The Rough Cut

Hey all, Daniel here!

Haven't been able to blog in a while, something to do with google and now every has to get a google account to continue blogging, sly arnt they!

But anyways thought i'd inform you all of how the edits going and where we are at with it all. We spent a week forming the rough cut, although Bertie had to finish off the final 10 minutes on his own, and i can safely say its looking quite good. It's still at a really early stage but we think weve cut it together to make the story gripping and exciting to watch. However spending so long working on it makes you loose sight at times and you can no longer see it as the reguler viewer would, but weve tried to get in that frame of mind and thus have picked and picked at it to find faults and fix them, and may possibly re-shoot in places and even create new scenes that could help pace it better in certain places and work with the characters development.

All in all though, im liking it and the visuals are great, and i have faith that you will all enjoy it too and see the effort thats gone into it. Occasionally we sit there in front of the monitors, stop for a moment and say 'this is a student film' and then realise just what an achievement this all is.

Still along way to go however!!!

In The Panto

So i'm sitting in the panto and have 15 mins before it starts so I thought I'd log onto the net on my phone and give you a quick update about the production. Also a big merry xmas to everyone around and thank you for all the christmas greetings that have come through the blog. Today I finished off the final 10 minutes of the production that Dan and I were unable to complete during our edit week. The current length stands at 1 hour 18 mins minus the end credits and a few scenes. I think this will be a great length and hopefully an outside audience will agree that the tempo and interest will be kept up through out the story. We now move into the audio and visual fine edits, plus the addition of CGI.

Well the curtain is about to go up so ill wish you all the best xmas. and ill chat before boxing day is out.

bertie x

The First Editing Update

Last time I blogged I was in the tired state of logging the hours and hours of footage collected over the summer and winter. This time we are nearly half way through the first rough edit, although running by scene numbers we are on 46 / 125 , luckily the scenes get shorter as we go on :-D.

The film is coming together in its own way and it is very interesting to finally see how all the hours and hours of work on various different scenes can be cut down to a couple of minutes, and in some intances cut entierly. Having watched the first few mintues of the production quite a few times now its hard to see it from an outside prospective and therefor the help of the other crew members third eye will become very usefull over the upcoming weeks. The rough edit looks mainly at the video edit which means that although we have begun layering guide music and rough audio over the top, the full emotion and feel for a scene can't fully be grasped as on most occasions there is little if any audable dialogue. Don't fear however, the dialogue has been recorded seperatlly and therefore will be added in due course.

The aim to complete a full rough cut before the new year should be on track, however there will be a lot of touching up and hours and hours more work to be done on the production before it is at a viewable standard.

The acting from everyone, main cast - extras, has been incredible and we have really been let off the hook as we can let scenes run at there natural pase for the most part and still have it work in the sence of the whole production.

We have hit a critical scene within the editing and for this reason instead of editing together, Dan has left the edit suit for the night and I will edit the scene to the style discussed earlier and how the script depicts it and in the morning at around 7am Dan will offer a fresh eye over the work and be able to offer intial reactions based on how the journey of the scene progresses.

Right now however I should get back to the edit and will hopefulaly update with a bit more interesting (more than text) information later.

Hello all, just thought I'd update you with what I've been up to...

While post production continues, I've been arranging time with some of the cast for filming their interviews for the DVD. Some have been on location at West Stow between filming and have turned out well. There's only a few interviews to be done during this festive month and hopefully it will be completed soon.

We will be filming the crew interviews too but not yet as I don't think we're quite ready!



I have yet to put together all the hundreds of photographs and stills I have taken over the summer and winter. I'm looking forward to going through it all as there are some really nice stills that have great potential. At the same time I'll be reminiscing over the long journey we have been on - from the audition phase to recce locations to rehearsals to filming.

We have had a great team on this movie. I'm really glad George joined us in the winter shoot which helped expand our small team by adding an extra pair of hands and feet to the crew and for the cast as our last minute Crusty character.

Even though it feels like it's the end of another journey, I'd like to think it isn't.
It feels more like it's just the beginning of another.



To Bertie & Dan:
Good luck guys with the first rough cut. Hope you get some sleep today :)

Angela x

Very Short, Tired, But Important Update

Hi there,

Well you might have noticed my lack of blogging over the last week. That's not wholey becuase nothing has been happening with Roanoke, infact quite a lot has, towards the end anyway. I took last weekend (not the one just gone) and Mon - Thurs to have a break from Roanoke after finishing the shooting and I caught up on the majority of my UNI work that had been slightly neglected over the last few weeks, laa di daa, no fret tho I have been doing it, and the few days allowed me to fully catch up which was excellent.

Now the bigger news is that for me this weekend has yet to have a seperation. Since Friday at 2pm I have been working towards Logging and Capturing all the footage from every shoot date of Roanoke. When I say since Friday I actually mean it as I have yet to properly go to bed (and it is now Sunday at 19:30 and i'll have to go through the final few days still.

On the editing system I have created 125 folders (representing the number of scenes) and then as the Tape Deck plays the Rushes into the computer the program (as in instructed by I) logs the timecode for each scene, shot and take and then begins to digitze the footage into a format the computers can read for an edit. Now although the computer should really take the credit (so far, touch wood) for the heavy duty process of recording the data, it has to be manually programed and then the computer looks back over the programing and encodes the footage.

In turn it usually goes for work for an hour and a half, rest for an hour, so I have been having a very interesting sleeping pattern through the night and day where I no longer care whether the sun shines but just wait for the hour where the computer goes at it so I can take a few seconds rest.

In the past this process has usually taken around 10 days to do the number of hours, however I have been trying to work at a quicker pass, through the nights, and obviously for alot longer hours in order to make sure I can complete it by 6am this Monday Morning. At around 6am Dan is coming round and on this final week before Christmas we are going to be compiling the first rough cut of the movie. There is pretty much (apart from the 5 days mentioned earlier) no down time betweeen finishing shooting and editing the movie together. Dan is going to be staying with me at the edit sweet so the hours can be increased. ohhh as we speak baby Alfie (Virginia Dare) is just having his first ever feature film debut imported by the computer.

Well now we are off our break, and back full in action, expect updates this week about the rough cut, and then before xmas and into the new year about the Music and CGI and the fine edits.

All very entertaining, but currently this has taken about 20 minutes out of my sleep time, so I should go grab a quick one before I move onto the next set of rushes.....it's very fun tho, and so far (touching the same piece of wood) very promising.

Love,
Bertie

p.s - this time you can excuse the grammer and spelling as i'll blame it on the tierdness, wohay i love the excusess.

p.p.s - due to this sudden surge in work the blog updates have been delayed, i've been updating the full credit list as well.

Looking On....

Hi Everybody,

Thought as now the shooting days have come to an end I would reminisce on the brilliant time I have had over the last few months, for instance I'll never forget the cast singing the monkeys in the water at fleet pond (you can still watch the clip on the later posts), Jack falling asleep against a building at the Weald and Downland Museum and George and I driving up and down the M3 trying to find the Saxon Village.

The shooting was stressful, but fun and I'm definitely going to miss it.... Bertie taking us to all different locations and saying "wonderful", Sam and I recording the sound and singing to each other in between takes, Angela milling around taking photos, Dan getting annoyed by the steady-cam, and Gary arranging and then rearranging the props on set; and then later on George joining us and trying to learn the part of Crusty in less than a day, he did a good job as well (I know I forgot someone, but they'll let me know).

So what now...

For me I am the 'third eye' in the editing system, which basically means that Dan and Bertie sit for hours in front of the computer and after they have seen the same clips over and over I come in and tell them if it makes any sense. I will also be organising the marketing of the film, so will hopefully be able to gain lots of publicity for the film, will keep you involved and show the designs for billboards and so forth, you never know!

All I Want Is A Ship Somewhere

Here are some photos of the Dining Hall in Roanoke for you to see.

Look at all that food...

The Death Mask Scene

While I continue to work behind the scenes on the Upgrade to the blog and an idea Post Production Status Centre, here are some pictures (by Angela) of the first and only studio shoot we did - The Death Mask Scene. This scene is rather surreal but works really well in the context of the film and the rushes look brilliant.

Post Production will start the Saturday and hopefully I'll have something for everyone to keep up to date with (along with the blog).

But for now here are the photos:

Fraser Knight and Charlotte Hunter rehearse part of the scene

Although the setting looks rather modern, when the lights go out it all changes

Charlotte Hunter is confronted by the camera during the scene.

The real death mask, in all its glory.

From Mask to real, its quite eerie when close up!

New Design Coming

Please allow a few more days for it all to be complete, sadly the upgrade is taking a little longer than predicted so if you notice changes happening through this week don't be scared, we'll still keep updating whicever design is around.

all the best,

Bertie

West Stow In Action

So as i'm still a student, sadly I still have deadline days and the last two days i've been frantically trying to complete one of those, which I managed in the last few hours. Living with Jenna (2nd AD) we both had the pleasure of this last minute dash (which wasn't helped by the shooting of Roanoke) although I need to to check Dan and George (who are the other two on the course) are alive, this is one of the small reason our updates will start now.
So with two shooting locations to cover, let's start with the most exciting location of the two, West Stow.

Situated just by Bury, St Edmonds West Stow is a true to life Anglo Saxon Village which although seems odly the wrong time period, is in actual fact a perfect setting for the colony of Roanoke. The true to life colony was incredibly small and although called Fort Raleigh was in no way a "Fort" as one would imagine.

Ignoring the actors, extras and crew for a split second I think the most incredible thing about the three days was the weather. We shot the continuity shots to these three days back in the Summer on the hottest days of the year, and it was hot. However for December 4th,5th and 6th we managed to have bright blue skies and sun piercing the air (such description). Although the temperature was rather cold compared to the Summer, through the camera, which is really all that matters to us, the light and colour was perfect, so thank you to the Weather Man:

- "you've done us proud" - As someone could say without bringing grammer into the equation.

It has been a truley wonderful and amazing experiance for me due to the incredible comitment and talent of our actors, actress, and extras. For our cast, there is really no faulting anyone and it would be impossible to replace any as they travel mile after mile put in hour after hour for the production and all I can see is a level of professialism that would be expected on a multi million pound production but has been offered to our production from some incredibly talented, amazingly comtted and just wonderfull people that make up our main cast. In reality i'm lost for words for everyone but had to put something down that has only touched the surface of how strongly i feel about our cast.

As for the near 100 extras that have comitted themselves to our prodction over the course of the summer it has been amazing how they have suffered the cold, heat and long hours for us, thank you, and I can't wait to meet up again at the Premiere.

We had three days one West Stow, the first involved the main cast for the most part on their own, although we did have three extras help us on our way, the second day saw the colonist extras and cast and then the third was the ship crew. As Sam explanied below we had alot of scenes to battle through and the worst problem was the light. Light faded inside the buildings by 3pm so it was an extreme push to make sure we made got through all the inside material by then along with all the outside scenes by 4pm . By the end of each day it felt like 10pm due to the light although in a turn from the norm we were generally at our varying acomadation for the night by 6pm, we still had to be up and back by 6:30am.

I'll stop rambling at let you see some of the pictures Angela took on the day:

Cameraman Dan looks through the viewfinder as the brightly coloured crew stand by


Baby Alfie makes his debut with acting mother for the day Charlotte standing by


Leander Pittis (MacNair) stands by the colony looking on.


The feast was moved indoors due ot the wind and everyone gets ready to tuck in.


Charlotte (Eleanor) and Fraser (Ananias) prepare for an indoor scene

The Final Days of Shooting

Hi!
I thought I should say something about the last three days we spent at West Stow, as its been overshadowed by the fact that we've finished completely!

If you've looked at the blog recently you'll know that Dan, Angela, Gary and I all stayed at Bertie and Jenna's flat in London on Sunday night, ready to leave bright and early Monday morning! We were up at 4am to pack up the cars, including George's when he arrived at about 4.30, them we left at 5, travelling in convoy! Though as Angela and I were at the back in my car, we were left at a red traffic light and had to make our own way there (Thank you TomTom!)

We arrived at West Stow at 7, and started unpacking the cars and sorting out what costumes we would need for the day, until we were allowed into the village itself.
During the first day we shot scenes with Eleanor and Ananias (Charlotte Hunter and Fraser Knight) and the debut of Alfie Bullard as Virginia Dare! Later in the day we shot scenes with John White (Andy Courtney) and the ships crew. Tuesday was a very different day, in that we had less scenes to shoot, but they were much longer and bigger because we had lots of extras, being the colonists!
Wednesday had a real 'end of term' feel to it, and we had cakes and balloons! We also enjoyed a sing-a-long of 'the final countdown' at lunch! Oh, and we shot some scenes with the ships crew as well!

I would also like to add my congratulations and thanks to the entire cast and crew who made this a fantastic production to work on!
All that remains now is Post production!

We Did It

Everysingle person on the full credit list plus the many more that need to be added have helped in the creation of this production, and finally it has been shot. It has truley been a group effort where every single person on set and behind the scenes have made it possible.

There is a long journey (that we will continue to update as per normal on this blog) to go in regards to finishing the production, however for now please allow us a nice nights rest before we bring you photos and accounts from the last three days (plus the Death Mask day).

121 scenes have been shot and well over 50 hours of audio and video footage together in order to create this feature, and now we move into piecing it all together with music, special effects etc right up until March.

Your support and following of our updates have made it worthwhile, and we hope you will stay with us until we might be able to meet at the premiere.

From a very tired but happy,
Bertie

At Home with the Colonists:

Hello all you happy people,

Gary Production Designer here...

Well, The art dept. Has finally come to the end of the line on the production, and I would like to say a big thank you to everyone involved...
A lot of people helped out with making Roanoke look as good as it did. And ofcourse a big thank you to the big kahoona, Bert for everything.

We had the last few days of shoot recently, with some fantastic results. We shot a very memorable dining scene where our cardboard box table laterally collapsed from the weigh of the food... Well, it was only cardboard!

We also had a few interesting props creep up, like my home-made paintbrush, carved from the best wood, and never made it on screen... But never mind... Not to mention more fantastic rum mixtures, which consisted of diet orange squash, cola and water(this was one of many variations which included cold tea, coffee, fruit juice and watered down cola). Poor Andy had to (try to) drink this wonderful stuff.

I am really looking forward to seeing the final piece now, as I am sure it is going to be mind blowing!

I am sure photos will be available on here soon, I will endeavor to add as many of my own... But they never look as good as Angelas!

Anyway all, got to go now... Watchin' my all time inspiration film, Pirates of the Caribbean again.

Here we go, for the final time!

It's the home straight,

and just like the first three days of shooting back June 9th everyone is coming over to prepare and leave super-duper early for the final three days. I'm going to try and set up my phone so I can mobile blog a message during the day (if there is a smigin of time), but until then as the crew arrive I'm going to have them write a message (how lovely and corny), so as I'm here, I'll write one a lot later on but first......Here is Dan:

Hello all, Daniel here, I've arrived at Bertie's Camberwell Second floor Mansion... flat. All ready for the shoot. Don't know quite how all the crew + equipment+props+costumes are going to fit into this place but we'll try. 3 DAYS TO GO!!!!!! Then we re-shoot everything coz its not good enough!!! hmmm....maybe not.

Hello! Sam here as well! I too have just arrived at Bertie's, but half an hour later than Dan! I have just unpacked all the stuff I had in my car from Bristol, and we are just about to load it up again with stuff for tomorrow! Then we have to go to sleep because were getting up at 5 for the journey to West Stow, and I will be listening to 'Blackadder' on the journey because my ipod battery has run out! Now Angela has something to say:

Hello fellow RTLC readers, Angela here. I've just helped Bertie pack and sort out the costumes for the final three days of filming. I'm looking forward to the final three days, it's going to be hectic but we will manage! We've got equipment slowly pilling up in here so I better leave you now and let Jenna tell you more:

Indeed Jenna will tell you...something. It is so packed in here we can barely breathe and you have to step over something to move. Have no idea how we have accumulated so much stuff. It's exciting being the last few days, but kinda sad as well. What will I do with myself once it's all over, ah yes I know post-production. It's still sad though as we have had some fun days and it's been such a laugh getting to know the cast, and some of the crew I didn't know before we started and not forgetting the extras. Everyone has been so lovely! Don't really know how we did it, but we managed to get the nicest group of people together for this film! Anyway I'm tired and have to be up in about 4 hours to start the West Stow shoot, yey!

Ok, it's 11:02pm... Gary here... well, i am looking forward to the next few days. it shall be fun... i hope! In the last few days we have been doing some great shots, one involving a death mask of our lovely Charlotte. Becky Amassi did an amazing job of doing a head on a stick. well, sam is reading over my sholder now... so i must leave... to kill him... slowly!
Not really...
k... who's next???

Oh and it's Bertie here, just thought i'd say hello. It's now 11:07 and i'm writing the final message, George isn't coming tonight, so he won't say hello. It's all very nervous-wracking (new word) and we're ready to shoot the final few scenes. We found Andy's costume (that we lost earlier) so we should be good.

Sam again! just thought I should let everyone know that Gary hasn't killed me, and I'm ok! This does mean that Bertie's message was not the final message, so he lied to you all! Well, goodnight, we're going to get some sleep!

A long night and a long day

Over the 29th and 30th we shot two very different scenes. Currently we are all very busy preparing for the final three days shooting of Roanoke The Lost Colony which takes place on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I can't believe it, apart from the odd re-shoot on the odd scene it is incredible to think this project (in the shooting stage) is nearing an end. There is a lot of work to be done from here however so we won't be going anywhere anytime soon! Even from the start of this blog and reading through the archives its amazing to think how much we have all acheived, let alone looking back to the very begining where Shane and I discussed the plot basics on the way to see V for Vendetta on a train and having food in Nandos.

But hey, let's not get to sentimental, the next three shooting days cover a large amount of scenes and are incredibly importnant, time to focus on that first!

Today I have to deliver back the 16th Century Musket we hired, and then make sure all call times and scenes are prepared for.

In the meantime here are two pictures from the 29th, thanks to Angela for these, and thanks to everyone who turned up and helped create a visually stunning piece of filmaking.

as allways click to englarge.


Dan prepares the camera angle for the next shot.


Actors and Extras run through their actions.

Bristol - SS Great Britain

We shot last night on the SS GB for the Dockyard shoot.

It all went well, although there were a few minor hickups I'll elaborate on later.

We got in at 1am and I sadly had to take Shane to the airport as his flight left at 6, so I'm a tad on the tired side, but the excitement of shooting again today will keep me rolling as I believe the rest of the crew are feeling too.

Hopefully we'll get some pictures up either this evening or tomorrow.

Speak soon,

Bertie

A day on The Golden Hinde

And here are the Photos.....thanks to Angela as allways. As Sam said, a great day, and the rushes look great



Preparing to set sail, by that we mean "pretend to set sail"


Crew on board, next time we want better roof space!


Around the table playing a game that had no rules.


Land-Ho.....stealing Ryans line.


Shane "the light, the light, so beautifull! must....not...go...near"


Mr. Ivor Potter never listened to the road saftey adds about keeping eyes on the road


A sailer went to sea sea sea to see what he could see see see. but....

Incredible, we landed back just in time for the Football.

The Golden Hinde

Ahh Sunday...a time to relax.

Unless you're part of a crew shooting a 16th Century production.

Instead of relaxing, watching Chelsea play Man Utd, or London Wasps play Leicester (as Dan and myself would have liked respectively!) we were on a boat filming 30+ scenes in only 6 hours.

Because of the sheer amount we had to do, we split into 2 units. Bertie, Gary, George and myself taking one unit; Dan, Jenna, Shane and Karl taking the other, while Angela travelled between both taking a lot of pictures (I'm sure some will be posted soon!)

Bertie also managed to keep track of what had been shot and what we had left to shoot on both units all day!

We arrived at the boat at about 11am, getting all our stuff together and meeting cast and crowd as they arrived. We started shooting at 1.30, and by 3.30 we were behind schedule, but only by 1 scene!
We managed to pick this up however, and both units combined at about 5.00 to shoot the final night scenes. We finished shooting at 7.15, and were off the boat by 7.30, thanks largely to the efforts of the cast and crowd who helped pack up all the equipment except what we were using.

All in all the day went well, though at times it was quite stressfull! When the cast weren't shooting they managed to pass the time in the pub across the road, keeping up to date with the football, and throughout the day we gathered quite a crowd! helped a lot by new cast member Ryan's cries of 'Land Ho!', and enthusiastic ringing of the ships bell!

Everyone involed did a fantastic job on what was one of the most difficult days we've had so far, and I felt it went very well, and found the day an enjoyable, if sometimes tiring experience. Even though I missed the rugby!

And with that done we have only 5 days of shooting left on Roanoke: The Lost Colony!

Normally a Quiet Day

Sunday would normally be a non-blog day for the most part. But today we are shooting on a 16th Century boat!

Check this space for updates a little later on!

Bertie x

Rehersals and More

So yesterday and the day before we have been working through a number of scenes for the future shoot days in rehearsals. This week we have been mostly rehearsing crew members (said in the true way of the Fast Show), and then next week we shall be moving onto the colony. It was great to have everyone from the crew side back together and we can't wait for next week for a similar reason. We also introduced Ryan Newberry to the cast, Ryan will be featured mainly on the Golden Hinde and West Stow.

We managed to crack through around 10 -15 scenes over the last two days and everyone managed to have their say from crew - cast. It was great that everyone felt like they could give there input and we didn't have to deal with the whole hierarchy cur-fuf-ll, hopefully it will stay the same (as it has been) through the final shoot days (and possibly the edit too).

One of the most interesting parts of the day happened when lead actress Charlotte Hunter came down to be "cast" (in the most literal sense) for a mask that will be featured in Scene 43b. Although I won't give to much away about its use and why we are doing it, it was very interesting to see it happen, in one hour Beccy with the assistance of Gary managed to produce a fully cast mask, and this is how it happened:


Photos by Angela - I'll now attempt to write a description based on what I think happened, no doubt I’ll be corrected by Gary or Beccy later:



Our sitting duck Charlotte was suddenly sprung upon by Algernate.
She luckily didnt move a muscle during this time.


Wishing to replicate the true expression "blank face"
bandages are added to the outside of the Algernate


Slowly the cast has dried and it is peeled of the face of
Charlotte


The cast is filled with plaster and then the mold removed.



The face in all its glory.



Sam shows his new Weekend face, incredibly it looks
exactly like Charlottes!

Quick Report

Yesterday went really well but after a morning of being cold and battered by the wind the cast and crew were exhausted. These two weeks are extremly busy, Today and Tomorrow are set for rehersals with the the ship crew and then on Sunday we shoot the Golden Hine, next Monday and Tuesday we have rehersals for the colony, then on Wednesday we shoot the SS GB scene and on Thursday the studio. After that it's a bit of waiting around before we head up to West Stow and film the final three days shooting.

For that reason I am extremly sorry if I have yet to get round to replying to an e-mail as I really just haven't been able to sit down for longer than 2 minutes at a computer that didn't involve Pre-Production or Blogging. I will soon tho!

In the meantime I cut together a really rough edit of some of the shots to see if it would work, and here is how two frames looked.

as allways click to englarge.

It our 21st....well date of shooting.

We're a bit short on energy, after being very cold and up in the...very cold since 5am. The shoot went well, and here are some of Angelas photos that describe a bit...


Rehersing the scene



and then playing with Pikes


Flagging....the flag?



And with quite a crowd gathering!


and then Shane arrived (L>R Dan, Shane, Bertie, Andy)

Something Right

So two jobs were spread over the course of the day, one a very easy job, the other alot more challenging.

We started with the more challenging job which was to make sure that all the scenes had been checked over for costume continuity, which, isn't as easy as it sounds. As films are generally (99.9%) shot in a random order and adjacent scenes months apart, it is important that when you come to shoot a scene that continues from a scene shot 6 months ago all the characters are wearing the same costume.

For Roanoke, with over 120 scenes we have to make sure each scene lines up with the last and next and some scenes that correspond with others that have been shot and are 50 pages in the script ahead are noted....long winded I know but true. For instance on Tuesday we will not only be shooting a "continuity scene" but we will be shooting the same scene as we shot on July 10th at 4am but from a different angle. So not only do the actors actions have to be similar, but their costumes and facial hair have to be the same too...

The one advantage we do have is that we tend to shoot the whole scene in one day, thus for each scene it is hard to have costume continuity errors, however props and set arrangements must be counted too.

We (Angela and I) managed to produce a lovely 4 page document with all the scenes listed and their corresponding continuity jargon.....


On another note and the second job, I decided to see how well our film was doing in the search engines. Quite by surprise we now rank at #1 search for a variety of different areas, such as "Roanoke Film" "Roanoke Movie" and others that people may search for on the internet.

Tomorrow I must sort all the costumes out for Tuesday!

Quiet a Week

It's that week again, the time when it all goes quiet before the storm of the shoot. Despite the quietness on the blog the amount of paper work I’ve been getting through is extreme, and not to mention the amazing help Sam and our lead actress Charlotte have been offering and completing (a lot faster than I manage sometimes)!

I have now revamped the initial Winter folders with new fresh paper work, up to date and ready for action. We are slowly moving in to the final 7 days. It used to be 6 days however I have decided to add an extra day to West Stow in order to allow a lot more time (8 hours to be exact) for the actors and crew to make sure we have the perfect shot.

Although there is still a lot of hard work to be done during the shoot, Dan and I started today on the basic stages of post-production. We aim to release Trailer 2 in time for Christmas, and with that we are currently initiating the first stages with music composers and CGI artists. So far we have had a number of applicants and are looking forward to working with some over the next few months.

As far as the schedule goes, we will be shooting up until December 6th, creating the 2nd trailer and first rough edit of the production before Christmas. Then during January we will be sending the rough edit over to the composer(s) for the production of the music, whilst allowing the CGI artist to work on the various Computer Generated Images we will need for our production.

At the beginning of February we aim to have a tightened version of the film with music and CGI available to us, and then from there we do the audio edit and colour grade the production....by March 1st we should have the first finished version of Roanoke, ready for test screening and the opinions of others!

That's how it should line up in terms of schedule, and while I must plan ahead to make sure all that is set in place, I must not look to far, for at the moment we have a shoot day coming up on the 21st on the bank of the river Thames , and then we hit our big 4:

The Golden Hinde
SS GB - Bristol
London Studio
West Stow

So that is what is on our minds currently, and expect a lot of pictures and updates over the following weeks.

We have numerous amounts of rehearsals over the next fortnight as well, so we will make sure we take some of that time to let the actors have their voice on the pod cast!

The Lost Pictures

Ok, lets try again!

Here are the pictures from Saturday's recce that wouldn't appear when I tried to post them before!


Some of the buildings at West Stow


More cabins, all to be used as the colony on Roanoke


The interior of one of the cabins, a meeting hall for the colonists


ahh, Aunti Pam's Sweet shop...need i say more!


Once again, Jenna falls asleep in the car!

Return to Roanoke

Hello again!

Yesterday, Bertie, Jenna and I went back to West Stow Anglo-Saxon village for a second recce.
The first time was merely to scout the location, but this time was to look more at possible shots, and to see what we would have to avoid seeing (a big metal fence for example!).

We left Bertie and Jenna's flat in London at about 8am (I had arrived Friday night) and began our hour and a half journey in Bertie's car. The journey seemed fairly short due to a lot of surfing the internet on Bertie's new phone, on which he has unlimited internet!

We arrived at West Stow a few minutes before they opened at 10, and so had to wait outside until they let us in! We spent a good couple of hours at the village, covering each shot on the 'shoot in order' list Bertie had with him, and it seemed an even better location than the last time we visited for the settlement on Roanoke island!

After the recce we journeyed to Bury St. Edmunds where we met with Charlotte Hunter (Eleanor Dare) for lunch, before hitting the streets to put up posters advertising for extras (if you are local to the area and would like to join us at the start of December, please contact Jenna at extras4film@yahoo.co.uk) And we also came across a fantastic sweet shop and spent quite some time in there!

We finished our day by travelling back to London discussing our favorite moments in Friends (after Jenna woke up!), and Bertie's phone came in handy once more after a dispute over the lyrics in the title music! (In which, I was right by the way!)

So thats it! Unless Bertie or Jenna want to add anything to what I've said!
Below are some images of the day, and if anyone is interested in learning more about West Stow follow this link to their website.

Erm, I can't get the pictures to load at the moment, so I'll have to publish them at a later date!
Sorry to get your hopes up then dash them again in one foul swoop!

Past, Present and Future

Hello all, just thought I would add to Bertie's post about the location scouting in Bristol and also travel back in time to talk about the first winter shoots, which I should have done earlier.

At the moment I am currently looking and advertising for about 30 men to be crew members in Bristol, London and one of the days in West Stow, and some women and children for the other day(s) at West Stow. So if anyone is interested please contact me (Jenna) at extras4film@yahoo.co.uk.

The winter shoots have gone really well and I was very impressed with everyone keeping upbeat in Fleet in the cold, wet and dark conditions, it did make my job easier not to have any complaints especially from the extras. In fact I was surprised by how many of the extras wanted to come back and be involved again. Must have something to do with the food and drink (hot and cold) that was supplied. Below are some pictures of Dan and Bertie making 40ish sandwiches on the morning of the shoot. Although I should warn you they were taken on my phone so they're not that great in quality.





There are also some pictures of the day Bertie, Dan and I went to Bristol to look at the dock yard around the SS Great Britain, which to those of you who don't know is a really big ship! We started out early and as usual in car journeys I fell asleep for the whole way, but the rest of the day was good and productive for the film.













I want to take this opportunity to say the footage obtained so far is very high quality and i'm proud to be part of this production. Anyway that's all really, other then to mention that tomorrow Bertie, Sam and I are off to West Stow to check the location is still alright and they haven't added anything silly that would mean it wouldn't be right for us, although i'm sure it'll be fine and i'll be putting up some posters around the area again to advertise for locals to come and join us for the day as extras. Well thats it, I have gone on for quite a while, but don't know how to end this....The End (yeah that'll do).