Month: April 2011

Some of the photos and footage from the Bulgaria shoot are going to be released this weekend to coincide with the next fundraising tweet-a-thon.  Follow @indywoodFILMS on twitter for more information and a chance to win props from the intro set.

Tough one this.  The time in Bulgaria was …. interesting.  On the whole it was enjoyable.  If you’ve followed the blog then you’ll know there were some good and bad days and some even worse days.  We had issues with crew, environment, wildlife and plain bad luck.

But we pulled together and got some truly good footage and stills.  Tony had, at last count, about 3 nervous breakdowns, Katie stopped smiling at least twice (if you know Katie you know how amazing that is) and Steve somehow ended up with less hair.

The lead actor decided not to turn up, Tony switched the script around and gave us a strong female lead in Chloe.  Problems on location stopped us getting some vital internal shots, we pushed to get the external shots and re-planned to get the internals in the UK.

There were lots of other issues which were resolved, because this is independent film and with tight budgets come ingenious and last minute solutions.

It also meant we had a very small crew and were already one a person down.  This meant a bit of doubling (tripling etc, etc) of roles, we all ended up taking the camera at least once.  Jessie the costume designer had her stint on the behind the scenes camera and almost became an extra, Chloe wasn’t just our make-up artist but also became an awesome lead actress.  Katie got a stint as an extra as well as her role as behind the scenes documenter.  Steve will probably end up with a credit list all of his own as producer, continuity manager, stuntman, actor and location manager.

We got two huge stunts including an explosion and a jump, we got some reckless driving and we had a crazy director clinging to a moving trailer.  We got some great footage which, if you could all see it, would reassure the the existing producers and galvanise the fundraising operation.  Bits and pieces are being slowly released, expect more when the next series of tweetathons start up.

Bulgaria was amazing, a picturesque country with very nice people.  For all the problems I genuinely miss being there and miss my time working on the film.  I’m back to my normal work now – and my experiences make software development look very, very dull.  The film will begin in earnest later in the year, I suspect they won’t have the same issues as they did in Bulgaria – but will probably have a few others, I fully expect Tony and Steve to be more than capable of making a truly magical film and can’t wait to see the end result.

— Jonn

Back to reality.  I’m going to do a summary of the whole experience and throw in some photos, i’m just working it out in my head.  The time over there is a bit of a blur, although it felt like i’d been there much longer than the week I actually spent there.

It feels a bit strange doing my usual boring job now, I keep expecting Tony to pop up with a camera from behind the desk.  I’m missing Bulgaria a bit, it’s a genuinely beautiful country with very nice people.  I fully intend to take a holiday there with my kids sometime in the future.

 

Well, that’s it. We’ve got everything we can get out here in Bulgaria. Today we did a couple of small scenes to tie together some of the larger ones – nothing too strenuous.

It’s a very cold day and poor Chloe has to walk around with comparatively little on – so she was freezing for most of the day. We got the shots though so well done to her.

Just a little bit more to do in the uk and the intro is finished so we can turn an eye to the main film

A potentially frustrating day turned out to be pretty good. The extras arrived late and didn’t seem to understand that there’s a lot of waiting about when you’re filming. A car ran out of fuel at a bad time and a strong wind threatened the stunts. But two stunts were needed and two stunts were successfully achieved. The footage is awesome and the extras managed to not screw up the audio too badly

Special shout out to Steve Davis (not the snooker player) for an awesome car related stunt

Day did not start well, we have a rash of illness in the crew, including our leading lady. This delayed our start significantly. The materials we got to simulate fire wouldn’t work and when we did get them working the wind was too strong to safely use them as intended.

However, myself and Chloe did get to amuse ourselves with some off-road racing (strictly for the film you understand). Despite some technical problems this part of the day went startlingly well

Went out last night and drowned our sorrows – our director was a little worried that we’d end up with hangovers – we haven’t got one, but he’s suffering from a ‘migraine’ this morning 😉

Here’s a quick pic of what me and Steve Davis (not the snooker player) were wearing today photo

And a sneaky photo of the Brilliant Jess Snyder who designed them:

Bit of a nightmare day of filming today lots went wrong and we didn’t get a vital scene before we lost the light. Bit of a morale issue now but a nice meal and lots of drink and we’ll be back at it tomorrow

Tough day hell of a lot to do in a very small amount of time. The star, Chloe, was brilliant again. And amazing makeup too.

The intro is coming together really well – it’s going to be a real treat for the fans .

Finished the day having dinner and drinks with most of the crew and sone of the behind the scenes people – great time.