Getting Closer...?

Caron, who plays Sabrina

So, how to start this post without seeming to whinge again? I can't tell you about the one cast member who couldn't make the date for a very important scene, which resulted in it having to be postponed for a full month because there was a different problem every subsequent week. I can't tell you about the second readthrough that was all over the place because we didn't have enough people. I can't tell you about the two-week silence from the provider of our most important location, despite my repeated entreaties for info. I can't possibly even mention that the one night I was supposed to skip down the block to check out another location was the night the occupant managed to get herself locked in, with a lock so badly damaged that help had to be sent to get her out...

No, I won't mention any of that. I won't even say that we had a decent amount of work lined up to do today, recording voiceover and interviewees, and that it virtually all got shelved because of a sore throat. I won't even speculate about the possibility of considering mentioning the fact that my original target for completing the filming is less than two weeks hence and we've shot about five minutes' worth...

No, I am here to celebrate. A friend said: 'Write about the wonder of filmmaking'. I'm assuming by wonder he meant wondering whether the thing will ever get into gear...



Talia with Lana, who plays Peanut

No, enough of that. Good things. We have a Faith! Ok, I stupidly forgot to take any photos because of aforementioned shambolic nature of the readthrough, but we have excellent actress Jessica Laity-Jones on board, fresh from triumph in Doctor Faustus in the Brighton fringe. In the meantime, content yourselves with the picture of Talia with Lana Harper, conveniently showing the upper and lower extremes of height among the main cast. Lana's readthrough went extremely well; despite having been busy moving she obviously grasped Peanut's character at once. I only await news of her availability on 29th June to see if we can go frolicking in the country for a few hours... (Er, that's the whole crew, not me and Lana...)

Anyway, the sole single solitary bit of filming we managed today was the short interview sequence with Kelsey Cameron, a pint-sized veritable embodiment of pure frolicksomeness. Despite not having acted for over a year and feeling nervous, she was just fine.



Kelsey, uncharacteristically still

And what awaits us in the week ahead? Actually, not very much. More interviewees on Thursday, but nothing else confirmed as yet. A location visit with the cast, I hope! Perhaps one end of a few phone conversations; perhaps even the other end, too. Hard to plan when your leading lady is ill!

I was supposed to write about wonder. But what can you say? It slips through your fingers - it defies definition. Kelsey will appear to interact with Talia even though she was looking at nothing, and somehow, with editing, in that and other scenes the shots, sound and acting will coalesce into some representation of a human experience, something that will perhaps make people laugh, or at least smile, and maybe even shed a tear. And they may finish the film having glimpsed corners of the human heart that they don't often visit.

That's where the wonder resides, for me - not specifically in filmmaking, but in storytelling; in bringing to life human beings who have no reality and making people care for them and want to see how their life will turn out. As Stephen King put it - telling us the truth about ourselves by telling lies about people who never existed. That's what it's all about, in the end - not budget or production values or even ideas. It's about people, and about empathy and compassion. It's about getting closer - to others and to aspects of ourselves.



Note: The title of this blog is in tribute to Paul McCartney, who reaches 70 in just five hours, and whose song of the same name I used to shape a tribute to him.

p.s. One utterly invaluable lesson I have learned from this post; don't try to write while cooking, or you may end up with soggy pasta...

Words and Music

Louise, Talia and Miranda

So, we had our readthrough. Do I really need to tell anyone that it didn't go according to plan - that I had two cancellations, one of them only ten minutes before the time we were due to start? And that the same actress (through no fault of her own) had to cancel again the very next day when I tried to organise a follow up? That, in addition, the local hardware shop was unable despite numerous attempts to offer me any solution to my sound equipment problems? That the alternative equipment I borrowed to see whether I might purchase it played up in the same inexplicable fashion?

Didn't think so.

But I come to bury seizures, not to raise them. On the whole, overall, taking everything into consideration, comparatively speaking, looking at the whole picture, things have gone quite well the last three days.

Talia paces out the 'action' - the word should not be taken to mean anything particularly physical is going to occur...

With in fact only three of my principal cast, and one willing stand-in, I had no initial hope that we could work through the whole script, but with a little encouragement from the performers, that's what we did.

Every screenwriter/director probably knows how this feels, the first time around; you're lucky if you hear 35% of the lines in the way you think they should be said. Of course you know it's only the first time, you know it's just to hear the whole thing through, but with one of the performers reading the script completely cold and using this occasion to decide whether she wants to take part, you slowly crumple inside...

However, performers are obviously used to seeing beyond the fumbles of a first reading, since Miranda was happy to sign up once we'd finished. I was also reassured to see that the others were obviously aware of their missteps along the way (which is NOT to imply that my reading of the lines is the only viable one!). Having felt that the script clunked and clanked instead of skipping nimbly along, it was more than a relief to hear Miranda declare that it seemed good, and natural, and not forced.

Due to the unavailability of Amy - playing one of the three principals - for the first half of June, it turned out the easiest thing to shoot first was almost the very end of the film. The climactic scene, in fact; the turning point. So for two consecutive (but not whole) days, I've worked with Talia on the dialogue. Delivery here will be absolutely crucial, especially as her co-star in the scene, the busker played by the extraordinarily talented Jo Maultby doesn't speak a word in reply.

Jo Maultby provides musical counterpoint to Talia's speech

There seemed endless little niggles about the inflection of certain lines, but Talia was patient with my inability to explain precisely what I meant, and we made a lot of progress. For a brief period it seemed the curse of clashing schedules was rearing its head again as we found it impossible to settle on a day for the actual shoot, but eventually we found a day worth trying. Both Jo and Talia are very flexible, so if we fail, all is not lost.

The joy to be derived from having more footage in the can, however, would be a most welcome sensation...

As would a complete cast. I still await a reply from one actress regarding a crucial role, and there have been ominous silences from two others I've recently contacted.

And I still have to line up about twenty female interviewees.

Oh, did I mention that everyone in the film is a woman?

A Few Dolours More

Four steps forward, maybe only two steps back...this is progress!

After very reluctantly deciding that the hotspot on the wall in Vicky's footage really wasn't acceptable, I had to face the fact that I still hadn't actually shot anything that was going to appear in the film. Not only that, but I was also facing having to tell Vicky (and Lucy from the previous week) that it needed to be done again.

On the plus side, I had ironed out the final kinks in the set-up on a very minor shoot, and now had three talented actresses coming to deliver (slightly) more substantial lines. I was lucky to get them, and only sorry they weren't available for something more substantial. Still, six whole lines to go in that can...

Except they had to cancel the night before.

For perfectly good, professional reasons, it's true; they were involved in a play which had taken up all of their concentration for some time, and the morning of the shoot was the day of the final performance, and they didn't feel they'd be able to do me or the play full justice with their energies spread so thin. Still, good reasons notwithstanding, very dispiriting. I looked forward eagerly to getting even one second of footage in the can...

And with the help of Mishkin Fitzgerald, lead singer of alt/punk/goth/classical band Birdeatsbaby, this was achieved! A whole ten seconds, probably - maybe even twelve...! Mishkin is not an actress, but performed creditably in a tiny role in one of my previous films (not available online pending festival submission) and took direction perfectly. Footage! Finally!

The rest of the last week has been spent rewriting, going over the niggling little bits of the script I've been trying to ignore because I know there's something not quite clear, or the line is weak, or overwritten, or a slight non sequitur...

And all the while trying to ignore the fact that one of my three leads is not available even for a readthrough until mid-June at the earliest, and one of the secondary leads has an audition for the Edinburgh fringe...the price of working with good performers, I guess.

So I had to abandon my plans for anything like a full-cast readthrough before beginning to shoot the bulk of the film.

But...but...

I have cast the lead, after over two months of 'Yes!' then 'Nooooo'... (Not a very long time, you might think, but quite long enough to spend on an emotional rollercoaster, particularly with an unofficial deadline of July for completion of shooting!)

So, I present to you Talia Cohen, who came my way through what might be called good karma; a meeting with a young man on another set where I was helping out, who, when I described what I was looking for in a lead, said: 'I know someone who fits that description...' Talia has specialised in musical theatre (for which she's just received a rave review in the Brighton Fringe) but a quick reading confirmed her serious acting chops, and (almost) best of all, she wants in on the production side and brings several eager helpers with her.

And we have a (nearly all) main cast readthrough this afternoon. More on that soon.

Is it actually happening? If the world ends between now and 2pm (EST), you'll know who to blame...

(p.s. Birdeatsbaby are currently touring the USA. If you're reading this on the other side of the pond, go see them - they are astonishing...)