Short film number 4 now in pre-production

Philip Bloom, cinematographer and friend, said let’s shoot something in February. I suggested filming another zero budget short film and so the wheels began turning.

I came up with the idea for ‘That Day‘ out of pure pressure after committing to film something in Feb. Which fortunately worked out well for me on this occasion.

I started by choosing a genre first, something I very rarely do. I wanted to shoot a sci-fi/mystery. I’d had this idea that involved five adult actors and five young actors. The backbone of the story is a groups struggle to rebuild lost memories from their childhood.

There’s not much time to finish writing this screenplay as well as play the role of producer on this project. No easy task let me tell you.

The task of putting a crew together has begun. Luckily I have filmmaker friends who want to be involved in my projects, having seen what I’ve done previously and trusting my vision and ambitions.

So far, we have 50% of the crew we ideally need on this film. Here’s the crew we need:

DIRECTOR (Danny Lacey)
PRODUCTION MANAGER (Bethan Davies)
1st AD (Tamsyn O’ Connor tbc)
DP (Philip Bloom)
CAMERA ASSISTANT (Ronald Vonk)
LIGHTING DIRECTOR/2ND CAMERA (David Beaumont)
FOCUS PULLER (tbc)
CLAPPER (Saxon Rix)
PRODUCTION SOUND (Johan Maertens AMPS)
PRODUCTION DESIGN MANAGER (tbc)
CONTINUITY (tbc)
MAKE-UP (Melanie Lenihan)
COSTUME (tbc)
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT #1 (tbc)
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT #2 (tbc)
STILLS (tbc)
EPK (tbc)

I’m hoping to announce more crew members in the next few days.

Casting ‘That Day’ is going to be one of the greatest challenges on this film. I’m a little on the fussy side when it comes to things like this. It has to be right. The face and talent have to slot nicely in to this film. I need five adult actors, 3 male and 2 female aged 30-45 (approx). As well as five younger actors, 3 male and 2 female aged between 10-15 (approx).

I do have a few names in mind and will be making contact very shortly – even though no script is in place yet. Adding to the challenge.

The original idea for ‘That Day’ featured a handful of locations. However, using the experience I’ve had so far in making short films I made the very wise choice in chopping out the bulk of those locations. I can easily work with what will be just three locations. Two main locations and one for the opening scene. I know exactly what I’m looking for in these locations so that will help considerably.

The next phase is to pinpoint these locations and then approach the property owner or organisation and ask for permission to film there, without payment. You’ll find that most locations get a little excited by the potential of a ‘film crew’ working at their location – it does sound a little showbiz.

Producing ‘That Day’ is going to be tough, quite a challenge on zero budget. But that’s the nature of the beast and you just have to battle on. There are people out there willing to help and support what you are doing. As long as you are aiming high and being hugely ambitious, but at the same time realistic, can often work in your favour.

As ever, I’ll be sharing every step of the journey in the making of this short film. There will be plenty of behind the scenes video, interviews, blog updates, Tweets and so on. Right now, it’s time to get back to work and make sure that everything comes together in 39 days time so that we have something to film!

This weeks pre-production to do list:

• Finish 2nd draft of screenplay

• Find 80% of the crew

• Ideas for the 3 main locations

• Casting wishlist

• Find a second Sony F3 camera with s-log

• Kit list (i.e. lighting etc)

• Logistics assessment (i.e. potential problem areas to look out for etc)

Thanks for stopping by and don’t forget to ‘Like’ the Facebook page for That Day here. There will be LOTS of pre-production updates on there.

I’m on Twitter too.

Danny