It has been a while since I last posted but we’ve now put our latest film , ‘In Mourning’, is now online for everyone to watch.

Head over to the Videos page and click on the film title to see!

Just a quick post to say we have, bar one or two short external shots, wrapped! It’s been good fun working on a film again and even better having a bit more of a crew to get everything done (Simon Talbot working the sound was a blessing). I started editing last week after the first two nights shooting so for the next few nights I’ll be getting it polished, on top of which we also need to score the film and have it sent away by the start of next week. Busy times!

Maybe one day we’ll make a film to a sensible schedule with no time constraints. I doubt it though.

In other great news Mannin Shorts had their filmmakers’ extravaganza the other week where a video interview consisting of us and other Manx filmmakers was shown. You can see the video below.

Hopefully the next blog post will say “We’ve Finished!” as there’ll be little time for anything else, so see you then.

Well the first day went well, our small group arrived on set and we got stuck straight in.

As well as our own gear we’ve also been very graciously lent some kit too, and it was this we got set up first. We were lent a dolly and track kit by Glenn at http://www.yourmoviecrew.com (which is a lot of fun, by the way, and we’ve had to restrain ourselves from over-using it) and a lighting kit from Christy and Dave at http://www.anotherdam.com. Muchas gracias to them! Here’s a photo I took of both of those along with our tripod, to the right.

We have two cast members in this film; John and Nic play two characters coming to terms with the death of one of them and who was ultimately responsible.

You may remember John from last year’s entry ‘Get Dead’, now he’s back and showing he’s not just a zombie-slaying booze hound! This is Nic’s first role and he’s getting into it with gusto.

We’ve got some great shots down so far and it’s looking like the film will come together quite nicely - although that’s always the deathly blow to something going well. We’re back on set tonight, we’re optimistic we’ll get the rest shot tonight but we have next week to film any extra stuff or do any re-shoots if necessary.

Fun!

A couple of little things of note here. First up, this evening we commence shooting our film. And you are correct, there is still no title for it. Our working title is too ridiculous to mention in public but we have come up with a concept idea for the title (don’t worry, it’s not as pompous and trite as it sounds) which potentially could make this film the first in a series of shorts. But that is a discussion for another time. Right now we’re really concerning ourselves with getting this film, you know, made.

Lists have been made, equipment gathered and talent poached and now we begin the fun bit. Well, the first fun bit. Tonight and tomorrow are the set shoot evenings with next week also available for any re-shoots or missed scenes. It’s a very small cast and crew this time round so everyone will be pitching in to get it finished, but we’ll try and get some on-set photos so you can see what we’re going for.

That just about covers everything, I’ll blog later in the week with how we got on and what is (inevitably) left to do.

Here we go!

Last week we did an interview with Christy and Dave at DAM Productions for their latest venture MannIN Shorts (also follow them on Twitter) which, to quote their bio is “a platform for hopeful filmmakers, young or old, to develop skills, ideas and make films, right here on the Isle of Man”. It sounds great and I hope loads of cool things come about because of it.

Needless to say we’re so brilliant at RDF they just had to get an interview with us, so we obliged. It will be shown along with a bunch of interviews with other brilliant local filmy bods at their Grand Isle of Man Film Makers Show-Down on 9th September. Check out their website for more info on that.

As for our own project, well we’re gearing up to get the next film off the ground. With only a month to go before the deadline for submissions for this year’s 2 Days Later competition we’re cutting it finer than last year (I think I was editing by this point - cripes) but we are working on a much smaller scale so hopefully that will work in our favour.

We, pretty much, have all our gear sorted for the shoot, you can see a couple of photos to the left and right. That’s my MacBook. It’s what I’m writing this post on and what I edited Get Dead on too. This will be used (along with Final Cut Pro 5, Cubase 4 and various other tools) to put the final film together.

This is our camera. It’s a Canon XM2 on a swanky Manfrotto tripod. Since we spent all our money on these items there was nothing left to buy anything in the way of lenses, so we’re making do with what we can get for a reasonable sum. Initially we just tried one of those ridiculously cheap and obviously rubbish wide angle lenses you can get off eBay for buttons but their limitations soon became apparent. Visually not bad, my main issue with them was the terrible vignetting that occurred. That and the fact there was a macro lens you had to always have attached, which just didn’t sit right with me.

Now, as can possibly be seen in the photo, we have a bigger and better wide angle lens (this is the extent we’re going to with lenses for now, they’re a whole other money-sapping beast entirely) and since we couldn’t afford the Canon-branded one (WD-58H) we picked up a decent one from Digital King for about £60ish. It’s a 0.7x wide angle for those who are interested. Not enough to really cause obvious vertical line distortion (shame though as I’m a massive Terry Gilliam fan) but enough that we can get a decent amount of stuff in shot and not rely on lots of panning or tracking.

Aside from these main things we also have a nice light reflector to go with the lights we’re hoping to borrow for the shoot, some condenser mics from a drum mic kit we’re using for overheads and some other miscellaneous bits and pieces we’ve managed to lay our grubby mits on.

I hope this has interested you! We’re looking at meeting up next week to discuss the shoot then will immediately begin shooting. Hurrah!