fairymarsh5

Debbie Bell

I don’t think Debbie really connected with this project or dug my vague brand of mutated Milliganism. She didn’t seem to get it, which isn’t a criticism, it’s a fact. This may have made it hard for her as she was required to input into a vision that she didn’t initally share. I always thought she would grow to like it when it all came together and the leap from script to film is a massive gulf. At the end she said ‘I didn’t think you’d do it but I think you’ve pulled it off’. This triggered a barrarge of amusing innuendos from Ryan, which got slightly annoying after ten minutes. Her initial scheptisism of the direction of the piece didn’t hamper her

She turned up to two shoots - the failed Tuesday one and the one on the 11th November. Here she impersinated a gorrilla mighty finely, providing a series of eating and drinking noises.

It’s fair to say that I put down over half of the edits but I’m going to defend Debbie on this one. The need for this was that I could do it quicker as I had more experience after being an editor on the previous project and time was our main enemy. I do feel a bit guilty of denying her the chance to get completly frustrated by the linear technology but I tried to let her edit as much as she could. When editong she seemed a little unsure of herself and it required a bit of patience. She needed too many previews to calm her down rather than just going for it as if it cocks up you can always record over it. This isn’t a critisism it’s just a result of inexperience and gaining experience takes time.

Another thing in her defence was that, apparently, this is what she said anyway, in her tutorials for editing the focus was on the digital technology with more of a run through of the linear suites. Her group consisted of Paul and Michelle who both have extensive experience with this kind of technology so she said she felt a bit left out. That’s what she said anyway. I might have mishead her and be completly wrong. But if she sacraficed the greater part of her role for the good of the whole then some form of credit is due.

Adam Hewitt

What happened to the Adam that was around last year? This one looks the same but seems to be acting completly differently, doing things such as actually turning up and...gasp! actually working. At times it was like he was being possesed by Cal! However I think he’s more likely to become a comedy actor than a producer. It’s not so much a slur on his production technique but a compliment to his overall comedy contribution.

First the production.

though and the schedule was a little unrealistic and it fell apart at times.

But this was due initially to battery problems. All in all I don’t think there was enough communication between us, which I suppose is partly my fault. A times I felt frustrated and this meant me straying into his area at times, like with buying several props and asking shops if we could film there. I didn’t mind helping him out, although he didn’t ask for help or delegate any tasks to me. I kind of took it upon myself to raid charity shops. The fact that I managed to lay my hands on loads of the props were got by me isn’t so much a bad reflection on his part as this kind of shopping relies chiefly on chance and Adam spent a whole weekend looking for tortoise outfits/ cuddly toys in the name of his degree.

Adam also had a fair ammount of creative input into the production and is responsible for some of it’s finer moments. The comedy pause between the witch taking the hare’s hat and the beating is Adam’s idea. Also the line ‘I wonder if I’m going to have an unnesesarily surreal dream’ was thought up by him, although he’s probably forgotton that he did that. Then there is the timing again in the toffee crisp handing over....the gap before the word please and the heavy legs installment before he says ‘there’s another one’. The ending is contributed by him for the ‘nutters...fucking nutters’ bursts out laughing is off the cuff and quite funny. But Adams contribution in terms of voices, acting etc shouldn’t be underestimated. The film would be quite different without him and much worse as a result.

JD Baker

JD was a great man to have along the journey. I think he distenced himself from the more creative aspects of the piece as he appears to like my weird E-mails and poems and stuff and didn’t want to interfere with what he saw as my film. This meant he restricted himself to the role of strictly a camera operator, a void which he filled adequatly. Apart from the glaring blemish in the camera work that is a hoofing white balance problem on a couple of shots he was great.

Helen

The botched up sound on the final version of the product is nothing to do with Helen but arises from the confusing amount of nobs and switches on the mixer on the edit suite. Also having another generation of the product degraded the sound further as it had travelled through this system once more than nessesary. The naked sound was fine, we just managed to confuse and distort it in the rushed editing process.

It was wonderful to have Helen on board. It hs to be the first project where we’ve had no problems with sound or wonkey levels or that rather tedious twiddling of nobs in the edit suite to reduce buzz. I have complete faith in her sound wise, although there wasn’t that much diologue what was there was done pretty great.

Her role as sound was filled adequatly and her witch acting abilities are great.

Myself

At the start I was abismal. It seemed like I couldn’t even direct traffic. But if you were to draw a graph of

I am reasonably happy with myself as I have a strong feeling that this is my project. I know technically it would have been mine no matter, but it feels like mine. So, I suppose I live or die by the reaction to it (not literally). It’s more or less as I originally envisioned at the end of that long evening that followed the long day. Sure I made mistakes along the way, especially in the early stages when I first got dragged from the shadows and thrust in the limelight. It was all a bit ‘um...ah...don’t know’ at first as I wasn’t sure what really I was doing. It took after reading week for me to get into stride and be more decisive. I’m not a great one for thinking up ideas on the spot or when 7 people are waiting for me to talk, so it was essential to work out what I wanted on my own then impliment it later.

To me the key to sucess was planning as the day that wasn’t planned was the only one to fall through. Planning, not in the literal sense of it being produced etc. Just getting it straight in my own head beforehand, and if I didn’t then it would have been a disaster.

It was hard at times, being a hare and all. Being hit by witches etc. But I feel that this was the right kind of project for me. If I had to direct a more factual based straight programme then I might have felt suffercated or at least, it would have taken me longer to adapt and get into it. I’m pretty glad to have done something mildly ‘out there’. It’s partly because I see these as times of experimentation, testing the waters and feeling people’s reactions. It was great to do something that might not work, not that staring at failure is a pleasure. But I think it was more worthwhile and interesting than an average, stock, narrative driven straight affair. Not that it’s revolutionary or anything, just a bit mad. I had fun anyway.