After first meeting each other via Google hangouts as cohorts on the Film MA at Raindance; Verti and I first worked together on Henri in November 2014. Despite having only been doing the masters for 3 weeks and my living in the UK, and Vertti living in Finland - we managed to put together a 7 minute film that was deemed the best of the 13 shorts submitted in the 2014 Raindance MA 48 Hour Film Challenge. The judges were Philip Ilson, founder of the London Short Film Festival, Film Festival Doctor Rebecca Louisa Smith; and Raindance's own Elliot Grove - as the competition standard was extremely high we were super excited and chuffed to've come first!
I don't think there was any actual point where we decided on setting up our own micro-budget film production company - but I think we both just really enjoyed the process of creating a film together and were happy and felt excited about wanting to do it again. My background coming into the post-graduate programme was to write my own feature film; and Vertti's was to direct - we both had academic undergraduate degrees; and our sensibilities when it came to film - being very influenced by micro-budget, artistic filmmakers like Lynn Shelton, Jim Jarmuch, the Duplass brothers and Sophia Coppola were defiantely in sync, so I feel we're very fortunate to've met and to have this opportunity to work together.
We discussed creating a blog/website early on to document our journey as filmmakers - however we somehow got bogged down overthinking templates and our logo so it was only very recently Vertti just decided to put something together and now we're running with it. The template cost €5 and Vertti's girlfriend Pauliina designed our logo (which is awesome). The logic was it would be better to have a site and start creating an online presence, than spend any more time and money debating the perfect looking blog (but one that was lacking in content). I think it's a good outlook - on pretty much everything - to have going forward.
In the 10 days since we 'launched' the blog we have been busy setting up our social media profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Vimeo (come follow us!).
We also managed to fit in a Skype meeting which covered The Hiker - the short horror film we're filming in 2 weeks, The Date - a Raindance 16-Second Valentine's Day Film Competition we're entering this month, and Francis - a short prequel to the feature film I'm writing as part of my MA.
I also spent some time over the past two weekends location scouting for The Hiker. Vertti is in the UK attending a Hands on Directing for Film course so we decided to use his time in England to extend his stay and shoot this short over two days. Because we're limited on time and resources we are filming locally, so I sourced the two biggest forest locations within a 30 minute radius and visited/photographed them over the past two weekends. Firstly I went to Kings Wood - an ancient woodland site; and then I took a trip to Lyminge Forest - one of the largest areas of woodland in Kent. Both were stunning and creepy in equal measure, but having visited them both, Vertti and I decided that Kings Wood would ultimately be better for filming our short in as it's less dense than Lyminge and therefore he'll have more natural light to film in - which is essential given the time constraints of filming.
As micro-budget filmmakers I have written The Hiker and will also be acting in it to save costs alongside my dear friend Natalie and my father Paul. Honestly, the prospect of doing this terrifies me but I know it will be an incredibly beneficial process as I aim to hand over responsibility to Vertti to guide the making of the film and I hope it will also inform my writing and I will learn how my text is translated off the page. It is also hyper cost-effective. Our crew will be formed of my husband Tim and close friend Alex, with my family on hand in case it rains; and we are hoping to have two undergraduates from Staffordshire University (who Raindance is partnered with) join us to provide camera/sound equipment in exchange for work experience and covering expenses. My wonderful and insanely talented photographer friend Claudia of Claudia Rose Carter Photography will also be on hand to document the process and hopefully provide some still film photography that we will then be able to use for promotion and poster design.
Last week there was also time to source a lot of props/wardrobe for The Hiker - which included choosing costumes for the protagonist Layla (where debated whether her jacket should be red or yellow - we went with yellow; and if her jumper should be red or white...is it just me or do all horror victims wear white?). I also managed to get hold of a variety of camping/hiking props so hopefully we nearly have everything we need to film in 14 days. This Friday I will be meeting up with Natalie to finalise/photograph our character's wardrobe together so it will be very exciting to see 'Layla' and 'Charlotte' come alive.
In addition, last Friday night I wrote 3 different narratives for the #16SecondDate competition - which Vertti selected and filmed on Saturday afternoon in Helsinki - with Henri cast members Henri and Maria. He spent Sunday editing the short - and the result is brilliant (and utterly psychotic)! We very much looking forward to submitting The Date later this week and see how we fare amongst the other submissions! Ultimately, however it just feels good to get some more practical filmmaking experience.
And finally we were extremely pleased that Henri was chosen to be featured by bloggers Screenqueens as part of their Women in Horror Month showcase.
And finally we were extremely pleased that Henri was chosen to be featured by bloggers Screenqueens as part of their Women in Horror Month showcase.
That's pretty much where we are for now!
Madeleine
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