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Making feature films for the Internet always seemed a good idea to me, either short films or feature length told in episodes. Complete feature length are better downloaded to watch on bigger screens.
My old friend Patricia Doyle from RADA days and I got together to write a series of adapted classic short horror stories, adapted from some of the masters who wrote them. The criteria was: small casts, few locations and costs within our small budget. We agreed our first script, Pat would direct and I would produce and act in this our premier production. 
From my experience the first and most important key person you need on your project is a brilliant Production Manager/Producer, who knows where all the ‘bodies’ are buried in terms of willing crew and negotiable equipment. The first person we got on board was Matt Loudon, a young man bursting with energy and enthusiasm, in addition to being practical and experienced, especially in the field of low budget filming, he came up with all the crew.
Pat met Matt for the first time when he came to see the house. He nearly left when Pat and I started a fairly serious row about something - artistic, I suppose - I forget. Matt sat with a slightly stunned look on his face, but then proceeded to play brilliant arbiter. Many lesser men would have turned tail and run!
Furthermore the tiny dining room of Patricia’s house, was to be the main location, where there was barely room to swing the proverbial cat and where we would have at least two people on camera, one sound, two or three actors and a n other! When Pat had generously offered her lovely Victorian house in South East London, I said, “Are you quite sure? Do you have any idea what you’re getting yourself into?” “Oh yes” she said blithely, “ No problem and it will save us so much money” . She did admit after it was all over and she had had twenty people plus a stack of equipment, costumes, props, make up and wigs piled up in the house for four days, “Never again”. It took her about 2 months to get the house straight again. But for us all it was worth it, she had so much that was authentic; she even got the chimney swept in her real Victorian fireplace. Pat brought in a lovely Art Director Christopher Giles, who transformed her room into a wonderful parlour of the period. We had to put the brakes on him somewhat as he got alarmingly carried away at auctions and second hand shops, explaining that the budget was just that, a budget and that many of the great things he suggested would never be seen in a film. Wardrobe was quite a challenge. The main problem we found was that many of the men’s costumes were just too small! Men and indeed women were much smaller in all directions in the 1890’s and much of the stock, being authentic, just did not fit the actors! There was also the slight problem of my hair. I hate wigs, they give me a headache, so I was directed to a shop, in the local market, that did extensions largely for girls who wanted to seriously dress up for nights out. I could then wear my own hair up or down as the scene demanded. The customers and the hairdressers were largely Afro Caribbean and threw themselves into the challenge with gusto. However the extensions were going to be very expensive and in the end a very glamorous long blonde wig was produced and they had  fun converting it into something I could wear. They asked if I wanted to wear it out to go home. By this time I looked somewhat like Dolly Parton - though less attractive and I declined.
Once we had found our terrific make up/hair/ special effects Vicky Covil, straight from training school, the wig had gained a measure of credibility and acceptability. She also introduced us old time actors to the joys of airbrushing, a technique which literally means you blow a very fine base on to the actor’s face, which gives a completely natural look. |
A monkey’s paw was a key prop and had to be right. The one we had made too much like a glove so I turned to Vicky and said - “you’re it”. Now this is like throwing money on the table at Vegas and praying to the God of luck. Well he heard us and Vicky did a brilliant job. There is nothing worse than an audience laughing at something that is supposed to scare them. This could have so easily happened. Special Effects are now very sophisticated and very expensive, as not everyone can do them. The lights and camera were ordered and we had rehearsed and had set aside a long weekend to shoot. I had pulled in favours from old friends like Martin Jarvis, (of National Youth Theatre days) to be the Host. Martin was wonderful and made the most gracious contribution in the most economical time. In adapting the story I knew that many people would know and remember it, but there is a whole generation of younger people who would not know it. Patricia and I had discussed the idea of having the traditional sinister, deep voiced performer, but I felt a younger audience would respond better to a warmer, more sympathetic person, who could lay out some of the background and history of the period and engage them: this what Martin gave us. I also roped in old pal Malcolm Tierney to play the father and he is perfect, slightly paternalistic and controlling as fits with the period, but at the same time so moving and passionate. Young Leon Ancliffe, terrific as the son and Christopher Holt, giving a lovely restrained performance, both friends of Pat and mine rounded out the cast. And of course we had the lovely Richard Stride as the Sergeant Major, who helped with the costumes, busy man that he is with buying and running theatres, making films and teaching. The Cast and crew bonded in a strong and unusual way and we had a wonderful shoot. Matt cut our four days to three (because he knew we would be losing valuable key crew members to their ordinary working lives, when Monday rolled around). The camera and lighting company left out a vital part of our equipment and we had to hang around for half a day waiting for the right stuff to make its way from Pinewood to Brockley.  In the end we shot the film in two and a half days - a minor miracle, but entirely due to the commitment of the cast and crew who knocked themselves silly to finish. I know David Byrne the talented Director of Photography would have loved that extra day to have the time to do the special effects shots that were left. But we pressed him and after performing a stunning job lighting for the low lit Victorian era and lugging the heavy HD camera around for the last hand held scene, he managed to come up with more magic for us.
After our original choice of editor had to withdraw, we found Bob McGowan, who runs his own editing business and is experienced with digital editing. Bob agreed to a tight time scale (I am nothing if not impatient) and were back on track. The downside was that I was not absolutely sure, that what we had was any good. Due to our tight budget, we had compromised on one or two really important areas, continuity, camera notes and sound among other minor things. Our sound recordist Jules Dawton had done a terrific job under trying circumstances with traffic noises, airplanes and so on. But he was not given the time or space to operate perfectly. My thought was that if the first edit that Bob produced looked like piece of amateur rubbish, Pat and I should write it off to experience and move on with our lives. But it wasn’t. For a first cut, it really was very good, not perfect, but good enough to carry on with the investment. We finished the film with a great audio edit by Jason Creasey and original music. I thought we would probably be using out of copyright classical music, but editor Bob suggested Sean McGee, who has created a lovely score for the film, being experienced with digital and online work. 
And that’s the story of ... |