Archive for the ‘Pre Production’ Category

Storyboards

Yesterday was blur, I got up and had a plan of action, most of which never happened, so I did the accounts instead. We have hit over £7.500 of our £10,000 goal if everything keeps going the way it is we should hit our target on time and have a bit extra on top to give it a bit of a shine.

Today we started out Treforest, at the crack of dawn then go home for a cuppa, then out again to pick up our Cinematographer in Cardiff, then headed to Chapter to go through the look, feel and how we’re going to do each scene. Were 10 pages into a basic shot breakdown, we should get that finished tonight, tomorrow were out at the locations again to get a feel of the areas and how they will work from shot to shot.

We have some rough storyboards now, and hopefully over the next week we can get them finalised, along with the locations and insurance.

Well time to chill for an hour then back out for more meetings.

Masterclasses and Storage

It’s been a busy day, not to stressful. Mostly going back and forth getting things arranged and moved. Most of today was taken up with arranging and signing for a storage area. Now we have one it’s all coming together. It’s going to cost us £90 a month compared to some places wanting to charge over £800 a month. At least when the wish list stuff starts to arrive we have somewhere to store it.

I got exited today I thought another major costume had arrived, but when I picked it up it was the acceptance letters from Algonquin College in Ottawa. Well at least we have our Screenwriting post-grad places secured, we may have to defer entrance for a year.

Our costume department is just about solidified now, and our art department is growing we have about 20 student from the Atrium, who are willing to do anything to help out. And we have a few professionals that want to come on board to help out where they can.

We have been offer a slot to talk about the film in a Masterclass about using old buildings and new ways of film funding. This will be held a week after filming in Cardiff’s Coal Exchange (our main location), they want us to keep some of our sets up so they can look around them. The main gist of the Masterclass, is the re-purposing of old and derelict buildings, and how we have used crowd funding and the way in which everyone has come together to help make Casimir Effect.

We have done a stock take so hopefully by the end of today we will have everything up on the site this means we will have a lot stuff we can get out to people fast.

Also we have pretty much decided that in the next few weeks each department will have an account on the site so they can update and post out what they are up to. Also they will be able to tweet stuff for you to. As were hoping you will keep following closely as we build up to filming and keep track of each days set reports.

Wishlist

We have also created an Amazon Wishlist, for anyone who wants to get us some props or other things. However it seems to not work for market place items, so if there is something and it won’t ship to Casimir Productions. Feel free to paypal us the money with instruction of what you want to buy for Casimir Effect.

Anything bought direct for the film will be offered to whoever has purchased it for us, once we have done with it, or auctioned on request. We will create certificates of authenticity for each item.

The Collective…. Update

Well it’s been a few weeks since our last update, and a busy few weeks it’s been, I haven’t had time to do anything much. This weekend was the first time I had a few evenings off. So I’ll put a lot of things in this post to get you back up to speed with where we are at the moment.

The Clobber

Our costume department is and running, we should have photos soon of the costumes as we get them done we get our publicity shots for each character. I have added them to the gallery for costumes. The Major’s uniform is now complete and I’m heading out tomorrow to collect Cromwell Jackson’s costume. As these will probably be the first to be complete expect them to be some of the first shots on the site.

Art Department

Our art department is coming together we have found just about everyone we need locally, and will be working with the University of Glamorgan’s Production Design course offering some of the students a chance to get there first professional credit.

We have also started to put our props together and building and painting many of the smaller items. I’ll get some pictures together in the coming week so you can see what we have been up to, also thanks to those who have bought some items for us. Anything that is bought for us will be sent back to the buyer after the film with a certificate of authenticity, or auctioned off if requested to raise funds for marketing.

Locations

We have our bay location sorted and signed up, also the steel works is all signed up so that’s 2 down. We are currently looking at Cardiff Coal Exchange as our major location, were now to the point where we need to get a price sorted and book it with them. They seem quite happy to have us go wild and get what we want, so hopefully they can be good for a price, as we will hold our marketing fundraiser there with a special preview of some of the scenes. I’m going to have a word with them about costs for getting local bands in to see if I can get a discount.

There are a few photos of the Coal Exchange and Atrium in the gallery, were still working with the Atrium but as were using most of their students as our art department we should get a good deal.

Fundraising

Everything is going well on the fund raising angle at the moment; I haven’t had time to do the accounts, so the total is a little out of date. A rough estimate we expect we’re well on our way to £8000. I’ll get to the accounts on Monday and update the fundraising section.

Also the #barrowpants campaign is going well. Yes these are John Barrowman’s boxershorts, yes really, the one he wore for his number on Children in Need. The original winner has kindly donated them to help raise funds. They are on eBay now and ready for your bidding.

combie

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150410878244

We have also created an Amazon Wishlist, for anyone who wants to get us some props or other things. However it seems to not work for market place items, so if there is something and it won’t ship to Casimir Productions. Feel free to paypal us the money with instruction of what you want to buy for Casimir Effect.

Anything bought direct for the film will be offered to whoever has purchased it for us, once we have done with it, or auctioned on request. We will create certificates of authenticity for each item.

We have the support of Torchwood Australia who are doing a but around there group to help out, we thank you for your help and hope to make it over there one day fr a film festival. And Save Ianto Jones have put one of there fundrasing planing into full swing, for the few weeks over Valentines Day. It good to see that Gareth’s fanbase is coming together and and showing there support. It’s going to be a fun an exciting ride over the next few months and we hope that we can give something back to those who are supporting us. With set photo’s regular blog updates during filming and post-production.

SFX Weekender

What we got up to this weekend, well…

We met many new faces and found we had sent them stuff, it’s nice to put a face to a name. Thanks to all those that came over to our chalet and wasted much of the night chatting about life the universe and everything; big hugs to you all. We spent most of our time at in the signing area selling our wares and handing out flyers and generally saying hi a lot.

Well we arrived Friday evening with the #barrowpants, and had a few people coming knocking just to see them. I think it was around midnight we heard Sarah, Tess, Giorgia, and someone whose name escapes me (comment here so I can make a mental note) and dragged them in. I think we had Carol-Anne and Fee turn up at one point and a number of other people who came to say hi and have their photo taken with the #barrowpants.

The next day was not so much hectic, but we wish we had a bit more of an idea of the structure of the day. Sitting behind a table selling is harder than you think. We did well though and the remaining stock will be added to the website in the next few days along with a new print of Dr. Bob from Eloise Moffat. I overheard a lot of Cosplay people talking about Dr. Bob’s outfit, Well hopefully we will be getting the Dr. Bob publicity shots up soon. If anyone wants outfit tips we can do a breakdown of each costume and where we got each part from and what was created for the film. It would be good to see a lot of Casimir Effect Cosplay at future events.

The awards were interesting and fun, Robert Rankin made it and the random Tennant Cosplayer made the show. After that it was back to the chalet, were we had more people come over for a natter and a few drinks. Nicki, Fee, Carol-Anne and a few others turned up to escape the music of Pat Sharpe, and Neil Buchannan.

The weekend had its problems but they were all managed well and for the first event it went very well and I hope next year is better. At the moment were hoping to be there next year, with a few exclusive clips from the film, lots of Merch, costumes and props. Hey if they want us to do a talk about how we did it then were up for it. So start poking SFX to get us up there on the stage, this also might mean we can get the cast there if they have no work commitments. If we can get something off the ground, we will sponsor an outside party, something low key no loud music, a row of BBQs, marquee and heaters and hopefully a good time for anyone who wants to have the Saturday night chilling and chatting about sci-fi. So let’s start looking at putting together an outside BBQ event and chill out zone. Either way we plan on having a massive chalet party in one of the areas.

Anyway it was a good weekend and we wish we had more time to drink, sleep and party.

Impersonation and the Owning of a Soul

They say imitation is the ultimate form of flattery, though this may be the case we have has our first impersonator who I can only presume is trying to scam anyone who wishes to help the film. I won’t link to the scam account but I will say it is on twitter and it would be advisable to check who is following you and who you are following the only twitter accounts we use are @casimirfilm @gstrange42 @lydiainsane. If anyone is claiming to be Casimir Productions or Casimir Effect that isn’t using one of those twitter accounts please email us and we can file a formal complaint to have the account suspended and removed.

I have listed all out our current web pages, social media links and other links that we use so if in doubt you can verify that any link someone is sending you is valid and is part of Casimir Productions.

http://www.casimireffectfilm.com/

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=86128524900

http://www.youtube.com/casimirfilm

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/casimirfilm/m.html

http://www.bebo.com/Casimirfilm

http://www.myspace.com/casimirfilm

E-mail

At the moment we only have two e-mails address we use for main mail outs and contact. If you are in doubt about the authenticity of an e-mail don’t reply create a new e-mail using one of the following addresses. The first e-mail address is the only valid one for paypal and all donations unless people set up a fundraiser, then we will post such an event on here so you can be sure that they aren’t scamming you.

casimirfilm (at) googlemail (dot) com

g (dot) strange42 (at) googlemail (dot) com

Locations

We have been out an about in the last few days trying to secure a location for the opening scenes of the film. Mir Steelworks in Newport is more than likely going to be the one. It’s stunning and epic in scale and has everything we could possibly want at the right price. Being an abandoned factory gives the production flexibility to do more and create the visuals we want. Our Production designer has given me the deed to his soul after finding this location, I get the feeling he likes it.

[Gallery not found]

Marketing

We have put together a new flyer/handout for people to use, this has more information about the production and how the film is being put together. This is a double sided full sheet flyer designed to be folded in half. It will compliment the flyers and can be used at conventions and festivals for anyone who wants to know more.

Casimir Effect Simple leaflet US Letter (253.20KB)

Added: 07/01/2010
Downloads: 259
A small easy to print leaflet that can be used to spread the word about Casimir Effect, it contains some basic info to entice the reader to visit the site and find out more.
http://www.casimireffectfilm.com/wp-content/plugins/downloads-manager/img/icons/pdf.gif

Casimir Effect Simple leaflet A4 (253.48KB)

Added: 07/01/2010
Downloads: 286
A small easy to print leaflet that can be used to spread the word about Casimir Effect, it contains some basic info to entice the reader to visit the site and find out more.
http://www.casimireffectfilm.com/wp-content/plugins/downloads-manager/img/icons/pdf.gif

Great Publicity not Enough Time

It great to see the support for Casimir Effect growing and it would be lovely to get involved with every group and community that wanted to help out. However time is precious and it something we need to use carefully so we need a more general approach.

As there are so many different people and groups that want to help out, it has been decided that to co-ordinate everything is impossible at this stage. So we will be listening out for suggestions and ideas of what we can put on the site for people and groups to help in their own way. Then when we have time we can put something together for people to download with flyers and info sheets.

This means we cannot work directly with groups such as the unofficial Torchwood forums and Save Ianto Jones but welcome any support. We can try to compile information on this website for everyone use in the creation of micro-sites and giving the film a presence beyond these pages. We have to think practically and use our time responsibly to get the best film we can for everyone to enjoy.

We would like to thank everyone who has helped and supported us so far and we look forward to your continued support in the future. We will try to keep up with ideas and way you can offer your support. Keep up the good work.

Locations

We have been out and about looking at potential locations this time the Wales Millennium Centre. It’s a fantastic location that needs more consideration; its definitely high up on our list.

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Casimir Effect is a science fiction romance lo-no budget independently made film. Starring Zöe Mills, Gareth David Lloyd (Torchwood) and Neil Rayment (Matrix Reloaded). It was shot in Wales, UK in March 2010 and is now in post-production.

We are still looking for support to complete post-production and would like to thank all the cast, crew and generous people who have helped and supported Casimir Effect so far.