At the June 11th club meeting we officially began our campaign for the 2013 North vs South competition, where we opened the floor to members to submit their ideas for a film based on the theme of “Revolution”. More details about the North and South competition can be found on their website HERE.
As we heard from our resident N vs S organiser Mike Coad, this year’s competition takes on a lightly different tact with regard to the results of the two heats. First the number of heat rounds will be streamlined to to just one per region. Previously the winners of the two heats are announced then go head to head with the highest scoring runners up at the grand final on November 24th. This year the results are to be kept secret, known only to the two heat organisers (Mike and Graham Morris, his counterpart at Altrincham Film Makers).
At the final, as many films as possible out of those that didn’t make the the top ten will be shown first, then the top ten films will be shown in descending order of merit from ten to one, thus keeping the suspense alive to the last minute.
So, as the cliché goes, we have to be in it to win it and we currently have three ideas on the table for the club to get involved in to bring to life, enter into the competition and, who knows, win the whole thing!
To learn more about the three projects – including draft scripts and cast and crew positions that need filling – and to pledge your support to them or offer comments and feedback, click on the links below.
Please note that these pages are private so only club members who have signed up to the site can see this material contained within.
Remember this opportunity is open to everyone and it would be nice to see as many people as possible participating in these projects rather than the usual subjects (to whom we are naturally grateful for their persistence and constancy in supporting our film shoots). With three projects on the table there are plenty of roles that need filling on both the cast and crew side so nobody should feel left out.
Thanks for reading and I hope to see you all on one of the shoots!
It was around 9:15 am that we descended upon Chez Lancaster to shoot the internal scenes since the hallway in my own home is a little…well…little, while the Lancaster’s was just right (according to my location manager Goldilocks). Amazingly Vanessa actually arrived a few moments after Simon, Dad and I got to the Lancaster’s – coming all the way from Canterbury for the shoot! It was also at this point that I learned Vanessa had just got over a flu bug herself, making me feel doubly guilty to have her wander the streets in this unpleasant weather as per the script. But, ever the trooper, Vanessa insisted the show must go on although at this point it hadn’t actually started yet.
Vanessa Chapman poses with the finalists of “Mr OVFM Beefcake 2013” contest
Having turned the Lancaster’s hallway into a movie set we started shooting and amazingly made good time, finishing up earlier than expected. Despite having to change microphone leads and the camera battery, everything went smoothly, with Vanessa maintaining all of the main performance points and the little touches with each take. It was during the final stages that I received a text that some of the actors who were due to arrive at my house by 12:00pm had arrived nearly forty minutes early – and all the way from Dover! Can’t imagine the look on the neighbours’ faces when the ferry pulled up outside our house! I had to feel a bit sorry for my Mum, who was left all alone with a bunch of strangers, although I had not met them in person either.
Karol Steele finds an ingenious way to secretly get paid for the shoot…
Shortly after our rag tag convoy left Chez Lancaster and headed off to the bijou comfort of my humble abode, where we were to find Dover based actress, writer, model, make-up artist Karol Steele (whom I’d not even meet before yet she played two roles, recruited her son, her dog AND did the make up for the girls!), her son Ben (a young actor in his own right who also had a bad cold) and their dog Ted. Also arrived at the house were the three teenage girls supplied by Sylvia Snipp. Perhaps I should rephrase that. Ella Barclay, Alice Farrell and Megan Snipp are young actresses Sylvia brought to the project along with two lads, Connor Hughes and Callum Murphy to fill some key roles.
Megan, Ella and Alice with their stunt doubles
After a brief break during which we stuffed our faces with food from the lavish spread my mother laid out for us, it was time to commence filming again. This was where the fun began. The first scene involved Rob Bushell stepping out of a bookies but I discovered that the envelope with fake money it in for Rob to brandish had gone missing. Dad ran (not really) back to the house to look for it to no avail, so he made a new one. We eventually found it later on as Karol inadvertently thought it was a part of Ben’s props and stuck it to his clipboard!! Doh!
Simon and Tony perform their “Ministry Of Silly Walks” tribute act
Earlier in the week, Dad and I approached the branch of Coral bookmakers in Carlton Parade for permission to film outside their premises with the use of their front door. While the manageress was very helpful ringing up her superiors for confirmation, we never got a return call from her. Come the shoot we went in and asked again, only to be told she was still waiting for a phone call. The woman from Coral still hadn’t got back to us with permission, so we decided to film it guerilla style and quickly shot the scenes, with Rob just standing at the door rather than coming out of the shop. We had a similar problem with the Co-Op who also never got back to us with permission so again we sneaked our shots in before fleeing!
Vanessa was unimpressed with Simon’s Dalek impression
My house and Carlton Parade are both on the main road so we had to deal with traffic noise and passers by interrupting the shots. The latter wasn’t a problem as most people stepped aside or waited until we finished, except for a group of boys who slowly wandered about along the road and loitered in the background hoping to get into shot (they didn’t!). When filming outside the house however it seems all of the Sun readers driving by weren’t as considerate as the pedestrians, tooting their horns in the hope of ruining a shot. Thankfully they too failed but one has question the mentality of these people who feel the need to be so purposely disruptive.
Annabelle can’t bear to watch poor Ben being assaulted for the twelfth time
By now the temperatures had fallen even further and poor Ben really suffered for his art in his scene. To be fair I told him it was fine to wear his overcoat but he insisted to continue without it, despite his sneezes turning to icicles before they even left his nostrils! Then there was the physical aspect of this scene. Ben joked he would “take one for the team” but with the various retakes and different camera angles he ended up taking TWELVE for the team!
As everyone knows, especially for a drama production, one can’t give an accurate finishing time for a shoot. I had initially suggested both the Friday and Saturday for the shoot but the various schedules meant just the one day was viable. It what some (everyone?) saw as an act of optimism, I pencilled in a 4:30pm finish. We actually filmed the last shot at 4:35pm! In your face, doubters!! True to my own personal and unintentional tradition however, I did forget to get a couple of important shots but nothing that couldn’t be circumvented in the final edit, while other shots we unfortunately spoiled by intruding microphones. Had we the benefit of two days shooting this could have been rectified but overall I am very happy with the footage I have.
With everyone else busy Reg tells Vanessa about his first camera
I must give my personal and heartfelt thanks to everyone involved. to my parents for their unconditional support and contributions to the proceedings; to ALL the actors (Vanessa, Karol, Ben, Ted, Ella, Alice, Megan, Connor, Callum and Rob) who braved the weather yet still performed amazingly without complaints; to Reg and Annabelle for letting us use their home as a set and for their endurance for the rest of the shoot; and to Simon who was a great cameraman, not only for bringing my vision to life but he understood what I wanted while bringing his own expertise to the project. I finally have a good looking film!
“Last one back to the camera is a big pansy!”
Despite the trials and tribulations that accompanied this shoot it was one hell of an experience for me and I haven’t felt as alive as I did on that day. Well, maybe when I was first born but my memory of that period is a quite vague – I WAS just a baby after all! It was also invaluable learning curve for me, being my third “big” production out of six films and the most important thing I got from this session was exactly why I don’t make more films!!
Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed the end result as seen at the last club meeting on April 30th and if you didn’t then I have Two Little Words for you…..
For this week’s club meeting we look forward to seeing the results of your hard labour in creating a film that fits the theme of “Two Words” as suggest by moi. If you should still need a reminder after the three months of heavy promotion of what this entails the details can be found HERE But I am sure that is not the case and you’ve all been beavering away to create something rather wonderful to share with us all, just as I have, which I am sure you are all aware of anyway.
As always we ask that those you who will be submitting a film to please reply to this post below saying as much so we have a rough idea of how the time allotment for this session will play out.
Also could you please include the following information with your submission:
Film Title
Your Name
Running Time
Aspect Ratio (4:3 or 16:9)
This simple act of cooperation makes all the difference for our archivists and programme compilers and is greatly appreciated.
Cassius Clay is now known as Muhammad Ali. Ceylon is now known as Sri Lanka. Marathon chocolate bars are now known as Snickers. For a small group of brave (or foolhardy, take your pick) members from OVFM Good Friday is now known as Freezing Friday!
On March 29th 2013 when most people were safely tucked up in doors in the warmth, lasciviously eyeing the Easter eggs they were told not to open until Sunday, the intrepid quartet of Reg “Bomber” Lancaster, Lady Annabelle, Simon “Snapper” Earwicker and yours truly, along with my loyal chauffeur and father Tony, tackled the chilling winds and inclement temperatures head on in the name of film making. The production in question was my film Two Little Words, my entry into the Two Words project, the results of which will screen to the rest of the club at the meeting on April 30th.
Yup, Lee was back in town to make another film…
Naturally, I hadn’t intended on shooting on such a cold day but when I began to set the wheel in motion for this project the settlement on the date for everyone involved was paramount and the only date upon which we were ALL agreed was Good Friday. There is also the small matter of not being in a position to have any control over the weather; if I had that there wouldn’t be a problem. Unfortunately for me and the shoot, 2013 was proving to be a VERY unpredictable year weather wise, with two bouts of snow already under our belts and the pre-Spring tease of lighter skies and less chilly temperatures that usually peeps it head out from behind the frosty clouds in early March was presumably staying in bed to keep warm.
When the temperatures remained low and the snow was refusing to let up with the threat of more coming to Orpington on Friday, I was rather apprehensive that things wouldn’t work out for the shoot. Thankfully everyone agreed that the weather be damned and the shoot should go ahead. This warmed my heart tremendously.
The brave (and very cold) cast & crew of “Two Little Words”
However twenty four hours before the shoot, not only did it start snowing again but I still didn’t have a key prop, a rosette for one character. Now, I had the chance to buy a set of rosettes from E-bay the week before but I believed everyone when they told me I could get one in a number of shops. Was this true? Was it hell! Not ONE single shop I tried had them! Really! Card shops, hobby shops, joke shops, costume shops, trophy makers, even a saddlery didn’t have one. In the end I found some “Small cheap “Birthday boy” ones which had to be sewn together and patched up to become more akin to what I needed. Thankfully it came out all right.
Then the e-mails started coming in.
Urge to kill…rising….
The partner of my leading lady, the talented writer and actress Vanessa Chapman, was due to take one of the roles but when their son became ill, he opted to stay home and look after him, leaving me an actor down. Thankfully Vanessa offered to fix this by asking someone she knew who was going to be in Orpington for a while and agreed to help out, Rob Bushell, son of legendary TV critique Gary Bushell who was a fixture on Saturday night TV back in the 80’s. However he was out driving and we had to wait for a reply. This was about 22:30pm!! Then there was some confusion about the directions to my house when one person got the house number wrong! Then one person asked if they could be gone by four as they had an engagement in Whistable at 7:00pm! Now she tells me! Finally, being so engrossed in getting the actors, I forgot to acquire my crew and at this late stage I was unable to secure any further help. As it turned out, we managed with the four of us.
Even Simon couldn’t muster his usual enthusiasm…
I knew something like this would happen but I didn’t expect it all happen with the space of the same half hour. I seriously expected to look out the window and see the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse hovering outside with Pestilence saying, with a gleeful twinkle in his eye “See you in the morning!”
With no edition of Question Time on TV it was my nerves that kept me awake this particular Thursday night rather than my usual residual anger at the sanctimonious, ignorant bile spewed forth on said panel debate show. With the temperature having taken a noticeable drop I feared this would be prescient to more snow overnight. No matter how often I turned my body in my bed, I could not find a comfortable enough spot or position that would tempt my cognisant senses that shutting down for a few hours would be not just a great idea but a prudent one.
During this restless period my mind was buzzing with a paranoia I’m sure many a filmmaker has experienced the night before a shoot. Will the weather hold up? Will the cast show up? With they be good? Will they be lousy? What if we overrun so badly that we end up rushing crucial scenes or forget and fall short on others? What if the camera breaks down? What if the outdoor filming is hampered due to people trying to ruin the shots? What if a giant atomic fish headed chicken bodied hybrid beast that can shoot lasers from its eyes and lay toxic egg bombs were to rise from the ground and eviscerate Orpington to the point that it is completely uninhabitable? You can laugh but cameras do break you know!
Remember, it’s not stalking if you film it…
Eventually I must of have dropped off (I don’t remember, I was asleep) because I woke up fresh and early (well, early). I was chuffed to mint balls to pull back my curtains to see that the God had not spilled any more of his Columbian nose powder across the garden and that the faint glimmer of light was present in the sky. It actually gave me a sliver of hope that we may have a successful day after all, but I am a pessimist by nature thus I’m not in the nature of hatching any chickens before the I’s have been crossed and Peter has been robbed so the pounds can look after their oysters.
So how would the actual shoot go down? Find in Part Two.
For this week’s club meeting we look forward to seeing the results of your hard labour in creating a film that fits the theme of “Surprise Surprise”. If you should still need a reminder or what this entails the details can be found HERE Since you are all a creative and devious bunch I am sure we can expect a few unique treats to savour in lieu of the broad spectrum of possibilities this topic suggests.
As always we ask that those you who will be submitting a film to please reply to this post below saying as much so we have a rough idea of how the time allotment for this session will play out.
Also could you please include the following information with your submission:
Film Title
Your Name
Running Time
Aspect Ratio (4:3 or 16:9)
This simple act of cooperation makes all the difference for our archivists and programme compilers and is greatly appreciated.
Our first project for 2013 was suggested by John Ransley.
The theme should be pretty self explanatory but is is really that simple? Surprises come in many forms – a surprise birthday party, a present one didn’t expect, an underdog victory in a sports event, friends or family members being reunited after a number of years – or maybe a film with an ending no-one was expecting….
While I am sure John has his own ideas when he suggested this theme as you can see, the possibilities are wide and fertile.
The closing date – i.e the night we will be screening the completed films – is Tuesday February 19thwhich gives you just over a month to get something together.
Could we also ask that when films are submitted you include your name, the title, picture ratio (16:9 or 4:3) and running time somewhere on the discs/cover? It’s a huge help for the club’s film and archive records. And if you have any specific instructions re: sound please let the projectionist know ahead of time. Many thanks.
Good luck and we all look forward to seeing your films!
It’s time for another project and this one was suggested by…erm…Me!
The genesis of this was an idea I had for short film many moons ago, when this was all fields and we used to walk twenty miles to school in bare feet through the snow carrying our milk in our hands, about the power and effectiveness of just two simple little words. I then decided that everyone else in the film should have dialogue of just two words as well to get the point across – or drive it home with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, take your pick!
Anyhoo, come the AGM last year and when suggestions were requested I dug this old idea out of the archives and proffered it to the Legion of Doom and the rest of the club. Fast forward to now and this little old idea of mine is now an official OVFM Project theme!
While I had a definite idea of my own as to what I wanted my two word lines for, everyone else is of course free to interpret this as they see fit – as long as the dialogue doesn’t exceed two words naturally. Whether the whole cast is bound by this or you leave it up to just one character is up to you! Drama, comedy, animation, one minute or five minutes long – your decision! Just keep it clean and don’t nick my script idea!!
The closing date – i.e the night we will be screening the completed films – is Tuesday April 30th which gives you just over three months to get something together.
Could we also ask that when films are submitted you include your name, the title, picture ratio (16:9 or 4:3) and running time somewhere on the discs/cover? It’s a huge help for the club’s film and archive records. And if you have any specific instructions re: sound please let the projectionist know ahead of time. Many thanks.
Good luck and we all look forward to seeing your films!
This week’s meeting is another double header as we welcome films for both an annual competition and a club project.
The Mike Turner Plate, named after our late ex-chairman/vice chairman/all round good guy, is open to films with a maximum running time of one minute (or 60 seconds for you metric users) on any subject, style or genre.
The club project is entitled “How?” which came from the esoteric mind of Jim Morton-Robertson. I’m not entirely sure what the exact criteria is for this, whether it is a documentary on a certain creative process or an insight into Native American greetings. I did try to coax some kind of explanation from Jim but all he did was moan in his Scottish accent about a large North American antlered mammal running unfettered in his domicile!
I am also reliably informed that club member Craig Robinson will be aging by one year on Monday the 19th so we should be sure to give him some belated birthday bumps on Tuesday!
We look forward to seeing your films and if you will be bringing one for either or both categories please reply to this post to let us know ahead of time.
Kicking off the month of August for OVFM is another project evening, this time “Up My Street”, the details of which can be found HERE
Project evenings are often the most fun to see how a certain theme or concept is interpreted by our filmmakers and often produces an evening of great variety and creativity.
I’m sure many of you have found inspiration or something of fascination to share with us based around this ambiguous but hopefully fertile concept and as always we look forward to seeing the fruits of your labours. If you will be bringing a film please reply to this post below to let us know as it is a great help to our resident projectionist Simon “Snapper” Earwicker to have an idea of how to best allot the time.
This was suggested by John & Ann Epton at the AGM and it’s ambiguous title apparently serves the purpose of allowing us to interpret it in any way we see fit. It could mean a look up the street where you live or it could refer to the colloquial phrase referring to something which suits your tastes as in “that’s right up my street!”
So get your thinking caps on and your cameras out as the results are due to be screened at the next club meeting in two weeks time on August 14th!
