Roanoke: The Lost Colony

2007-10-30T08:41:00.000Z

This is the final update for the Roanoke: The Lost Colony blog. Further information will be added on the official site - www.RoanokeTheMovie.com

If you would like to follow the blog of the next BSDS Production please visit www.bsds.info for further information.

Thank you for your support and visits over the past year and I look forward to seeing you on our other blog and on the official website.

It's been, wonderfull...and then some.

Speak soon,

Bertie

You won't believe it!

2007-07-01T12:37:00.000Z

Edit: Well done Sam! Check RoanokeTrip.com for update on the Roanoke Premiere!! 3 screenings in one week.

Ok, so on the day of the Premiere my train got stuck due to flooding and I missed it.

Yesterday, on my way to Bideford, I got stuck in traffic for about an hour due to an accident on the M5, and so arrived at about 2.40 instead of 1.30, and therefore missed the first half of the film!!

Also, as a result of this, I didn't have time to take any pictures or record any video, but there are pictures of the day which should be sent to me, and then I will post them when they are.

The film seemed to go down well (despite some slight historical inaccuracies!) and there is even talk of holding another screening!

Bideford Trip!

2007-06-29T15:29:00.000Z

I know Bertie has said that this blog will be continued on their Roanoke Trip, but I thought that if anyone is still checking this one, I'd let you know about a screening taking place tomorrow.

Basically, the guys who are in the U.S. (Bertie, Dan, Jenna and Shane) will be screening the film in Roanoke, and we will also be holding a screening in Bideford in Devon (I think!). Myself and some of the other cast and crew will be travelling down for this, and I am going to try to get some video footage of the day (anything they can do!) or at least some photo's, that I will put up tomorrow evening on this blog!

I hope those of you who were at the premiere enjoyed the film, I am looking forward to seeing it for the first time as I couldn't make the premiere because of the bad weather stopping my train, and I am so annoyed about it!

Anyway lets hope the weather is ok for tomorrow or I still won't get to see it!

Roanoke Trip

2007-06-26T05:34:00.000Z

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The premiere was a tremendous success and thank you for everyone who turned up and supported the night, something we hope is just the beginning. We are now off to America and touring with the film.

From June 25th - July 25th you can follow our progress with daily video diaries and videos on our journey on our new website.

During this time this blog will be continued on the blog at ROANOKE TRIP.

Go there now - www.RoanokeTrip.com

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Roanoke: UK Premiere

2007-06-24T17:41:00.000Z

Edit: Online Video of London Tonight news report - Here

Last night was the first (and for one night only) premiere of Roanoke: The Lost Colony. The cast and crew reunited once more. It was a great evening and with so many people in attendance the waiting area in front of screen 1 was very full. We have had so many wonderful comments and thoughts about the film from those who came to see it. It's really nice to get such amazing positive feedback from everyone.

Here's a few photos of our special day:

London Tonight make an appearance at the cinema filming an interview with the crew

Shane helping with the special tickets

Outside main doors of Screening Room 1 as we wait for doors to open

Screening Room 1 as audience take their seats

Bertie and Daniel give an introduction before the film starts (big round of applause)

A big thank you to everyone who came and attended our premiere. It means so much to us and I hope you will keep in touch as we follow the guys on their journey through America on their Roanoke trip.

Angela x

To get you in the mood

2007-06-23T12:07:00.000Z

To get people used to switching to the month long Roanoke Trip website and updates, we have just added a new video to the site, video diaries and blog start June 25th.

Premiere tonihgt, very nervous.

x

www.RoanokeTrip.com

177 posts later....

2007-06-23T05:58:00.000Z

TONIGHT - THE PREMIERE

ROANOKE: THE LOST COLONY

www.RoanokeTheMovie.com

Ritzy Cinema, London - Starts 18:30 (no late admittance)

Premiere Tomorrow - London Tonight

2007-06-22T17:23:00.000Z

We had a lovely phone call today from London Tonight the flagship news program on ITV for the greater london region who have asked about our film. We will be doing an interview with at the Ritzy Cinema tomorrow and fingers crossed our story will be broadcast to millions just a few hours before the premiere and our trip out to America (which can now be viewed on RoanokeTrip.com). This will be the first large news broadcaster to pick up our stories although if you are in the Croyden area today you will be able to see a great article in the Advertiser who have followed up on our film (online version may be available soon). We have heard that the Virginia Post would also like to publish our story (however we'll let you know more when it happens) and fingers crossed this is just the beginning as we head out to publicize the film across America and the UK. I've said it before but I'll say it again, it wouldn't be possible without the hours of effort and support from everyone, so as we stand on the eve of the premiere, thank you to all.

p.s. - if we do get on London Tonight i'll try and post a video of it on here later (for those outside London)

Roanoke Trio - Opens Today

2007-06-20T19:52:00.001Z

Just a few days now until the premiere - www.RoanokeMovie.com! but in the mean time...

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VISIT NOW AND FOR THE NEXT MONTH (and a bit)

www.ROANOKETRIP.com

The Roanoke Trip is a month long journey across America, from New York - Las Vegas, Roanoke Island - Seattle, Hollywood - San Francisco. The group - Bertie, Daniel, Jenna and Shane - will be aiming to promote the movie Roanoke: The Lost Colony. They will also be bringing to the UK the sites and culture of the various parts of America they visit. Documentation is displayed in daily video entries, personal video diaries, a blog, photos and a comic. After the trip a 6 part documentary will be produced

------------------

Roanoke: The Lost Colony

2007-06-18T08:10:00.000Z

Picturehouse Posters

2007-06-17T14:10:00.000Z

I went down to the Ritzy today to see the installed posters for our forthcoming premiere which is this Saturday. It's really cool to see them on display and hopefully it will get some attention over the next few days.

Poster upstairs near Screen 5 and the bar.

We are all very excited and looking forward to seeing you all and showing our film.

See you at the cinema, Angela x

PS: Don't forget you can still buy or collect* your tickets from the Ritzy box office anytime between now and the start of the film on the 23rd. (*quoting your booking reference number)

Until the Premiere

2007-06-17T11:57:00.000Z

6 DAYS.... Buy your last minute tickets now... Details Here

Roanoke: The Lost Colony

Roanoke: The Lost Colony - U

2007-06-15T08:20:00.000Z

Today the film has been officially rated as U - Universal (equivalent of G in America). We were surprised by this rating although not disappointed. We had never presumed the rating to be high due to the film lacking in very graphic material however there are some scenes we thought could push the rating higher. For the premiere it is very good news however as it means that everyone will be able to enjoy the show, whatever their age, and bring along a variety of family members. It was thought that although the film suggested and showed scenes that could raise the grade, they were handled in a tastfull way and one that did not glorify viloence etc.

Yesterday we tested the film at the Ritzy Picturehouse again (2nd time) and we finally managed to get everything working smoothly after a few errors from both our end and theirs. They have some very helpfull and lovely people working their who have been a big help throughout the preperation process for the ritzy.

The official Roanoke: The Lost Colony poster is also up in two places at the ritzy, it is outside the cinema and also in the main foyer outside the top bar, it was great to see. Dan and I managed to get a quick photo on his phone so hopefully Dan maybe able to get this online sometime today/tomorrow.

The website we posted of RoanokeTrip.com has been gathering quite alot of interest and as we are still finalising details I can say that it will be a full month worth of daily updates (unless we find ourselves stranded without the internet) and will show the other side of the film production that is raley seen.

Thank you for all your support to date and we can't wait to chat to you at the premiere (if your able to make it)

If sadly you're in America and wouldnt' be able to make the UK premiere then don't worry........ :-D

Roanoke Trip

2007-06-09T22:11:00.001Z

Something for the Summer

While the premiere is just 13 days away, here's another reason to stay out of the sun this Summer (or something to do in the evening)

Opening June 20th 2007

www.RoanokeTrip.com

and that's not the only piece of exciting news, more to come...

Very Exciting

2007-06-05T21:24:00.001Z

Some news just broke, I'm going to save it up and announce it all at once, but ever so exciting!

Few Big Things

2007-06-03T12:52:00.000Z

First of all just 20 days to go until the UK premiere! It is very exciting and if you haven't already got your tickets then there are still 1 or 2 available at the box office. Call on 08707 55 00 62 or online via our link at http://www.roanokethemovie.com/index5.htm.

We are currently working on two big things which we are keeping on a low profile at the moment but should mean alot of website updates for a number of days coming soon.

The status of the film sees it now completed and going through a number of exports for the premiere and the DVD release. I know Angela has been working hard on all the behind the scene footage and making of material and it is looking fantastic.

Keep checking the site for the announcement of the two major things, sorry to be so vague, but they should be quite cool!

Two Easy Ways

2007-05-25T05:33:00.000Z

Sorry to those who encountered a fault with the site yesterday, all has been fixed now and we're back up and working. As you can see I've added a new header to the blog with the logo of Roanoke: The Lost Colony. We waiting on a few pieces of news that I shall make public sooner or later over this weekend/beginning of next week but there are now two places that you can view information on Roanoke (apart from the official sites of course).

The British Film Catalogue - Here

The International Movie Database - http://imdb.com/title/tt1029364/ (being updated now)

Under a month to go to the premiere! How exciting!

Test Screening

2007-05-21T15:42:00.000Z

So we had the test screening of Roanoke: The Lost Colony and Bertie, Dan and I had the film screened at university for our major project screening. Overall the film has generally been excepted as a great achievement having been made by students.

The test screening was for members of the public that had no knowledge of the film, the story or the people involved in the production and therefore could give a impartial opinion. A big thank you to those who attended as many didn't turn up on the day that were expected, and for those who did turn up gave fantastic advice that we have taken on board. The questionnaires helped a lot for the opinions that were not voiced in the after disscussion, and to take notes from to find conclusive evidence for the common problems as well as complements. I have compiled the data to give an overview of the questions asked and they have come out quite positively.

The university screening went well and we have gained increased interest in the film and its merchandice, as well as discovering a target market audience for the film.

We are very happy with the finished film and delighted with the response that it is currently receiveing in the UK and America. Thank you to everyone that has supported the production and we look forward to seeing you at the premiere.

Trailer 2 & Press Kit

2007-05-20T08:42:00.000Z

Roanoke: The Lost Colony - Trailer 2

The Second Trailer for Roanoke: The Lost Colony has been released!

Check it out on the website - http://www.roanokethemovie.com/trailer.htm

let us know what you think :-D

Roanoke: The Lost Colony - Press Kit

We have released a fancy press kit for Roanoke: The Lost Colony with pictures (thanks to Angela Keocharoen) and information about the film. You can download it via the hompage of the official site.
http://www.RoanokeTheMovie.com/

You will need Adobe PDF Reader to view it (most computers should have it)

Hint: To view it like a book (how it was published in print) click on the bottom right image (labled facing) when reading the doucment.

Roanoke Test Screening

2007-05-09T19:21:00.000Z

Today we had our first test screening for Roanoke: The Lost Colony, currently i'm reviewing all the forms and Jenna is working hard compiling all the data into one big form for us to peruse...when we have it a bit more organized I'll write a bit more.

Bertie

Book for Premiere

2007-05-05T04:13:00.000Z

Premiere tickets can now be bought on general sale!

Call the box office: 08707 55 00 62 (lines open at 9:30am)
Visit the website: www.RoanokeTheMovie.com

Quick Details:

When? Saturday June 23rd 2007 - 6:30pm
Where? Ritzy, Picturehouse
Price? 5 pounds per ticket

Don't delay or you will miss out!

See you there (and let us know your coming)

Bertie

Roanoke Premiere Tickets on Sale this Saturday!

2007-05-01T17:33:00.000Z

An open letter from Bertie Stephens (Producer and Director)

Hello Everyone,

I can very happily announce that the tickets for the premiere of the feature film Roanoke: The Lost Colony will go on general sale THIS Saturday (May 5th) at 9:30am. The movie has generated substantial interest over the past few months and we are expecting tickets to sell out fast for the premiere. I would more than love to see you there!

The Premiere is being held at a very impressive cinema in London, named the Ritzy Picturehouse. It is the largest independent cinema in the UK and very famous for its screening of independent films.

The date of the premiere is Saturday June 23rd 2007 – starts at 6:15pm
Tickets only cost £5!

The Ritzy has a very lovely bar where everyone can congregate for a drink before hand and then chat to the cast and crew afterwards.

At 9:30am the lines will open for General Sales to the Premiere, and as mentioned earlier due to the interest we are expecting the 350 seated cinema to sell out quite quickly. The bookings are being done on a first come, first served basis and are all controlled by the Ritzy Picturehouse box office (therefore I have no control over their sale).

On Saturday May 5th 2007 you can book online or over the phone:

Booking Office: 08707 55 00 62 (lines open at 9:30am)
Online: http://www.picturehouses.co.uk (choose Ritzy Cinema)

Details and location of the Ritzy can be found here - http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/cinema_info.aspx?venueId=ritz

Roanoke: The Lost Colony is a 16th Century Period Drama feature film with a twist in more ways than one. The film has been fronted by a team of seven recent graduates looking to make a difference in regards to the term ‘low-budget’ filmmaking. In all the film has been shot for under £10,000 but has used communities and locations from across England to bring about an ambitious feature film. The film follows the story of John White on his journey to reunite him his daughter in Roanoke Island, however what he finds on his arrival is one of the greatest historic mysteries ever recorded. The film will be of interest to those fascinated by seeing the first glimpses of the filmmakers of tomorrow, those intrigued by the possibilities and quality of true low budget filmmaking, and for all who enjoy a good narrative mixed with impressive acting and setting. More information can be found on the website at www.RoanokeTheMovie.com

I hope to see you there and please let me know if you have any questions!

All the best

Bertie

We're Back in Business!!

2007-04-28T13:05:00.000Z

Yes, now the dissertations have finally come to an end, we can get back to fully concentrating on Roanoke. Not that we haven't been, its just now we can tell you all the wonderful things we have actually been working on like the sound, C.G.I (computer generated imagery) effects, grading and putting it all together to create the masterpiece that is Roanoke: The Lost Colony!

Apologies for the belated comments and display of the following pictures. The foley, which is the sound effects in the film were done a while ago. Bertie and I sat in a sound proof room with bits and pieces such as shoes, metal, glass jugs and so forth in order to create sounds that went with the images on screen. As not all the sound was recorded or not recorded loud enough (just the little things like writing, walking, putting cups down, that kind of thing) we then has to replicate the sound to complement the images being shown. Here are a few pictures:

Lots more has also been done for the films completion; I know it does get said often, but we could not have done it without the help from the cast and crew that have been involved with the making of the film in front and behind the camera. So thank you to everyone and hope to see you at the premiere!!

The Dissertation is Over!

2007-04-27T10:01:00.000Z

That's right everyone and over this weekend i'll be doing a big update about the premiere and some more cool things, but for now, here are a few pictures from the film to celerbrate!

as always click to enlarge

The Big Day is Set

2007-04-15T11:37:00.000Z

The UK Premiere for Roanoke: The Lost Colony has been set! On Saturday June 23rd 2007 at 6pm the doors will be open for the big day, the conclusion to nearly a years work, the premiere of Roanoke: The Lost Colony.

I am very excited to announce that on Friday we managed to agree a deal with what has been described as the best independent cinema in London (possibly England) for the premiere of our independent production, Roanoke. Our weekend will fit right in between the middle of all the major summer films on a weekend where no blockbuster is set for release.

Roanoke will be screened in Screen 1 of the Ritzy Picturehouse, London. The screen (as shown above) suits the style and mood of Roanoke perfectly and can seat more than 350 people in one showing.

We have been negotiating a number of venues over the last week but this proved to be the best due to the package Ritzy will put forward. We will have our name on the board outside, our poster in the window, the box office open to us with little Roanoke: The Lost Colony tickets printed out and our film advertised on our website. The Ritzy Cinema itself is "the largest independent specialist cinema in the country" and is located at the heart of the upcoming arts and media area of London.

We will be announcing how to get tickets for the event over the next couple of weeks, but mark it down in your diary now so that you don't miss out, we would love to see you there!

---------------

We are also offering the ability for someone/company to sponsor the event

With the amount of support and following Roanoke has created we would like to offer the chance for a company to join our journey.

Why it might appeal to some?

1. Your company will be added to our website and anywhere the event will be published. For example: Roanoke: The Lost Colony sponsored by Amastude.

2. You will join us up on the big bored two weeks before the event in order for everyone who visits the Ritzy Picturehouse to see your name.

3. You will join us on the Ritzy Picturehouse website naming you as the sponsor. Their website gets over 100,000 hits a week and the announcement could be made up to 6 weeks in advance.

4. You will join us on the Ritzy mailing list sent to their 30,000 members.

5. You will have the opportunity to place a flyer/goody bag on every seat to welcome the 350+ guests into the cinema and leave them something to go home with.

I could go on, but the list does get rather long........ If you have a company or something you would like to publicize to sponsor the event then please do get in touch, or if you know someone who might like this opportunity then have them contact info@roanokethemovie.com.

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Well the computer survived the 11 day torture of rendering and with that i should get back to checking the grade over. I'll write more about that a bit later!

Speak soon,
Bertie x

Few Additions

2007-04-09T09:58:00.000Z

On the right you shall see a new media bar that will enable you to play, without leaving the page, some of the media from the roanoke the lost colony website. Under that we have a Google news box that allows you to see the latest news that mentions the historic event of Roanoke: The Lost Colony.

Quite exciting news, we now are the number 1 search hit on Yahoo (the most popular website on the internet*) when searching for "Roanoke The Lost Colony". This is very good for the movie as when people search for the historical event on the worlds most popular search engine they will be welcomed into our site with outstretched arms. We are also number one on Google for any mention of Roanoke and films or movies, still need to work on the "Lost colony" part of it tho.

Well back to dissertation writing i go! If you have any more interesting facts about where you can find links to our website or a mention of the film then it would be great to hear from you!

I would be thrown in jail...

2007-04-08T13:20:00.000Z

...if a computer had the same rights as a person.

First of all, happy easter every one. On one hand i could say not much has happened over the past week in regards to Roanoke, on the other over 40,000 frames have been rendered and mastered into a final export, with another number of thousand to come. Yep, the computer has been thrashing out frames since I last spoke and I've been able to review half the film so far and it is looking alot more filmic and professional than its native form. It is defiantly worth the wait. As of my title, if we lived in the film world of A.I or I. Robot then I'm sure a number of people would question the overtime the computer has done for the production. I have added a separate fan to aid in the cooling of the machine and often offer words of encouragement as i see it struggling away day and night with a tremendous amount of work.

This week while the computer finishes of we've begun looking at a final venue for Roanoke. I have one place in mind that hosts a perfect screen and setting for the final showing, whether we can secure it or not is a different matter.

It's been a few

2007-04-03T08:42:00.000Z

I know the posts are coming few and far between but this isn't because Roanoke has gone away, it's becuase we're working on it even more. In fact the less blog posts there are the more we're working on Roanoke and have little time for anything else.

As it stands, like Sam pointed out below the production was completed over the weekend and now we are waiting for the computer to finish dealing with it. It is currently rendering and coloring the final visuals and making sure the dialog and foley are up to scratch. Sadly as the production is in High Definition this can take around 11 days to complete (some valuable dissertation time i feel)

From there it will be a day or so dropping in the final CGI plates and reviewing the whole movie with the mix of dialog, foley and music and making sure everything is just right to send off to the compressors. Sadly until technology advances a little (and we're nearly there) we cannot deliver the film in HD as no one will be able to play it, however until that time the film will be on your standard DVD for everyone to enjoy. We will be able to release a HD version later on should there be an interest for it.

So that's where the production stands and it will only be a few days now as the computer finishes off its thinking.

from,
a tired but excited bertie

31st!!!

2007-03-23T10:41:00.000Z

Yes! This is the date Bertie has given as the day Roanoke: The Lost Colony will be finished!

It will then be time for some test screenings with the crew, as only Dan and Bertie have seen it, the rest of us have only seen some clips that they showed us at the wrap party! After the screenings it will then start to be put on to dvd (which you can still pre-order for just £3)! Angela has been busy cutting together the behind the scenes featurette for it (that I have seen!), and although not finished it is still looking really good, even with the interviews from the crew!

So once again I am going to say that its nearly over (I'm sure its about the 5th time we've said this!) and I'm sure we will all tell you what we think of the finished production when we've seen it! I can't wait to see the product of all our hard work!

Always greener on the other side

2007-03-07T09:55:00.000Z

Yesterday the crew got together with Ryan (Goodson) and Charlotte (Eleanor) who were also in the area at the time to have a bit of fun recording some green screen plates for the scenic section of the movie when we look out at the boat arriving in at Roanoke.
Sadly the authorities at Fleet pond and our budget didn't allow for a full 16th Century period long boat and hundreds of extras to arrive on set, for this reason we have had to cheat. In order to make it look realistic there are a number of ways it can be done, below is a quick rough example of one of those...

1. Here our DOP and Camera Man Dan stands in front of a large green piece of cloth in a studio in London, around stand the other crew members, reflectors and lights.

2. Here is an image shot in the Summer of fleet pond (Roanoke). It is very empty and although pretty, a bit boring.

3. IN the editing program we tell the computer to look at the image of Dan, find anything that is Green and delete it from our sights. We then put the image of Fleet Pond underneath so we get a very weird image of Daniel Standing in a studio above a very colourful backdrop.

4. As the "Green Screen" wasn't able to stretch across the whole room we then delete all the rest of the frame of Dan so that the rest of the studio is deleted. In this Picture below I have left the right hand side of the screen as it is so you can see what is happening.

5. When the whole of the studio has vanished we then can scale Dan down move him around and place him anywhere we want. In the image below i have decided to have him standing ankle deep in water.

And finally, add a few more crew members. In the real edit we'll make sure everyone is proportioned properly, there is alot more going on, we have a boat... but for now I hope this has been slightly interesting as to how the green screening idea works.

Updating Website

2007-03-03T12:55:00.000Z

Update: Now all crew members and two cast members have profiles on the website, more coming soon.

I've started to update the website again now that the video edit has ended, I've just added a few Crew Profiles under the cast and crew section. The profiles give you a little bit of information about the crew member, their role, what they look like and a few things things they have to say about Roanoke The Lost Colony. I'll be adding the remainder of the crew members over the next few days, along with the cast members.

I've also continued to add the weekly quiz to the website which is proving to be a popular feature, and we will hopefully have a new trailer soon too.

On another note I've successfully backed up the whole of Roanoke onto some secondary secure hardrives. Yay :-D

28 days.... :-D

Over the Last Few Weeks...

2007-02-22T15:16:00.000Z

...we've had alot going on in the Roanoke corner. Firstly it was great to get back together with everyone during the five days of re-shoots.

The re-shoots went down very well and it was fabulous to see the actors bring their characters back to life for a final time, adding further plot lines and character to their....well characters.

Congratulations to all the actors (not just those involved in the re-shoots) for portraying the emotionally and physically challenging roles to the highest degree.

It is great to finally say the video edit of the production is over. It is now down to the final compositions of music and the audio edit to polish off the feature film. These steps will hopefully be completed over the next 4 weeks, from there it will be down to a few test screenings to let us know which bits should be tweaked and tightened in order to portray this tale of hope and adventure to the greatest degree.

Soon, Soon....

Shooting is over! (Well nearly...)

2007-02-17T21:56:00.000Z

As well as the other re-shoots we had to do, we made a last minute decision to return to the S.S. Great Britain in Bristol to re-shoot a scene that we had done before, and this took place on Thursday. The reason we decided to go back was beacause unfortunatly, the first time we were there, a catering van got in shot of some of the close ups, but luckily only in the one scene!

We spent an hour on the dock (the boat itself is too modern for the era), and unlike the other re-shoots, which have been new scenes, this was shot in exactly the same way as the first time around.

Although this was technically the last shooting day of Roanoke, we still have a day of recording James Alexander (Sir Walter Raleigh) in a studio for some voiceover lines, and another day spent in front of a green screen, again in the studio.

Apart from that, Bertie is still cutting together all the footage we have (and i can't wait to see it!), and still has to finish adding the final audio to it as it was recorded seperatly for better quality.

As well as this, the music has to be added, a vital part to any movie! As well as the small amount of CGI that has to be done.

Though this is around the third final day we've had, I'll say again that it has been a pleasure to work with everyone on this production, and I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product!

Very tired but a few pics

2007-02-05T18:23:00.000Z

We're all very tired from two re-shoot days on the Golden Hinde and The Underwater scene, and I'll write an update date soon, however here are a few pics from the underwater camera, with Angela providing a mini video clip and some other images soon of behind the scenes and how it all worked.

Tonight.....

2007-02-03T15:57:00.000Z

Is underwater night...more pictures and videos to follow in the first day of re-shoots and the most ambitious shoot day of all.

Bertie

Audio Update

2007-01-28T19:12:00.000Z

So I'm a little over 50 minutes into the audio syncing and I'm thinking I'm going to pull an all nighter in order to finish it by Monday. Monday I'll spend the day touching it up and then we'll have a synced "proper audio" fine edit (excluding re-shoots) ready.

How wonderful.

Well I shall speak after I have recovered.

All the best,
Bertie

You Know it's getting to you when....

2007-01-27T09:26:00.000Z

So it has now been a few days of audio syncing, and I'm on the last straw.

Trying to sync audio together involves (at least with the equipment used on Roanoke) matching timecodes and lips, lining it up with the camera audio, muting the original (bad) audio and making sure every word spoken matches up with a mouth movement.

In doing so you give yourself a very respectable dialogue track but in return a week of being a bit mad.

This week rivals the week of logging all the clips, a week sat in front of the computer needing to concentrate constantly on mouths and not getting out much. Do not get me wrong however, when you hear the difference after a number of weeks editing the film in the bad guide dialogue it does sound refreshing, it also seems odd on some scenes (such as the London Dock and some scenes on the Golden Hinde) to be able to hear the chatter rather than the sound of traffic!

I did however meet up with someone yesterday and it was odd to see all their dialogue was the same as their mouth movements! How interesting!

Ok well I've had a five minute break,

Back I go!

Bertie

The Audio Edit

2007-01-25T07:34:00.000Z

So the audio edit has begun and there is the most delightful task ahead which involves finding all the dialogue spoken and sinking up the "real" audio with the video. I have set myself quite the impossible task (from a first look) of 15 minutes a day, so in theory I should have completed it (at least roughly) by Sunday.

I have found it very interesting that the brain will perceive any similar dialogue spoken to be similar to the mouth movements of the real line, I’m not sure I wrote that in the most coherent way possible, however in short it is possible to use the dialogue of various takes and layer it on the top of the video edit without it looking odd, which helps on some occasions.

I have also realised just how useful the clapper board really is. Although it is possible with us (due to having a bad camera sound as a guide) to operate when a clapper board is not in use, the sharp "clap" or frame that peaks in the audio wave in order to show the start of a new take can be extremely helpful when in reality one is operating "blind".

So yes, 0-15 mins yesterday, 15-30mins today (hopefully) and in similar sequence until the end of the film.

Roanoke Re-Shoots

2007-01-22T19:06:00.000Z

So in every production as one reaches the final part of the edit you realise that bits can be tweaked here and there to make the story better. In the case of the movie Roanoke: The Lost Colony we have finally concluded the fine edit and have left gaps for a few scenes which we feel will help the narrative, or on the odd occasion there was an issue with the set/equipment. This is not to say the script on its own did not make a fantastic read, its just its very hard to tell how areas will translate when they go onto the big screen.

The re-shoots will happen as the audio edit now begins (tomorrow) and will simply fit into the schedule and each scene will be edited the same day as it is shot in order to make sure the post-production stage is not slowed down.

One of the scenes that will be added is very ambitious and will involve going back to a pool, underwater filming equipment, scuba gear and alot of actors hoping they can hold there breath! Hopefully our safety will be a bit better than the quick description, but in general we are attempting a very ambitious underwater scene which should add a very nice element to the piece.

Although there are 5 days in total of re-shoots, most of the days are only one - a few hours long and will simply be a get in, get out situation. The locations are as follows:

The Golden Hinde
Fleet Pond
Bristol SS GB
Weald and Downland and West Wittering
Bradfield Sports Complex.

The new location being bradfield of course and all the other locations can be found out via our new website at www.RoanokeTheMovie.com

We will be shooting on the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 12th and 15th of February with an aim to having the finished 60 minute version complete a fortnight after. Once that has be done and prepared for competitions we will touch up the 90 minute version and look towards the first screening and the release of the DVD.

We have had a wonderful response, and some fantastic comments about the DVD over the past weekend, and with initial figears we will be looking to send out a few more DVDs than originally thought, although there is still work o be done to get to that stage and no one is looking past the next step ahead.

The end is now still far away, but on the horizon, and although there are many more updates and bits of work to be done your amazing support you have offered us either by buying the DVD, becoming an honourary sponsor, giving a donation, or simply staying on the blog with us has kept everyones spirits high!

Bertie x

Major Site Updates

2007-01-21T08:26:00.000Z

I have some big news and very exciting news about the re-shoots and film status, but I'd like if I may to save that for tomorrow so I can chat a little bit more about the website.

First i must start with a huge thank you to every one who has supported the project in the first few days of pre-order. Your wonderful generosity in either buying the DVD, Cap or becoming an honourary sponsor has not only helped shown every volunteer who worked on the film how valued their efforts have been but given the film the opportunity to begin to get the recognition it deserves. Thank you, thank you.

As many will know our exam is over so we are now free to work on Roanoke, non stop, and we have happily been taking advantage of that situation over the past few days. For those who visited the website on the launch will now realise there are loads of knew features! In fact we aim to keep updating these features as the days go on so in the end we should have an even bigger and informative website.

Here are some of the new site updates:

1. (Here is one of my favorites) - Earn 50p for every Sale of the DVD
It is very important to us that we credit people in the appropriate manner for helping us with our project. If you tell people about the film, send the link to a friend or refer someone in any other way then we would really like to reward you. If you sign up to our Affiliate program you can now earn 50p every time someone buys the DVD. Its just one of our ways to say thank you for helping us promote the DVD - Learn More Here

2. (and this is wonderful) - Our Journey In Motion
Our Set photographer (Angela) has spend alot of time and effort on set capturing the moments that really made the production special in the hearts and minds of everyone, now she has spent a very long time creating for us a Musical Picture Slideshow in chronological order of the journey from Day 1:Auditions - the end of principle shooting. Thank you Angela - Watch it Here

and some page additions:

Locations - Now see all the locations of Roanoke The Movie and weblinks - here
The Weekly Quiz - Learn and test your knowledge on the production - here
Honourary Sponsors Page - See who our honourary members are - here
New Front Page - Alot more information and links - here
Site Update Page - Keep up to date with whats new (very useful) - here

Hopefully this will offer lots more information regarding the project. If you have some idea of information you would like to see then we would love to hear your ideas.

All the best

Bertie x

p.s (i have on my list to update the photo album, the our story page, DVD page and multimedia page by the end of the day)

New and Improved

2007-01-18T14:32:00.000Z

We were going to wait until the weekend, but we were too excited!

Here it is, a biggy:

THE NEW AND IMPROVED

ROANOKE: THE LOST COLONY

OFFICIAL MOVIE WEBSITE

Dan and I have been working on this new design for a while, and here are just a few of the new features:

PRE-ORDER THE ROANOKE: THE LOST COLONY DVD for just £3
Become an Honourary Sponsor
Read the first part of the Story behind Roanoke
A Multimedia Section and Behind the Scenes
GET YOUR HEADS on The Official Stitched Roanoke Caps!
A New Cast and Crew Section with profile photos. (clickable profiles on there way)

+ more

We have a number of updates to come over the coming weeks so keep checking back. Although the blog will stay the #1 spot for the latest news and updates, don't miss out on pre-ordering the DVD at a highly reduced price (save 70%)!

Visit Now:

www.RoanokeTheMovie.com

(there is another big production update to come, but I'll save that for another day, oh and thank you to everyone for the lovely exam well wishes :-D it was lovely)

The Day Has Come!

2007-01-16T09:51:00.000Z

Sadly this is not the day of release, the award ceremony we may one day be at, or even the end of the project, but today is the day of the exam. For the number of crew members who are in attendance at the same University as I, this has been the exam that has always left a guilty conscious since the New Year when we decided to edit instead of revise, made one feel a little uneasy after spending a good number of days planning possible re-shoots, or simply when working on the very major step that will be unveiled over the weekend.

However after today that is all over, and ignoring the quite possible over emotional prologue to this blog we will be free to finish the visual edit, move onto the audio edit and begin the marketing and the various other jobs needed to be done before we can finally pronounce the production complete. This also means we can begin to have regular blog updates again, News on the final steps, and as briefly mentioned above the new section that is opening on the weekend.

But for now I should go just check exactly what ethical media is all about and then be free by tomorrow.

Hitting the Grade

2007-01-11T18:35:00.000Z

I've had a few e-mails wondering what exactly the grading process is all about. Grading the movie is colouring the image so that in no longer looks raw and how the camera takes it, but instead can fit the feel, mood and style of the piece. Although the Crew has a very important part in creating the look of the piece, grading the video afterwards adds to the overall...welll...feel, mood, and style :-D

Instead of going on and on about what and how the colour can be changed I have made a few examples from clips of the Roanoke rushes. I can't guarantee these shots will appear in the film, nor can i say the colour is correct (only spent a short amount of time grading them), however it gives off a good idea!

Here we are on a long boat, it should be dark and dingy, not bright and orange like the original footage makes it seem:

Out in the forests, just a slight change here but it makes all the difference:

It depends on the mood, with the expression of the face here I have taken out the bright glow, it now looks a lot more sinister:

The golden glow of Roanoke seeps through:

Edit Your Credit

2007-01-09T06:52:00.000Z

Hi All Roanoke The Lost Colony Blog followers,

Just a quick note as we are moving through the edit to remember to change your credit. You can either use the link over here ------------------------> or click on this one that will always be near, in order to be credited correctly. It would be a great shame if we end up spelling your name wrong after the wonderful work you have offered us! I apologise if your name is currently spelt wrong as I edit the credits based on the release forms and my ability to read them :-D. If you have worked or been involved in the production in any way then please do let us know if you are not on the list as we must include you in our production!

In order to add/amend a credit, scroll to the bottom of the page and fill in the form!

Thanks!
Bertie

p.s - the edit will be this slow on updates until the 16th as alot of the crew have a UNI exam to fend off and therefore our concentration is rather split between the two!

New Year Roanoke

2007-01-03T21:07:00.000Z

A new year and a fine cut. Quite a bit ahead of schedule Daniel and I finished the first fine cut today (minus around 15 minor changes we have now deiced upon) and the final 10 minutes. Although this might not sound exactly like a fine cut, it means alot of the image is how it should be and it can be locked off for audio and cgi sooner or later.

At the beginning of February we may have a small change as we are currently discussing something reasonable major in regards to having all the footage filmed for the production. Although we have officially finished the shooting week we have always said there will be a few re-shoot days, the extent of these were not known until the edit and currently, although they will only total a small % of the final film, the locations means we might well be going back to a few of the locations.

Dan and I, along with the script writer Shane (from a virtual position) as he is now back in the USA are discussing a few changes which i believe will spruce up the production from the excellent narrative it has already and close a few remaining questions in regards to the narrative and open a number of further story lines and twists that are really quite exciting. I'm sorry for being slightly here and there with this statement but until we have fully confirmed the new additions to the story I don't want to speak out of turn. What could be quite interesting is that without intention we may end up with a alternate ending.

On Friday we are meeting with someone we hope will be able to complete our CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) and although it isn't a major factor within the production, as in we don't have many flying cars or that many laser guns ;-), we do have a number of areas that we couldn't fill in regards to scenery and therefore some computer imagery might be able to do the trick for us.

I wrote a full schedule yesterday for the production. Initial video editing (excluding video feed editing from the re-shoots) should be completed by January 21st 2007. The audio dubbing will then begin and be completed by January 28th, then the music will hopefully be on schedule for completion by February 4th.

After this we will be looking to re-shoot a number of areas (dependant on actors availability) by February 9ht, in order to edit the final bits, and colour grade and render by Feb 18th.

There are a few stages after this, but as we speak, that should do for now.

Speak on Friday,

Bertie

The Rough Cut

2006-12-29T13:39:00.000Z

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

2006-12-24T17:27:00.001Z

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

2006-12-20T19:45:00.000Z

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.

2006-12-18T11:56:00.000Z

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

2006-12-17T19:34:00.000Z

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....

2006-12-16T19:13:00.000Z

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

2006-12-14T15:38:00.000Z

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

Look at all that food...

The Death Mask Scene

2006-12-11T22:02:00.000Z

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

2006-12-11T07:42:00.000Z

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

2006-12-09T19:41:00.000Z

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

2006-12-09T09:01:00.000Z

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!

Well done to all, and to all a good night

2006-12-08T23:59:00.000Z

Now that the primary filming has commenced, I would like to extend my utmost gratitude to all who were involved. Not just the cast and crew, but the people who have followed our progress from the beginning.

I think it fitting that filming is done at the time of year that is. At the close of 2006 we have completed an amazing project. By 2007 the project will be polished and open doors for all of us. For me this is the best Christmas present that could ever be given.

I can't wait to come back and see everyone again in the spring!

Best wishes and many thanks,

Shane

We Did It

2006-12-07T20:40:00.000Z

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:

2006-12-06T18:12:00.000Z

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!

2006-12-03T19:17:00.000Z

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!

Hello

2006-12-02T21:23:00.000Z

This is Charlotte Hunter, the actress playing Eleanor.
I thought it was about time i said hello to all of you who have logged on to the blog!
So one massive HELLO to all of you (i said it would be massive!).

I was in the studio with the Roanoke crew filming the surreal dream-like sequence on Thursday, unfortunately Shane, the scriptwriter couldn't be with us because his flight left at 6am that morning but it was great to have had some rehearsals with him, to get his crucial input.

The make-up artist, Rebecca, did a fantastic job on thursday at whiting the mens faces making them very ghost like, which when they were walking toward me in the dark they were very scary!
I also saw the finished death mask created by Becky-how freaky that was! The mask was brilliant, so life like, and she brought it to us in a box just like in the film seven-Agghhh!

The day was a real success, it was great for me to be back in front of the camera in the role of Eleanor and i cannot wait for West Stow on Monday and Tuesday.

A long night and a long day

2006-12-01T10:39:00.000Z

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

2006-11-30T09:40:00.000Z

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

2006-11-28T18:48:00.000Z

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

2006-11-27T22:59:00.000Z

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

2006-11-26T07:26:00.000Z

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

2006-11-24T07:30:00.000Z

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

2006-11-22T07:12:00.000Z

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.

2006-11-21T14:20:00.000Z

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

2006-11-18T21:24:00.000Z

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

2006-11-17T22:14:00.000Z

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

2006-11-14T21:47:00.000Z

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

2006-11-12T22:37:00.000Z

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

2006-11-10T18:18:00.000Z

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).

Wednesday and Thursday

2006-11-09T21:18:00.000Z

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....

Roanoke The Movie Podcast - Episode One

2006-11-07T21:23:00.000Z

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!

Updates and The Horses Tale

2006-11-06T08:01:00.000Z

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

see full credits here

Day 3 Winter - Pictures

2006-11-04T08:16:00.000Z

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

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

2006-11-02T13:41:00.000Z

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

2006-11-02T05:00:00.000Z

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

Wednesday Winter Shoot 3

2006-10-30T14:25:00.000Z

Oh third shoot already, and it's actually quite a special day as we will be shooting a few pick up shots in the morning and then the evening scene will be the opening scene of the movie, so as we clap Scene 1 it will be quite a landmark for us. This Wednesday we are down at West Wittering beach and then a quick stop at the Weald and Downland museum for our final pick up shots at that location.

After these three days are over we are back on new territory as we experience a whole new set of locations in West Stow, Bristol and London.

We will have a short two week break after Wednesday before doing our final stretch and hopefully ending on a high. I still can't get over how great everyone was on Wednesday and the acting on Thursday was brilliant.

For now however it's back to a bit of pre-production and then back to packing the equipment up for tomorrow!

Credit Addition

2006-10-28T15:03:00.000Z

I have just added the new credits for Roanoke: The Lost Colony from the previous two days shooting. If you worked on Roanoke over the last few days please check the Full Credit part of the site to check your credit is correct (i.e spelling etc). We can only add your credit if we have your release form. If your name is not on the list please get in contact with me here: Contact Form.

If you would like to go directly to the Full Credit Page click here. Regular viewers of this page may have to hit the refresh button.

Oh and on a sperate note, this is the 100th blog post! Yay! Congratulations everyone so far!!

Production Diary Winter 1

2006-10-28T09:33:00.000Z

If you have yet to see them, there are some production images on the blog below...but below below is an account of the day. - Roanoke: The Lost Colony

this is an account from the bits I was able to see...

7am
Wake up! It's time for the Winter shoots to begin. Dan and Jenna have stayed the night at my house in Fleet ready for preperation of the day. There is a long list to be getting on with, so we begin by going over the shots for the day. Jenna will be in charge of making sure all the extras turn up and are there along with directing them into position on set, Dan to be GlideCam operator and 1st A.D while I act as on set producer and director. The rest of crew is set to arrive at around 9 - 10am so we begin a few other jobs. The camera and other nessesities have been charging over the night so while we all go to sort that out I bring out my list and decide to assign people to jobs....in the end however we all work on the same areas for the most part. Jenna goes off to check up on extras, Dan and I put on our aprons and begin to make lunch for everyone. Today on the menu is buscuits, chicken, ham or cheese rolls and crisps. We manage to make 40 rolls in under 20 minutes....we are thinking of taking up a job in catering. A number of other jobs including the assembly of the props, costumes and equipment take place over the next hour or so.

some of the valient extras and cast keeping warm later in the evening

9am
Sam and Angela arrive having picked up a quick breakfast on there way here, I realise i'm still in my pyjamas and need to sprouse up a little if Angela is going to be taking pictures throughout the day...i mean if I need to look presentable for everyone. We all help pack the cars up and begin our trip down to camp. While, Dan, Sam, Jenna and Angela begin their creation of the unit base I escape off to the high street for some casual shopping, for equipment ofcourse...I manage to to buy 20 pounds worth of batteries for the evening from Woolworths, walk away, realise there the wrong type, get a refund and then go and buy them for alot cheaper at Robert Dyer. I also pick up plates, water and a few other bits and bobs for the day.

Dan prepares and tests the GlideCam for operation

11am
Gary and Goerge have arrived after some terrible delays on the trains due to a de-railment at Waterloo. We're all worried that some extras won't turn up due to this (and the terrible weather forecast) but Jenna reasures our worries and sure enough the first set of extras arrive nearly 45 mins earlier than call time! We continue to set up the set and unit base with the help of our runner for the day Stephanie. Many trips back and forth to the house to pick up equipment. I think George and a few others may have sensibly mentioned that the amount of trips we are making will be a similar event at night on our way home; I ignore this suggestions saying we are camping the night, well.. If I don't learn from mistakes how can I learn.

Jenna directs the many fabulous extras into place for the first shot

1pm
All extras have arrived and Gary has been hard at work with George and number of other crew members to set up the set for the first shot. Fleet Pond have introduced some lovelly new green plastic benches over the weekend to our beach area, unfortunatly these benches wouldn't have been present when the colonists landed, so a few logs, cloths and sheets are used to cover them up, by now all extras have arrived and been dressed by Jenna and Angela, Dan is all set up and testing the equipment, I have given my small brief, and Sam has been driving around collecting some valuable equipment for the day) such as lighter fluid :-D. We say that the first shot will be happening at 2pm as per the schedule, I hear a quiet remark from somewhere that this will never happen, fantastic stuff, I love competition! So far although it has been very stressfull all the crew has done a fantastic job. Unlike the summer where we introduced a Porta-loo for our extras we have decided for the extras to go back and forth from the set to my house down the road, Steph has the lovelly job of doing the toilet runs to start with.

Ready to clap and go, the first shot is all lined up!

3pm
By now I realise I am pretty much still in my PJ's with a fleece over the top and flurecent jacket just incase any cars come racing through the natrue reserve. Dan was succesfully able to label all our equipment, inlcuding our 12 umbrellas with BSDS logos. We have just finished shooting the first shot of the day and the extras have done a fantastic job with it and have really got into the spirit, Jenna did a great job getting everyone into position, we can see Angela snapping away with her new camera, and Sam arrives back to help out on set which is great. Roanoke: The Lost Colony's first shot with the GlideCam seems to have pulled off and everyone crowds round the moniter to take a look at the shot, it seems everyone likes it alot more if they can see exactly what has just been filmed. We continue with a few more shots and then wait for it to get dark. It also begins to rain so everyone crowds under the tents erected on set! A big thank you to our lead actor and the Marsh family for providing the gazibos for cover today.

let's look, let's look, what did we shoot!

5pm
It's begining to get dark so we move onto the dusk shots, Rebecca our make-up artist for the day has just finished an incredible job on the burns of actor Ivor Potter. Dan's dad arrives, he is going to be helping us today with the saftey of any fires and the generator which we will soon need to light up the area as it begins to get dark. The dusk shots go well and now its all waiting for the dark to creep in so we can film the ending fires.

Due to the weather we had a bit of trouble with the tents, but on camera they looked great

and then came the fires! They were spectacular, and more shall be written about the later stage from 6pm onwards soon! watch this space!

Winter Shoot 1!

2006-10-27T15:41:00.000Z

I'm so tired today, I finally managed to sit down and it suddenly hit me, alot of lifting and lugging around, but there's no time to stop, to work on the next Roanoke shoot day we must go, and it's another night shoot. Angela has sent across a selection of images she took on the Roanoke set on Wednesday and they do look, well, wonderfull! Hopefully everyone in the crew will be able to tell a small story of the day (of which there were quite a few) over the course of the next few days and I certanly must thank everyone who helped out and gave permission for the location and were so understanding to our needs and varying weather conditions.

From making the lunch - packing up for three hours in pitch black the crew were incredible to hang on for so long, and the extras amazing for their stamina and will to continue through the day. The make-up looked awesome and we had generated light, which was fabulous!

All in all it was none other than ore-inspiring!

I hope this rather longer than usual set of images help give an idea of the day for those that couldnt make it! - thanks Angela for these, they're brilliant.

Bertie

Crew, Extras and part of the on location base

bodies rehersing a flashback

setting up a camp fire shot

Crusty tries to help

the camp burns down

...and then some

from 7 - 10pm - the set came down

2006-10-26T18:43:00.000Z

Wow the first two winter shoots and first night shoot over! There are some very interesting stories to be told, all of which will be, however.....currently it's 7:40 and we have just finished packing up all the equipment, cleaning the majority of it and cleaning the unit base (house), but the main problem is i'm waiting to update the blog with pictures from my computer back in London and at the momment there are traffic ques stretching back all through the M4 and M25 with traffic under 30mphs all the way there....(thanks to realtime-traffic.info for those details)!

If we get back at a..normal...hour i'll update the blog tonight, if not it will have to wait until tomorrow.

Either way a huge thank you to everyone involved in this shoot and i'll be needing to say alot more thank you's than that in due course, it really couldn't have happened without each and every one of you!!!

But for the most part we're all still alive and kicking but some interesting things did happen, some of which would have been better without happening....if that makes sence, maybe it doesn't, maybe i'll take a nap before the traffic clears!

All Stations GO

2006-10-23T10:00:00.000Z

It's been a long time coming and it's really quite suriel that it's about to come around again and we are going back on set to finish Roanoke.

For those who arn't 100% involved in the script or are just interested, this second half of shooting is alot darker in places, more cinematic shots in regards to what one might expect from sets, emotions etc and overall a different feel to it. Now we haven't shot the first half of the movie and now the second, for instance the first shot we ever shot of the movie was the last shot...if that makes sence.

As Dan mentioned below it is also a first in regards to the shooting schedule for Roanoke for night shoots and wet weather shoots. Alot more preperation has been done on my side as producer to make sure that all crew have warmth, cover, and adequete resources avalible to them in order to take them through the night. That is the part i'm rather nervous about, although its hard to tell whether it really is nerves or excitment; quite boring'ly i'm guessing its a form of both.

We have all 6 crew members back with us on Wednesday, but sadly we will be missing out on our two very important members on the Art Department. They have been working very hard (as I have been informed) in creating the sets for the beach at Fleet Pond, i'm looking forward to seeing them very much.

By the way, the great thing about a blog is that your grammer and spelling don't have to be perfect, I just thought i'd point that part out, as it is that part that I particullary enjoy. In a way it's sort of 16th Century, where spelling was how one wanted it to be without a standard practise. In fact I guess I am simply making up the bad grammer and spelling in order to make this blog more authentic to our period piece....hmmm, not sure the courts would take that one.

Tomorrow is all about collecting equipment from various different places, along with 25 folding chairs, which should be fun. On Wednesday night we will be ending when it is dark and therefore we have decided to camp out where the Unit base is in order to make sure all the marque's and tents stay safe through the night. This seems like a brilliant idea until it starts to rain, but I do believe it could be quite alot of fun. Hopefully all the crew will remember to bring a sleeping bag of some form!

This may mean ofcourse that we might not get the Wednesday pictures up on the blog until Thursday afternoon after shooting.

Until tomorrow then!

Good night!

Bertie x

London Bound

2006-10-20T17:41:00.000Z

Well, seeing as it has been about three months since my last post I figured that I may as well make this one a good news post. It is official, I will be in London from November 20th - 30th. I'm looking forward to meeting all the cast and seeing all the crew again!

Shane

p.s. Thursday the 23rd is Thanksgiving over here in the states so, if schedualing permits I am planning a feast of sorts. If you don't know what Thanksgiving is then http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving

Happy Bertday!!!!

2006-10-19T17:28:00.000Z

I would just like to take this oppurtunity to wish our director/producer a very happy birthday!!!!

I heard he got lots of lovely presents including some 'RAID' from me (crack and crevice insect killer if your wondering!!!). He spent his lovely birthday sorting out stuff for roanoke! How committed is that!!

And on that note i think we are almost ready now! We've got:
- MARQUEES
- CHAIRS
- A GENERATOR (2.2kw)
- LIGHTS
- EXTENSION CABLES
- HAZARD TAPE (to wrap around things we consider to be a hazzard)
- A STEADY CAM (very exciting)
- TORCHES
- LANTERNS
- UMBRELLAS (and theres alot of them)
- And probably alot of other stuff but i can't remember at the moment

Crew side, we're getting help with a few runners this time around as the amount of extras, equipment and the time of day we are shooting will require a larger team to help it run smoothly, so some new people to chat to!!! (and work professionally alongside), and chat to!!!

This is the biggy for us...first Roanoke night shoot with actors, first time weve needed our own generator, and scenes with fire in them! ooooohhh, its exciting!!!!

See you all for the BIG shoot (those that are involved, and if not then keep in touch coz this blogs gonna be buzzing after next week!!!!)

Nearly One Week To Go

2006-10-17T21:35:00.000Z

We now have lights, marquees, generators, food, lights, marquees, generators.... well ...we have quite alot sorted, and still a bit to go.

On Monday Dan and I test and built the GlideCam (well Dan built it and read the instructions, i re-arranged the studio into what a marquee may look like with chairs and fake tables)....either way it took about 3 hours to complete and eventually we had a system that was stable and could move the camera around without it jogging when Dan took a leap. We then took it apart again and put it back together within 1 minute 30. Again I say we......but Dan was the master of the machine, I was the master of the budget, walki talki purchase, and smoke machine hire. The GlideCam (GlideCam 2500 Pro as it should be known) uses counterbalance, centre of gravity and alot of weights positioned in a number of ways in order to make sure when you move with your camera the camera glides along.....incredibly they managed to call the Glidecam exactly after what it does, what a coincidence!!!

Tomorrow Dan, Jenna and I are going back to the coast for a reccee on the beach and Weald and Downland. We are shooting back there on November 1st so checking out the best place to erect a marquee and other things....such as where to get the best shot! It's getting rather exciting how close we are to shooting, just hope it all goes to plan.

We've had some wonderful feedback by people form this blog about donating marquees and further equipment so thank you to everyone and I will get in contact soon in reply to your e-mails if i haven't already!

We'll make sure we take a few pictures on the day tomorrow!

Jenna is a bit scared to make a blog entry, something about something, but we have had around 170 extras apply to be on the set of Roanoke for the first two days alone, how wonderful is that! Sadly we can't accommodate for everyone however it's flattering for the interest.

On a final note we are now Directors on YouTube which allows us to upload larger videos, and have our logo branded and channels for independent film! Expect a few previous productions to be shown soon!

Should get some sleep before i drive to the coast tomorrow,

love,
Bertie

OH! and I had a great meeting with Adam from fleet pond today and everything looks set to go well in regards to that aspect! For those who are not aware Fleet = Roanoke in terms of the script!

right then! bye!

Alfie takes the stage!!!

2006-10-15T18:39:00.000Z

Our newest little member of the cast, Alfie Bullard seems to already be getting the frills of stardom at only 3 weeks old, after appearing on stage in a 'best dressed' competition.

Okay, it was for halloween and did happen to be at a holiday caravan park but all the same i see it as an important step for the young prodigy. If he's already winning awards at just 3 weeks then the oscars seem a fair bet for his future, coz by the way he did win!!! although i'll leave out the fact that everyone got a prize, it's all getting too political aye! But he had the biggest cheer! And to win a halloween dress competetion wearing a babygrow with a pumpkin on shows true class. He hardly made an effort and still walked it! He even slept during the whole thing! Awe-Inspiring.

I wasnt actually there but my dad recorded it on camera and you can see it below. oh, thats his dad with him btw!!

We're all still here - honest!!

2006-10-14T17:43:00.000Z

Hello again!
I noticed that at the moment Bertie is the only one of us making new blog entries so I thought I would add my own!

One of the reasons things have slowed down blogwise is that as we are not shooting at the moment, there is not much to report, apart from Bertie's updates on locations and schedules. As he is the one making these entries, we have nothing to add!

I spoke to Bertie the other day, and at the moment it seems as though we are as prepared as we can be for the winter, except getting hold of a few more props and things, and making sure we have all the extras we need (Jenna you can argue this if they are already sorted!) if you are interested e-mail Jenna at extras4film@yahoo.co.uk as mentioned below.

At the moment I am typing up a callsheet for the first day of the winter shoot, which allows the cast and crew to know when to arrive, what scenes we will be shooting, and what will be needed. I will also be creating provisional callsheets for days 2 and 3 of the winter shoot (or days 12 and 13 of the whole shoot!), but these may change depending what we get done, though hopefully they won't change much!

As I said before, we will have a lot more to say once shooting gets underway again, but as Bertie is still sorting out a few pre-winter things I'm sure he will keep posting!

The rest of us will just have to wait!!

Bye for now!
Sam

Times

2006-10-11T19:56:00.000Z

Sorted out the schedule for each of the first three days of shooting today. There are going to be around 20 days from day 3 -4 so I deal with them later, which is great scheduling by me, hehe :-D

As it stands it looks like we'll be shooting from

12 - 7pm - Day 1 - 25th October - Fleet Pond
9:30 - 5pm - Day 2 - 26th October - Fleet Woods
1pm - 8pm - Day 3 - Weald and Downland and The Coast

Having to organise a large budget breakdown now from torches - marquees to keep everyone dry, suposedly people don't like to stand around in the wet, which is lucky, becuase nor do I!

Have a few things for the blog planned for next week which should be really cool, along with something extra for when we start shooting again. I've also heard rumour Dan has a little suprise lined up for us over the next few days, it's very exciting news indeed!

Yesterday e-bay became very usefull for Tape Stock, LSD screens for moniters, torchs, and....hmm what was the other thing....well something else. It's amazing the price difference and how much easier it makes on the budget. I'm tending to go for the Buy It Now buttons but make sure you check out the postage costs! If your the owner of some 3x3 metre gazibos with sides then don't hesitate to get in touch, although currently Germany looks like the best bet for those!

We're back :-D

2006-10-10T21:24:00.000Z

Wow, nearly a whole week without an update. It’s not so much that nothing has been going on, but you always get this dead patch near to the start of shooting where it’s very busy but at the same time it’s all nitty bitty stuff and not much to talk about.

Jenna has been working hard in regards to extras, and if you are interested in coming to extra and you live near Fleet, Cambridge, London or Chichester then I believe there may be the odd space still available, however don’t hold me to that! E-mail extras4film@yahoo.co.uk

I have now secured the budget for the Winter shoot, along with a small amount of insurance money should it all go terribly wrong and we need to run over the odd day. I am investing in a few “EZ-Ups” to help deflect the rain and wind off the extras, a number of powerful lanterns and torches for the nighttime scenes and a smaller LCD screen for easier use of the GlideCam© (as shown below).

We have had some wonderful responses from many people in regards to the trailer, which is great news, but at the same time we need to keep the energy and standard high for the winter shoot in order to make sure any production values we had, stay.

Over the next few days I will be re-working the birds eye view storyboards to make sure it is all feasible, ordering the camera stock (Ebay is a fantastic place for cheap but quality stock) and creating the time schedules and call sheets (in accordance with Sam) for the Fleet (25th, 26th) and Chichester (1st November) days.

I’m looking forward to the shoot days, not only to continue and finish the principle production of the film, but in order to update the website with a lot more pictures, smaller videos and shananagans form the days filming. Although its been great keeping up to date news wise on the blog, its sad we can only report on the odd reccee and paper work. That’s our mistake for doing so much research in the pre-production stage.

Just 15 days to go, and I will let you know about everything that we’re doing in the final, frantic stages before shooting. Not only is this the first winter shoot we’re about to attempt for this period drama, but it is also the first night shoot, so we need heaters, lights, rain cover, electricity and more! As a matter of fact I bought a really weird impulse buy on ebay, a 41 LED UV torch, not quite sure why but it was under 5 pounds in total and I’m intrigued at how powerful it will be.

Let you know how its all going tomorrow,
It’s good to be back on the blog,
Bertie

My Phone Bill will be Huge

2006-10-03T11:36:00.000Z

So i'm quite annoyed by the other morning when my nice long blog decided to fail on me, not quite sure how it happened, but either way my passage on what has been going on and what was about to happen has since been lost.

Great news in regards to our impromptu recce, I have been able to negotiate a deal with the Golden Hinde for a 6 hour shoot one weekeend, so although the dates will have to change (and hence the title of this blog with the calling of everyone) it is going to add so much to the final film in terms of shots and quality, so a big thank you to the lady (Kate) at the Golden Hinde.

Now I was due to start the birds eye view of the storyboard yesterday however I have two folders with the information for this part in, and I decided to leave one at home, I took the Green and Blue folder out with me instead of the Green and Red, hmmmm.

Instead of planning the the birds eye view I decided to finish the pre-production off in regards to the Transport and Equipment needed per shoot. We now have a very snazy GlideCam avalible to us. For those who do not know what this is, think of a large body suit, add an arm....i'll put a picture in below....

(just for the record, this is an image from Google Images and is not our equipment or anyone we know)

We are "nearly" (touch wood) all set in regards to final dates from the provisional dates set out. I believe we have 2 locations to fully confirm, otherwise things look to be as originally posted.

Today I will be working on the birds eye view along with calling up all the actors and crew in regards to the changes of dates.....

All the best,

Bertie

A failed update

2006-10-02T04:43:00.000Z

I got an error message after writing a really long blog message! It decided to delete the whole thing, not nice.

I have to pop out and start work on the Camera Angles for Roanoke now, when i get back tonight i'll re-write it after my temper has gone back down.

Bertie

An impromptu Recce

2006-09-29T21:29:00.000Z

We had a few hours ineptness some work with Roanoke and Jenna, Dan and I decided to take another impromptu Recce to the Golden Hinde in London. With all the shots and scenes in order it is about time to start the initial birds eye story board (that's a story board looking down, rather than a frozen food style storyboard) of the Winter Shoots.

The Golden Hinde was one of the first locations that got the ball rolling for Roanoke. Without an authetic longboat it would be very hard to recreate any situations that would be presented within the production. Although Harltey Witney and Golden Hinde were the two locations that got us going, it seems only the later will feature within the production due to a re-recce proving Hartley Whitney to be slightly....Well...Not fit for shooting...

As you can see from the image below, the buildings surrounding the Golden Hinde won't be the best scenery for an "out at sea" shot. Luckily thanks to camera trickery and a number of vital angles and equations (along with some clever sound editing) all this shouldn't matter.

The insides are perfect however - enough said.

Sunday see's the start of storyboarding madness, so we'll see how that goes!

SFX Design

2006-09-27T18:48:00.000Z

Hey everyone,
I thought it was time to say hello again. Very little has been happening in the Art Dept. lately! I have been on other projects, and Karl (Supervising Art Director) has been in Whales, and buying a house in London.

Design wise: There is not much happening. I am getting very exited about one scene where Eleanor sees everyone in masks. It is a very surreal moment, and i have been thinking about it for a while. I spoke with Bert, and told him my idea about getting all the actors in, and making "Death Masks" of them. A death mask is a plaster or wax cast made of a person's face following death

In the scene I wanted to suggest Eleanor is seeing everyone dead. Her vision of her fears being realised.

And thanks to the very lovely and talented Michaela Bott, who will be our very own SFX make-up person, we will be able to do this. She has agreed to help us and create this strange order.

I have included a quick design, but to be honest, we will have to see the amazing pieces delivered by Michaela when they are ready.

Anyway, keep well, and of course, anyone out there interested in the art department, please get in touch.

Keep Well,

Gary
Production Designer

Longer Days, Shorter Days

2006-09-27T03:45:00.000Z

As the days are creeping in, it seems the weather and shooting window for Roanoke: The Lost Colony is also approaching with speed. Currently I am sorting the 80 odd scenes into a specific order for shooting on the day. This includes transitional shots, CGI shots and specific cutaways that should be counted as a shot on their own instead of a listening to the "storyboard" ideas as it were. I have only the final two days of shooting to go (which comprises of around 30 scenes) and then it will be time to settle down to the camera angels for each scene, making sure to focus on specific stories within the scene and make the shots "interesting".

All this work is set to occur during the "pre-October 5th" work schedule. By the end we should have a large document available with all shots in order, camera angles attached - props, make-up and costumes included for each scene.....

Sadly this means the blog isn't getting the full attention it deserves as it's vital to finish these documents. I do believe Gary (set design) has an interesting blog coming soon in regards to a certain part of Roanoke.

Ohh, on another note, we now have LightScribe technology on the computer, which sounds rather impressive but really relates to a high quality presentation function for DVD's...with this in place I’ll send out the trailer DVD's for all those who requested one.... :-D

Keep Smiling,
Bertie

Update on Extras

2006-09-25T22:31:00.000Z

I'm currently organising the number of extras we are going to need on the upcoming shooting days. I have to take into account the locations, times and dates, continuity relating to the narrative of the script and then advertise in the relavant places. We already had a number of talented extras on the books who have been shown at various locations where we found from friends and family, websites and local advertising through posters and local newspapers, word of mouth etc. Thank you to those who have taken part, however we may need a completly new set of faces for the next few shoots to fit with the story.

If you are interested or know anyone that might be please don't hesitate to contact Jenna at: extras4film@yahoo.co.uk

Weekend Work

2006-09-24T20:23:00.000Z

So after the lovelly arival of Virginia Dare, and it must be the youngest person ever to be cast in a role, i've been working my way through the long list (that will be finished by October 5th) of jobs in order to be ready for shooting. Currently the list complete stands as:

IN DETAIL

TO DO: 20/9/2006
Þ FINISH CONFIRMING ALL ACTORS
Þ SWAP FINAL DATE FOR WEST STOW.
Þ FINISH CONFIRM FOLLOWING LOCATION:
FLEET POND
WEST WITERING
LONDON DOCK
GOLDEN HINDE
LSBU STUDIO
SS GB, Bristol
West Stow
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
TO DO: 21/9/2006

Þ COSTUMES - sort all new costumes needed
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
TO DO: 22/9/2006

Þ PROPS
Þ EQUIPMENT
Þ Send out Location permission
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

TO DO: 23/9/2006

Þ EXTRAS CHECK
Þ MAKE-UP ORDER

Pretty much all the lists refer to sorting through the scenes left to shoot and finding the particular subject noted down and making lists...then tomorow (Monday) we'll sort all the scenes needed to shoot in order of shooting on the day and include the above items to them.......nice and simple...

Angela actually made an 11 page document documenting all the secenes with shot and every actors costume continuity, fantastic stuff! Sams been sending over alot of documents too which have also been fantastic.....which is fantastic.