In two weeks time we begin production on our latest feature film ‘MOTHER SKY’. Are we excited? Yes! Are we ready? Yes! Are we nervous? You bet.
I’ve come to realise that pre-match nerves are always a good thing. It means you aren’t blindly walking into production thinking everything will be golden. Knowing how these things go (this is our 8th feature film after all), we are more than prepared with a Plan B and Plan C for every step of the way.
One benefit of having almost an entire year of pre-production (thanks Covid) has been the level of attention to detail and time to push ourselves to do more than we ever normally would (we can tell you who will be showering and when at the farmhouse shoot, how long we’ll be spending on each shot on any given day of our 20 day shoot, or where exactly each light will be for each scene throughout). So has the pre-production period been fun? Not always, it meant a lot of solitary hours doing a lot of extensive planning, but rehearsals and regular chats with cast and crew have kept morale high.
Would I want to do it this way again? Not likely. The fact it’s been six years (almost to the day) since we shot ‘MUTE’ and three years since we shot ‘ANHEDONIA’ doesn’t sit right with me. I’d be shooting every year if budget and feasibility weren’t issues.
So what’s the plan going ahead? How soon will we be shooting the next one? Well, all going well, we hope to shoot a short film start of 2022 and the next feature summer 2023. Again, are we excited? You have no idea.
