Cut the crap

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 12:45:43 > Post-production

That's what I've been doing over the past couple of days. 

It's always heart breaking to film shots that you want to look bad.  We filmed several actors as news reporters doing on location pieces to camera circa 1978 and this meant bad framing, bad little zooms and sticky pans (as in panning the camera).  Dave had to be on his game to make this stuff look bad and, surprise surprise, he did it.  I'll leave out all the obvious jokes about Dave and bad shooting . . . so much material, so little time.

In context, however, the stuff looks great.  It will now be put on YouTube and macro shot off there because it's part of Ryan's research scene.

A massive thanks to Iain Burton-Legge for sourcing such great late '70s wardrobe for us.  Absolutely brilliant and thanks also has to go to Tessa, his accomplice, who owns the shop where we borrowed the costumes. 

Doing their respective pieces to camera were actors Oliver Newton, Catherine Phillips, Andrew Warren, Martin Murphy and even our own camera operator Adam Boyle makes a cameo appearance looking like something right out of Life On Mars.  Everyone put in a good performance so thanks to all the actors for a) getting to the location on time (it was the day after the heavy snows and half the country was closed) and b) for trusting Dave and I on the delivery, the look and minimalist lighting approach.

I've just started cutting a scene where William gets a knife from a garage - we shot the exterior of the garage in Cheltenham and the interior of the garage months later in Worcester - and once again top marks to AJ for not trying to do too much with the thirty second scene and for looking meanacing, disturbing, mildly psychotic and  . . . come to think of it he didn't really have to act in that scene.  Top marks for showing up AJ.

- Si