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)

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.