Bryan Makes Films

Booked Out is shooting on the 8th March… 5 weeks time… 35 days… argh! and woo! First let me apologise for not updating the diary for a while. It’s too easy to just let it slip by but from now until after the shoot I am going to do an update every day even if it is just to same I am knackered and should be sleeping rather than writing a blog entry.

It feels like today was the real start of the pre-production process for me as myself, Sam and Jordan recce’d a potential location for the block of flats yesterday. It really makes a difference when you see a building and you have to try and mold the story around the location you have. Or biggest challenge has got to be that currently about 15% of the script takes place in a stairwell which joins a set of flats together so we either need to find an empty block of flats or to try and join lots of different locations together.

We actually went to see a house which is over 4 floors and is massive and we could take over the whole place as it is due to be renovated. The fact that we can use it for the majority of our interiors is great but the question marks are how it affects the story as the stair wells aren’t right and even the rooms might have the feel of a house rather than a block of flats. Its really interesting trying to work out how much that affects the story and also then how much the story might need to change to fit into its surroundings.

Bryan checking out the house

If only you could create exactly what is in my head. Well you can actually in a Studio and that is another possibility that we are looking into but we would still have those pesky stairs to work out as building something that you can make look like 4 flights of stairs is too expensive for our budget.

We did get into another buildings stairwell which had this yucky pink colour and metal 50s style railings. In someways even though it was horrible and wouldn’t have filmed that well it at least had something unique to it that is worth considering. Fortunately the sound in the stairwell was unworkable. It was one of those places where you whisper and you can hear the echo five minutes later.

Pink stairwell anyone?

Lastly we went to visit a cool dude called Miles whose flat we could use which is attached to an ok looking stairwell. Miles was the real star of the show though and he wants a part in the film in return but wasn’t convinced when we offered him the role of the Naked Man (there is a life art scene in the film). Maybe it was explaining that we would have to check him out naked before the shoot to check that he looked suitable. He was a very nice guy though and another potential location option.

Miles = cool dude!

So no decisions made on locations yet but today was the start of things to come as hopefully this blog entry will be!

Happy New Year everyone from Booked Out HQ! Myself and Sam are really excited about what lies ahead this year. We haven’t really had much of a break over Xmas but who cares when you are following your dream.

Things are going well and hopefully we have a few concrete cast and crew announcements that we can make this week once everyone comes back from the festivities! I have spent my time looking at the overall look and feel of the film through gathering a set of film references to give an idea of tone, colouring, shot composition and the like. Once I am happy with them I will write another blog explaining those.

As well as that I did a few poster sketches as well as creating a more standard based photograph of Ailidh taking a Polaroid photograph.

Going back to the start of the post and my personal aims for 2010 obviously it is to make the best film possible but I thought I would try and break that down a bit! So in 2010 I am going to:

• Make a film that has an emotional impact on those that watch it based on the actors creating believable performances.
• The film will look visually interesting and have a distinct feel that makes you believe that another world that is quite like this world but slightly off kilter exists.
• Give every ounce of energy that I have on making the film as great as possible and to make it an exciting and enjoyable experience for those involved (cast, crew, investors, fans).
• To have fun and enjoy everything that lies ahead!

Have a great year everyone!