Progress

Well, last week was quite an eventful week for the production.

On Monday night, I, Brian and Roy journeyed through the streets of Belfast to visit David, who is going to build our bad guy costume. What struck me as I entered his house was two things: the amount of movie memorabilia, and more notably, the sheer size of his DVD collection! I was in absolute awe at the number of titles on his shelf. Fantastic stuff!

After a great cup of tea, provided by David’s better half, Jo, we got down to business.

David and Roy began comparing drawings they had done. I call them drawings, but they call them sketches. Yeah, right. If I could sketch like that, I’d never put a pen down, but anyways. It was amazing how similar and on the ball they both were, so after some talk about logistics and whatnot, Brian and I settled on a design based on both Roy and David’s designs, and away we went, very happy and enthused in what progress was being made.

On Tuesday, there was a cast meeting for a fourth draft read-through, which was great. Everyone brought a sense of professionalism to the lines, and we came away with yet more changes and amendments, but more importantly, the confidence in that the relationships between the characters are believable.

Our budget at the minute is coming along nicely, so that’s good news. It wouldn’t hurt to be coming along that little bit faster, but beggars (that we are) cannot be choosers.

I’ve just filled in the forms for the use of the location, so all being well, the next update will be full of goodies, and I don’t mean the comedy threesome.

Busy, busy, busy

It's been a few days since the last update, so I think it's about time to let you know what's been happening.

On Tuesday, Brian and I met a great guy called Michael about the possibility of using his equipment for the shoot. He has a pair of great top-end HD cameras, and we managed to strike an accord.

This sorta brings us back to the SD-HD debate. I think we've pretty much settled on shooting in HD, so if anyone reading this wants to buy a top-end SD camera, give me a shout!

Anyways, we had a meeting with NI Screen yesterday to discuss the production and what they can do for us. The meeting was primarily about getting contacts for insuring the production, so that was a complete success. The meeting was very informative and NI Screen are very supportive of us and what we're trying to schieve, so that was very inspiring. One phrase that I heard struck a chord with me, mainly because I've heard it again, but also because it makes sense to think about it and try to get something sorted - the phrase is "route to market".

The main definition of this phrase is the supply chain that a product follows to get to the final consumer. So this means that we need to think about how to promote the movie before it's made and how to get the movie to the people that want to see it. Hopefully we will have something to show the public soon in the form of publicity shots of the main cast, so watch this space!

The Circle is Now Complete...

It's very early in the morning, I'm sitting here in work, and I'm so tired that I keep seeing what looks like my work colleagues in clown attire.

I'm tired because I got in last night from the first readthrough. I may be exhausted, but my body is producing a lot of adrenalin as I am even more excited about the film.

The readthrough was fantastic. A complete success, from start to finish. Everyone was professional, and the dialogue seemed to flow off the page with ease. Also, it was great to hear the interactions between the cast and to put faces to characters that we envisioned.

Also, more important than all of that, we got our final two main cast members last night. We welcome to the cast Chris and Sarah, who fitted the parts like a familar pair of jeans.

I have to say that both Brian and I were extremely impressed with everyone's performances last night, and our thanks go to Hugh, Kieran and Lesa as well, who were stellar as usual.

"Red Harvest" is now chugging along at great speed, and everything is coming together quite well. We plan to have meetings next week with our production crews, as well as with Northern Ireland Screen to sort out insurance for the feature, but until then, fourth draft is looming closer and closer.

Exasperating Stuff!

Brian and I visited the proposed location yesterday morning, accompanied by Ta who is filming us making the film, and to say that we were impressed is a complete understatement!

The place has everything we need to make the film as convincing as it can be, and the shoot will be an absolute pleasure!

I have began formal procedures in acquiring the location for May, but I foresee no problems.

Tonight is the first readthrough of the third draft of the script with the prospective cast, so that should be great - it'll be weird to have voices for the characters that we had in our heads for quite some time, but preparation is the key to success.

As I mentioned, the script is on its third draft, and I can safely say that after visiting the location, the fourth draft will be much better.

Art Dept Progress

There was a quick meeting on saturday night with David, Roy and James - our beloved art department - about some designs for the film. There were a lot of great ideas flowing and everyone is on the same page.

Also, we discussed some extra scenes that may come out of the viewing of the location on Wednesday, so that is pretty exciting.

We're still missing two fundamental cast members, but we're planning a readthrough of the script this week in which a few try-outs will be attending.

We may also have access to an HD camera for the shoot, but we'll hear more about that shortly.

It's certainly a very busy time for us all!