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.
Here is the Music Player. You need to installl flash player to show this cool thing!
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’s been another hectic week in the Casimir Effect production hole, and this week is shaping up to be nonstop. I have insurance to get sorted, eBay auctions and locations and crew to start finalising.
Cromwell Jackson suit has arrived, the much awaited Valentino Milan suit, all I can say it it’s very nice all of the costume department were there to open it and see. It was like a birthday. All I can say is Cromwell Jackson will look damn good, and hopefully in the next week or so we will have some pictures of Neil in costume.
The meeting with the Cinematographer went well we got through most of the script and rough out some shots and scenes. Visited some of the locations again and got some more shots of Mir Steel and the Coal Exchange.
It’s all coming together now, we have our schedule it’s still a work in progress but we have a week to get everything firmed up more before I let it loose for the crew to tear to bits. Most of it is location dependant, followed by makeup needs. Because we don’t have a massive budget we need to priorities the schedule to low cost and minimise lighting setups, so we may have to suffer some grumpy crew one day to shave an hour off filming, I’m sure they won’t mind as they can get to bed earlier (I’ll provide good ketchup for them).
The Senedd in Cardiff might be Cromwell Jackson office, if we can arrange it for the day we need. However as it is a public place we will need to ensure people are safe and we don’t cause a hindrance.
The Save Ianto Jones community has raised £435 in the Valentines campaign, we would like to thank them for their help and anyone who has donated. This money will help greatly in reaching our goals. It looking like we will hit our budget, however it would be fantastic if we went over it as this would make our lives a bit easier during filming.
Interviews
We have two interviews we are working on at the moment, these should be out soon and I will let everyone know which magazines and journals we are in. It’s good to see that there is some international and industry based interest in what we are doing and as We always say were open for any interviews or questions.
After Filming
It’s been pretty much decided we have 2 months post filming to sell off all the props, costumes and set dressing we can, these will come with a certificate of authenticity. This should cover expenses and any outstanding invoices, and start out marketing and festivals fund. So get ready for April and pick up a costume, prop or set piece.
Any wish list items bought for the film will be posted back to the buyer with a certificate of authenticity, unless the buyer wants us to auction off the items for the festivals fund. So if there is anything on the wishlist you want and don’t mind us using it a great chance to support the film.
Our 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.
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.
After a rather short meeting with our university we came to the conclusion that our aims and ambitions are far greater than theirs. We mutually agreed to take a year out to develop and make Casimir Effect, then come back next year to finish the degree as this would save a lot of headaches in the long run, and open up a lot more doors for us.
Now we are an indie production company, we will retain 100% of the rights to Casimir Effect. We can also apply to official film agencies and government bodies for additional funding. Our main aim is to get matched funding, so we need to make sure we hit or come very close to our fundraising goal, if we can do this we should be able to apply to get the same again from the film agency. This would double our budget from £10k to £20k and the more we get the more they will give us. We will be asking a number of industry bodies for funding, to add to our initial funding plus any donations and money raised through auctions. So essentially for every £1 you donate we will get £2. So keep an eye on our targets and current funding, then when it comes close to deadline if we need it we hope you can help out. Keeping to our targets is more important than getting a rush of funding at the end.
We also now have full control of the film, and our aim to turn Casimir Effect into a TV series becomes more plausible as we won’t need to fight to get the rights back from the university. So we can start looking into each characters storyline for an eight part television series.
The loss of support from the university is no real problem for us as we have a number of industry professionals, the equipment will still be accessible through Skillset and many of our HoDs have their own kit. The university won’t cover equipment for 3rd parties, so we would have to get our own insurance anyway. Were meeting with our sound guy this Sunday and getting wardrobe sorted in the next few days. It’s all go from now on.
The current batch of eBay auctions are doing well, there will probably be some bidding wars towards their end time.
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…
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…
Well it’s been another hectic week in the Casimir Effect production hole, and this week is shaping up to be nonstop. I have insurance to get sorted, eBay auctions and locations and crew to start finalising.
Cromwell Jackson suit has arrived, the much awaited Valentino Milan suit, all I can say it it’s very nice all of the costume department were there to open it and see. It was like a birthday. All I can say is Cromwell Jackson will look damn good, and hopefully in the next week or so we will have some pictures of Neil in costume.
The meeting…
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…
After a rather short meeting with our university we came to the conclusion that our aims and ambitions are far greater than theirs. We mutually agreed to take a year out to develop and make Casimir Effect, then come back next year to finish the degree as this would save a lot of headaches in the long run, and open up a lot more doors for us.
Now we are an indie production company, we will retain 100% of the rights to Casimir Effect. We can also apply to official film agencies and government bodies for additional funding. Our main aim…
