Preventing the Possible Plights of Production

The Liverpool film has now been shot. And in just two hours at that. And it didnt even need any editing!

Our approach was to shortcut the usual filmic processes of scene setups, multiple locations, continuity, and editing by simply filming epidode 3 without any locations, in a simple empty garage space, and all in one take.

I had tried this one-shot performance approach recently on a music video for John Smith and i enjoy creative restrictions. Though i love editing more than any other part of the process, i really enjoyed NOT editing.

However, even the most pared down creative processes have their problems. Liverpool MYMIF had some great ones. I shall explain:

1. Black Box Theatre

Space for creative work is incredibly hard to find. There are loads of empty spaces in Liverpool, its just that you cant get access - they are sat on by greedy developers. And a simple 'black box' theatre space over easter holiday is even rarer - either locked into an unflexible academic calendar or fully booked. Bizarrely enough, i did locate an available space run by a company called 'Black Box Theatre'. However, upon inspection it was bright yellow. In the end i struck upon a simple garage space run by The Art Organisation, called The Projection Gallery.


2. Electromagnetism

To get round the fact we had no location and yet the script was set in a pub, a club, a flat and the lock up, we used a few simple props and some live projections to hint at the different environments. We also had a few theatrical lights, with which we artfully lit our set, and consequently shorted the electrics of the gallery. Oh bugger. An impromtu tea break followed while we treid not to panic and work out what went wrong. We located a melted extension coil under a desk and rewired our gear in a more sensible fashion. Power on!


3. Coitus Interruptus

Space sorted, power on, all we have to do is shoot. The intense, protracted rehearsal and choreography of our single 5-minute-take delayed the actual shooting schedule to the eleventh (well, 7th) hour. Our curry was booked at 9, and we still hadn't shot anything! Everything now had to fall into place, with no hiccups.

One of the biggest challenges of a 5 minute take is sound. We knew our movemnts, our lines, cues, scene changes, but we could do nothing about sound from the outside. I was just praying that the seagulls that had previously been sqwaking on the tin roof had all well and truly buggered off.

3 attempts in and things were going ok, but just ok. But then, at the 4th attempt, everything seemed to be feeling just right. This is the take we'll use, i know it. I'm triggering the projections, smiling smugly inside, watching Cara doing superb work on the camera, Fletch handle the boom smoothly and discretely, even Bella's fella Matt was dancing in the lightbox. He could tell this was the one. And then it all goes wrong...

I hear loud grating sound from outside the gallery. Someone is opening a gate, dragging it, clunk, and a van drving in the carpark, right outside the door. The crank of the hand brake, the engine stops. To everyone's credit, they simply carried on like pros.

As soon as we cut, i went outside and saw a van. But no-one there. then i eard a sound, from the van. i went to investigate, only to discover a romantic couple shagging in the front seat. I knocked on the window and attempted to use sign language to explaining we were shooting a film. This simply confused issues, so i opened the door and aksed if they were going to be moving the van again, parking i mean. They were dead nice about it and said "sorry about that, it's cool, we're finished now". It was very heart warming in the end to think that while we were spending these first glimpses of summer in a dirty garage, some couples were simply at it.

I went back inside and we reset. Three more takes later and we felt we'd got it.
All in all i was pleased we tried something a bit different, even if it did have its own problems, but it was a unique experience!