It may be sunny outside but it’s a grim day on the balance sheets. Looking at what we have to achieve and how we are going to get things done on time and to the highest quality, sadly it all boils down to money. Even though we can do a lot with a small amount of cash, we still need the small amount of cash.

So looking at the bank accounts and the current rate of input, we need to get a swift cash injection over the next few weeks, so we can keep on schedule.

I don’t like posting about negative things but as were being open about how were making Casimir Effect I know one day this blog post would come. It was inevitable that we would need a swift cash injection at a number of points during this process and so far we have managed to get there by the skin of our teeth. So once again we are in a situation here, where things need to happen in the early stages of post production so we can get the film finished on time. However as always these are where the costs are. Such as ADR suite hire, software needed do all the SFX and post work, even software upgrades to keep the editing system up to the current standards so we can deliver the right files to the various people during this process.

We will also be removing the Dr. Bob Apparel design on the 31st of May 2010. If you want one of these now is your chance to put an order in. The printers have finally caught up and we collected all outstanding stock today and will post that out in the week. However after the 31st we will remove the Dr. Bob design and will be printing no more, so we will only have the items in our stock box.

The Crunch

We need cash, anything you can offer or do to help us is welcome, even if it’s only the spare change in a jar every pennies helps and we will be grateful for it, if we could get 100 people donating £10 then that would be a big step in the right direction. We have also compiled a list of other funding options:

• Donations: see the buttons at the bottom of this page, any donations from now on will get your name in the credits.
• Bid on something on our eBay page, everything that we have left over from the film must go and all items used will come with a certificate of authenticity.
• Buy items from our store. We have a lot of apparel, loads of prints; some signed, some unsigned, badges, keyrings and our main theme song.
• Fundraising around your social networks and groups, you can even tell them they will be helping independent British/European cinema.
• If you have anything knocking around taking up space that you think you might want to donate to us so we can sell it we don’t mind doing all the hard work for you. In the past this has worked well with signed posters, scripts and photos.
• Just generally be loud about the film, tell people why it’s important and that they can have their name in the credits if they help out. The more visitors and people knowing about Casimir Effect the more chance we will get people who want to help out.

It’s been a busy week on the farm, in the office. The schedule is close to perfect, were still tweaking it, our First AD looks at me funny when I say we need to move things around. Had a few more revisions to the script moving characters from the background of scenes to make the actors day a lot smoother.

Our insurance is just about sorted now I’m waiting for paper work so I can sign it and pay, however the chap at the brokers is on holiday this week. We have final arrangements to make for our locations mostly risk assessments, recces and get in / out times.

A lot of this week was getting a few more crew on board, trying to find catering and somewhere for our out of town crew to stay. So if you’re in Cardiff and have a big house and lots of space we would love to keep it warm for you. Also if you have a van and don’t mind driving we will also love you.

The wish list is closing down this weekend, were buying the remainder of the items so if you’re lucky you may get a chance to help out with it. And our final set visit is up, I know a few people have been hovering over it but who will win?

I still have a list the length of my arm to go through, before I hand over to the production team. Once this is all done I’ll be able to focus in directing with Lydia. However I don’t want to hand them a heap of problems, so I still have a few ends to tie up.

The two week countdown goodies will be posted on the site soon. These include our previous film ‘Mr. Abershaw’s Happening Day,’ and the third wallpaper.

I’ll try to post a bit more often in the next few weeks, to keep you up to speed, but mostly it’s finding a few minutes to sit down and type up my thoughts.

Also

Don’t forget to get your copy of the theme song.

[mp3player width=300 height=20 config=fmp_jw_widget_config.xml playlist=soundtrack.xml]

Universal Blackness (S. J. Tucker) – 4:26 (D/L) £1.00 Music by S. J. Tucker Lyrics by Nina Barnfather and S. J. Tucker Format: MP3 320kb/s, DRM free Universal Blackness is the theme song for Casimir Effect, this is the first song finished as part of the soundtrack. It is a wonderfully evocative and timeless track with plays with the themes and ideas of Casimir Effect core story. If you like this song we highly recommend you visit S. J. Tucker’s site an grab one of her albums, you won’t be disappointed. Also if she is gigging in your area go see her have a natter and buy her a drink. This track is DRM free as we know you understand all money goes into the making and marketing of Casimir Effect and anything beyond that will go to the cast and crew. (You should be redirected to a download link on completion of the purchase if not contact us via e-mail casimirfilm [at] googlemail [dot] com)

It’s here.

We have been working on this for a while now, and I have been listening to it solidly and still love it. Thanks to S. J. Tucker (http://www.skinnywhitechick.com/). It has exactly what we wanted for our theme song, not flashy yet understated and poignant. I could spend hour gibbering on about the song when really all you need to do is listen to the snippet we have below and we have the high quality digital download for sale for the massive sum of £1, all money goes into the film production and marketing. We will look into a physical CD copies if there is demand or them or for conventions and festivals.

Also tell your friend about the song and the film, post comments here.

[mp3player width=300 height=20 config=fmp_jw_widget_config.xml playlist=soundtrack.xml]

Universal Blackness (S. J. Tucker) – 4:26 (D/L) £1.00 Music by S. J. Tucker Lyrics by Nina Barnfather and S. J. Tucker Format: MP3 320kb/s, DRM free Universal Blackness is the theme song for Casimir Effect, this is the first song finished as part of the soundtrack. It is a wonderfully evocative and timeless track with plays with the themes and ideas of Casimir Effect core story. If you like this song we highly recommend you visit S. J. Tucker’s site an grab one of her albums, you won’t be disappointed. Also if she is gigging in your area go see her have a natter and buy her a drink. This track is DRM free as we know you understand all money goes into the making and marketing of Casimir Effect and anything beyond that will go to the cast and crew. (You should be redirected to a download link on completion of the purchase if not contact us via e-mail casimirfilm [at] googlemail [dot] com)

As the title states we started Monday morning with nothing booked in this week which means we haven’t stopped since then. First order of the week was get our First Assistant Director sorted, then locations, then insurance. Things mostly went to plan.

Firstly

Monday marks three weeks to go before filming and it’s all systems go. I’ll be getting the last bits of everything sorted this week. However each week we will add a new desktop wallpaper, and we will try to offer something special each week to, if we can think of something. Read on for next weeks offerings.

The First AD

Well we contacted a few people over the last few months, and most of them had other things they were doing, it’s a shame as they were all good people who would have been perfect for the role. Then we remembered Lucy a recent producing graduate who is a good people person on set and she gets the job done, which is the most important thing for a First AD. Anyway she is going to run through the schedule and double check everything we have sorted, it looks good so far so the changes won’t be big. So I’ll be sending out mails to all the Set Visit winners confirming their days and times, so expect something soon.

Locations

We have running negotiations with most of our locations now, our main one is confident they will be able to come in under our location budget giving us something to play with for the other locations were still locking down. The guy we spoke to at the Coal Exchange is an ex-actor and worked in the creative industry struggling to get things going so he knows exactly where we are coming from and is confident everything will be good.

The Senedd is also fairly sure what we want to do will be possible. This is good news we should have this sorted out by the end of next week. The people we spoke to cannot foresee a problem in final approval but still need a few fingers crossed.

Insurance

Spoke to several insurance companies now waiting for them to get quotes back to me. This should be reasonable as were a low budget production we estimated about £1,000 for insurance, and it looks like it will be just over half that. So the remaining money will be shunted to art, food for the cast & crew and the wrap party.

Lighting / Gaffer

The chap we were in negotiations with dropped a bombshell on us this week and he wanted far more than we could afford. If we had the cash that wouldn’t be a problem, but as it stands we don’t. So were looking at another chap tomorrow, well not looking at him, meeting with him and sharing our interest in good ale. So now were going Guerrilla on the lighting using practical’s and what lights we can buy, borrow and hire.

Art Department

They’re coming along nicely; we are going around the prop houses in the coming week and making bookings for what we need. The other good news is the Art Department is coming together with enough assistants and people onboard now. The props maker is happy to cannibalise his workshop and most of the building if he can get away with it, he says we will only have to buy the paint. BARGAIN!

Costume

We have most of the mock-ups now, and things are looking good. We had a fitting for Cromwell Jackson suit and it looks fantastic. I might be able to get a sneak peak at a part of it, I don’t want to give it all away, we had a bonus here as Neil has a nice pair of Italian handmade shoes that work so well with the suit. Also when the film is out there look at the shoes and watches, Zoe spent a lot of time on those.

Music

Well I have the final version of the theme song, and have spent most of the time I can listening to it. It’s good, catchy and has a timeless quality to it. I’ll spend a few more days listening to it, so far it hasn’t annoyed me even though I have had it on repeat, this is a good thing. A good rule of thumb for key themes, is they have to be catchy, timeless and not annoying. This hits all of those perfectly, so thanks to Nina Barnfather and S. J. Tucker for their hard work if it wasn’t for them we wouldn’t have such a fantastic song. If by Monday were still humming it and loving it we will get it on the store.

Festivals and Conventions

We’re planning a lot of them, and will get details up and ways people can help out, from flyering, crash space and helping out at the festivals. Berlin film festival is happening at the moment and if everything goes to plan, as most of it has done we will be in Berlin 2 years from now as the last Festival on our circuit. We’re aiming for this year to do Wales Comic-Con, Fed Con and will have a presence at Supernova, so keep your eyes peeled.

Well it feels like the end of an era and we’re going into a new age. The script has been locked, and now the focus is on production rather than the script. We have most of our actors for the key roles, except our female lead who we will look to audition in a few weeks. I won’t give out all the names of the actors just yet, as there might be some shuffling in the next week or so, but the people we have we are happy with. The only name I can post is Gareth David-Lloyd (Torchwood’s Ianto) who will be playing our male lead, Dr. Robert Cameron.

After the workshop sessions this weeks, we are all confident this will be an engaging story. Most of the tough scenes have been worked out and the changes were mostly action based, to give the scenes more impact. We have some footage from this workshop and I hope to get it edited into a video diary in the next week or so, then you can see some of the work.  Gareth has also come on board and an Executive Producer, to help us find funding, crew and for other elements of publicity.

We have a number of exclusive items we will be auctioning off, so watch this space. Some of these include limited print illustrations from Comic-Con 2009, these feature Ianto and Captain Jack, they are signed by Gareth and John Barrowman, as well as the artist. We will also have ‘Torchwood: Children of Earth’ Blu-Ray signed by all the cast and crew we can find in the next few months. This will probably be one of a few discs to have a full set of signatures, so come back often. We have a number of other ideas, including a day on the set, photo shoot with Gareth, lunch with Gareth, exclusive Blue Gillespie and S.J. Tucker songs, and limited edition prints to be given away at the fund raiser and one exclusive print only available online. After the fund raiser is over all remaining unsold or claimed prints will be destroyed to keep these items in the collector’s arena, and something special for those who are willing to support us.

Back to reality, we have the script to take to pieces, we have started it and need to get it finished in the next week or so, then we can send lists to each department of what is needed for props, CGI, costume and Set dressing. This is where Philum Scheduling comes into its own as it enable me to keep track of what status every item is in. Rather than hoping and praying everything is ready, I’ll know what isn’t and what to give priority to. I hope I get the chance to finish the software by Christmas so we can get the schedule fully planned.

We should have our own piece of the web up soon, where much of this will be transferred to, we will keep these site up-to-date, but our site will have a lot more content to offer. We will also have a sponsorship section, which will have all of our auctions, and items for sale.

Anyway time to get back to the script breakdown and my cuppa tea.