4. Deadline
Summary: The notorious terrorist Mike Sponge has locked himself and the crack detective team of Arthur Marley and Alan Suarez inside a police station as a bomb is set to detonate in a city centre in under 4 hours. The only contact Marley and Suarez have to the outside world is a two-way radio locked onto the council network- its up to a bunch of binmen, traffic wardens and toilet cleaners to save the day.
Best Bit: The introduction to Gorjan Gonultas, the Turkish toilet cleaner who is being hunted by Sponges henchman. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9OlovM1QVo
What I Learned: I still feel this is my slickest film to date- the best-edited, the best-written, and most importantly the best-organised. Having learnt from the disorganised and trouble-filled shoot of 28 Daves and the refresher course One Way gave me as a Director, Writer and Actor, I was ready to learn from past mistakes and harness the maturity Id gained through the small-scale medium of theatre. For a start, I scheduled the shoot down to the last detail, catering for the busy schedules of the boys, who by now were a lot more willing and helpful. Though there was some resistance still, the shoot for Deadline was a smoother ride. Whilst I had tried to shoot as many scenes with as many people crammed in as possible, I shot whenever people were free, and limited the amount of cast needed for various scenes- this was a lot easier when the core three were in one location, and everyone else had their scenes in different locations by themselves. However, there were roadblocks- for a start, some of the original cast of 28 Daves had left, and 5 new boys had joined in their place, literally weeks before we started shooting. Id have to suss them out whilst barely knowing them- I had previous experience and chemistry with the others, but how did I know the newcomers were going to not only cooperate, but contribute to the film? Also, my editing software (Windows Movie Maker- dont judge, it was a simpler time) crashed midway through the editing process, literally days before the first screening. But both hindrances turned out to be blessings in disguise. The newcomers contributed to the script and improvised (some of the best moments in the film where made up on the spot with no input from me), and having to adopt a friends Sony Vegas software dramatically improved my editing skills. I had cut down the script, so everyone gets their moments and the story moves along at a steady pace, never losing the viewers interest- unlike 28 Daves, at the first screening Deadline got a lot of laughs. A
lot. In all, it was an enjoyable shoot- the boys were used to this different style of sketch we were doing, and knew how I operated. But best of all, they questioned me every step of the way. They kept me on my toes, never allowing me to get egotisitical or self-indulgent. This was totally a collaborative effort, and I no longer felt like a one-man army. I may be the parent to my films, but I had supportive partners to back me up now. And, to a certain extent, in consciously lampooning the modern style of camerawork for action films, specifically Paul Greengrass work on the Bourne franchise, I learnt how you can tell a story more effectively through visuals as well as simply telling the story- I started to understand just how vital cinematography is to the whole process.