IIWK Titles.

On friday we got our actor Ollie in to shoot some opening titles and a poster/front cover with him the shoot went really well once we got our head round stop motion! And today I've been editing the opening titles and the dvd cover.

IIWK The shoot

We were meant to be shooting 'If I was King' on 6/11/13 everything was in place for our three day shoot. Offices booked, pub booked, crew booked and we thought the cast was booked until two days before we had two actors pull out and with not enough time to find new actors that could learn the script the company who we were renting the office off were not happy that we pulled out at the last minute so we lost our office location as well. We are doomed....So Hennie and I went and saw Simon on Monday to explain and to see where we stood and it was decided that we would do a script read through with a whole new cast. This wasn't something I wasn't looking forward to, I was geared up for a three day shoot and in my head I just thought a script read through was a bit of a cop out, it would no way have the same impact that I thought I could of achieved with my film. So we filmed the read through on 9/11/13 with a whole new cast. And to my surprise it was amazing, it went really well and it was a very useful tool as after I went back over my script and changed some parts that I didn't feel worked to give the script more of a flow and more depth. I was overwhelmed with how well the read through went it still left a bitter taste in my mouth. If it worked this well with the cast sat down reading from the script, how much better could it be on set with cameras????
But all in all I wasn't expecting much from the read through and it helped me a great deal, I would 100% do one again and recommend them as a good writing tool.

IIWK Logo

Here are some logos ideas that Hennie got from our graphic designer.

This one was mine and Hennie's favorite although we felt it looks a little bit dirty and maybe needed brighter colour as its for a comedy. We have sent here feedback and are looking forward to what she comes back with. 

Cast.

Hennie and I have seen quite a few people audition for roles in 'If I Was King' and we have a few shortlisted. We are happy that we have Stef Collins on board who played Bread in my last film 'Toerags' and he also won the UCA Broadcast Media award for 'Best Performance' for his role as Bread so we jumped at the chance of working with him again and offered him the role of 'Stef'

We think we have our 'Jamie' we have a few to choose from and although there are issues with each one it is something we'll have to work around. The problems are that one of the potential Jamie's has a northern accent which is throwing me a bit but he also is a bit old for what we are looking for. And our other potential 'Jamie' is quite posh! but this is something we are planning on having to work on.

Sophie was the hardest. We had two girls that we were torn between for the role of 'Sophie' both were brilliant and it is a nice headache to have when you have two great people to choose from. But what swung it in the end was an age thing as the two girls were at opposite ends of their 20's. And we are hoping that the girl who didn't get the role of 'Sophie' Will be interested in auditioning for the role of 'Victoria'. Victoria has been the hardest role to cast with hardly anyone showing any interest, and we have no idea why but we are hoping that our second choice Sophie will take the role.

Director's research

I've been doing a lot of director research in preparation for the 'If I Was King' shoot. I've been watching a lot of BBC Three comedies. All their comedies seem to be bright, colorful which is exactly what I want to achieve with my shoot. Although with most of it being set in a dull office and on a tight budget it may be hard to achieve. I've also been watching my last project 'Toerags' to see if there is anything I would differently...And there is a lot. I think with Toerags we just set the camera up and shouted action and filmed it. I don't want to do that with If I Was King, I want the camera to moving into the action as opposed to it already being on the action. I think it looks a lot more professional. This is a an example of what I'm talking about, its a scene from Gavin & Stacey where they are in a chemist buying a pregnancy test. The camera give a great establishing shot of the self before turn around to see Gavin browsing. If I was shooting that scene around the same time as I did Toerags I probably would have filmed a shot of them outside the chemist,  them walking into the chemist, looking around for the pregnancy tests. And that's exactly what I want to avoid. Their way is a lot quicker for letting you know where you are and getting straight into the action.... Below is the clip

If I Was King - Logo and opening titles ideas

So me and Hennie got together last week and discussed ideas for logo and opening titles to give to graphic designers.  I had an idea for opening titles witch was inspired by a album cover I saw of Notorious B.I.G's Duets The Final Chapter album.

 I thought it would be a good idea if for our title to be a bit like the picture. If it starts off with just a shot of our character Jamie and gradually he ends up with a crown and a mase with using stop motion or as if some one was graffiting the picture and drawing a crown on him and then the title 'If I Was King' would appear towards the end as Jamie is looking up at the crown with a cheeky grin.

I also came up with the idea of a regal approach for the logo, and thought maybe the 'Keep Calm and Carry On' theme might be subtle. So Hennie came up with some rough designs.

The Wrong Mans. Corden & Baynton

I've recently started watching the new BBC One comedy, action drama 'The Wrong Mans' on Tuesday nights. Starring and written by James Corden and Mathew Baynton. This is a great show. Very well written, funny and with big bugget explosions. What more could you ask for?

I stumbled across this interview about how they wrote the show which I found very interesting as by the sounds of things they had the same problem as I am having with 'If I Was King' finding a good balance for plot vs comedy. Hear is the interview...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO3XRhNlSjs