Hell Hath No Woman Scorned in a Case Concealed

Kym Veldman as Daisy

Hello there!

Well it has been an eventful month, hasn't it?  I've just come down from the mountain, and there's only the hill left to climb.  I'm updating you now because it's the time that I feel the most relieved.

We've had fallings out finding an appropriate title to the film.  We wanted an original title, one that hadn't been used by any other film ever.  Hell Hath No Fury and A Woman Scorned were taken.  I have Kym Veldman to thank for the final title which is (officially and no arguing) Case Concealed.

This marks the end of the main body of filming 'Case Concealed', we have only one scene to film, hopefully within the next week to ten days.  It was a struggle, particularly on my ankles with all the up and down the stairs stuff.  I was definitely overtasked which could lead to a breakdown in communication between myself and the actors.  They were very patient with me, particularly when I forgot to tell them what they were doing.  Oops.

Murphy Rhodes (left) as Rawlings and Noel Ross (right) as Inspector Wright

The real jump forward in production value from our previous films seems to be the lighting.  I bought an extra set of redhead lights to add to the three we had, specifically for that first shot that showed both upstairs and downstairs.  Later I found that I sometimes needed 4 lamps to light a scene in the living room, so had it not been for that one shot, I may have started filming with too few lights.

Granted three of the lamps (the new ones I believe) all blew a fuse and bulb at the same time and I have yet to get them working again, but that was very late in filming and fortunately didn't affect us too badly.  Something tells me they have no earth wires, I'll check tomorrow when my ankles feel better.

I can barely believe how good the footage looks.

Kym Veldman as Daisy

I mean, it wasn't an entirely smooth ride and it often felt as though the film was falling apart, but actually that was never the case.   Particularly in the second week, setting up the lights myself, checking the framing with Matt Hughes (our cameraman), talking the actors through their performance and then often recording the sound is becoming a little too much.  As the films have scaled up my crew hasn't.  I did try, to my credit, alas a last minute medical problem led to us starting filming one man down.  For the second week I tried again to fill that role only to have the person who had volunteered become so awkward with their communication in just a few messages on Facebook for me to decide he would be more awkward on set.

I bore a great deal of the physical burden thus.  Which is not to say I wasn't helped.  The actors in particular were great, a few of them (and even the make-up girl, Steph Bernsten, on the last day) holding the boompole even.  Nigel Goodwin was a particular star, right up until the point where we're hauling gear from his car to my front hall through drenching sheets of rain, rainforest rain, we couldn't see a foot in front of us.

Nigel Goodwin as Greg

What was scheduled for 5 days became 6 days really.  That was despite my initially anticipating we would finish ahead of schedule.  But that's a story for another time (no doubt I will one day post 'The Making of Case Concealed').

Overall I would say that, as predicted, conjoining myself with a bunch of talented people has once again made me seem more talented.  I told them on Facebook how the footage was now making me yipp with delight, and it is because its my first chance to see it on a larger screen.  Although these films are kind of designed for smartphones when you look at them (a lot of close-ups and very few establishing shots) I still think they're better watched on an actual screen.

Kathryn Rigby as Irene

We have an amazing cast, and a committed crew (and some who are both because they have to be) and I think what we're making looks great so far.  This was definitely worth doing, there's no doubt about that, and I'm hoping everyone involved will be as proud of their work as I am.

Onwards!