A Little Bit Country...

I did a bit of work with Elfin Productions on a short called Little Bit Country for Virgin Media Shorts competition, and it's just been released for general viewing! It stars Tim McInnerny (Casanova, Blackadder) as the Dad and Richard Southgate (the UK production of Spring Awakening, the show in which Glee's Jonathan Groff started).  It was really interesting coming into this project. Adam Coop (the director of Little Bit Country) was the first AD for  Love at First Sight, the short I worked on a few weeks ago with John Hurt (Mr. Ollivander from Harry Potter). Adam is lovely and I'm quite happy with this short film.  It was really neat to read over the different versions of the script, see how the camera crew was brought on, the difficulties that we encountered with locations, sound, and the dozen other things that occur when filming anything, and finally see the finished product that I'm quite happy with.  Virgin shorts competition is very strict on its time allowed, so the cut is a bit choppier than the director wished, so he's doing his own cut that will be more around the 4-minute mark that he can circulate around festivals that will have all aspects he wants, and not be cut short due to time.

When we watch a film, either a professional one like Twilight, James Bond, Iron Man or something, or a video randomly posted on YouTube by the dude down the street, we hardly ever think about the process. How did that actor get there that day? Was he excited? Hungover? Did he go over details of his character with the director right before "action"?  How did they find the location? Who paid for the cowboy hats? How did they get the ability to show magazine covers and play artists' songs in the short?  All of these things were investigated and explored!  So, it was nice to come into this one a smidge late, see how the script developed, and see what needed to happen in order for this short to make the deadline for Virgin Media and now how to make the 'director's cut' of a slightly longer version that can circulate on the festival circuit, as that is where it is heading next.

Crazy, huh? It's wicked interesting to look into though.  There's a lot I don't know about these things (i.e. I know many bits very well, but not every single particular aspect of film making), but I'm learning more and more about which aspects I think I'd be good at (development and marketing), which aspects I'd be bad at (sound),  and where I'll be going from here. Every day on set, and every little hurdle that contributes to a final product adds to my investigation of event films in a very practical manner. I get quite frustrated with people who preach and teach about how it is in the film industry and what certain aspects may mean, but really, they've never been on a film set or actually worked in film, so it's good to put these pieces together and see if and how they reflect each other.

Anywho, check out the video, it's 2 minutes long, and rather adorable. It's a story we're probably all familiar with in some way. You've got a passion that you're hesitant to share with certain people (*cough*Twilight*cough*... some people just don't understand, and I'm sorry for them), so you hide that passion, and what happens when you're caught? Well check this out and let me know what ya think:

Virgin Media Shorts: A Little Bit Country

Bit from the site:

I'M A LITTLE BIT COUNTRY. ARE YOU? 

A Little Bit Country is about an inevitable part of growing up: the terrible sinking feeling when your parents find your secret stash hidden in your wardrobe – and confront you one morning across the kitchen table. Gut wrenching and universal, this is one teenage rite of passage that has happened to us all... although maybe not quite like this…