Information from Kamilla

INTRODUCING AUTUMN LEAVES

Another of Marlborough Road Film’s productions this spring is the 10 minute short film Autumn Leaves. (See left for link to Director Lee Barham’s personal film blog about the project).

Short synopsis

William Dart has always felt guilty for leaving his dad and the family funeral business to pursue a university education. It is when he returns home to his small seaside village, that he sees the extent of his dad's drink fuelled depression, his debt and the lack of business that has made him so destructive. After an accidental hit and run, William realise that killing people seems to be a sure-fire way of sustaining his dad's business. But how long can he keep his dad happy before he finds out how all these dead bodies keep turning up.

Autumn Leaves will be filmed in different locations in Cornwall (mainly Perranporth and Falmouth) on the 6^th – 9^th of April.  SECURING is currently the word stuck in my producer’s head, referring mainly to cast and location, but also to some extent crew. As this project is further from production, we are at a slightly different stage then Elysium Avenue, and we are just about to jump into Auditioning for our two main characters. As we want to be open for both actors based in Cornwall and London, we will hold auditions both places, starting with London on the 9^th of February and then Cornwall (yet to be confirmed) on the 25^th of February. We will therefore have to ask our actors to be patient, as we don’t want to miss out on the local talent too.

As both me and Lee was unsure, I spoke to a friend who have done some administrative work for several auditions, and she said that as long as the actors are made aware, it is fine to leave them hanging for a bit, even on small productions. We just have to keep in mind tickets get more expensive the closer we book them, if we have to ship a London based actor down..

Preparing for an audition has been pretty exciting, but at the same time a bit confusing as everyone have different tips etc. When we’ve done it, I will try and put up some of our own “tips” on what worked and didn’t.

HIRING CHILDREN

Before Christmas me and Gary (director of another graduate film) were looking for a young girl to fit the role of a 9 year old in his film. This was late November, and we thought about all the different schools putting up plays around that time. So I started contacting local schools (see http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=18275 for a full lists of Cornwall’s Primary schools). We soon found that we were a bit late, but that several schools were keen. So if needed next year, I would start early as the schools need permission from parents etc. before you can attend plays.

The schools also hold a lot of information about drama groups etc.

Other issues with hiring kids is how long they can work and that need a designated guardian on set. You also have to have Local Education Authorities of Children's Performances. Which I first found a bit confusing, but again, as long as you leave time. Check this link for more information about child actors legalities.

http://www.filmcentre.co.uk/faqs_legal.htm

PRODUCTION PAPERS

UCF provides us with some templates for production papers, but there’s also a lot of things that you have to sort from scratch. I’ve made a lot of different templates for mainly budgeting, but also some on set/after shoot stuff. Most of it is taken from different production books etc., but buildt up as exel files to avoid the massive SAMPLE written everywhere, and to take away some of the things I found unnecessary for such small productions. If wanted I’m more then willing to pass these around, as there’s no point in everyone spending loads of time making the same things. I don’t think there’s a way to post them here, but please feel free to email me on kamilla.hodoel@gmail.com and I’ll be send you what I’ve got.

Kamilla