Cadence

Whew! This blog has not gotten any updates for quite awhile. This doesn't mean we've stopped working though! Since our last post we have produced a short movie. In my opinion its the best piece of work we've done so far. The movie is called 'Cadence' and it stars Ann DeGaetano (from local rock band Slur and also of 'Blood Money' fame ;) ) as Hannah.

Hannah is a born musician whose virtuosity is laid bare on the keys of her softly played piano. Her genius is about to get her into a prestigous music academy when she contracts a hearing disorder that slowly starts to rob her of her passion. As her hearing grows weaker and weaker, we see our protagonist in the throe's of her last remaining notes.

How will she play them out?

C+

I can't look at myself on screen.

Imagine watching yourself making the same mistakes over and over again, and your helpless to do anything about it. Now imagine a room full of people watching this with you.

They're not really mistakes though, let me explain.

Have you ever come out of an exam and thought "Damn! I should have done that question this way!" and you go over it endlessly till your pretty sure you flunked the whole exam. And it's obviously to late to go back and change anything cos it's in the editor..err, examiners hands now. Well, that's how I feel after a scene has been shot, except my paper is gonna be shown to as many people as possible. However, they won't see these 'mistakes'. Thankfully, these mistakes are only for me to bear, as my mind plays out all the different things I could have (should have?) done to improve my character.

We are almost at the end of the film.

I don't think anyone will ever know the lesson in expectations this sentence has come to symbolise for us. As a producer I feel tired. Weary. But I smile as I see to the completion of this production I helped create.

As an actor I quickly turn away from it, and try my best to forget it, till the report card comes in.

Neil

The Calm Before The Storm....

Hey again,

Just woke up, its like 7am, we have filming in like two hours. Today a very very big scene and also very important. We got around seven actors, acting together, so we expecting quite a confusion. Hopefully not!

Anyways yesterday Neil, James and I went to Chris to arrange the room, there was quite a mess and I mean a mess, around 3cm of dust all around the room, including on the chairs and tables. We cleaned the room, and made it look more like a “Meeting Scene”, we added maps and blueprints to the table, stuck up lots of cutouts on the walls, added some computers to the table…etc. It came very good I must say.

We also did a run through of our lines, and went over the script. Hopefully well enough for today.

Anyways time is running out… I gotta go. Hopefully the scene will come good today. We will let you know how things went later on.

That’s it for now :)

Well It's Not Just Bad News...

So, I haven’t written here in quite a while. At the moment things seem to be very tense, we have a lot of very important scenes to film in the coming days. Also to add to the tension Charlotte is leaving Malta in two weeks, so we have got to try and finish all her scenes before she goes.

I just got back from James. We discussed and planned a few things regarding the upcoming scenes. Now tomorrow we are going to Ann to discuss her scene with her. Basically the scene we are going to be doing at her house this coming Saturday.

Anyways…..today I spoke to someone regarding the film, and whether it will be possible to go on one of the programs on television to speak about the film, the company, what we are planning to do etc. Maybe even show a few scenes…who knows. Although nothing is for certain, he still needs to give me a reply.

Also some more good news….I think we might have found a possible location to use for the Film premier, although it’s not the ideal place, I think it could still be used.

Im off for now, I'll post again soon :)

Scenes Scenes Scenes

Hey.

I think we're all set to film the scene at Ann's grandmother next Saturday, and even the 'Meeting Scene' on Sunday morning. Also, we will hopefully be filming Charlotte's important scene on Friday. If we don't do it then, we're in trouble... 'cos i doubt we'll find another day with everyone free (it's a public holiday).

So we've just written a new character into the story. She only has one scene in this film (which we've got to film before Charlotte goes abroad), but she will appear more in the sequel. Adam and Neil should be coming to my house later today to discuss how the scene is going to play out. We've also gotta go over the other upcoming scenes... Adam wants to rehearse his lines, etc etc.

Hmmm. If filming this week goes according to plan, we may actually manage to meet our Christmas "deadline"! Maybe. Possibly.... Doubt it.

Got to Think Positively

Just reread the last two posts (by Neil and myself). We're beginning to sound too depressing. Let's look at things positively:

1) At least we know about the problems beforehand and can maybe think of ways to work around them.

2) We shouldn't feel bad asking people to come... afterall, they all wanted to be in the film, and you've got to have at least a little dedication for it to be good. If they have important work, I fully understand, as what happened last week with Neil, and this weekend with Aaron.

3) Yep things are looking tough from where we are, but things always have a funny way of turning out OK in the end.

Update: A bit more good news. Franny and Chris can also make the meeting scene on that day.

It's All About The Long Term

It's been one hectic week for me and a whole lot of problems for the studio seem to be getting ready to dump themselves on us weeks in adavance! It's ok, I can take it ... I can take it.

Well, I won't offload the details of the problems, I'll leave that luxery to James. But the hill looks very steep from where I'm standing. What with school and a few dozen assignments, personal projects and life in general. I can only imagine how busy the other actors are right now. Most of them attend University, all are in some kind of school. Since the start of the film the team has lost touch. I always end up feeling awkward asking an actor if they can film or not on some date because a) They are doing it for free and b) I'm not thier closest friend, I don't have much right (read none) asking them to film. But, we will all benefit from this, and hopefully, if this studio works out, the benefit will be long term for all of us.

I was wondering if any other Independent film makers or actors read this blog the other day, if you are one, drop us a comment, we'd love to discuss any aspect of independent film making and acting. Even if your not a film maker or actor really.

Coming Soon... Problems and Uncertainties

We've got a lot of filming up ahead... really nervous about it. This weekend nothing is really planned , but we're going to try and do the "Beggar scene". But next week... well, Saturday, we're filming at Ann's grandma's house. Sunday we should be filming meeting scene (It is our ONLY chance before Charlotte goes abroad because the next weekend Tasha has a horseriding competition). Now, not counting those two, which are going to be stressful enough to do if we even do manage to pull them off, there is another scene which we MUST do of Charlotte before the 17th or 18th and another scene of hers which we really want to do...

Oh yeah, another problem. You starting to notice how many of these we have? Just found out yesterday that the garden at Ann's grandma's house in Melliaha is under reconstruction or something! And it's got "cranes and dust and bricks everywhere". BUT the house is ok she said. I just hope there won't be a lot of noise. I had written a scene that takes place in the garden, but if when we arrive I see it's too... well... under construction to be able to film, we'll have to shift the scene to inside the house.

Scary thing is we're already having problems and we're still over a week from the actual filming day.... Oh yeah, and I still have to confirm if we can film the "Meeting scene" at Chris' house on Sunday morning. IF we can't... I have no clue what we're going to do. We'll have to do it somewhere else then because that is our only available filming day. I don't even know if Franny can make it yet...

Will fill you in when I know more.

James

It Went Well

Have just finished going through today's footage, and it came good. Suprisingly, we didn't have that many problems. Okay, the beanie we had for Chris had no holes for the eyes and mouth, and the room did change slightly, and the dogs below did bark all the time, and there was barely any furniture downstairs in the hall, but that was nothing next to what I was expecting...

So I'm happy.

For now.

Unfortunately, filming will probably have to be cancelled this coming Sunday because Neil has a lot of work to do. Win some, lose some.

Sigh Of Relief.....

Hey,

Just got back from Alan's house....phew, seems like we managed to film everything we had planned.
My lesson finished at 6.30pm, it was in Sliema by the way, I rushed to Swieqi in 7 minutes and we filmed mine and Neil's part. Hope it came good!

So....Trying to arrange whats happenin tonight. Have no idea yet.

Regarding this weekend, so far we dont have anythin really planned, most probably we gonna try to do the Begger scene if Aaron can.

Anyways I gotta go, I'll post again soon...

Up Ahead...

Suddenly, we find ourselves in a tense situation. Charlotte (who plays Sydney [the blonde]) is soon going to London for The Rest Of Her Life... The problem is, we still haven't finished all her scenes.

One of these scenes MUST be filmed at all costs, but we have no idea where we are going to do it, and if we'll be able to get everyone involved in the scene to meet up at the same time. Don't know if we'll be allowed to use the house I want to use. Not even sure if the person I have in mind for the part is going to be in Malta for much longer either. So that's worrying.

I can't wait to film at Ann's grandma's house next Saturday... it's the most beautiful place I've ever seen. We've got a lot to cover though, and the sun is starting to go down really early, so I hope we'll manage everything... she lives in Mellieha and getting there isn't easy, plus I feel bad going again and again.

We sort of have a scene planned for Sunday, but I'm not sure if we're actually allowed to use the house yet, so I guess it's not really planned at all. The owner is moving out and has removed a lot of the furniture... I just hope there's enough left in the house to actually make it look like a house when we finally do the scene! Just so you understand the nature of the problem - we've already filmed there three times and have various little scenes done, so we have to do this scene there otherwise we'd have to refilm all the other scenes if we were to use a new location.

Fingers crossed.

It's Only Making a Film

Another week gone by. Actually since we're talking in filming terms here, weekEND, since those are the only days most actors are able to film. Very, very soon we're going to have a teaser/trailer up!! It's a teaser really because apparently we didn't have enough footage to make a proper trailer (...we've only been filming for 14 months, you see?).

Today we might have made a contact within the local public TV sector. We're all a bit excited about it but trying to tell ourselves that we won't be millionaires by this coming Wednesday. Especially since today is almost over.

Last night we were discussing starting a new film, but decided to stick with our current project and our plans for its sequel. Our current project is really just that, a project we started to teach ourselves all about filming a movie. Well...ok, we didn't initially set out to teach ourselves (back then we knew it all already). But along the way we've learnt how to act (or at least the meaning of it), work with a camera, edit footage, write scripts, manage schedules, time and people. We've learnt what constitutes a problem to shooting a scene (everything!), that six hours filming to three minutes edited footage is a good ratio. And we now understand the value of inspiration, dedication, motivation and hard work. [James' Note: We still have to learn the meaning of deadline.]

We won't stop learning the meaning of creativity and we will never forget the feeling of expressing it.

Later

Hey again.....

Hey.

Exhausted; just got back from gym...thought I'd post something. So... we didn't film anything this weekend - hopefully next weekend we'll do another two scenes. Maybe at Alan, I hope. Speaking about this another problem just cropped up... I spoke to Alan this morning and just found out his uncle moved out most of the furniture from his house. Just great! We've gotta see how we're gonna film the scene now.

Finally saw the scene of Sean and Sydney (the conversation in my garden). It came very good, though there are a few lines we might have to arrange here and there. There are one or two pictures of this scene in James' post for ya to see.

Just saw a few more scenes from the film... It's coming really good. I uploaded two pictures taken from "The introduction scene", you can take a look at them below.

Anyways that's it for now. I'll post again soon =)

A Word From Sean....

Hey,

So this is my first blog.....First of all I'm sure you are wondering, who is Sean? Well Sean is the character I play in the film. He is basically the head, leader, boss.. whatever you want to call him, of a gang. He is asked to put a team togther to steal a painting..a very expensive one I might add. I think that's about all I'll say for now; don't wanna reveal too much....

Anyways... Filming was ok on Thursday, I mean apart from almost 1 million problems... well more like 2 or 3, we eventually managed to film it. Charlotte was in one of her moods, as usual, but from what I saw it came good...I hope. I still have to see the scene, most probably I'll go to James' house some time today to see it.

We didn't manage to film at Alan's today, as usual, some problem cropped up.

Film is coming great so far, especially the new scenes. We should be finished very soon.
I think thats about it for now, I'll post again soon.

Enjoy,

Adam

So...

Hey. So... we filmed Thursday and Friday, and the scene came pretty good. However, we did not enjoy the "quiet and enclosed" environment I was imagining... three of the neighbouring houses were under construction! Or at least, had workmen making noises in them. Not to mention Shakira, Adam's crazy dog, who refused to stay put for more than twenty seconds at a time. We locked her up but she started sobbing so we released her again. In the end we managed to get it done.

.

Nothing planned for this weekend (Filming-wise I mean). Hopefully we'll be able to film at Alan's uncle tomorrow, but I seriously doubt we'll be that lucky.

.

We might have found someone to construct a website for us for the film. A nice, flashy, public one. Fingers crossed that he'll do it.

.

More worries. Charlotte (who plays Sydney) is going abroad Forever on the 18th December... but we still have to film one very important scene with her and I don't know when/where we're going to do it...

.

I'm also starting to think about the official trailer. Not sure if I have enough of the film to make it yet though. I've made about 3 teasers/montages... but I'm still trying to see how I'm going to make an interesting trailer. And who is going to do the voice over with that deep generic trailer voice? Hmmm...

The Week Looks Bleak (Again)

Filming tomorrow at Adam's house.. with Adam and Charlotte. Script is done (Neil's Note: Translation for outsiders: "The script is not actually finished but I wrote the bit coming up next less then 24 hours before we shoot it"), we're going to be in a quiet, enclosed environment... what could go wrong? Quite afew things I'm sure... but we'll wait and see.

Got a problem for Saturday... We're going to film at Ann's grandma in Mellieha, but Ian has a game of football at 12pm... so unless he comes afterwards I don't know what we're going to do. It's the only day we can at her grandma. Although I found out today Ann still has to confirm it with her grandma tonight... so fingers crossed we can even go.

Practically finished editing the scene at Mdina - it came quite good actually.

And finally... what to film on Sunday? I'm hoping Alan and his uncle will let us... but for some reason I doubt we'll be so lucky for this Sunday. Oh yeah, and on Friday I'll be filming Chris at his house hacking. Should be funny. Then Im going to sneak into his University lecture because I really have nothing better to do at the moment.

Okay, that's it for now... I'll post after filming tomorrow to say how it went.

James
November 15th - 5:01PM

Another Notch on His Camera

We filmed.

Time is 1:40am. Was just editing the scene where Neil and Adam's characters talk... Today we filmed Charlotte's part of the phonecall. Came very good. Overall, I'd say a pretty successful weekend for the film... We should be meeting again sometime during the week to film Adam and Charlotte's talking scene... and hopefully this weekend we'll be arranging the scene with Ann and Ian...

Still gotta decide what we going to film on Sunday. Hopefully the 'Beggar chase', if Aaaron can make it. I really want to finish the film before Charlotte goes abroad so we can all watch it together... if we continue this way, it may be a possibility... if not, we'll take it up with us to England when we visit :P

Hmm.. Neil made a handy website to help organise our filming days etc... still have to learn how to use it. (Neil's Note: Please note that that's a comment on Jame's IT skills and not my web design skills =P )



Filming at Mdina went well on Saturday. We had loads of disturbances... cranes, construction sounds, crowds, old ladies banging their doormats against the wall, loud televisions, did I mention crowds of tourists? But we managed...



That's it for now...

James
November 13th - 12:49PM

Tired...Script...

It's past 1 in d mornin, and I'm just starting to write the script for tomorrow.... gotta wake up at 8am. Oh well, at least we're filming!

Anyway, better get back to it.

My eyes are shutting on their own and I keep typing words badly...

James
November 11th - 12:11AM

The Independent Director

Hey.

Neil said I should start to write a blog about the film, might as well. Then i'll be able to read this in a few months and laugh heheh.

Ok, currently trying to figure out when how we're going to film a scene this Sunday, hang on.. the 'Beggar scene'. Ok, Adam can make it (I think). Thought we were going to have a problem. shew.
So this is, I think, the 14th month of filming... I'm planning to finish it off by the end of this year. I remember telling Yolande, an old friend of mine, last year that the film would be done for Christmas (that is Christmas '05). So, I kind of misjudged.


Am currently trying to plan the scene where Jake and Sean have a little talk.. filming it in 2 days (supposedly) and I don't know where we're doing it or what they''re gonna say... but the fact that we know we're filming on Sat morning is quite organised for us.

hmmmmmmmmmm... today my RW dvd broke but I fixed it..

Filming is now restricted to weekends due to school. Already got a dilemma for next week. Ann can only film on Saturdays and this Saturday she has band practice. So we agreed to film the next Saturday. but now I find out I have chris' birthday on Saturday.. hopefully he'll manage to shift his birthday to Sunday instead.... If not, oh well (Neils Note: Yeah...birthdays come every year)

There is never a day in filming where everything runs smoothly. Never. No one would believe the amount of problems that crop up each time we meet... for example, and this is a small, minor thing compared to other things that occur. Last Sat we filmed at Ann's grandmas' place.

Matt and Ian had to be in suits, but Matt accidently left his shirt at home. so we couldnt film Matt and Ian together in the same shot at some angles, and they had to keep swapping the shirts for some shots, etc... thank God Ann's grandma was kind and fed us and let us stay till we were 'bout to drop dead with exhaustion.. we were there for about 7 hours i think.. (Neils Note: Yep)

Oh, another problem. on Sunday, If and when we do film the beggar scene, Aaron can only come for 2 hours... last time we filmed this scene (Yes, we're re-doing it) it took us 6 hours. but I have a cunning plan that should work.. I hope.


Oh yeah, we got arrested last Sunday while filming at Ghajn Tuffieha. Well actually, it was after we filmed. We were sitting at the bar when these two policemen arrived and walked down to the beach. So we got up and watched them and filmed them a bit, waiting and hoping for them to deliver some swift justice to whoever was foolish enough to disturb the peace. But, nothing happend, they just wanderd around the beach for a couple of minutes, so we lost interest. We we're about to leave when we see them walking towards us in the distance. I was like "They're coming for us ta", but laughing, 'cos I didn't really believe it.

So, they arrive, and they ask to search my bag. they find my BB gun. I got a shock cos I forgot I had it in my bag. They then threw me to the ground and cuffed me.. ok no, but they searched the others, and didnt find an army knife in chris' pocket. (Neil's note: It was a pen knife, but chris' is pretty dangerous with it anyway.)

Anyway I dont want to go over the details 'cos it makes me angry. But me and Neil went in a police car to a police station where i was let off.. (Neils Note: -_- )

Anyway,

Currently seeing what Adam is going to wear for the Scene on Sunday (I'm chatting online atm).. And where we going to do the scene on Sat. I dont think Adam knows how much of the scene I want to redo on Sunday..

Ok I think i'll end it here. I'll post again after filming.

James
November 9th - 8:34PM