Production

By the third term, it was refreshing to know that we all had a good handle on how to manage the equipment we were working with. I for one feel like I know my way around a 600D fairly well now, and through conversations with Dan (Tombs) and Liam am able to judge what kind of shutter speed, ISO level and aperture we should be filming at in any given situation. That being well and good, Dan had advised us from the outset to film our archive footage on tape. 

Our first shoot was an actorless shoot at Cinema City during which we set up lighting and camera positions that we thought would be appropriate for our interviews. Through a stroke of luck, we were able to include a auditorium house light courtesy of the Cinema City projection staff that cast a subtle red filter from the back of the room. We then set up a  bright spot stage left to light the left side of our actors’ faces, leaving the right side slightly shadowed. This was a lighting set up that we would come to employ in every interview that we shot (bar the interview with the character of ‘Dan’ that was contextually shot in a bar) to create a consistency between present day characters. This actorless shoot was originally intended to be our first proper shoot, but Stuart (2012 Jacques) requested more time to study the material. We had already booked out the equipment so proceeded to use the time as practice. Practice that would eventually save us time when our actors were on set.

The time we had available to us at Cinema City was always going to be valuable, with 2-hour slots on weekday mornings being the only time were able to book auditoriums. For obvious reasons, cinema screens are unavailable after a certain time of day. Our practice shoot meant that once on set, we knew exactly where our cameras and lights were to be stationed, and more importantly, where we wanted to record sound from. In the end, we decided to position our boom mic on a lighting stand at the feet of our interview subject pointing up at their head. It was completely out of shot and alleviated the need for someone holding a boom pole. With all of these choices made, it meant that once on set, we were rolling within half an hour of gaining access to the premises. 

Frustratingly, actor and location availability meant that our latter interviews were pushed back to the point that shooting overlapped with post production. We were able to complete our interview shoots without a glitch though, with all actors contributing many minutes of usable footage.

It should be noted that we employed a reasonably experimental shooting strategy when it came to these shoots. At least a week prior to these interviews, our actors were provided with a set of question that they would be asked, but we always insisted that the answers never had to be script perfect. There were certain gags that wanted to include based on the material we had written, but we always insisted on a certain level of improvisation. This ask worked better with certain actors, but in the end provided the sense of realism that we were aiming for, and unscripted comedy inspired by the likes of Christopher Morris and Larry Charles.

Gareth Calway and Stuart Laidlaw in particular far exceeded our expectations. They became familiar with the source material and found resonance within it. Gareth particularly, delivered his entire performance almost completely word for word without any need for improvisation. After two perfect run throughs, we requested a bit of further improvisation, but he admitted that he was so fond of his character and the content that he didnt want to stray too far from what we had asked of him.

Lucy Holden was an entirely different story. Though her audition was delightful, once on set she became a grammatically nervous wreck, often contracting herself mid-answer, making her footage the most difficult to edit as a result. In fact, we would go on to find it incredibly hard to select usable footage from her shoot. Not because she didnt understand the character, but because her delivery was so inconsistent.

Likewise, David Frost was familiar with the material but was largely unsure of his delivery. Although he nailed a few anecdotes that we had written into his material, we found it difficult to select usable clips of footage that would be coherent within the story that we were trying to tell.

Shooting the ‘archive’ footage was like shooting a completely different film. And in a way, that was the angle that we were going for. We were trying to create something that appeared as if it was filmed in the late-70s on an amateur home movie camera. They were meant to be candid moments that were entirely unscripted and unrehearsed.

They way we approached these shoots was rather risky. Rather than any type of storyboarding, we simply wrote detailed situational breakdowns and presented them to the actors. There were gags that we knew we wanted to include, but like with the interviews we always wanted the humour to come naturally and not appeared pre-meditated. Before each take, we would read the paragraph long scene breakdown to the actors and feed them specific details that we wanted them to included. After each take, we would feed them more and more based on the performances they were giving. This made directing (personally) incredibly fun, being able to feed lines and jokes to the actors between takes based on the direction the takes were going.

Toby Price ended up being incredible as our 1979 Rubik, and bears a startling resemblance to his 2012 counterpart, Gareth. He responded to direction with enjoyable intent and although not a self-proclaimed actor, he has a wonderful talent for not only acting, but improvisation and I would jump over fences to work with him again. Likewise, Dan Stockman (1979 Dan) became a different person in front of a camera. An amusing and chilled out guy off camera, he somehow managed to produce comic timing that a first year director could only dream of. Unfortunately, takes had to be cut mid way through as a result of my not being able to keep it together.

The locations provided a wonderful sense of production value, and all in all, we were able to film around 45 minutes of usable footage, the majority of which we will have been disappointed to not have used.