Trail Blazing

With just over two weeks since we completed the shoot (except for a couple of cutaways) Mike Leahy is pleased to announce that the trailer is now at "Final Cut" stage and so should be available to see after Monday.

This has taken several hours work for Carli de'la Hughes, director, and Jane Hosgood, director of photography, together with Robin Dobson, second camera man. But it is looking good and we all hope it will attract attention both at the premiere and film festivalsin which it is entered.

The story line has been kept pretty close to the original idea through screen-writer Amanda Evans's script and it seems to work well. It's hoped that Amanda likes the trailer and can see that her trust in the director and camera crew has been fulfilled. And of course Amanda is now working on her next script which we eagerly look forward to reading.

And now for some good news for local Swansea Bay and South Wales film makers. Swansea Film Productions are opening up to any film-maker in any discipline and intend becoming a hub to promote local film makers and help them create new and exciting films that will be shown. It's a sad reality of life that many films are created and made taking up great chunks of time for everyone concerned and then never fully promoted. A full announcement will be made shortly (hopefully before the end of March) when the idea has been fully explored and there is a concrete plan of how it will work.

Meanwhile, keep watching for the next exciting stage of The Doll   

Editing and making choices

The new website is up and running at www.swanseafilmproductions.co.uk.  Please take a look and watch for future developments.

When the shoot is finished the editing begins. The Doll is taking shape and with over 6 hours of recording and so much of it good, if not great, there's going to be some difficult decision making.

Taking a look at the shop, cemetery and beach scenes I can see how the film is going to shape up. With two cameras there is a good mixture of angle and view. The sound  is clear and good bt because all of the film has been shot on location this is going to be the untamed element. It's not practical or even possible to clean all external noises and often they can't be reduced because that'll have a detrimental effect on the voice quality. But that is where the crew scored with so many takes.

Once again Carli has taken to the critical editing role under the wing of Jane, who has so much experience in this area, like a duck to water.

I'm hoping we ca meet our target of having a final cut ready fior a private review by the beginning of April. These are exciting times.

Keep watching this space for more news, photos and video as we continue to press forward. Once again it's just been great working with such a close-knit team who have worked so well together and so professionally as individuals in their own fields. I believe that everyone on the production team has gained such valuable insight into diofferent aspects of film production that this can only be good for the future of Swansea Film Production.

We have some exciting ideas lined up and will be extending an offer to other local film-makers of whatever standard and experience to join the group wheee we can help each other to prioduce work of ever improving quality. So if you are interested in any aspect of film-making from writing, prop making, lighting, acting right throught to the editing then watch this space for some exciting news.

On location in the Uplands Diner

Making the Doll two Photos & video of shoot

Shooting "The Doll" at the Uplands Tavern, Swanswea on Tuesday 22nd March 2011.With Carli de'la Hughes making her debut as Director, this Swansea Film Productions project is written by Amanda Evans with Jane Hosgood, Director of Photography. Produced by Mike Leahy this film is scheduled for editing during March so watch out for more news and location video. A great cast performed well and acted coherently. There has been a real "feel good" factor throughout the whole production process from script conception, castings and read-through to shooting. It's now down to the post-shoot team to polish and bring the film alive.

Making the Doll one

The weekend was very busy. Shooting in several locations we managed to shoot over 60% of the film. Luckily the weather held out for us.

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NEW SCHEDUEL FOR THE 19TH 20TH feb

Carli de’la Hughes

**After a 9month build up to this production we are finally at the shooting date, Mike and my self had a meeting with two great creative minds of Swansea Gower productions.

WE HAVE THE GREEN LIGHT!!

TUE 22 WEND 23 THURS 24th TBC

19THSAT START 10.00 AM

SCENE17.

FUNERAL INT. CREMATORIUM. - DAY, NEXT WEEK

LOCATION: SKETTY CHURCH

Characters: Jane, Rob, James

******

SCENE1

THEATRE INT- AFTERNOON

LOCATION: SWANSEA DYLAN THOMAS THEATRE RECEPTION

Characters: Geoff (drama Teacher)

2PM ISH

SCENE15.

FIREWORKS DISPLAY beach scene: EXT. BONFIRE NIGHT - BEACH NEXT EVENING.

LOCATION: Swansea Beach

Characters, Jane Francesca, Jim, Sarah, Extras, Live local Swansea band TBC

SUNDAY 2OTH 9.00am

SCENE7

INT.JANES FLATSHARE, HALLWAY - LATER

LOCATION: Dan Seekings Student Home.

Characters: Jane, Francesca, Rob, Yasmin, Natalie, Kirsty. Laura.

The Big Shoot approaches fast

With just 3 weeks to go before shooting the pace is certainly warming up. Currently checking out the locations as I want this to have a real Swansea feel about it with several iconic back-drops such as Mumbles through the pine trees at Newton/West Cross, the Meridian Tower, Wind Street, Waterfront Museum, the Marina, and the Sail bridge.

Swansea has so much to offer the film maker with great back-drops and views within such a small area and beach to countrysie at almost a giant leap. But not only that, Swansea has such a wealth of talented and creative people that it's like fishing in a full goldfish tank at an aquarium. You come up with a winner every time with little effort.

Carli's Showreel

Carli de-la Hughes is making great steps forward preparing to direct "The Doll" next month. She'll also be one of the two main characters in the film so here's one of her Showcases.

A Blast from the Past

My intertest in film-making goes back about sixty years. It includes not only making movies but being a small sponsor of the National Film School in Beaconsfield: being invited down to Pinewood as a guest of Reg Berkshire of Eon Films (producers of the 007 films) to see around the lot and watch Roger Moore during a shoot. And of course I managed London cinemas for a while in the days when we diod our own promotional stuff and had the stars along to entertain audiences. Fabulous times.
Just thought these photos would make you smile! Probably taken around 1969 in Tottenham, North London where I started making short films with a local group.

When I say started

that's not strictly true, for I remember taking my father's Pathe 9.5 wind up camera when I was about 8 years and making a very short film with a couple of mates in Birmingham. We borrowed some of our sisters tartan skirts and we did a fighting (of course) scene in the style of Rob Roy with wooden swords. The projector was hand cranked so if you didn't wind the handle at a regular speed the picture was all over the place.But that's another story. I can vividly remember that we had a couple of Disney black and white cartoons.There was hardly any TV in those days so this was really novel. In fact only one family owned a TV in the road I lived in!! But more of that on my personal blog coming soon.

But coming back to this photo, I can clearly remember how difficult it was. There was no computer trickery. Lighting had to be perfect. Sound was very tricky. But we made some good little movies. I think in this photo I was directing and you can see I was setting up the shot so the lighting could be arranged. These old lights burnt very hot and had a short life. The camera. from memory and looking at the photo was a 16mm Bolex, although it might have been 8mm. I did use 16mm for some movies but it was expensive film stock. Editing was easier.

Sticking short lengths of film together when editing was a strain on the eyes and could be very tedious. If you made a mistake or damaged some film that was often lost forever whilst today with video you can edit but you still retain the original. As for tricks I can see a short scene a friend made where he had a ghost. He had wound the film back by hand to the place he hoped he needed to re-film and took another scene. He could have used a 45 degree mirror but he wanted to see how well he could do it in-camera. I think he re-took the scene about 15 times.

Meanwhile, the Doll is coming along nicely. Carli, our Director, is up to speed with her planning. So fingers crossed.

Shoot dates are set: Feb 18th till 28th

All is set schedules are planned awaiting conformation on sending to all cast and crew

Look forward 2011 THE DOLL.