitations. My friend was still spouting about rights as the guard walked away.

So, we re-blocked our shot in a way that would keep us on the pavement and not violate the grassy lawn. It wasn’t actually difficult.

Next day, we had a separate scene we wanted to do at the same place. This is why it was important not to alienate the security. I still have half that scene to go back and finish when I have another actor available.

This time, the scene only required the allowable area anyway. The guard appeared again and I went over and chatted to him without interference this time. I explained what the film was about and what we were doing in the scene, and he was perfectly happy and even interested. The part of the scene I have yet to do will be blocked to stay on the pavement when we go back again, thereby avoiding problems.

Anyway, what I started to talk about was the need for a little rest. My brain won’t stop planning but the past few weeks have been non-stop daily work towards getting props and costumes done, so that every day I’ve been getting up with a list of things to do for this most recent two days of shooting and almost no life outside of this drive towards having everything ready. I still have a hat to make very soon so that the priest can wear it in some of his scenes.

But apart from that, everything is pretty much made or gathered now. Last Wednesday had a variety of scenes planned that required a lot of different materials. We were shooting in the church, which required the statue I’ve been working on for weeks as well as Altar decorations for two different centuries and the scroll for the ancient spell needed to be written in Theban, which I still have to copy from an example. Plus I had to arrange for the actor to be able to be seen writing the last bit of it.

I also had to do bottle labels for our prop bottles for a scene inside a club, for which I was gathering a room full of extras. That’s a job in itself! And of course paperwork for them and the venue release. The architecture scene required fresh zombie brains to be made and some facial prosthetics for the zombie to give him loose skin. Food had to be made ahead as much as possible for several meals for several people including party food for the club extras.

All of these jobs would be done by different people in a studio film. In independent filmmaking, it gets done by a small group of people or just a couple of people. In our operation, I’m the only one who is doing it much of the time. I have too many skills; cooking, sewing, and now simple prosthetics. Not to mention knowing where to get Theban script and parchment. I did the graphic art for the bottle labels, using art from a friend who will be compensated for its use.

Working from a list of things to do helps, but day after day it gets wearing. So this is the first weekend I’ve had in several weeks where I don’t have a deadline to meet for the next shoot, everyone is waiting for me to schedule the next one. I will probably have done so by the end of the weekend and will be hard at work making that hat, but the pressure is off. The props gathered for the church before just need to be sorted and some of them collected for the next church shoot. I have some simple shoots to plan rather than several complicated scenes for one day.

There are a couple of scenes yet to plan that will take some serious working out, but they will probably be done end of August/beginning of September as an essential actor is away for part of August, as is the DP (cameraman). I have plenty of time to work on that after I clear up some of the easier stuff.

But this weekend, I plan to remember I have a life outside of film. I might even make some progress on painting my kitchen. I’m definitely going out to the pub tonight, as I have a gathering with friends to attend. Luckily it’s the same pub that we filmed at last week, so I can take along the location release form and ask how the takings were affected by my room full of extras. It never really stops.

July at last, and the director and one of the lead actors (her partner) are away for all of this month and most of next. You would think that would mean a little rest and a break from the project. But not for me.

As if having five production days close together in June wasn’t enough, I volunteered to help with a procession for the Lord Mayor’s Parade. What insanity led me to that you might ask? Well, you have to remember that my company has a community aspect to it. The original reason we started doing the current project was to give experience to local students and recent graduates. So, having benefited from the generosity of one of our local business owners who gave us use of his shop for a location, I volunteered to help with the parade because he is also Chairman of Buy Local and in charge of their part in the procession. I was just giving a little back.

Who else would take a week off work to work harder? The last week of June, I spent three days doing all sorts for the parade project in between getting ready for another production day in the middle of that week. Needless to say, I was almost glad to go back to my job for a rest!

Meanwhile, as the workspace for the parade preparation was within the broadcast area of Future Radio, I caught something of interest on one of their shows. It seems that Johnny Depp was texting in, participating in a game they had going. Rumour has it that he bought property in the local area, and just happened to be around.

Now these rumours have been going through phases over many months. First he was buying a house in Bath, then he was looking in Suffolk, then just outside of Norwich. Suddenly it seems to be common local knowledge that he is living in the area.

I checked with one of the people I know from Future Radio, just asking what gossip was about. She didn’t know anything, and assumed that he had moved to Bath. But I heard what I heard, whether it was a wrong assumption or not.

So why should a nobody small filmmaker working on a no budget project, even with an unfinanced Fantasy waiting in the wings, be so interested in Johnny Depp, an A-list actor who costs rather more than I would expect to make out of the zombie project?

Well, if you read the histories of any well-known filmmaker, you’ll find that they weren’t born famous. They started somewhere. Peter Jackson for example started out making tacky horror movies and experimenting with computer effects. Now he’s got a massive effects company. There’s an obvious progression at work. If I make a little profit, even on DVD sales, from the zombie film, it could be enough to make Dance of the Goblins. If it isn’t quite enough, we do another lo-no budget film. It sounds too easy and many filmmakers will be smiling and nodding and chanting the word ‘distribution’, but there is a plan in place. Both luck and hard work are on my side on this one.

You have to keep in mind that I focus on good story and good acting, and those elements will create a saleable product where many others fail, even if their production quality is better than my no-budget jobs.

So why my interest in Johnny Depp? Well, if you’ve looked at my film company website, you’ll see a page for Lost Chord. Lost Chord came into being when one of my actors from Dance of the Goblins related what he had heard in an interview with Johnny Depp. Reportedly he said that he and Keanu Reeves should do a film together which involved a band, as Johnny plays guitar and Keanu plays bass, and they have a similar sort of look and could play brothers. Cherry, who is pictured on the page, is a singer who could complete the triumvirate.

This all came out in a pub discussion as so many ideas do. Then walking home, the story started falling into place. How the brothers got separated as children, how the music brought them back together…by the time I got home, the entire outline was in place. I wrote the first quarter of the script very quickly after, and added to it as ideas occurred.

So, here I am with a great script for a film that could only be made with Johnny Depp and Keanu Reeves. A little ambitious for a small company and a writer who is only known as dragon food. BUT, if I make my mark with Dance of the Goblins, I become a filmmaker to take more seriously. The no budget projects won’t do it because the production quality reflects the lack of funding, but Dance of the Goblins will have proper equipment and experienced crew, not to mention some wonderful locations.

The thing is, if you can write a good story, that is the backbone of any movie. And that is my strongest asset. I am and have always been primarily a writer.

So, here we are in July and part of my working group is away. Do I rest? No. I’ve been helping with directing because my director is theatre trained and doesn’t know enough about camera shots. Although my own knowledge is from reading, I have three camera operators who have done film school and I encourage their advice. There are a few scenes that I need to direct because they involve occult elements and that is my area of knowledge, the director has no experience of this nature. There are also peripheral shots that I can pick up, and some effects that I’m working out.

All of this helps take the pressure off the director who was dropped in the deep end and is probably much in need of the break. Shooting days will be minimal for these two months, two in July and one in August, but they will cover a lot of details that are important, and will leave just a few scenes to be finished when everyone returns.

I’ve been working constantly to finish costumes and prop and prosthetic making which are needed for these few days. I’ve also started writing the next project.

What next project? Well, to put it in a nutshell, some time ago I was speculating on a plot for an original vampire story as so many variations have been done, and I was thinking that Alan Rickman should play a vampire. The notes were put in the Development folder for later expansion. A good idea had occurred.

Recently, because I was talking to an old friend about the zombie project, I decided to pull it out. He has a camera you see, and does some acting. Some other local actors are becoming known to me through being extras for the zombie film. Most of them are Goths. I think the part I had in mind for Alan Rickman could be very well acted by my friend with the camera. And someone else who was auditioned for the part of Suzi in the zombie film, but wasn’t quite right for the part, will be ideal for the female lead in this one.

So, another no budget job will follow on directly after production for Graveyard Shift. All I need is a werewolf plot now and I can have a trilogy. Move over Hammer Horror, Goblin Films is on a roll.

Who has time to write blogs? Well, I’ve got my admin from yesterday done and most of the washing up done, so why not.

I’ve been planning three shooting days simultaneously over the past week or so, and as a result it’s all pretty much in hand. Just have to tidy up the make-up kit now, it took a beating yesterday.

If you read my last blog, you’ll remember that we shoved an extra shooting day in last weekend. Now, a fight scene normally takes a lot of planning and probably several weeks to set up. This one was sorted in a week. This was possible because the Capoeira teacher was in charge of the scene and has a few talents besides Photography and fight skills.

He wrote a set-up scene that holds together well as both an independent story and as a segment for our larger story, and despite not having a film background was able to visualise the progression of the fight as a good fight director must. The result is pretty spectacular. On top of that, his gathered hoards and fighters had just the right level of OTT acting to work well in this project. Everyone had loads of fun and it produced a good result.

Once the sequence gets edited, Rod (the teacher) will upload a YouTube video of the full sequence.

Meanwhile, three more shooting days were being planned for the rest of us. The first of these occurred yesterday. The zombie juggling was in full force as I tried to gather two groups; a small group of Goth zombies and a general zombie hoard to attack the shop.

Getting Goths to get up for early make-up is no easy task. However, in the end we ended up with just enough, after I shoved my beautiful daughter in among them. They did their bit brilliantly, and we had our first shoot with another of the main characters, a renegade priest who was raising these zombies.

We did a few shots and even got thrown out of one location, so I’ve earned my Ed Wood merit badge. We have permission to shoot outside in the city, and technically the camera was on a public walkway and not obstructing the public any more than a tourist taking a photo when people are considerately walking around behind the camera. But when a security person approached me, arguing the point wasn’t going to get our shot done. So, I explained we were just doing a quick shot for a project for student experience (all true) and asked if we could just have 5 minutes in my most cajoling tone. There was a bit of churchyard being walked across by the actors (as if the public doesn’t regularly walk across it).

So, he nicely went to ask if that was ok and we got the shot fast. No time for close-ups, he came back and told us that someone wasn’t happy about us walking across the graves. Ok, we left. As it happens, our next location was back at the convenience shop and there is a nice green area across from it which resembled the site we were using very closely. It was apparently identical in lighting according to my cameraman. So we did the close-ups there, and the scene should hold together nicely.

We were working two-camera, something we’ll only be able to do this week as one of our students has finished his course and is using a City College camera which won’t be available after that. This saved loads of time as we got dialogue in the shop and re-shot a few bits from the first time there when we were still getting used to having free reign of the shop and the BBC underfoot.

Dinner break had to be on time, as we had arranged to meet random extras at 5pm for make-up outside the shop for the big group scene. I had received 10 confirmations, which I thought would be just about enough, and perhaps a few random people would show up…

I sent my daughter with the first group to do make-up as she knew where another of our people lived and they were going to give her a lift. As we had a lot of people and some of the Goth zombies from the morning were staying on for the other scene, we had to transport people in two carloads.

I arrived at the shop and we had four make-up people active, and a huge group of people waiting! Counting the release forms this morning, there were 34 general zombies (not counting my 5 Goth zombies) for this scene. A third of them were children! What is this, the Lord of the Flies After Death Reunion?

Looking back, I can see that putting Bonnie’s photo on the poster advertising for extras might have given the impression that we wanted children. Bonnie of course was one of my child zombies for another scene which we did in the previous shoot at the shop.

So, there I am faced with loads of children seeking their first shot at fame while what I need is big scary adult zombies descending on the shop. No problem. I picked out some specific groups for the zombies coming up the shop aisles, all adults. Then the whole group was assembled outside with kids on the shop side of the street and adults across the road.

This gave us a chance to film a hoard of scary adult zombies. However, we couldn’t deprive the kids of their fun, so everyone was mixed together for the next two scenes. This created a nicely mixed crowd, and having children among the undead actually suits the story anyway as the priest is trying to claim their unspent years for his own immortality.

It was a very productive day I have to say. I’m looking forward to seeing the shots. Meanwhile, the next two days are also production days, and we’ll be getting the first shots of our nemesis. I’m looking forward to that. Plus I only have to deal with three extras in the two days, what a relief! Making up the Capoeira zombies (16 of them) had exhausted all of us on make-up, and the mighty hoard had taken its toll as well.

That’s the worst of it done. I have one more group scene where 8-10 adult zombies will attack, and then only a few odd ones here and there to deal with. The only large group scene besides that only has one zombie in it, our nemesis. My make-up supplies just might hold out!

If you read last week’s blog, you’ll be familiar with the art of zombie juggling. I seem to be getting the hang of it, although next week will be a bit of a challenge.

Last Sunday’s shoot went well. My day started with the BBC stopping by to interview me for a Dragon’s Den follow-up to air in the Autumn. I hope the editor likes my answers as much as the camera crew did. We had arranged times so that they would have me to themselves for a while, then my own crew would start showing up. They got some shots of me doing make-up on my best zombie so far. It was my first time adding flaps of loose skin. It came out rather well if I do say so myself.

A sensible person would have screwed it up because they were nervous having the BBC film the experiment, but I just get on with it.

So, my crew and I go off to the shoot while the BBC gets let back in the flat by my daughter and proceed to rearrange my gargoyles so they can get shots of them. Fair enough, most of my shelves are high to avoid cats knocking such things off. It will be interesting to see how they portray me this time. Doesn’t everyone keep gargoyles around the house?

It was the first shoot with lead cast, and the Director’s first day in position. So, it took a bit longer than expected to get started. Of course we were working in a shop which was open to the public, so we often had to wait for people to finish paying for things to get our shots. Eventually we got to a point where we realised we would probably have to ADR the whole thing anyway (re-do the sound later) and just got on with it, letting customers step over the zombie brains on the floor to leave between takes.

One thing I decided on the day was that we had made excellent actor choices. After all that searching to find the girl, we ended up with the perfect leading lady for this project. The leading man was in from the start, but we already knew he was good.

The kids were amazingly good at taking directions. The BBC wanted me to shout “action” at some point (although I’m not Director) and this was largely an effects shot, so I took over with Sapphira’s blessing and we got through it Ed Wood style in no time. After that, the shoot started moving faster.

My stills photographer had to leave at the dinner break, but by then our first zombie had been cleaned up and as he’s a professional photographer, he took over doing the stills. Meanwhile, between shots, we started formulating a plan for slipping another shoot in next Sunday with a Capoeira group. Fight scenes generally take a lot of planning, but our zombie photographer is also a Capoeira teacher and has a working group of his own students who practice together regularly, so this can actually be done rather quickly.

The good bit is that I’m off the hook for zombie juggling for this one. His people will come, I bring crew and make-up squad. We’ll be ready. Working it into the script is falling into place now. As it happens, I was thinking we needed a good zombie attack scene just before the big conclusion. These things just materialise.

So, it looks like Sundays are becoming regular filming days for a while. We do have some others planned, and I’ll be organising which shots to do with the additional principle cast members we’ll be bringing in for those, including our nemesis. His make-up has been carefully planned out. Luckily zombie extras will be minimal for these shots. I still have the hoard to look forward to on the 14th, plus an interior club scene that requires gathering a lot of Goth extras, but after that we’ll have our big group scenes done and just need the odd few zombies here and there as we work mostly with principle cast.

It does get easier. But even the hard work is great fun.

Oh yes, I mentioned my neighbours in the title. They’ve started noticing the odd undead coming and going from my place. They sort of noticed the BBC filming up on my landing as well. Now if I could just have a zombie handy when the political canvassers come by, we could be on to a winner here.

The thing about putting out a call for free locations, is that you never know what else might happen as a variety of people will see the email.

Thus it was that apart from the shop location I was after, I found myself with a church, an interview, and two small children.

Who would have thought that people would be so keen on seeing their children play zombies? But apart from those two, I was subsequently offered the children of one of the crew members and then some random day job related people. I could easily start my own Lord of the Flies zombie project!

In the end though, the idea that occurred for the first two sweet little darlings will be far more effective if there aren’t loads of child zombies everywhere. Besides, my plans for them are non-PC enough to keep me on a social services watch list for decades. Luckily the kids and their mum are well-chuffed with their proposed role.

No I’m not going to give it away, some things are best experienced in context. It will get a reaction, that much I can guarantee.

Meanwhile, there is the question of animals. I hadn’t originally planned to have any in the zombie project. And no, I’m not going to add zombie cows just to be cliché. But it seems that a certain demonic figure who features in the script has been known to appear as a black cat. As it happens, I have a black cat.

Now those familiar with Dance of the Goblins will know that my ginger cat, Lucky, wandered into that story. He’s still in the script, although sadly, Lucky was killed by a driver who was in just a little too much of a hurry on Christmas Eve two years ago. It was pointed out by a friend that Lucky would be getting on a bit by now. He would be nine, probably ten by the time we film DOTG. So his role remains, but he will be played by a professional cat actor. It won’t be easy, I could make Lucky attack on command, sit on my shoulder, and various other tricks.

Anyway, I’ve got this black cat, Lucien. He’s not the sort of cat you can train. He is, however, subject to simple bribes. One can of tuna should do what is required. Nothing fancy, just making an appearance really. So what do you want to bet that he’ll find a way to be disagreeable on the day? Watch for DVD extras on this one, we could have a few takes for cat chasing.

This gave me an idea. I could make it a habit to put one of my cats in every film I do. Granted I haven’t finished one yet so it’s a bit premature to formulate a signature, but it is so me. I already worked out that my fluffy seal-point cat would work well in the musical, just as the lead character’s posh cat. No fancy tricks required. Let’s hope he doesn’t get too old before I get to that one. Too many filmmakers are appearing in cameo in their own films these days, I think Alfred Hitchcock was the first. As an official crazy cat lady, it’s just obvious that shoving one of my cats into the script instead would reflect my own personality best. I never had a desire to perform.

Going back to children, I might be tempted to add a category for young people. My zombie crew and most of the cast fall into this category. I’m not moaning, not at all. Young people are brilliant in that they have enthusiasm, creativity and the willingness to put themselves into a project for its own sake rather than focusing just on when they get paid for their time. This is something many industry professionals lose over time, as too many no-pay or deferred projects that don’t get off the shelf can leave one jaded and feeling used.

But to lose that enthusiasm is to lose the soul of the art, and become a cog in a business wheel. Finding the right balance can never be easy.

The one drawback to young people though, is that they have lives outside of film. We all have day jobs at present, but add to that camping trips, festivals and other things that young people tend to do a lot and the competition for time to go filming can be a juggle with the best of wills. Oh and sport, our DP is a sports fan so scheduling around events can be a real balancing act. Plus contrary to the fears of many parents, not all young people live on the computer. Getting replies to messages to ask if specific dates are ok isn’t an instant formula as it would be with office workers, it can take a few days for some of the key people to check their email.

For that reason, a no budget project is almost certain to take longer than speculated. Many never happen at all unless you have one person who is dedicated to keeping the project on track. In this case, it’s me. I sometimes refer to myself as the Den Mother, although I also sometimes feel like a female Fagin, gathering the young ones to help manifest my vision.

But the project belongs to us all, and I’m fairly certain that we’ll all get paid in the end at least. The story is good, really good. The actors we’ve got for the main roles are very talented. My quest for the girl finally resulted in the ideal choice. All I have to do is juggle everyone’s schedules and get those shots done. And do several people’s jobs at once, typical for small filmmakers.

I’ve got two shoots on my calendar for this month. Getting all the young people together for each of them is a multi-tasker’s challenge. I just hope it isn’t cricket season, I could have trouble dragging some essential staff away from the telly.

I did a four-minute interview yesterday on BBC Radio Norfolk on blogging. They were apparently driving their van all over the county and speaking to various people about why they blog. Personally, I started doing it because it was recommended. It seems there are people in the world who enjoy following my progress since the infamous Dragon’s Den episode.

I do wonder why so many people do it. One of the things I suggested in the interview yesterday is that it can be cathartic. Another, in my case, is that it helps focus me on effectively reporting on progress, as I don’t have a ‘boss’ above me in the film company to report to. Instead, I report to an unknown audience. I can see numbers on the Norwich Evening News website that tell me people are reading my blogs, but I don’t know who they are apart from a couple of friends who I know follow my progress.

Committing to the blog also keeps me writing when film can sometimes take over and distract me from getting much writing done. I am, after all, primarily a writer. The trouble is, I’ve built a reputation for writing in a few different areas. Right now I’m getting pressure from two different subject groups for getting the next book out. Trying to keep up with these as well as making films is a real challenge. Right now, I’m trying to finish writing the script for the feature project we’re auditioning for so we can get rolling.

We actually have enough of it to start shooting as soon as I can get the costumes made. The one essential prop will be with us soon. But we need to cast the girl. I found a possibility from browsing a casting site that allows filtering so I could find someone local, but she doesn’t seem to be showing much interest. I’m getting a lot of interest from actresses from London and other places that would require travel, but we can’t pay travel so I’m looking close to home.

Time I think to get some posters up at UEA and City College drama departments. We need a young one to play a 20-year-old girl, so we’re not going to find someone with an extensive IMDB history. Talent doesn’t always rely on experience, I knew some fantastically talented people in drama class when I was in high school.

So anyway, I had a call from BBC Radio Norfolk, can I be available on Thursday. I work my day job on a Thursday but it was only about 5 minutes of my time so why not? I could pop out on my lunch hour for a quick chat. It ended up being on my tea break a while later, but same difference. Suddenly the media side of my life is crossing over into my day job life, albeit only for a moment. It gets bizarre sometimes.

So, what have I got to report? We’ve cast two of the essential roles and have an audition on 2 May for someone I think is going to be ideal for the nemesis. There are a couple of auditions for the girl happening, still waiting to hear back from the local girl. We do have another local girl interested, but want to see some more possibilities.

I’ve got a pattern for one of the costumes coming in the post, the rest are in hand apart from one for the opening scene which I need to cobble together from some mixed patterns. I’ll have that done over the next few days.

Meanwhile make-up experiments are going well. We plan to do a good job of it. I’ve been collecting extras from a variety of sources. I need more Goths, both as Goth zombies and for a crowd scene in a club. If you’re in Norwich and want to be an extra, drop me a line at goblinfilmsltd@gmail.com

After all, the company is about involving local people. There’s no pay, but I’m doing deferred contracts in case the film makes a substantial profit. I think there’s a good chance it will actually. I haven’t put much on line about it, but it’s original, it’s funny, and it’s got all the earmarks of a cult classic.

Before I indulge in just a little rant, I’d like to mention that we’re looking for a Norwich based actress, 20-ish, description flexible but able to portray a bit of attitude as well as a spectrum of emotions. If you know anyone local, pass them my way as we can start shooting the zomedy as soon as we get that part cast.

The idea when we decided to go ahead with the local zomedy was to use local talent and not get hung up on trying to get ‘names’ into a no-budget film. I’ve seen brilliant talent in high school plays, I have no doubt there are many promising actors lurking locally that are just waiting to get discovered. We only have a few speaking parts in this one, but they could provide that essential first break for a few people.

A slight wobbler to the plan was thrown when our prosthetics expert suggested that his cousin knew a well-known comedy actor who is quite popular among the teenagers at present. This is where the slight rant starts.

Getting to people who are currently popular is something that falls between an art, a skill, and an act of luck. I was just lucky with Kevin McNally because we have a mutual friend. This one looked for a moment like it might be a similar bit of luck. Because if you go through their management companies, you’ll soon learn that many of these companies see part of their job as protecting their clients from people like me. People who have roles to fill on a deferred or percentage basis.

In a way you can’t blame them. Every aspiring filmmaker tries to get to a ‘name’. Some of them are successful, but often the deferments don’t get paid when the film bombs.

The primary job of a management company is to get the actors paid work. When I lived in L.A., the better companies also looked at how a particular role or chance at publicity might reflect on the actor’s career as a whole.

Some time ago, one of my actors who seems to know everyone in London suggested a known actor for Dance of the Goblins. He doesn’t have a close friendship with him, but knew him to speak to. The actor said to send a copy of the script to his management company as he had just finished a long stretch of heavy work and was off to a holiday. I’m going to tell this story without names, because of how it turns out.

So, actor X goes off on holiday and I send a copy of the script to his agent, knowing that ‘send it to my agent’ is often a way of saying they aren’t really interested. The thing is, he was all wrong for the lead anyway. I could have put him in an important supporting role to get the benefit of his name, but I was a little concerned that he would insist on a lead in a low budget film, as he had made a reputation in several important roles and was flavour of the month just then.

I rang the management company a couple of times before I got an answer. When he was due to be back from holiday, I spoke to someone there who said he hadn’t seen it yet. Literally five minutes later, someone else from the agency rang me and said he had seen it and wasn’t going to do it.

Now, not doing it I could accept easily. I was reaching a bit high on that one, despite not wanting him really. But it was obvious through both the timing and the tones of voices that the second person was lying. The actor never saw the script, I’d bet money on that.

I let it go with a sigh of relief.

So, coming back to the present, my prosthetics expert said he can get to this other actor. He had the right look for the part, although I had pictured someone a bit taller, and could definitely do the comedy. Only the cousin lost her phone with his number, she’s an eighteen year old girl. ‘Nuff said. So my friend suggests contacting him through his management company. I look it up on IMDB.

You guessed it, it’s the same management company that I dealt with over this other popular actor before. Out of curiosity, I looked up the other actor as nothing has been heard about him for some time. They’ve performed their primary function, he has three films in the works at present. They sound really boring, this guy is well on his way to obscurity. At least in my film, he would have got a steady flow of publicity. But he has probably been paid well for the roles, and they’ve got their commission.

Anyway, after discussing approaches to get past the barrier we could expect from this company, it was suggested that we ask for an interview for the documentary we’re currently filming, to make a first contact. I contact his agent. I offered a dead easy situation, I come down to London with a cameraman, we take no more than half an hour of his time at a location of their choice, and it helps film students (which is the genuine purpose of the documentary).

No dice, I get the standard ‘hectic schedule’ excuse. Translated: There is no commission in it for them, so they aren’t going to mention it to the actor. The actor might be a generous person who would love to help film students, or a savvy one that can see the good publicity that doing so would generate. One of the reasons that Johnny Depp’s fans continue to love him is that he has a reputation for being a lovely guy who will work on projects he likes rather than just the highest paid. Real people. Although how the filmmakers get to him I haven’t mastered yet, there is still a lot of security around him.

So, what I’m ranting about isn’t my own loss at not being able to get to these actors. Neither of them was essential to my projects. What bothers me is watching a respected management company doing a good job of getting them paid work for a while, then spitting them out as yesterday’s news and moving on with new, younger actors. Both have crossed that 35 age line you see. The comedian has a popular series now, but when it winds down (as everything does), it’s once around Never Mind the Buzzcocks and onto the trash heap.

Anyway, after a bit of speculation about a character actor that my lead actor’s family knows who might have been able to play one of the supporting roles, we’ve agreed to forget all these ideas of known actors and get on with the film. The first year of working on Dance of the Goblins was a lot of delay while trying to work out how to get to Johnny Depp. Eventually a new filmmaker has to accept that discovering the next Johnny Depp is almost as good. And if the film is successful, it gets easier to get to the known actors anyway.

The part that the comedy actor will never hear about is still open in the meantime. We need someone who can act well for that, as there is a very dramatic scene as well as a lot of intensity and comedy in the role. He needs to be 25-35, tall, slim, Gothy and nice enough looking for a few females in the plot to fancy.

We’re looking for someone local, no more wasting time speculating on name actors. It’s a B movie after all, although it has all the elements of a cult classic. We’ll be satisfied if it makes enough profit on the foreign DVD market to pay everyone and cover production for Dance of the Goblins. That doesn’t take a lot, I see this working.

And it’s going to be a lot of fun. We just need the girl to roll.

I went to a Hollies concert at the Theatre Royal last night, it was superb. Two standing ovations, and the audience would happily have kept them there forever if they could.

What struck me about the show is that it took me back to the 60’s when the band was new, and similar bands like The Beatles were playing in clubs all over England. They built the illusion beautifully, by dressing and styling their hair appropriately. And especially by the front line up having hair to style!

The thing is, I never saw these bands in the 60’s. I was just a little too young and not in the right place. So although I’ve seen a few bands that are still touring and some tribute bands that did a good job, this was the first time I actually felt transported to that time in music history. It was helped a bit by my own short-sightedness, which does a nice job of airbrushing away wrinkles. From where I sat, Tony Hicks looked about 19 years old.

I had to Google the band afterwards to make sure they hadn’t been changing the line-up to younger people. But Tony Hicks and the drummer, Bobby Elliot, are two of the earliest members. These people are at least a decade older than me. The only slightly younger member is the current lead singer, Peter Howarth, who joined the band in 2004.

The band has never officially broken up, although there have been various changes in the line-up over time. But that Hollies sound, which uses some lovely vocal harmonies, remains constant. Peter Howarth does a great job in his role as lead singer, as the original singer Allan Clarke retired in 1999.

The one weird thing was that we were in the Theatre Royal. Remember when Rock and Roll was distained by the grown-ups? Last night the majority of the audience was at least a decade older than me, like the band. The Rock and Roll generation are the grown-ups now. And there were no tickets being sold for Mosh Pit, although a few women did get up and dance.

The band was so tight with their harmonies that I found myself watching their lips to determine if there was some lip synching going on. I satisfied myself that there wasn’t, but they are good! You can see that this is one band that didn’t go down the alcohol and drug abuse abyss that claimed too many. Whether there was experimenting I couldn’t say, but you don’t get such a tight performance without a lot of rehearsal and clear heads. How many bands can keep going for forty years and still portray that innocent optimism of the first wave of British rock?

Hats off guys, you’re doing great. For two hours of my life, I felt like a 16 year old would-be groupie in the 60’s.

So what’s this concert review have to do with filmmaking?

As it happens, just last Friday I was on the Future Radio programme presented by Eamonn Burgess, the Sight of Music which talks about film music. I was talking about the project I’ve been dropping a little information about over the last couple of blogs, which was partially inspired by a particular song.

We talked about music in other films, Lost Boys being one of the most notable for our subject. Rock music depicts a young, modern approach to what in an earlier era might have been a horror B-movie. The music brings a contemporary feel to the plot line, which also has young characters to appeal to the young audience. The music is very 80’s, as that’s when the film came out, but it’s still enjoyed by many.

And this relates to my own current project, as the music will play an important role in the feel of the film. The composer of the song that inspired the idea made a cute little video to go with it, although this will soon be joined by an animation being done by a friend of mine in Puerto Rico. Both of them have been recruited to the working team, who are otherwise Norwich based. We should be able to use the animation in the credits.

The team is making good progress on the documentary, which just has a couple more interviews to do before we can piece it together and go to edit. Starting in April you may see us around Norwich, filming a few preliminary scenes for the feature. The script is coming along nicely, and has expanded with a lot of original ideas beyond the original concept that was suggested by the song.

The song is called Graveyard Shift, by Aaron Michael. Have a look at his YouTube video, and try not to freak out if you see us filming around town. Our actors may look a little…undead. I always said I would never make a zombie film because they’re all basically alike. But we’re making one that’s different.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-MUP-oj4mo