The Grind

We are well into the filming process now! We've been filming on our office set every weekend since our last post and it's hard work! We've solved most of our lighting and sound issues, and apart from a calendar that refuses to stay attched to the wall our set and props are doing their job perfectly! Now if we can all just remember our lines and try not to drop the camera we should be okay.

Filming is taking somewhat longer than we had planned as some last minute changes to the set (we had planned to green-screen the windows but realised that this would sverely limit our steadicam freedom so we now have a 'frosted' effect on them) means that we can only film during daylight hours, at least for daytime scenes, so evenings are out!

It's becoming harder to persuade our actors and crew to commit to weekend time during December, what with Christmas preparations and all! So after next weekend, we'll be effectively shutting down the main part of production and using the time to hone our 'post production' skills - learning to use the editing software properly and so forth. And eating mince pies, of course.

More casting news: we have been joined by Glenis Ansell (pictured on the right, with Jon) who is playing the character of Caroline, our main character's boss. She's not as scary as she looks!

Finally, here's a selection of pictures to show you what we've been up to!

Is it hot in here?

So its time for an update and a good subject to cover off is the principle photography that's been taking place on the main set over the last few 'weeks'. Our cast and crew have been braving bright lights and long hours to get those takes just right and one of the key lessons learned has been around lighting. Two top tips for you are:

Bounce your lights off white walls/ceilings to get a good 'daylight' effect. Direct lighting of the set can result in 'yellowing' of the cast

Make sure that the monitor you use to approve the image being captured by the camera is 'flat' - in other words, if you are using a TV make sure it shows you what the camera sees and not what the camera sees once it has been 'enhanced' by the brightness / contrast / colour settings of the TV itself. Sounds obvious but worth checking!

Below is a picture of Darren testing lighting out before a hard day of filming - it is much harder work than you would imagine being on set all day!

Joyriding

Our hero needs a car. But not just any car. It wouldn't be in keeping to give him a ropey Astra or a Focus. No, our man needs something with a bit of status attached to it. So we got him a Merc. Of course our budget ain't big enough to buy him a brand new Merc, nor do we know anyone who: a) has a Merc; and, b) trusts us to drive it round for a day. So we hired one. This mighty beast, including insurance cost us £100 for the day. Bargain!

Thanks to Karen for the photo!

Video Diary #6: First Location Shoot

On the 23rd September 2007, we found ourselves in Bristol Boxing Gym filming a few of the scenes from the movie. Not only was it our first ever location shoot, but it was Darren's first ever time directing. Talk about in at the deep end! Fortunately we had lots of support from our friends!

Set Dressing

So, we have all the equipment, we've knocked up some props and we've done our casting. Now we just need to find somewhere to record our movie. A lot of the action takes place within the confines of an office. Nice as it would be to film on location in a real office, the costs involved are phenomenal. So we have to make our own!

I'd like to introduce you to... Jon's bedroom. It has all the standard features of a bedroom - a bed, a chest of drawers, curtains, even a treadmill.

Jon very generously allowed us to decimate this room and turn it into our set. He will be spending the coming weeks sleeping rough in his spare room!

The first job is to strip the room of all of it's traditional bedroom acoutrements. Now the purple walls (a girl assures me that it's lilac - I don't know how to tell - it just looks purple to me) aren't really appropriate to an office setting, so that has to go!

We actually managed to con one of our cast members, Susan, into helping out - in fact she probably worked harder than anyone getting the nasty cheap B&Q paint on the walls. It took 3 coats and a whole day!

Eventually, the paint was on and our next job was to furnish the room.
Details such as replacing the light fitting with a flourescent strip light will help maintain the illusion that we're not just filming in someone's bedroom!

A few budget desks and cupboards and a salvaged filing cabinet later, we had a room that was really starting to look like an office.

Finally, it was time to dress the set like a proper office - a pinboard covered in notices - monitors and keyboards on desks, stationery, files, reference books and other bits and bobs finished it off nicely. I think you'll agree that the finished product looks pretty good! Note details such as the health and safety poster behind the lamp and the canteen menu on the pinboard. We're all quite proud of ourselves!

It's all in the preparation

Years ago I remember some manager type banging on to me about the "7 Ps" which stood for "Perfect preparation prevents p1ss poor performance" and despite the fact I always felt that was only 6 P's, the message stuck. So with this in mind we've been set building, prop creating and make up testing prior to some pretty full on filming activity that is due to take place over the next week or so.

Firstly, and I'm not going to tell you why just yet, we needed to convert a rather nice looking office chair into something a bit more... well... used... so with the application of coffee, violence, fire, violence, wood and violence we 'aged' this fine looking chair and made into something a bit more... um... crappie



Next up, due to the boxing scene which we covered below, there is a need to play about with some make up and so that we dont look like complete morons in front of all the hired help on the day - we thought we'd have a bit of play at making Dazza look like he'd done several rounds with Ivan Drago.



Its worth noting that this was the output of a massive 2 minutes work - we were more interested in 'proof of concept' than anything else - also I was pretty happy that I was able to reassure Dazza that the burning sensation in his eyes the next day was quite normal.

Jon

Star Avengers!

One of the characters in the movie is a sci-fi nerd. In one scene, a toy spaceship is tossed around and the pros and cons of a tv series are discussed. Our original plan was to seek permission from the owners of one or more well known sci-fi franchises to display some of their toys around Dave's workspace. Unfortunately, the permission was not forthcoming, either because the owners were unwilling to allow us to use their images, wanted a larger fee than we were prepared to pay (i.e. more than free), wanted to know waaaaay too much about the script (with the implication that if their product was portrayed in what they conisdered to be a negative light, they would decline or request changes) or simply ignored our request. I guess that's their perogative!

In order to get around the problem, we had to create our own pseudo sci-fi franchise. So we needed a toy spaceship and a few pictures to put around the place. Here's how we did it:

First up, take a ropey hands free kit that never really worked properly from the car. It already looks a bit like a spaceship, see. Then take some bits and pieces from a model kit. (You can click on these pictures for a bigger version).

Next, (supervised by a responsible adult) take some super glue and stick the bits and pieces from the model kit onto the ropey hands free kit, being careful not to stick your fingers together in the process (ahem).

The resulting abomination looks pretty awful, doesn't it? Yup. But how can you make this appalling travesty of random bits of tat look cool and spaceshippy, I hear you ask.

Well - that's where the silver spray paint comes in! Now, it looks awesomely cool, huh?

Next up, take some generic action figures that no-one's ever going to recognise (one of which looks suspiciously like a key member of the cast) and give them the deluxe silver spraypaint treatment as well.

For the final touch, photograph them all, give them a spacey background, knock up a cheesy name for the TV series, order a mug an a mousemat with the reuslting picture on and hey-presto, you have an instant fake 80s TV classic (which probably looks better then anything they knocked out in the 80's anyway).

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the STAR AVENGERS™!

Star Avengers™ are © 2007 RMW Films. Any reproduction of their distinctive likenesses is prohibited unless you have appropriate executive permission from RMW Films to do so (which can be applied for in writing along with a 32 page application, a £500 fee and a writing credit). Your first couple of e-mails will be ignored. :)

Time for an update!

Well its been a busy few weeks since August and our last post. Jon has been training with Paul Henry to get the movements right for the boxing scene and we even have a couple of photos from one of the training sessions taken on location at the gym used in the film!

In this first shot, Jon is receiving some instructional guidance from Paul.


The advice is then being put into use over in the ring!


Lots of other things have been going on - mostly involving spending money! We appear to be some 25% over budget now but hopefully most of the expenses have been met. Darren has been off on shopping sprees getting incidental props sorted out for set dressing etc and we are expecting our permits for filming in and around Bristol to come through any day now!

Video Diary #5: Shedding Light On The Matter

We solved our lighting issues with a trip to B&Q & Argos and surpisingly few pounds! The 150 watt halogen lamp cost about £12 and the tripod (which we already had) cost about £15. To light a set, you generally need 3 lights, two at the front and one at the back. More on that later. First though, here's a little video diary that shows the difference a single light can make!



So, back to the lighting set-up. You should generally set up a main light - a 'Key', to onme side of the camera, providing your main illumination and setting the 'feel' for the image you want. A second, not so bright 'fill' light, on the other side of the camera highlights the 'dark side' of your subject so it's not in complete shadow and provides more detail. Front lights generally make the image look flat and kind've blend into the background, so a light from the back, a 'back key' makes it feel more 3 dimensional!


These guys explain it far better than I can!

More Casting News!

One of the key scenes in the movie takes place in a boxing ring! Although we're not making a Rocky movie, it's important to keep the action as realistic as possible.

As such we've enlisted the help of Paul Henry pictured above on the right with Jon and Chris Sanigar (centre) of the Bristol Boxing Gym in St Agnes.

Assuming that Jon survives the photo session, he will be appearing with Paul in the ring at our location shoot at The Bristol Boxing Gym in late September.

Video Diary #4: Clamp It!

A clamp turned up in the post today. I made good use of it!

The clamp was purchased from the excellent people at B. Hague & Co Ltd who got it to me in record time!

Castaways

We're pleased to introduce to you the principal cast of the Badman Project. Pictured from left to right are Susan Jarvis, Jon Steadman and James Trotham.

Jon, who you've already met is playing our main character, Jason Badman in addition to his musical and production roles. Susan will be playing the female lead, Angela Hargreaves and James will be playing the part of Dave Segal.

In this picture, Jon has decided to get into character early. Sensibly, Susan and James are not letting it bother them and are getting on with the task of looking splendid for the camera, which they are doing with great style and elan.

Hopefully, we'll be making more casting anouncements very soon, so check back here for more pictures!

An update of stuff... and things

Well - I thought I should update the blog with a few points about whats been going on in Film Production land so that you can all see we've been very very busy in the last month - so here are the main points

The Boxing scene - a meeting has been set up for next week no less for us to meet with the guys providing the boxing venue and technical support. Additionally we should get to meet my 'opponent' when I shall start my grovelling to ensure he doesnt actually 'lay one on me'

We've been making a list and checking it twice! Our To Do list is coming on nicely and between Darren and me, we are even managing to check a few off as done!

Public Liability Insurance - this is a big one because we need this to film on location. We finally managed to get ourselves £1m of cover at a rate that didnt cost us thousands of pounds! not easy I can tell you!

Props - all I can say is - I picked a hell of a time to have problems with an ebay seller for the first time ever! But we're getting there.

Darren's been awat in the States being very important etc so its good to have him back and firing on all cylinders!

Training - my Personal Trainer has given me my training plan and diet for the last six weeks prior to shooting - its a tough regime and I'm hungry all the time but its having the desired effect so hopefully I will be in shape for the key scenes!

Lates all - Jon

PS - thanks to all of you who are reading the blog - please feel free to post comments!

Actor Release Forms

Before you can use an actor's image or likeness in your film and any related publicity, you should get them to sign an Actor's release form before you start filming. This means that, should you have a falling out, the actor cannot withdraw their permission to use their image. The release form should make mention of payment and other agreements if applicable. In our case, our actors are volunteers, so we've simply amended the simple release form to reflect that. Here's what ours looks like:

CONTRIBUTORS RELEASE FORM

TITLE OF FILM: ‘Badman’ (Working Title)

PRODUCTION COMPANY: RMW Films



NAME OF ARTISTE: ___________________________

ADDRESS: ___________________________

___________________________

___________________________

___________________________


DATE OF FILMING: ___________________________



I hereby agree that the copyright and all other rights in respect of my performance is hereby assigned to RMW Films. I agree that the film Badman that I have contributed to, may be exhibited in all media and formats. This may include public screenings and broadcast screenings..RMW Films may without further consent use my name, likeness, biography and photographs of me and recordings of interviews with me in advertising and in publicising the film Badman in all media and formats.

I hereby agree that my performance in title is not for any payment.


Signature (Artiste) ___________________________

Print Name ___________________________

Signature (Producer) ___________________________

Print Name ___________________________

Date ___________________________

Video Diary #3: This Is Sparring!

As we've mentioned before, one of the key scenes of the movie takes place in the boxing ring. We got together to try out some moves and camera angles. And, er... mostly to punch each other.



Stead is very keen for the boxing to look as authentic as it possibly can, so he's bravely volunteered to enter the ring with a professional boxer (more on him later) and actually get punched around a bit! Now that's dedication for you!

He's done a bit of bag and pad work in the past, but has never been in the ring, so between now and the shoot in September, he's got to get used to being hit!

Video Diary #2: Life Through A Lens

So the camera's arrived and it comes with a couple of exciting lens attachments! We have a wide angle and a telephoto one.

The wide angle lens increases the camera's field of vision by effectively using a mild fish-eye effect (you know, like the little peep hole in your front door). This makes filming landscapes a bit better as you can effectively fit more on the screen and should be handy when filming in relatively close proximity to the subject - particularly if you have a couple of people on screen.

The telephoto lens simply multiplies the zoom by 2.

You can see the difference these lenses actually make in the video below. Oh, and I've thrown a bit of Strauss in!


Hosting the file on Youtube doesn't really do the fantastic camera image any favours. You'll just have to take my word for the excellentness of it all!

Customs

Argh! That camera's taking forever to arrive! First there was a problem with the case that was due to be shipped with it - the batch had been dented and cracked - and now the UPS site tells me that it's sitting in Customs. Gah. At least it's in the country - we may even be lucky enough to get it by the weekend!

Once it arrives, it's gonna be a steep learning curve in getting to know it. To date, I've only ever used an old analogue Sony with no useful settings on it at all!

The plan is to put together a couple of music videos for The Torr to get used to the functions before launching into the filming proper!

Box Clever

So, one of the key scenes in the movie takes place in a boxing gym. It's not a boxing movie, but that's where the scene takes place. This is primarily motivated by Stead's love of boxing; the scene could easily have taken a very different form, but one of the perks of being a producer and scriptwriter on you own movie project is that you can do... er... pretty much whaterver you want.

Anyway, the scene works really well on paper, but a convincing boxing ring isn't something that can be knocked up easily so, as with a number of other locations in the movie, we needed to find a real life boxing gym that's happy for us to take them over for a day or two.

A bit of searching around on the net narrowed it down to a couple of local gyms and a couple of e-mails later, Stead's elicited an agreement from one of them to accommodate us. Although we've yet to meet the owner - hopefully that'll happen later this week - he's indicated that he's happy to help and that it's something he's done before. I'll post an update and hopefully a few pictures of the place once we've had the meeting!

Next up... find some office space...

Video Diary #1: Script Readthrough - first draft

The plan was to read through the script with a reasonably impartial third party obvserving. This would allow us to pick up on any problems with the structure of the script, any problems with clunky dialogue and so-on.

The idea of recording the readthrough was so that it could then act as a tool when we worked on revising it - just to make it easier to listen to the dialogue and so-on.

We haven't included any of the actual script in this clip - at this stage it's top secret and if you were to discover any details of the plot, we would have to kill you!

Readthrough

Jon and I had our first complete readthrough of the first draft this afternoon.

It was a very useful exercise which allowed us to identify some of the more obvious problems with the script - things like the passage of time and so-on.

We videoed the proceedings and will be posting a short video diary in the next couple of days. Watch this space!

Steady, now...

Steadicams provide an awful lot of versaitility in your camerawork when you're filming. It means you can get in up close and personal, move around your subject and create a dynamic look to your movie without all that wobbling around that you get when you just hold the camera in your sweaty little hands. Problem is... they're really expensive. Hundreds of pounds expensive.

Or are they? A very quick search around the net uncovered The Poor Man's Steadicam, a site run by a chap called Johnny Chung Lee, who gives detailed instructions on how to build your own Steadicam from plumbing materials which comes to a grand total of $14. Yes, that's right, $14. That's £7 in real money. He also sells 'em here if, like us, you can't be bothered to build it yourself!

I've had a play with it, using the 'old' camera and it seems to be pretty effective - you're never going to get the same sort of quality that you'd get from a £1500 steadicam rig, but it's pretty damn good, for almost no money at all!

First Draft Complete. Yay!

It’s taken about 6 weeks, but finally a first draft of the script is complete. It’s currently coming in at a whopping 81 pages which is a fair bit longer than I’d expected. If one is to believe the theory that one page equates to one minute of screen time, then we’re running 21 minutes over the expected running time of 60 minutes.

Stead and I will be getting together at the weekend for a read through to get an idea of how it’s actually clocking in and whether it’s all hanging together ok. Then we’ll be starting a ruthless editorial process during which the majority of the script will undoubtedly be rewritten and Stead and I will attempt to kill each other over ‘creative differences’*

*for ‘creative’ read ‘ego’ and for ‘differences’ read ‘mania’.

Choosing a Camera

Video cameras are pretty expensive things and it turns out that if you want to make your own movie, you have to get hold of one.

Now my mother lent me her old Sony camcorder to play around with a few months ago. It was rubbish on account of being at least a baker's dozen years old. Not even close to suitable for a job like this!

Stead and I spent quite some time deliberating on what sort of camcorder to get hold of for this project. Do we splash out on a High Definition (HD) camera? Do we buy one with a hard disk, one with DVD or stick with tape?* Eventually, we decided on a standard definition MiniDV (tape) based Panasonic DVC20. And here's why.

First up, HD is still pretty new when it comes to camcorders. That means that not only is it expensive, but the manufacturers haven't had the chance to iron out any bugs. At the time of writing this, it seems that there are quite major problems (in our budget range) with using HD recording equipment in low light levels - in fact, anecdotally, the guys that made Torchwood for the BBC invested rather a lot of money in HD cameras only to find that the quality was awful at low light. hence many scenes that should have been quite creepy and dark had to be filmed on a bright, shiny set. The Cyberwoman episode is an example of why this wasn't their best laid plan!

On that basis, we've decided that we'll stick with the tried and true Standard Definition, which is still going strong, works in the dark and, most importantly, we can afford!

So... how do you store your recordings? Tape? Disk? Hard drive? You can even get flash based cameras. Yay. The one thing we found in relation to all but one of the storage media, however was compression. Even on the 60gb hard disk models, the image was compressed into a MPEG2, which meant loss of quality. Our primary goal with the camera is to get the recording 'clean to tape' in the best quality we can manage. And if we're having to compress it before we even get the stuff off the camera, then we're in trouble!

Tape it is then. Of course tape comes with it's own inherent problems. Moving parts for one. As we all know, moving parts are prone to wearing out and breaking down. Something to keep an eye on then. Playing back your footage relies on rewinding and fast forwarding on tape, as opposed to simple scene selection on the other media. And transferring it to the computer for editing has to be done in real time. All small prices to pay for better quality recording, in our view.

Plus, when we looked on ebay, we discovered we could get all of this gubbins for just over £800:



(*Get it? Stick. With Tape! Aha ha ha ha ha!)

The Script

So the script for this project is still in it's infancy. We know the gist of it. Where it starts and where it goes and even one or two things that happen along the way. Putting all of this down on paper is the first thing to be done. Once that's complete we can start looking at all sorts of other logistical things - locations, casting, props and so on.

A bit of research courtesy of my good friend Mr Google uncovered this handy little guide to screenplay formatting!

I've done about 10 pages. Quite a few to go...

Jobs for the Boys

I spent a long time trying to decide what to call this post. More time, ironically, than actually writing it. Still, I think you'll agree that it's a pretty fine title! Especially considering the content.

Now we discussed the division of labour pretty early on in this process. There are only two of us, and a fair amount of stuff will need to get done during the course of this project.

Here's how we've divided it up:

Stead:

Producer (A.K.A Organisation Man). I'm basically a lazy sod and if you left it up to me, this job wouldn't get done until 2012 - and even then, I'd get distracted by the Olympics! So as producer, it's up to Stead to get us organised. He's going to knock up a project plan, engage the cast, get in touch with potential locations, book our tuxes for Cannes and so on.

Musical Director. Stead fancies himself as a bit of a musician. To be fair, he used to run a recording studio back in the 1800s and has been the front man for his band The Torr for more years than I can count (which I realise means little as I have to stop when I run out of fingers). So Stead will be writing and performing the music for our endeavour, with a little help from his merry men.

Leading Man. The star of the movie will be handsome, clever, funny and charismatic. Unfortunately, we couldn't find anyone like that, so Stead will be our leading man.

Dazza:

Scriptdude. Every movie needs a script. And I'm the man who's gonna knock it together! I've even leaned to write especially! Stead will, of course have input into the script, but the bulk of the scripting chores and the subsequent breakdowns and storyboards are all down to me.

Director. Yeah, for a few weeks, I'll be able to delude myself that I'm in charge. I'll even boss Stead around and everything! It'll only last while we're on set, though.

Cameraman. Most of the time. If I can persuade someone else to hold it, all the better!

Of course, there'll be some overlap. We'll try not to fight.