Tomorrow we begin production on our next feature film – ‘MUTE’. The first thing we plan to shoot is the climactic scene. One of the biggest set-pieces of the film, in a TV studio, and arguably one of the most emotionally-heavy of the entire film. Challenge right? Yeah, maybe too much so…
If you’ve been following the progress of our latest opus, then you’ll know that we originally planned to shoot ‘SPECTRUM’ this summer, but due to the schedule becoming impossible, and the scope clearly too big, I had to make a big decision – that decision was to write our next-planned feature a year earlier…in the space of a week. And then tweak it to perfection before the shoot. We had several things working in our favour – it was a near-dialogue-free film (which actually ended up making it harder to write), we had actors and locations booked, and props created already to start shooting. We ended up doing things a little backwards, as we built the script around the schedule, knowing how much time we had with each actor, and how many times we could use various locations. We were also able to cut down the number of supporting cast and locations as a result. All positives. So what were the negatives?
Well, writing a script in a week, for one. It was an insane amount of pressure, and at times I really had my doubts as to whether it was possible, or if we could even make anything of quality to such a tight deadline, but we got there in the end. I honestly couldn’t have got this far without the support of my film students (listed in the video below), producer James Jackson, fellow writer Nathan T. Dean, and a few select friends offering constant support throughout the process. Their support (along with a few other things I’m about to reveal) really gave me the lift I needed, and now I feel more than ready to tackle what is our biggest and most ambitious project yet.
Yesterday we found out that our previous feature film ‘TIME AND PLACE” has been accepted in to Barcelona International Film Festival. This was the perfect time to find this out, as any sense of doubt that had been creeping in was instantly vanquished. It’s hard not to be hit with pre-match nerves when you’re staring at such a marathon task ahead of you. There is so much that can go wrong, every time you make a film, and considering how much we’ve had to (and still have to) get done in such a short amount of time, the stakes are even higher than a regular shoot. Whether we can pull it off or not remains to be seen, but we’ll be keeping you posted every step of the way, in as much brutally honest detail as possible.
Here we go…
^ The final Pre-Production video behind the scenes of ‘MUTE’ ^
