Thursday, November 30, 2006

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

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

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.

Monday, November 27, 2006

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!

Sunday, November 26, 2006

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

Friday, November 24, 2006

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!

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

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.




Tuesday, November 21, 2006

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)

Saturday, November 18, 2006

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!

Friday, November 17, 2006

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!

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

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!

Sunday, November 12, 2006

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!

Friday, November 10, 2006

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).

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Wednesday and Thursday

On Wednesday Daniel, Jenna and I went for a Reconnaissance down to the SS GB in Bristol, the area for our 29th November winter shoot. Although it had been a location lined up for filming, up until that point no crew memeber had attended, only seen the great video footage taken by an earlier recce of lead actor Andy Sweet. Jenna took a load of photos so i'll chat with her about that and the photos on the blog tomorrow and i'll make sure we go into a bit more detail in tomorrows podcast.

Today I managed to confuse all the actors by flinging date after date at them and then using terms such as light pencil, heavy pencil, and pen, then canceling lots of dates and moving a few around. Basically, a long story that I shall go into further at a later date but we might be moving the day of the Golden Hinde to the next weekend, however hopefully this doesn't have to be the case as it could cost alot of money and be of a large inconveniance to alot of people. I'll keep you posted....

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Roanoke The Movie Podcast - Episode One

The Roanoke The Movie - Podcast - Episode 1

Welcome to the first Episode of the Roanoke The Movie Podcast. While we aim to think up a snappy name for it and work on perfecting the right length, Bertie Stephens, Daniel Shirley and Jenna Street are proud to bring you the first hour of chit and chat for this week. Every week we'll be brining you an hour of chat from all the different cast and crew members and different people who work on the film. We'll be posting listener questions along with possibly a few games and some of our own questions and answers.
If you have ever wondered how the production came about, where it is going, or who is behind the film then the Roanoke: The Movie Podcast will bring you the answer...we hope, maybe...possibly!

Ways to Listen



Windows PC - Play Straight Away!

Apple Mac - Play Straight Away!

Download MP3 to your Desktop

PC: right click and press "save as/save target" to download for future use on PC.

Mac: "ctrl+click" for Mac users.

Update: Better ways of listening to the Podcast will be coming over time, for the momment these three different versions of the .mp3 will have to suffice. Downloading might be the best option.





Tip of the Day: Why not download the Podcast, add it to your Phone, Ipod, or burn it to a CD and listen to Roanoke on an hour long car journey!

Monday, November 06, 2006

Updates and The Horses Tale

The Update Part

So after a relaxing weekend (although I did manage to sneak a bit of work in) there are a few things that need doing in preparation for the shoots in 14 days.

The first is to recce two locations to check whether they haven't been affected in their appearance. After the shock of seeing Hartley Witney change so much through the seasons it is very important that we go back to make sure everything is just dandy...to be honest I hope they are useless trips with no purpose, otherwise I’ll be franticly searching for a few new locations. There should be some use however; I’ll be taking Gary (Set Design) along with me to discuss additional set and props and then also everyone else to go through the Storyboard and shots needed. On one of the two dates (Golden Hinde and West Stow) we will be having a 2nd Unit, this means we will be having a two camera operation on two separate scenes that will be happening on the same location at the same time.

I must also make sure the document detailing the scenes to be shot in what order is correct, and make sure new documents are produced with the scene by scene set up and time of shooting for each day. This is the large part of the planning that everything else relates to so it's really important to get it right!

Finally, we're going to start doing Audio Podcasts (one hour radio shows) for the blog where we will be interviewing and discussing Roanoke with the actors, crew and various other members involved in the production. The aim is to release one 60 minute show per week until March, hopefully something to look forward to on the blog. Another job for today is to see who will agree to this, it's defiantly not something in the actors contracts.

And Finally

While the blog wiats for further production updates and photos from Roanoke, why not watch a completly and utterly butterly different production from some of the makers of Roanoke (Bertie Stephens, Daniel Shirley and George Thompson). Below is a 10 minute short claymation comedy entitled The Horses Tale. There is some connection, it is still a period drama, and although a comedy and made for a bit of fun, we'll chat soon about how it helped us create Roanoke (strangly enough)!

Let us know what you think!
.
.
The Horses Tale - BSDS Animation


Saturday, November 04, 2006

Day 3 Winter - Pictures

Below are some pictures sent across by Angela for Day 3 of the Roanoke Winter Shoot. I have included a few captions to go with them:


L>R - Brogan West, Bertie Stephens, Daniel Shirley, James Alexander and Andy Courtney...All feezing cold on a sunny but frosty West Wittering Beach


Ivor Potter, Andy Courtney and James Alexander acting during a flashback secquence.


Rehearsals on the beach before sunset. The fluorescent jacket just In case any stray cars (or boats) come hurtling towards us on this packed setting.


Actor Brogan West during prepares to be shot (as in filmed on :-) )



The Scene from a far...And from a fire


James Alexander looks on.


me :-D - thanks Ange! hehe

Thursday, November 02, 2006

I'd just like to say a few words...Or maybe a few thousand!!

Yak She Mash!!

Hello all, Daniel here. Thought i might say one or two things as i havent blogged in a while.

Firstly, anyone who gives a good back massage i may be requiring your services as our glamourous new 'Glidecam 2000 Pro' makes for some wonderful shots but also puts a rather heavy strain on its operator.

But lets not get bogged down with my subtle attempts for sympathy, on a much happier note we have had a very successful week or so of shooting. I have to say i have have been pleasantly surprised with everybodies efforts over the last 3 shooting days. They've had a very different feel to them from any previous shoots, a much more professional approach from all involved.

Last wednesday was a big day for us. With over 30 extras, a few new crew members, and our first night shoot it was a very ambitious day. Personally i was on my feet all day, as i think most crew members were. At times It may have felt a little unorganized to some but we got everything on track and we got the shots we needed which is the main thing. And they look great too, something very new to the film which will definitely visually enhance its look with a bit of contrast to some of the other scenes shot.

So a big thanks to everyone who helped out on that day. All the extras were fab, it wasnt the best of days, weather wise but everybody stuck in there and its cliche but we 'really' couldnt have done it without you. We'd have just been filming the trees otherwise!!

Special thanks to Rebecca, the make-up was superb, Ivor's arms looked amazing (although i dont think he has any hairs left on them now after ripping off the latex). Also Stephanie, she stepped in to help us with bits and bobs and it felt like she'd been there all along. Nothing was a problem for her and in many cases she was a step ahead of us! Although im normally a step behind, so maybe she was two steps ahead of me! hmm

Thursday was a very succesful day too. We set out to shoot 3 dialogue scenes basically of people walking through the woods. However, we didnt want it to look all the same and tried out some more exciting shots and shooting methods which will definitely aid the final look. All the guys involved on that day were great, they had to deliver lines and we hadn't auditioned the parts so was taking a little risk but i can honestly say they were completely believable in their deliverance.

And of course to yesterday. It was nice to see some of the extras from the shoot on day 2 back. And thanks goes to them for simply being there. It was quite nippy on the beach front at night.

The actors yesterday were great too, we had a big scene to pull off on the beach (the very first scene in the film), and Brogan and James done a brilliant job. The scenes supposed to be intriguing, mysterious, and visually exciting and i think we achieved that through the actors well delivered lines and intent on their faces, along with the crews work with lighting, flame lit torches and camera angles. There should be some nice stuff there. Also thanks to Andy, our lead actor, he's always there and often acts like hes a crew member helping us out. He has a long way to travel too but his motivation is inspirational. And i guess that goes for everybody involved. It truely is a team effort and all the actors, extras and crew members all realise our intent for this film and really have a joint motivation to make this work.

Before Roanoke got underway i only knew 3 of the people involved, now that figures near 100. If anything i think we can all say weve met some great people who all share our aspirations, and will no doubt be working alongside again in the future.

Well, this blog turned out to be a long one. Turned into some sort of acceptance speech. I was kinda having a quiet few thoughts and realised just how amazing everyones attitudes have been to this project and wanted to express that to you all.

So, i guess i should stop typing now......yes i think i



The Opening Scene

Last night we shot the opening scene!

I have to be quick as it's coming up to 5am and I'm due somewhere at 7am, but until we are able to get on here with pictures and such like I thought I'd say we had a really great shoot on the night of 1/11/06 and although a tad cold, the weather stayed perfect for us. We were needing to experiment with fire torches on the beach and without a heavy wind that West Wittering usually provides for us the torches stay alit and the fires burnt to a great height. The crew were exceptional, managing to beat the tide with some extremely hard work all round, and it was great to have the majority of our original band of extras back again.

I shall save more for later tonight or tomorrow morning when we are able to get a few pictures up, and now I must go warm up!

Congrats everyone, and thank you especially to the actors for working as we battled a number of technical issues, the pacing and style of the scene was perfect.

Bertie