Concealer - the endgame

Hello everybody.  I know, I know, where the hell have you been?  What happened to the updates?

The truth is that I posted a blog post about a month after the last one, unfortunately there was some disagreement about what should and what should not be included so I took it down.  I believe that it is important to tell people who might be thinking of doing a similar task about possible pitfalls, I see that as something of a duty, whereas others say that we shouldn't tell of anything that implies a lack of professionalism on our part.

Until that issue is resolved one way or another then I'm afraid this blog will only exhude good news and all the bad stuff will be hidden - which kind of makes this like the Disney marketing department, doesn't it?

Kym Veldman as Daisy

So the good news is that the film is finished (it's title is now Concealer).  The better news is that I was able to screen it at the Chester Film Co-op and it seems to work, as in people seemed to enjoy watching it and complaints were very nitpicky.

At 21 minutes it is the longest film we've made yet, twice as many lamps were used to light it, more actors than we've used before, and the guy whose home we were filming in happened to be a retired engineer so was able to help us complete two shots that we otherwise would have had to composite.  It is certainly the most elaborate film Honacloi Films have ever made, and that is saying something when you look at a film like Troll2357.

A couple of people who've seen it have complimented the lighting, at least by comparison to the previous films, which stands to reason since we had not one but two recces of the filming location, with the lamps, just to be sure.  The lavalier microphone (Sennheiser EW100) didn't work when it came to filming so my idea to have a second, more specific, dialogue track was not to be.  I have since replaced the microphone for the EW100 and, wouldn't you know, the lav is now working fine.

Noel Ross as Inspector Wright

But if there's one quality that jumps off the screen it's the acting.  The performances are amazing.  I only wish I had more to do with them.  The commitment of the actors to their roles, and the amount of thought some of them applied to what is not even said about the characters in the script, boggles the mind.

I was criticised for recasting the same actors, people said I should broaden my perspective and work with different actors.  Nigel, Noel and Kym have been in all three of the films we've made so far and Kathryn has been in two.  Here's my argument:  When you find versatile talented actors (who are much rarer than most people think), if those actors are willing to participate in your next film, then why replace them?  To show you can work with a variety of different people?

I know how versatile my own personality is and I'm quite adept at varying my behaviour based upon the behaviour of others.  I find it unlikely that I would ever have a problem working with a variety of different people.  Every once in a while you're going to encounter an actor with an inflated sense of entitlement - a Christian Bale or Edward Norton - but they are quite rare, particularly among those who have yet to make a name for themselves.

Murphy Rhodes as Rawlings

One thing that is dying in Hollywood at the moment is the star system.  Films are no longer sold by who is in the film but rather by what they can get people talking about on social media (hence sequels, prequels, remakes... snore).  I personally think that is an error on Hollywood's part.  China weren't interested in The Last Jedi, the film bombed there.  One Chinese critic said that, if Will Smith were in the John Boyega role, they probably would have been interested.

For me the star system is important and always will be.  Feeling that, wherever and whatever happens in this screen adventure, that you're embarking on this adventure identifying with particular characters played by actors you know from other roles, is very important.  When I put a Gene Wilder film or a Harrison Ford film on, even if I haven't seen it, I know the actor's reputation.  Knowing their reputation makes me more likely to buy a ticket for a film I may know nothing else about, something no-one is talking about on social media.

Nigel Goodwin, Kym Veldman, Noel Ross, Kathryn Rigby even Murphy Rhodes (whom I've only worked with briefly compared to the others but was very impressed with his performance) could be stars some day.  In fact I hope that's what they become because I'm already a great admirer of thier work and I want to see them in more stuff.  So how does one become a star?  I would say what it requires, even before Twittering and Facebooking and whatever else you might do, is that those actors are in a number of well recieved films.

Kym Veldman as Daisy

Get that?  In a number of films, not just one.  I consider the actor/director relationship a symbiotic one.  I am committed to the idea of my actors becoming stars because that lifts my profile considerably if and when it happens.  That means that I'm committed to only asking the actors to take roles they're suited for in films that I am dead sure will be communicated effectively in the end product.  If there is ever a hair's breath of doubt I won't push the idea on them.

So, in answer the question of why I recast the same actors, that's why.  Because it serves me (as selfish as that may seem).

We will be having a screening of Concealer at the location we filmed it, a private affair for the people involved in the film.  A chance for everyone to pat everyone else on the back, which I guess is important for morale.  After that I will enter it for a few film festivals and allow it to ride the festival circuit for a few months.  I will also (sometime over the next couple of weeks) post the film to the Honacloi Films Facebook page for a single day so anyone can see it.

Kym Veldman as Daisy (foreground), Noel Ross as Inspector Wright (background)

What's next for Honacloi Films then?  Honestly I'm considering making the next film feature-length, as suicidal as that may seem.  I don't like throwing money into films then paying other people so they watch them and decide, from amidst a plethora of other films, whether they want to screen it at their festival.  The only way out of the festival circuit is to make a film you can sell, which means making it feature-length.

There are six basic things that are required to make a feature film (film stock is no longer one of them, thank God): a competent screenplay (covered), a camera (yup), a sound recording kit (got it), a lighting kit (here), locations to film in and, last but certainly not least, talented actors.  So really when I'm thinking about making a film only two of those items I will have to apply any thought to - the locations and the actors.

I have a great idea for a screenplay which has been gestating in my head for the past couple of months.  In truth though, to make that film how I imagine, I'll need the added talents of miniature artists.  Already I'm talking with this guy from Manchester who is really good at what he does, we're picking through the logistics of what it would take to achieve what I have in mind.

So keep an eye on the Honacloi Films Facebook page for Concealer, blink and you'll miss it.

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!

'Hell Hath No Fury' and the future of Honacloi Films

So, with Let Him Go and Troll2357 under our belt, what's next?

At the moment we are closing on filming our third short, more or less the length of Troll2357, called 'Hell Hath No Fury' (EDIT: retitled tentatively to A Woman Scorned).  It was inspired by a shot in the film Psycho (1960) and is very Hitchcockian in tone.  I suppose one could call it a loveletter to Hitchcock.

Alfred Hitchcock (well duh)

I'm pulling together the fantastic cast and crew I worked with on the last film and adding a couple more heads to the mix.  I have no doubt that together we can pull another decent film out of the bag.

Again it is just a short film to send around to film festivals and show to other people and say, 'I made this' (Ten Thirteen Productions, in case you're wondering why you remember the voice of a child saying those words).  Now one cannot make money on the festival circuit (well not without some serious angling), you pay others to watch your film and decide whether or not to select it.  If they don't select it then it feels as though you've wasted that money.  If they do select it, great, you get a little exposure.  They sell tickets, you get nothing.  My point is that the system isn't exactly fair to the creatives putting in the work.

Is there an alternative?  A means to potentially make money selling or otherwise marketing the final product?  Well there's only two methods that spring to mind for me.  The first is to create an episodic series that you could tout to various TV channels or just launch on your own channel on Youtube.  The second is to make a film with qualities that people are more accustomed to pay for.  That means of course make it feature length.

Both ideas have their pros and cons.  I am more inclined personally towards the latter of the two ideas even though that might seem, on the surface, the more difficult of the two options.  But really, when you think about it, what's all that difficult about making a longer film?  A longer schedule with more locations, I grant you.  But if you're not talking about making Ben Hur with a gazillion extras and set-pieces, if your story is just simple yet engaging without the need for spectacle, then actually it doesn't take too much organising.

Cillian Murphy in 28 Days Later

I'm fond of telling people that 28 Days Later was shot in 576p miniDV before it was blown up for cinema screens.  The Blair Witch Project (hardly an example of quality) was shot in 480p on a Hi8 camcorder for the most part.  While it would be great to film in 4K, an audience is more concerned with content than form so even if it is shot in 1080p, as we currently film, that's not as big a problem as it might seem.

So yes, I'm seriously considering making the next film feature-length, at least then we might just have a product to sell.

The Making of Let Him Go

The story for 'Let Him Go' came from a one page script written by Nigel Goodwin that I think he wrote for entry into some one minute script contest or the like.  It was bare bones, the characters didn't really have a chance to reveal themselves in a one minute script but the idea was most certainly there.  It was one of those ideas that is so simple that you smack yourself in the forehead and say, 'Why didn't I think of that?'  Simply put, someone wants to turn off a life support machine and someone else wants it kept on.  The opportunities for dramatic conflict here more or less write themselves.

When I think of a loved one slowly dying in hospital, the death of my Grandfather immediately springs to mind.  My sister held a vigil at his bedside for the last few weeks of his life.  She couldn't understand why her mother (his daughter) didn't visit very often and why she seemed unemotional about the whole affair.  Thus the script became an opportunity to explore what might have happened had my sister and mother been faced with the unbearable option of turning off his life support.

The structure of the script was simple.  There are five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.  I wanted to show all five of these stages compressed into this one scene so that our lead could portray each of those five stages.

Immediately I had Kym Veldman in mind to play Adele, the daughter of the dying man.  She had very few lines in Troll2357 but still managed to impress me, particularly with her facial expressions which (I must admit) I had no part in directing.  I just told her to stare at him, figured we would probably have to work on that stare to get it right, but I was totally wrong.  Her stare exceeded my expectations for how appropriate it was to the emotion of the scene.

Kym Veldman as Adele

What I didn't know at that point was that Kym had lost her father when she was younger.  This led to her taking 'Let Him Go' quite personally and drawing on her own emotional experience to drive her performance.  As a result, when we were filming, I gave very little direction to Kym and instead tried to build the rest of the film around her performance.

Nigel Goodwin jumped aboard as producer and took on the role of the doctor in the film.  He recommended Kathryn Rigby for the role of Adele's mother, and what a find that was.  The only part we hadn't filled as we closed in on filming was actually the priest.  We were getting quite close to filming by the time I messaged Noel Ross and asked him if he fancied a playing a priest.  Noel is a fantastically versatile actor whom you can comfortably slot into a lot of different roles so I wasn't really worried if he would be right for it.

Noel Ross as the Priest

So, with our cast all in place, Nigel suggested the location of the Lee Valley Millennium Centre.  He was doing some drama course there so I attended one night just so we could try and find a classroom that might double for the hospital room.  Once found I called a contact he had and negotiated a very reasonable rate to film there (I won't say how reasonable for fear of getting anyone in trouble but it was very reasonable).

Matt and I flew down there one afternoon for a recce but unfortunately I had no idea that our contact didn't work after a certain time.  Our recce thus consisted of looking through the window in the door with the camera and little else.  I figured that would be okay... I was wrong.

I had a particular lighting scheme in mind when I started, one that used the daylight from the windows as a fill light.  I figured I would have to screen off certain portions of the window, little realising that these weren't just windows, they were enormous windows.

THURSDAY 11TH MAY 2017 - the first day of filming.
So, when it finally came to setting up in that room, I noticed immediately how much smaller the room was than I imagined/remembered.  The only other time I had been in the room I took some shots on a wide angle lens which I think tricked me into thinking the room was much larger than it was.  Alas that made all my storyboards pretty much useless so I had to improvise, come up with alternatives to each shot as we went.

Initially I thought it might be best to concentrate on one performance at a time, starting with Kym.  Later I would realise that was a mistake, that it removed the immediacy of the scene and made it more difficult for the actors to feel where they were in the scene - particularly those not being concentrated on.  In a way it was quite fortuitous that just about everything else screwed up that day.

The other big problem I had, as earlier stated, was the amount of daylight coming through those two enormous windows.  The blackscreens we had didn't cover the whole height of the windows.  There was a spotlight meant to represent the sun for certain shots where Kym and Kathryn's character stand in the foreground.  The idea was that, for two shots, the sun would hit their face (meant to represent an emotional awakening).  Instead I tried to use that light to overpower the daylight on the walls, so I turned it up... thereby turning that into the keylight and screwing up the whole scheme.

It was only when I watched the footage back later that I realised how bad the result was.  Shots where they came too close to the light were overexposed and, at a distance, the lighting looked more suitable to a comedy.  I told Kym we would have to start again... she had a fit with her leg up, understandably.

TUESDAY 16TH MAY 2017 - the proper recce.
Nigel Goodwin, Matt Hughes and I took the lighting equipment, the camera, the blackscreens and black bedsheets to the location.  We covered the windows and set up the lights, shot some footage that looked more or less how I wanted it.  This is how you do a recce, not by zooming through the window of a door.  This was a valuable and important lesson though, ensuring I will never again film without first doing a proper recce.

THURSDAY 18TH MAY 2017 - the last day of filming.

 
So by now we'd done a proper recce, I'd dropped the whole 'sunlight motif' moving the sunlight to the background, and I was storyboarded to the hilt.  This time we would alternate between the characters.  Breaking the scene into smaller pieces and considering each portion individually, nailing each part of the scene for all characters before moving on.

Kym had requested footage from the first day and I think that gave her the chance to reassess her performance because I thought she was good on the first day, but on the second day she entirely blew me away.  At least she would have done if I had time to be blown away and wasn't just saying, 'Right next shot.'  So my apologies to Kym for not showering her with praise which she most certainly deserved.

Kathryn Rigby also finally had her chance to show what she could do, and she didn't disappoint.  It was obvious when she started that Kathryn does a lot a theatre, she nearly blew my ears when she started reading her lines.  All I said to her was, 'Don't project, just pretend.'  She got it.  I was pleasantly surprised with how quickly she adapted.

Kathryn Rigby as Adele's Mum

On the first day Noel Ross had sported fake teeth and his performance was hilarious.  I think I was a little carried away with the humour and it took Nigel to pull me aside and say, 'Maybe that's inappropriate to the scene.'  He was right.  I asked Noel to remove the humour from his performance and play it straight.  I realise that may not be much fun but he was still brilliantly convincing, even on shots where he was just in the background.

Nigel's doctor was an interesting case.  It was the first time an actor had ever applied for their dialogue to be removed, but I would suppose the dual role of actor and producer had some influence there.  Nigel's role was eventually reduced to a single line of dialogue and a couple of facial reactions but he was a good sport about that.  Like me I think Nigel rightly prioritises the dramatic impact of the film he is working on over any other consideration.

Nigel Goodwin as the Doctor

Incredibly we managed to achieve all 50 shots in that scene on that single day.  We worked quickly but without haste.  Rushing the film would have had a detrimental effect on the performances and could have probably dripped down into the editing, lifting the pace of the cutting also.  Instead, at least in those more emotional shots, we filmed each shot within two takes.  That was largely down to my removing almost all of the moving shots I originally intended and relying largely on static shots.  Static shots are invariably easier to film than moving ones.

POST-PRODUCTION
This would have been easily edited within a couple of weeks.  We're it not for my later discovery that approximately 30 out of the 50 shots required digital manipulation.  The two main reasons for this were that the words 'TUTORIAL ROOM'  were clearly visible on the door behind them, and there was also a huge dirty mark on the wall behind Kym's head.  Those two items would have been simpler to remove were it not the entire film is shot in shallow focus making it near impossible to motion track the shots.  In fact there are two effects shot where the tracking had to be done by eye (I won't tell you which in case you look for it).

Thus what should have taken two weeks took six.

Once again I approached the brilliant Lois Paton about the music, actually I think she had a script ahead of time this time.  Again I approached the film as though it were to have no music at all which enabled me to give Lois free reign to compose.  She did not disappoint, once again providing a first draft that exceeded my expectations.  By the fourth draft we once again nailed it.

If you have watched the film once you may not have noticed the music so much because of how apt it is to the scene.  I would encourage everybody to watch this film once just to appreciate the amazing score.

The result was an emotionally dense drama that effectively represents the five stages of grief.  While much credit must be given to the actors for their commitment to the material for much of that emotion, one shouldn't overlook the effect of how it was shot and cut nor how the music accentuates that emotion.

I'm a strong believer in the idea that, if you surround yourself with brilliant people, they will help make your work appear brilliant.  Troll2357 was the first step in demonstrating that idea, and Let Him Go is the second.  I'm hoping to reunite this winning team (and grow it a little) for the third step.

The Making of Troll2357

One could say that the whole concept for Troll2357 originated in November of 2014.  A writing tutor set us the task of writing a story based on the title 'The Wizard's Daughter' or a number of other titles.  I decided I preferred the title 'The Wizard's Daughter' so I mulled that one over.

At the time I was reading true disturbing stories about young people, girls mainly but certainly not exclusive to that gender, killing themselves due to comments made by absolute strangers...  To anyone who grew up prior to the age of the Internet this is a bizarre concept to accept.  That some person whom you don't even know, doesn't know you and likely never will, can undermine your feelings to the point where you decide it is no longer worth living.  Whatismore, on the rare occasion that these 'trolls' are tracked down and confronted by those tormented, they don't care and act like the whole thing is a joke.

This got my blood boiling and I couldn't get it out of my head, so if I was writing a story that week it had to be on that subject.  I started to imagine what I might do if a relative of mine killed themselves in reaction to trollific comments.  I imagined tracking down that troll, kidnapping him, tying him to a chair and cutting out his eyeballs to feed them to him (okay it was damned severe but I was wrapped in anger and hatred at the time).

The result was the short story 'Troll2357'.  I would publish this in my sci-fi fantasy anthology Fantastic Fiction: Volume One.  Incidentally, that is available as an ebook here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/566647

(the latest version of Kindle: https://www.amazon.co.uk/kindle-dbs/fd/kcp)

Alas it is far more difficult to connect with people these days with merely writing, unless you have a name they recognise or are writing something that can be easily recognised by genre cliches.  We knew the concept of the story was too important to just leave it as a story that few people may ever read.

The first step was to find an actor who would be convincing as the troll (we already had the Wizard and had a Cheryl in mind).  For almost six months we searched, posting and reposting the casting call.  Actors would contact us through Facebook, we would send them a couple of pages of script, they would do a reading, usually filmed by a friend on a smartphone, and then send it back to us.  It wasn't that the acting was bad for anyone who applied really, its just that there was nothing that made me sit up in my seat.

That was until this video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4fFkoDCE00

It was the first audition video that made me sit up in my seat.  I was impressed by Nigel Goodwin's range of emotion.  He managed to show me facial expressions that I hadn't even imagined and yet seemed so right for the scene.  So we cast Nigel on the spot and decided the time had finally come to move forward with the film.

It was the uncle of Matt Hughes who kindly allowed us to film in his enormous basement (we actually only used one room of his basement, there are three).  In the prose story the location is depicted as a bunker that the Wizard patiently dug under his house while his elaborate plan was in motion.  For obvious budgetary reasons that idea had to be dropped in favour of a pre-made basement.

The main body of filming took place in that basement in Bootle over five days.  Those five days were broken up into three days one week and two days another.  Having this divide in the schedule proved invaluable.  It allowed us the time to truly assess the footage we had and come up with changes which ultimately strengthened the overall film.

Translating prose to film is not always easy.  With prose one has extra elements that can't be called on when trying to tell the same story on film, for instance interior monologues.  In the original story there was no need to ever leave the basement, the whole story is set there with other important information taking the form of character thoughts.  But in the film I realised quite early on that we needed an epilogue, a chance to show how these events have affected the troll and to add the twist.

In the initial script there is simply an epilogue (very much like epilogues that were often used at the end of an X-Files episode) showing the troll returning to the Internet after a couple of years and writing a blog about his experiences.  I literally lifted the interior monologue from the story and placed it as voiceover for a scene of the troll typing.

It was only after we finished filming in the basement that I realised that wouldn't do.  The quality of the footage shot in the basement was such that I feared just slapping some silly unthought out epilogue in and thus spoiling the whole film by the end.

I started to think what the reaction of the police might be to this story.  This, of course, got me thinking about their attitude and reaction to Internet crime in general.  How Internet crime is often not considered a crime worth pursuing the person committing it.  If I left the house right now, walked up to a black man and made some aggressive racist slur, that would be considered a 'hate crime'.  Particularly if there were witnesses, I wouldn't blame that black man for taking the issue to the police. 

But perform what is essentially the same action on the Internet and suddenly that's okay... because it's the Internet.  Oh granted the police talk big about the Internet, and are occasionally embarrassed into pursuing certain perpetators or a particular publicised aspect of Internet crime, but with only 95,000 prison places they know that if they were to prosecute everybody who might flaunt the law online they could conceivably fill UK prisons 10 times over (frankly, I'm being conservative with that estimate).

So this led me to the idea that the troll goes to the police to confess.  Initially we filmed a scene with one police officer interviewing him, with a scene at the start explaining why she was interviewing him on her own.  Later I realised that there was no reason for her to interview him on her own so I made it two police officers, two different police officers at that.

One I made young, to represent the younger demographic, those people who perhaps barely remember a time before the Internet.  This officer would take the troll's story seriously which would be at odds with the second officer.

The second officer I made a lot older, someone who probably clearly remembers a time before the Internet and perhaps is not too technically savvy so may well be lost with some of the story, particularly the reference to Youtube comments.  This was inspired by my reading the prose story to my mother and her not really getting it, perhaps because of too many modern references.

To this day I'm not even sure how we wound up with the excellent combination of Noel Ross and Kym Veldman.  Perhaps they will remember better than I.

In the end we shot the scene in the living room of our sound consultant.  It had white walls and a believable enough door but was extremely tight to film in.  With just about the whole film shot in telephoto lenses, and just the odd 50mm shot, we didn't have a lot of space to play with.  This is a common problem with telephoto lenses in UK dwellings, the rooms just aren't big enough to give you a great range of shot sizes while using a telephoto lens.

Actually, just remembered, the parts of the interview scene that Nigel is in playing the troll were actually filmed separately from the police interviewing him.  The fact that I, the director and editor, forgot that shows how effective that deception was.  We filmed Nigel's shots for that scene in a room of his home with my cinema screen acting as the white wall behind him (well... a green wall with the lighting of course).

Of course that creates a problem with the sound and we have the fantastic work of our sound editor Martin Gratton to thank for solving that.  He succeeded in matching the acoustic qualities of the two different halves of that scene.  We are indebted to him for that.

The final edit of this film actually consisted of over a thousand individual video and audio files, I kid you not.  There were a good number of composite shots and other effects which one hopes the viewer doesn't notice.  In fact I didn't even credit myself for the effects because I didn't want to draw attention to them.  If an effect is obvious then it's a failed effect frankly, as most modern effects are I'm afraid.  They're so blatant and unashamed about showing off what can be achieved, however that may influence the final digestion of the film by an audience.

The final layer, the icing on the cake, was the music.  I hadn't really thought about the music at any stage while making the film, in fact I wasn't even sure that it needed music.  In truth the film could have existed quite well without it, there is enough going on dramatically to keep the audience interested.

I listened to a lot of tracks by a lot of different up-and-coming composers before I discovered the work of Lois Paton.  She kindly volunteered her services when I asked.  I think she was expecting me to send her a temp track, but I hate that practice.  When you hand someone a piece of music and say, 'Make it like that,' what you're effectively doing is handing the composer a pair of creative boxing gloves.  That is why Hollywood films all tend to sound the same, which makes the music entirely unmemorable.

Because I didn't approach the music with any set ideas this allowed me to effectively say to Lois, 'Knock yourself out.'  Given total free reign to compose the music according to her own ideas she came back with the most amazing first music draft you can imagine.  Three drafts later, responding to my feedback each time, she delivered a score that fits so well you barely notice it, which is entirely despite the fact that it is not exactly quiet music.

Hollywood tends to hide its music these days, make everything underscore, almost as though they don't want people to notice the music which is fair enough - it is non-diegetic sound after all.  But people won't notice the music so much if the story you're showing them is engaging enough, that's the real trick.  If you're worried that the music is going to take people out of the experience all I can suggest is that you work a bit longer on the script, because that will only happen with a boring script.

Anyway, I think that's it.  I may have forgotten to mention some things but basically that was the production in a nutshell.  The film was selected for the Cardiff Mini Film Festival and is entered in a number other larger film festivals that we're going to be waiting what is still a few months before knowing if it will be selected.

As always my thanks and love go out to all who volunteered for this film and helped us bring this story to the screen.