Saturday 25 February 2012

Today I died, again.

So yesterday I was leaping from tall buildings, today I was knocked down by a speeding car...
All this on top of failing to blow my brains out earliernkn the week and mowing down a child myself... All in the name of Film!

There were a lot of good things that happened today, my favourite being that of all the random streets in Hartlepool, and of all the houses I could've parked outside, I ended up outside that of James Kent, personal trainer and actor/musician, who i'd only just met two weeks ago on the set of Harrigan's Nick!

James was kind enough to allow mento use his house as a green room, wherein I made two costume changes - and a cup of tea!

I do love working on films of any size, but it's when you go from £3million to £30, you van really see where corners are cut, initiative takes over and where the extra money goes!!!
If we'd had another few crew, and the permission to actually block off the road, I'd have gelt a whole lot better about lying face-down in a pool of blood in the middle of the road!!! Also, we might not have upset a local resident with the car noise as much if we'd given him theoney to put his kids through college!

All-in-all, things went well today, we've got to go back to the Grabd Hotel to finish off my little nudie-suicide scene and then it's off to the edit suite to perform te magic!

Good luck to everyone involves, check out the links below for more details:

Wednesday 22 February 2012

My Little Nudie Shoot...

Was postponed due to a technical fault!!!

We shot a few scenes this lunchtime but when the 16mm camera started to rattle, we decided to call off the shoot...

It was shaping up well; we got a few shots inside the hotel room in the can and I was just prepping for my first suicide when the fault occured.Have you ever killed yourself on screen? Have you ever looked for the truth in the character at that point? Liam Neeson has; and thanks to having seen 'The Grey' twice, I was ready for my take on such a scene.

Well I was pumped, but it didn't happen today... such is death!

And my little nudie-shower scene? That can wait till tomorrow too!

Thursday 9 February 2012

"okay, let's see how loud to can mime..."

That was Nick's greatest piece if direction tonight on the shoot for Harrigan's Nick.

Turns out we 'background artists' were a little too passionate to see Craig [spoiler alert] 'interact' with his 'co-star', played by the ever-present Bill Fellows..!

Tonight was great; the first half was being stuck at base, not having been selected for the earlier scenes. It all kicked off after 'dinner'?!? When we hit the set proper.

All indications were that temperatures would be super sub-zero, so we were all dressed in multiple layers... Well it was only around four am that I became grateful for my three pairs of socks, two pairs of longjohns and a thermal rashvest, usually used for surfing!

We rioted in the street and watched cars explode... Could've been a lot worse all told!

Work in three hours then back to the unit HQ for 4.30pm to do it all again.


My secret weapon is fake redbull and my big plan is to sleep all weekend...

More updates tomorrow.

Harrigan'zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...........

Okay, so I just found out that the 'night shoot' really is an all-night shoot!

5pm till 4.30am, same tomorrow. Well that's fine, at least it doesn't clash with my 9-5 day job... AND I get four hours kip!


As I told the casting agent - "I can sleep when I'm dead", it's just that death seems so much closer today!

Here's a link to Tall Trees Pictures, the production company:

http://talltreepictures.co.uk/production_harrigansNick.php

Monday 6 February 2012

Back on the Horse...

Well, January was a relatively quiet month, nothing solid manifested, nothing ecept my obligatary 'Winter Beard'...

I had two casting calls mid-month - one's I had to turn down because both required a bearded actor - hence the re-grown beard. And no sooner has the beard returned, the phone has started ringing again.

I'm set to appear in a riot scene for 'Harrigan's Nick' on Thursday and Friday this week, here's a link:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2115325/

Further to this I'll be playing a 'tired and listless' man responsible for the death of a child in a short 16mm film by Creative Film student Richard Eaborn and my old friend A.J. Garrett (The Cement Factory) has resurfaced with an ongoing project that could kick off sooner rather than later.

Added to this some pre-production test shots with Billy Cessford at Tynemouth Castle AND Barnard Castle next Saturday and I am stuffed - hence the perfect casting as 'tired and listless'!!!


Here's a link to a trailer for AJ's last film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SurrM1VIcEs

and the Facebook information page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cement-Factory/151722481539843?sk=info

Here's a sneak-peek at some of Billy Cessford's upcoming projects:
http://www.billycessford.com/