Last year I decided, at the very last minute, to make a film for Virgin Media Shorts called 'Clone Alone'. It wasn't about the contest for me, it was about the limitations and having a deadline. The film could run to 2:20 max and I had to get it filmed and finished in about four days.
This would have been pretty easy if I hadn't decided to make my film about a guy who gets addicted to cloning, and therefore every other shot involved some form of special effects malarkey.
Watching the film back now I remain quite proud of it, for something done very off the cuff, just me, my housemate Sean and his little HD camera I think it looks pretty good, and whilst some of the effects shots really don't work I don't think any of them are too jarring if you're watching the film casually.
So, this year, I thought I'd enter once more. Again, it's not about the prizes (yeah, that's what all losers say), but I can become a little undisciplined or find other projects bogged down by organisational stumbling blocks or technical glitches, with this contest it encourages me to work quickly, get it shot, chopped and online as soon as possible.
Though I have been a little more ambitious this year...
For starters the cast is larger, my old housemate Sean Connell (from 'Clone Alone' and 'The Usual Boyfriend') is the lead once more, Jamila Jennings-Grant (who I worked with on a film of Sean's called 'Bright Eyes In The Snow') is the main supporting role, Daniela Heinisch (who I found through posting an ad on casting website Mandy.com) takes another part, Rosie Martin (from my band Giant Burger) plays a small role and I have a cameo.
Furthermore the locations are broader, there's The Kenton pub in Homerton, Victoria Park in Tower Hamlets, a street scene in South London and an office scene at my day job workplace.
It also relies quite heavily on the weather being good, which usually at this time of year wouldn't be too much of a concern - though in the UK it's always an issue - but lately we've had rather a lot of rain. Whilst the forecast for Saturday is decent I'm tentative at best.
However the biggest challenge facing the actors relates to the film's concept. I've had to write three different versions of the script to accomodate for how this will effect the shooting of the picture and had to address some fears from my two leads about the complexity and difficulty of learning their lines!
It's going to be a very peculiar shoot, and hopefully, if all goes to plan, with shooting scheduled for tomorrow, the film will be online this coming Monday. I'll keep you posted...
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