TREE

Beth Winslet

It is a bit of a cliche to say it, but Beth really does have one of those smiles that lights up a room, which is a real shame as there was not really much call for smiling in our script, quite the opposite in fact.

In the film, Beth plays a woman in a very melancholy state of mind, but she was able to imbue the character with a real vulnerability and compassion.  With no dialog to hang the performance on it could have been so easy to over act the part, but Beth delivered an incredibly restrained and understated performance that, because of it, carries a much greater emotional punch.   In short, Beth gave us everything  we had hope for in the character and more.

Beth kindly wrote this for the blog:

"When I met Phil and Liz for the first time, They put me through a tricky improv session (my worst kind of audition!) but using the framework of the script, for the first time ever, I found myself enjoying it. Then suddenly i got that scary feeling of 'I actually really want to do this project.'

Then I was called back to workshop the piece with Clive and we all just clicked together. When the casting director Lin rang me a few weeks after to offer me the job I was in a muddy field at a festival and despite the music and chaos, I jumped around and shrieked and had a celebratory beer or three with my mates! It's rare to find a project that has such simple honesty behind it.
Filming was a bit of a battle with weather, time, light...the usual suspects, but the crew and Phil remained calm and together throughout, giving myself and Clive the space to do our thing. Clive is an extraordinary actor, with a balance of strength and sensitivity that meant he could play his role brilliantly, and which gave me the right energy to play mine.  Phil was fantastic. I spent a couple of days sobbing for the film and he allowed me to feel safe enough to display that vulnerability. Thank you Phil, Liz, Clive, Sue, Jo and all the crew for making Tree such a memorable experience."  - Beth Winslet.

Towards the end of the shoot Beth pointed out to me that every time that we had meet, I'd made her cry.  It was true, but in my defense can I just say that it was all in the line of duty. 

Beth is currently wrapping up a 2 month stint of filming in Italy on a feature film.  A role I am reliably informed that involves no crying whatsoever.

Title Race

My team Crystal Palace are languishing mid table in the Championship at the moment, so don't worry, this is not a post about football.   No, it is about the ongoing search for a new and more fitting title for the film.

Thanks to everyone who have been racking their brains, offering suggestions.  The current runners are as follows:

Symbol
Windfall
The Reward
Enclosure
The Tree
Heartwood

Heartwood is the clear favorite at the moment by a furlong, but there is still time for late entries. 

Supporting Cast

This is Sykes.  Cute isn't he!

Sykes was part of our supporting cast on the film  It would be fair to say that he was also one of the most experience crew members, having worked on numerous adverts, TV shows and feature films, with some of the biggest names in the biz.

Having never worked with animals before I was a little worried how it would impact on our tight shooting schedule.
I'd be lying if I said he didn't effect it, as even at a greatly lower rate than he was used to working for, we still could only afford to have him on location for 2 days, so that meant that the schedule sort of revolved around him.

But like a true star he is, when he was called on to perform, he did his stuff, hit his marks, and made everyone smile.

Now for some sad news.

One of our other supporting cast came crashing down during the high winds that lashed the country last week.

This tree played a small but significant role in the film and it was a real surprise to see it uprooted.  It seemed such a sturdy tree.

Thankfully our hero tree remains upright and healthy but if this fella had fallen a couple of more feet to the left it would have been carnage.

Gummy Bear Dance

Ok bear with me here...

There is a rather infectious/irritating (depending on your point of view) viral animation clip spreading across the Internet at the moment called Gummy Bear Dance.  Its in the crazy frog mold and once you've heard the song it will burrow into you brain like a parasite.

Your humming it already arn't you!

What's this got to do with TREE?

Well my friend Peter Dodd designed and animated the cheeky little bear, that has been seen by some 5 million people at this point.  You should check out his site if you have a mo.

Yeah, but what has this to do with TREE?

Oh.  Well Mr Dodd is the first person to come up with an alternative title for the film. 
His suggestion is "WINDFALL" which is not bad at all.

New Title?

Ain't it always the way, you wait round for ages then two post appear at once!

TREE is the working title of our film, but now is the time to start thinking seriously about finding a more appropriate name to encapsulate our film.  It's a problem have been thinking about for months, and was hoping that inspiration would hit.  Sadly it has not.

So if anyone has a suggestion - feel free to comment.

It needs to be memorable, poetic, concise, and convey the idea of "crossed paths" without being to on the nose.

Edit Locked

If you've been in or around London's Soho over the past fews week, there's a fare chance you might have glimpsed me darting back and forth across Oxford Street from, Framestore, where I'm currently working, to Wardour St, where Ralph Foster our editor is based.

We have been busy whittling away at the edit, sharpening, refining, and generally polishing the film to a point where we can now lock the edit and pass it on to Barnaby Templer at Fonic to start the sound design, and Simon Allen to begin scoring the music.

Due to the time constraints when shooting, the weather conditions we faced, and also my own oversight, there are a few places in the film where we did not quite get all the coverage we needed, but thanks to Ralph I don't think anyone will notice.  For all our cutting however, the film's length has not decreased that dramatically, but the pacing and tempo is so much tighter.

Overall I'm very pleased with what we have done, add music and sound and it can only get better!

Production Photos

While things are slow here are a few images from the shoot.

Progress

As was mentioned in my last post, we have a rough cut, which we are now in the process of showing round to a select band of people to help us gauge if the film is working.  Are we hitting the right notes for pace and tone? Does the film communicate its theme? Is it entertaining?

From the response we have so far it is very encouraging, but there are one or two story points in the film that need fine tuning. 

We are hoping to have a finished cut by the end of December.

So, this just to say things are happening, just very slowly.

Rough Cut 02

This week saw a big leap forward in the editing process of the film. Ralph Foster our editor was able to spend some time cutting, during lunch breaks and after work, to get a more fleshed out edit of the film ready for Friday.  It was important to get a cut ready this week because we are applying for some completion funding to help us with the post production of the film and the deadline for submissions was 5:30pm on Friday.

Unfortunately we need extra funding at this stage due to a problem we had during shooting that only came to light after we had wrapped.  It appears we had a fault with two pieces of our sound equipment not quite talking to each other in the right way.  This means a lot of the location sound that was recorded is unusable.  To be fair, even if we had that sound it would still largely only be a guide, due to the fact that when ever we turned over, some man deep in the woods would start his chain saw up at the same time! 

The up shot of all this is that, the sound design guys at Fonic will have to try and reconstruct a lot more of the sound than was anticipated.  It is annoying, but I have a lot of faith in Fonic.  Thank goodness it is a non dialog film, but nonetheless, there will be a huge amount of foley work to be done...which costs money!

Ralph did a great job in patching some atmos, spot sound effects, and music together for this edit just so it didn't feel so empty.  However now that I have had some time to review the edit again, we may have gone a little over board with the musical cues.  Its too busy, and some of the tracks don't quite fit right.  I always knew that sound and music would play a big part in this film, and it will be a fine balancing act to get them just right.  For all its rough cut edges, it is encouraging to finally see a film beginning to emerge.   

Now for something completely different...

Went for a walk this weekend back to see the TREE. It had lost all its foliage and was looking very stark, but still beautiful.

Autumn this year is very late, but the colours this weekend are extrodanary.

Clive Brunt

When we were auditioning for Tree we meet with some great actors, and I use that term to encompass both sexes.  But after meeting Clive I had a strong gut feeling he was the right for our character, and now having finished filming I can safely confirm my gut was absolutly right.  Clive was so easy to work with, and was always ready to give.  He has one of those faces that just photographs so well, but despite his tough looks he is in fact a real teddy bear. 

Clive sent an email and asked me to post this for him on the blog:

"On my first meeting with Phil and Liz I was impressed by their script and their attitude. I wanted to be involved in the project at all cost. It was great working with you all on Tree. I've seen a couple of the rushes and I'm really proud to be part of it. 
Beth put in a great performance; a really generous and exciting actor to work with. She has a lot to be proud of.

The crew were so hardworking and professional.  Many thanks to everyone. Jo for her work on the wig, what a trooper! Everyone in costume, braving the rain with us. One of the real stars has to be Roy, (Phil's father) who doubled up on most jobs and was always a friendly face around.  Liz Chan for all her hard work, and most of all to Phil, who is talented, hardworking, and has true vision. He brought out the best of me and I hope that we can work together again.

The only bad point for me on Tree is that it had to end."  - Clive Brunt

Clive can presently be seen in Woyzeck at St Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn until December 5th.