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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