Tom Jolliffe on the trials and tribulations of making a film…
The film, the team and the lowdown:
Aside from my time offering my sage (stop laughing) film criticism for Flickering Myth, I have an ambition to become a screenwriter, so that another member of the team here can offer sage criticism on a film I’ve written at some point in the future. Over the years I’ve come within sniffing distance of scripts being picked up. It normally works out the same, and is undoubtedly a common factor in most UK film production, which is that when it comes time to get to the money part, suddenly everything screeches to a halt. There’s a chain from the top down. Sometimes there’s no money in the first place, just a hope of gaining investment. Sometimes there’s investment, which never ends up showing for whatever reason. I’ve willingly allowed screenplays to be put into production, but in the cold light of day, realism and the hitting home of the time and effort required to make a film, these never happened.
Currently I’m in negotiation again to sell another screenplay, a feature film. I’m as close as I’ve ever been but I won’t believe I can get any money out of the situation until it is physical leaving my pocket at a Casino (I jest… perhaps). So with that in mind the most logical step in getting my work out there is to produce it myself. Knowing a director is useful in this situation. More so is the fact that the director is someone I trust. We’ve long discussed doing a project together and now it is coming into fruition. The man in the chair with the megaphone is Alex Lawton. He’s just completed a pet project, two years in the making. The garage documentary, Rewind 4Ever: A History of UK Garage. We featured a review of this on the site and it’s currently available on I-Tunes, blinkbox and more.
So our film? It’s a short film. It’s a drama with a dash of comedy, and something that people will (hopefully) be able to relate to. There’s a dash of romance without ramming it in your face. Brief plot summary:
“Daniel has worked in sales for almost ten years. He’s driven by money, but he has a sense of emptiness. His main rival is Anna, similarly driven and the pair have a mutual dislike for each other. Both find themselves vying for the same high profile client, and tensions between them reach a new high. In a bizarre turn of events both find themselves trapped together on the roof. Forced into such proximity by fate the pair must work together, and they find an unexpected common ground.”
The ultimate goal is to show the film off in as many festivals as possible and to have useful addition to our respective CVs.
Pre-production:
It’s early August. We’ve been planning since early June. I wrote the script in a week. The idea was to have the script done by June, then everything else sorted throughout July, ready to shoot on bank holiday weekend in August. July went by in a flash, and we now find ourselves coming up to the last two weeks of prep. We’ve been pretty ambitious with this project from day one. Our intent, on as little a budget as possible, was to get together as many well-known actors in our cast as possible. We’ve fired off emails, rang agencies and put out casting calls. We’ve seen our giant actor catching net make its way through the Dales, Albert Square, Ramsay Street, Red Dwarf and even the So Solid Crew.
One thing I’ve encountered in the film business so far, at all levels, all too often is a lack of humility. Not as much on this project but just in general. People are above responding to their emails, even if it’s to continue a line of conversation that they started. I’ve had people ask me for scripts and then go dead the other end. No response at all. I’m delighted they’ve had a film appear in a bargain bin at Asda, but does that make them beyond common courtesy? This worried me going into this film. As we expected getting responses is hard. Even getting a “no” is appreciated, and it only takes a few seconds to send a “no.” We’re also dealing mostly with agents or managers. It’s their job to suffer all the emails that are meant for their stars (in some cases there are not going to be masses of emails bursting their inbox). For them in some cases not to respond strikes me as a bit arrogant and lazy, particularly as the deal we’re offering virtually means they’re not going to get a percentage. In many cases we’d guess that the actors approached were none the wiser of our offer as it probably didn’t get past the middle man. We can fully understand why people wouldn’t want to do the film, but all the same, we’d appreciate some clarification so we can cross them off our list. By the same token some folk keep a bit of humility even despite being very busy. In one case a well-known stunt-man/director (from a famous stunt family) has always answered a message if I’ve contacted him (though I don’t bombard the fella), and another a Brightonian filmmaker who’s always offered some advice if I’ve asked for it.
In terms of cast we wanted everything tied up by about the 12th. Much like the football transfer window we’re coming to the shutting point hoping for a flurry of activity. We missed out on a Red Dwarfer, a Spook, and sadly a good leading lady formerly of Eastenders who could have done it had we been shooting late September instead. Attached we currently have a former member of Neighbours (I will confirm the cast in the next blog). Also attached is my brother, Oliver Jolliffe, an up and coming actor who I can trust to perform the given role with aplomb. At the moment our leading lady rests on getting our first choice leading man. Get him, and we’ve got the leading lady on board. Now is the time for crossed fingers.
We’ve got locations half sorted with the major sticking point being an accessible roof to film on. We have a good director of photography attached and plenty of willing extras ready to rumble.
My next film blog update will be a couple of days before shooting commences. They will be the last, nervy moments, as pre-production blossoms into production. What I can see from these first tastes of film production is the great deal of uncertainty that remains right up until the cameras roll (and beyond).
Tom Jolliffe
Originally published August 13, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
