The Making Of The Amazing Healing Machine

(Or What The Hell Did I let Myself In For?)

A personal account of the OVFM Coaching Evenings film project

By

Lee Relph

Part One can be found HERE

Part Two – With A Little Help From My Friends

I didn’t sleep well on that Monday night as I found myself the sufferer of a very painful twinge in my neck, presumably from having to strain to look upwards for hours on end at the viewfinder on Barbara Darby Mk 1‘s camera, which was cranked to full height and Barbara herself was standing on a chair in order to operate it, putting her in the rare position of being taller than me for once! Suffice to say this lack of sleep coupled with my own inherent pessimism made me a rather fraught character heading into the second day of filming of our Coaching Evening film “The Amazing Healing Machine”.

Despite this there was a small flicker of optimism dancing around inside of me after we had managed to get quite a bit of filming down on that first night and I had hopes of us being able to pick up where we left off and hopefully not have this session drag on as late as the first did. However, I never could have imagined that a good 90 plus minutes of our afternoon would be lost due to a simple red light bulb.

For the uninitiated, part of the titular healing machine was a flashing red light bulb on the top which made for a great effect. But some members of the cast complained that the brightness and heat from the bulb was uncomfortable and distracting and therefore we needed to suppress the glare. A fairly straightforward problem to resolve, right? Wrong! Over the course of that 90 plus minutes we tried everything from plastic cups, to glasses to sit over the bulb, to wrapping it with toilet paper (!) to hiding behind other bits of equipment but elevated slightly so it could still be seen and none of these ideas worked. Some of the cast and crew were beginning to get impatient, so to say I was feeling the pressure much earlier into the session than I had envisioned is an understatement – though I guess that comes with the territory of being director and this was supposed to be a learning experience for all of us, including myself. But at least I didn’t hit anybody! Eventually thanks to Barbara Walker and my long suffering chauffeur and longer suffering father, a resolution was found and a glass tankard covered in black gaffer tape in the design of an old lantern (i.e a grid pattern) covered the bulb and dulled glare to the satisfaction of everyone. Phew!

So we finally started shooting a bit later than I had hoped and things were going well enough until we ran into another problem – the curtain we were using wasn’t high enough and would expose our fraudulent stage set up. Only then did we learn that the frame supporting the curtain (which is the club’s green screen support frame) could go higher so we had to stop filming in order to adjust the height. Like the day before, people jumped right into the tick of the action to handle this task which also meant some making some alterations from the previous set up which meant the job took longer than we had hoped. But with everyone co-operating the curtain was finally set to the new height and filming recommenced – until the kids club next door started making noises! If ever there was an argument for birth control….

Now, I don’t want to embarrass the poor fellow but after a fairly smooth run of shooting we hit another roadblock when Val Pinkerton, who was playing the man with a stutter, kept forgetting his line. It was important he delivered the line as written because it was the feed for Mike Shaw’s next line but Val couldn’t get the line right. To paraphrase Eric Morecombe, he was saying pretty much the right words but not necessarily in the right order! We tried everything: making Val repeat the line over and over, leading man Roarke Alexander made a musical mantra out of the line, and we even tried the threat of physical violence but Val would trip up at the last moment. Eventually Roger Wheatley wrote the line on a piece of paper and held up for Val to read from and eventually he did it! Yay Val! I only bring this up, not to humiliate or belittle Val as I know acting is not for everyone, and Val is to be commended for volunteering, but because it was another instance where we all rallied round to put Val at ease and to coach him into delivering the line correctly which he did and earned a deserved round of applause afterwards. Before you ask, no I didn’t get angry with Val. How could I? He was not a pro actor and despite what should have been a huge problem, this was one of the more amusing moments of the shoot!

And lo it was but a while afterwards that we took the final shot and I was able to utter those immortal words “And that’s a wrap!” to weary applause before most of the cast and crew got their coats and bolted for the door! I jest of course but now came the tidying up and again, the set became a hive of activity as bodies were everywhere stacking chairs, coiling cables, dismantling camera tripods, the lights, the curtains and the frame, gaffer tape was removed from the floors and walls (and glass tankard) and everything was returned to normal. When it was all said and down and we had said our collective goodbyes to the people we had been locked away with for hours on end for two days, I took a moment to reflect on how this now empty Garden Rooms in which I stood in had just moments earlier been a film set bristling with energy and activity, where a group of people had come together for a common cause and in the process not only gained an education in filmmaking but integrated with fellow club members they had hitherto never conversed with.

Until I see the captured footage I will remain apprehensive as to whether I successfully conveyed my requirements from the cast or not but from what little I can recall, they all seemed to understand and interpreted my ideas to the best of their abilities and I can honestly say that no-one let anybody down over the two days we spent together working on this film. I must confess to having some regrets in that I didn’t get the time or chance to learn more on the production side of things, i.e: setting up the cameras (white balancing, zebras, etc) and the lighting and sound, but others did benefit from this and I learned so much about directing a larger cast and crew, so we can safely say that the project has achieved its objective and I hope that this experience hasn’t put anyone off from wanting to make their own fictional film in the future.

So, I once again offer my sincerest gratitude to everyone who gave up their time for the sake of this project and for their hard work and support over those two frosty days of January 23^rd and 24^th. And here is the roll call of all who participated or contributed to the project:

OVFM

Mike Shaw (Mr. Wiggins)

Basil Doody (Caretaker)

Val Pinkerton (“Man with Stutter”)

Richard Pugh (“Man with Twitch”)

Barbara Walker (“Woman with Limp”)

Roger Wheatley (“Dozing Man”)

Brenda Wheatley (“Dozing Man’s Wife”/Light bulb operator)

Ian Menage (Producer/”Coughing Man”/Behind The Scenes” Filming)

Barbara Darby (Cameras/Set Design/Props)

John Bunce (Cameras/Healing Machine)

Bob Wyeth (Cameras/Healing Machine)

John Ransley (Lights/Sound)

Sue Ward (Poster/Clapperboard/Notes and Continuity/Set Design)

Sylvia Snipp (Camera Assistant/Set Designer/Props)

John Epton (Technical Advisor)

Chris Coulson (Equipment/Technical Advisor)

Anna Littler (Costumes)

Freddie Beard (Catering)

Simon “Snapper” Earwicker (Photographs)

Outside Contibutors

Roarke Alexander (Dr. Jape)

Fiona Ward (“Pregnant Lady”)

Tony Relph (Chauffeur/Notes and Continuity/General duties)

Liz Carter (St. Augustine’s Rooms Booking Officer)

In closing I would just like to make one final but what I feel is a crucial point about this project. All too often this has been referred to as “Lee’s film” or “Lee and Ian’s film”. This is incorrect. It is an OVFM film and thus is the film of everyone who contributed. Ian and myself may have been the major driving forces behind it but ultimately this is a group project and I don’t anyone to forget this fact, so everyone feel free to say “This is a film I made” with confidence and conviction.

Once again a huge thanks to everyone involved and I’m now off a very long lie down….

Photos courtesy of Simon “Snapper” Earwicker

The Making Of The Amazing Healing Machine

(Or What The Hell Did I let Myself In For?)

A personal account of the OVFM Coaching Evenings film project

By

Lee Relph

Part One – A Hard Day’s Night

On January 23^rd 2012, members of OVFM descended upon the Garden Rooms at St Augustine’s Church, Petts Wood to make a short film entitled “The Amazing Healing Machine” as a part of the Coaching Evenings Project. This is a look at what happened during the two days of the film’s production from the perspective of the only person gullible enough and insane enough to put himself forward for the role of director:

(click on thumbails for larger picture)

As many of you should already be aware the Coaching Evenings Project was the brainchild of Ian Menage in conjunction with the OVFM Committee (aka The Legion Of Doom), with the aim to teach us noobs and ignorami a thing or two about film making then we go on and make a short film ourselves with this new found knowledge. The script came from an outline submitted by Colin Jones and transformed by yours truly. Because I write in such a way that I envisage everything as a finished product in my head then transcribe that into words on paper/computer screen, I was therefore found myself to be somewhat parochial and nominated myself as director for this film which remarkably went uncontested by the rest of the group who had already taken the cushier production jobs for themselves.

I won’t lie to you: I was nervous heading into that first day and hadn’t slept much the night before. This was beyond the usual reservations of whether people would turn up or forget to bring their equipment or if something drastic went wrong. It had been almost two years since I made my multi-award winning opus “Writers Block” and I was having serious doubts as to whether I could pull off the directing job a second time (the two other films I have made since, “The Miracle” and “Looking For Dave”, were much smaller affairs I can’t consider them to be in the same league). It didn’t occur to me at the time but a few days later it hit me that the number of cast members alone for this film was greater than the entire cast and crew combined for “Writers Block”. I’m not entirely sure why I was so oblivious to this fact but it was probably just as well because I may have crumbled under the pressure had I thought about the fact that so many people were looking to me for guidance and order but the reality probably was I simply just didn’t have time to think about it.

We began the day with an empty room needing to be turned into a workable film set and in a true community spirit, people you wouldn’t normally see fraternising together during club tea breaks bandied together to help set the workspace up, be it setting up the cameras, lights, curtains, blocking out windows or putting out chairs. Eventually everything was set up and it was time for rehearsals after we stopped for a quick tea break. Our leading man Roarke Alexander led the charge for the cast for a quick read through of the script. Not only was it interesting to see the script come to life but it also revealed just who hadn’t learned their lines!

I am ashamed to admit that I began to fear that this might not come together as I envisioned it and if I had sufficient directorial clout to guide our mostly non-professional cast through the forest of hardship to the promised land of a watchable film. Naturally I hid my concerns but the turning point came when we had a few minutes to get the first shots which were of the poster on the wall outside. Somehow, just saying the magic words “Action”, even with just four of us outside in the freezing cold dusky forecourt, I felt a lot of the anxieties ebb away, as though putting the proverbial director’s hat on for the first time in a long while acted as a sedative for the nerves and doubts swilling around inside of me. After a few takes I felt a very small surge of confidence but I knew at the same time I couldn’t get cocky as I have found in the past that whenever I get supremely confident or excited something it all goes horribly wrong, which probably explains my permanently dour demeanour. After all, a pessimist is never disappointed.

It was starting to get late but around 6:00pm we finally got down to the main bulk of filming for this first day following the arrival of our second guest performer, Sue Ward’s daughter Fiona, who brought her own baby bump with her! I learned the next day that Fiona was actually a little under the weather as well as heavily pregnant which made me feel guilty as we overran when trying to set up the final shot with her character, something which was proving to be a source of frustration for me but I knew I couldn’t let it defeat me since I was the man in charge. But we got there in the end al though it is kind of ironic that with all the filmmakers in the room it was Roarke who came up with the eventual solution! I have to say that Fiona did very well in her role; I don’t know the extent of her acting experience prior to this but she delivered everything I asked from her and did so with good spirits despite her discomfort.

Having run so long we had to rush a little to get the final scene of the night shot which involved Mike Shaw and Basil Doody. The sense of relief from the remainder of the cast was palpable as they were excused and couldn’t wait to get their coats and head for home, which was a little disparaging as we still trying to film! I couldn’t really blame them though as I was running on auto pilot by this point myself but the onus was on my shoulders so I had to soldier on and with everyone’s cooperation we got the shot done fairly quickly and the first day of filming was brought to a close.

It was almost 9:00pm before we shut up shop that night but it felt much later. Six hours may not seem like a long working day by being inside a room with artificial and manipulated lighting, with little fresh air (remember it was freezing outside) and you’re working non-stop barely getting to sit down, time becomes distorted, almost a redundant concept, something I am sure most of us have experienced at one time or another on a film shoot of this nature. I can’t really lament this since it comes with the territory and is a by product of the director’s responsibility of the director to keep everything moving. No wonder nobody else volunteered for the role!

So that was the first day over with. Although I didn’t feel it myself, I did receive some kind words from a few people remarking on how much we got done that day. Unfortunately I couldn’t see past the length of time spent on the setting up of the shots and the general dwindling of energy towards the end so I had to take their word for it. There was a small part of me that was relieved it was over for the day but this was quickly replaced with the dread of the realisation that it was not over and we had to come back to do it all again the next day….

To Be Continued…

Photos courtesy of Simon “Snapper” Earwicker