We all know there are ups and downs of filmmaking, most of this is cleverly hidden behind a veneer of PR and marketing. Problems are covered up, smiles stuck on and all the time there are people at the back getting no sleep trying to find solutions to problems, they never knew could happen. It has always been our aim to show you the highs and lows of film making.

With this were letting you know were going towards a low. The edit is nearly locked and were about to start post-production, though we have cheap good quality solutions to this there is a financial cost. Our aim has always to have the film finished by May 2011 so we can have it at Cannes of that year. However due to unexpected delays we are running about two months behind schedule. Luckily the schedule was built with two month slack. Now we have used up all our slack and any delays jeopardise Casimir Effect. If we miss the May 2011 window we have to sit on the film for another year (we don’t want that to happen), as Cannes has to be our world premiere. I don’t want to delay the release as everyone who has helped and donated so far wants to see the film. Now we have a rough teaser out there you can see that things are moving forward and that you can reinvest your faith in the project.

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Now the rough edit of Casimir Effect is past the midpoint we’re looking further into the future, everything from music, to the special effects. We have a bunch more meetings before we really get dug in, but we have established our post production and marketing budget goals. We are looking to raise £12,000 to cover post production and marketing. However we have a bit more time to raise these funds. This new goal has been split into two, the first £6,000 needs to be raised by the 1st October 2010 and will be mostly used for post production, the last £6,000 by 1st February 2011 which will be used for the preparation for film festivals.

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Like reaching our other goals we will be auctioning off a number of items including more film props, costumes and set dressing, and all those donation that have gotten us this far. We are also putting together a selection of limited edition signed prints that will be put up for auction over the coming months. As always we will be adding more items to our store, including signed versions of our regular prints. I have a bag with some more Torchwood goodies to be signed, and a few of the audio books Gareth did.

We’re also thinking of making some costumes for cosplay if there is interest, CJS ID badges custom made with your picture and name on them. As always we’re open for new ideas and suggestions as to what you would like us to do and we will look into getting them.

Sound and Music

As mentioned before Blue Gillespie’s tracks Paradox and Time Knot are for the film. Once we have the rough edit we will be looking at getting the songs as stems (each instrument in its own track) so we can remix and rework the songs for the sound track. However before that we have ADR (Additional Dialogue Replacement) to get done, once we have the ADR sorted we can start looking at getting the first full trailer out. But before then we hope to get a second teaser out.

Once we have the ADR sorted, our sound guys Espen and Ewoud will be spending the summer collecting sound effect and building banks of sounds. To create everything that is important to the world of the film, everything from a sliding cup to the hums and crackles of the time machine. When they are off doing this we will be working on the music and reworking the songs we have to create all the character themes and incidental music, that will set the mood and tone for each sequence.

Special Effects

This is the hardest part of post production and will require a large team working many hours to get everything that is needed. Once we have a rough edit we will be going through each scene deciding what effects are needed and what we would like to do but hadn’t thought of. Then we need to prioritise them so we can create our workflow for the coming months. Also it will tell us which scenes we need to re-edit first and allow us to structure our path to the final edit.

Everything from Rotoscoping (cutting out actors from the background, and replacing markers), to rendering new elements for the time machine and the future. Everything takes time and we need to start the complex things now and leave the easy things till near the end. Of course these special effects are also where most of our post production budget will go.

Trailer

As mentioned above we will be working on a new teaser once we have a rough edit, this will give you a taster for what we have coming. Than after that and we have some of the sounds in and music ready we will do our first full trailer and look to doing a longer trailer later in the year with some of the completed effects.

Sex Wales and Anarchy 3

And finally we will be at Sex Wales and Anarchy 3 this year, hopefully we will have a few scenes close to completion for people to see. However we are also running the film side of SWA, called SWA Film, we’re turning this into a mini film festival, with a prize fund at the end of it. The details will be on the SWA3 site in the next few days and hopefully many of the filmmakers that are following us will submit something. We are still looking for our judges at the moment but we’re hoping we can get some interesting names to help out.

Anyway it proves to be an interesting day with lots of fun and creativity and some good local bands to boot.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CASIMIR EFFECT REACHES THEIR FIRST BUDGET GOAL

Using a unique funding model Casimir Productions is on schedule to reach their budget.

Casimir Effect is a lo-to-no budget film originally developed as a student film; it rapidly developed into something larger and more ambitious. Now Casimir Effect is being developed as a short feature for festival consideration. The aim of the producer and director is to develop high quality science fiction with minimal budget.

Casimir Productions had reached their first funding goal on schedule and they are set to hit their final target ahead of time. This is the first milestone in the development of Casimir Effect, and from here development will go ahead according to plan. With a planned budget of £10,000 GBP the producer is looking at potential investors to push the budget higher to give each department more flexibility and freedom to experiment and produce something stunning.

Instead of using a limited number of high profile investors Casimir Productions are using a model that relies on donations, eBay auctions and special events for supporters. Using unique ideas and the support of Gareth David-Lloyd’s and Neil Rayment’s fan base; Casimir Effect has established a core following of loyal supporters who are helping market and spread the word about the film and everyone involved.

Redeveloping this model during post-production Casimir Productions aims to get sponsorship through their planned festival circuit. With each festival being coordinated and supported by their developing community. Casimir Productions will have a number of promoters ready and eager to give Casimir Effect a strong presence wherever they go.

At this point Casimir Productions would like to thank all those who have helped out fund-raising and promoting the film. Though it’s impossible to list everyone and their individual contributions, they know who they are and should give themselves a pat on the back. With the New Year we will dig in and reach a larger audience and drive forward to our final funding goal.

Casimir Effect: Is a high concept and ambitions film developed as an independent low-to-no budget production. A story of unrequited love set on the backdrop of a temporal paradox. The film will be developed with the assistance of Skillset Screen Academy Wales.

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Press Release No.4 (102.88KB) Added: 02/01/2010 Downloads: 297 CASIMIR EFFECT REACHES THEIR FIRST BUDGET GOAL: Using a unique funding model Casimir Productions is on schedule to reach their budget.

Well now I have had time to recover from the Hub 3 and had a good night’s sleep in my own bed, I can gather my thoughts for the weekend and the tasks at hand. I’m still on the tail end of that throat infection I had at the Hub, not swine flu thankfully, but the coughing is a pain.

Anyway a good time was had by all evening if at times things were a bit none stop. My posts were vague because of the limited time I had in my hotel room and not getting much sleep. Most of the parties nights were good, everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves and even though I didn’t go to most of them the report I got back were good ones, plus the bleary eyes in the morning gave things away. The costumes were very impressive, I’m used the bigger US conventions and what I saw was some very well made costumes and props. I think there should be a costumer’s award presented and judged by the stars. The talks were fun, the buzz from the green room was that the old guard was training up the newbie’s and telling them what to expect. In many ways I wish I didn’t have the throat infection as it was a bit of a damp squib for me not feeling 100% so I couldn’t bounce around talking.

I have been negotiating with a cinematographer and the chap we wanted is very interested and we should be having a weekend together to go through the script and get contracts sorted. I’m also approaching a number of the other HoDs we have been after this week to get final confirmation off them. Were still on the case with locations and hope to have most of them confirmed before Christmas. Then the big parts over and done with and we’re into a stage of procurement for the film.

We have a number of eBay auctions going up over the next months to go into the funding pot, I have some cash coming to me I’m going to pop in there to. Also I have news from the US, one of my friends that has been looking for funding over that end has ask me for in depth marketing and financial info as he has a number of business contact that might be interested in sponsoring us. We also have the donate buttons at the bottom of each post, for any of you who aren’t the hording type or have some money spare any donations welcome.

Well that’s it for now.

Were not dead yet, though it might seem that way, we have been busy this month, We have cast our final main character, though we cannot announce who it is yet it’s a good one and I’m sure some of you out there will squee a bit over the casting. Hopefully in a few weeks time we can announce this.

We have started looking at locations now, there are a number of places we would like to use and a number of places we can use. The problem is the ones we can use are not much use unless we spend a lot of money on them, so we will dig in at the ones we want until we get a price we want and hopefully that price is free. Well let s look at it this way to build the sets would be a minimum of £8,000 and that’s most of our budget, so getting locations even at low cost is worth it.

We are on our way to reaching the Christmas goal of £5,000 raised. At the moment the post stands at around £380, it will go up to around £500 after this round of auction, and the next auctions will have sorter lengths so we can get the pot filling faster. We also have a number of other angle to get our budget, Mostly it means going through the flat finding what we don’t use/need and selling it. So a few odd things may appear in the auctions, but everything will still go to the film. We will also be opening our donation/sponsorship system you can support us with donations.

The main reason for being quiet here is we have been working on the website, version one should be going live on the 24th October. We won’t close down the social networking sites, however all main news updates will be on the new website, and we will post links to the social media sites. This is basically to save time, then we don’t have to post as much, in most cases we can set up an RSS feed. We will however encourage those following us to post comments and be an active part of the new site.

We will be at the Hub 3 in Birmingham this weekend so if you are there track us down and say hi.