Editing...

Good evening. Tim here.

We've spent much of this week editing.  Earlier this week Miriam completed getting the footage in story order while I was on a job. Today I've been editing one of the scenes featuring Sal and Camilla. With such great performances from both of them, sometimes the hardest part is deciding which take to use – nice dilemma to have!

I'm not the speediest of editors but have had some experience now, thanks to a relatively short stint in a Soho post-production house and the short films we've made. In the past I've used Avid and Final Cut Pro. I hear Premiere is a good choice, but haven't had the opportunity to work with it since 2001. We're cutting Selective Listening with Final Cut Pro.

I have to say that the element of post-production that infuriates me is when glitches occur. Thank the Gods that we have experienced editor Ricky Wood overseeing the process – he will be offering his thoughts and skills on the edit as a whole and whenever my computer is in danger of being launched through the nearest window, he is always at the end of the phone to offer some answers to the anomalistic quirks that FCP feels compelled to throw into the mix at least once every editing day.

Tip of the day: When your editing software threatens the otherwise zen equilibrium of your mood and your desk is under threat of ending up in splinters, find the one piece of music that you can bounce, pogo or flop around the room to; that can't fail to lift your spirits and will bring the universe back into balance. For me, it's this:

Thank you, Michel Legrand!

Wrap party!

With the edit underway, it was time to celebrate the shoot with the long-awaited wrap party.

Those who had work commitments were missed. It was a good giggle to hook up with everyone who made it!

Some photos:

Living quarters...

Hello!

It's been a while since we've written, but the process of sorting the technical problems has been a slow one.  Hopefully we're nearly there.

In the meantime, we have been doing a lot of below-the-line work on the film – things that should help post-production move a lot more smoothly when we do get into full-swing.

Other than that, the producer and director have decided to take another step further of reclaiming their abode. Now it looks like 3/4 of what it should be and 1/4 of what it was during the shoot.

Don't forget to spread the word about the Facebook page: www.facebook.com/SelectiveListeningMovie

and to follow us on Twitter: @AllOnFive

And for the eagle-eyed amongst Twitterers, you may notice that a couple of Selective Listening faces are beginning to make their voices heard…

Production, day 15: Amber's audition...

This evening Miriam (producer), Camilla (actor), Ean (sound recordist) and I (director) got together to film a pickup / insert for the film. Camilla was fabulous (as were the rest of us) and so it was relatively quick and followed by another slap-up meal courtesy of the producer.

That leaves one more insert left to shoot, unless the edit tells us otherwise. On the subject of which, you know when I said that the transcoding process was causing the computers to steam? That has become a literal occurrence. My computer may need to go to tech hospital before the process goes further as the morning, noon and night process of heavy transcoding the Red footage has caused a bit of a meltdown...

Production, day 14: Mussels and Custard...

Well, the edit still hasn't started, but that doesn't mean we're not working! There's steam coming off the computers day and night as the Red footage is transcoded into editable files.

In the meantime, yesterday Miriam and I travelled to see Phil to get a day of pickups that we'd planned to get after the main portion of the shoot.

Among the ingredients of the day were:

Mussels
Custard
Cream
Tea bags
A Ford Escort
A blowtorch

...several toys didn't make it home.

Preparing to edit... and sleep in a bed...

It's the way on most indie productions that you don't have a high-end post-production facility at your disposal. Two weeks after the shoot and we have almost finished transcoding the RED footage from the shoot into a format that we are able to edit with on the software we have. During that time, All On Five's computer and the computer of our Editor, Ricky Wood, have been working day and night.

In the meantime, the set remains in place and every night sees a Producer on the sofa and a Director on the floor. Once we know that we have all the footage in place and can confirm that it is without glitches and/or missing shots, we'll be able to reassemble a regular habitable space...

Hopefully the edit begins tomorrow!

T & M

Why "All On Five"?

Hi,

Tim here.

Whilst in the brief lull between production and the process of media conversion that will allow us to happily enter into full swing on post-production, Miriam and I thought we'd answer the question that we've been getting asked quite a bit as to why we chose to name the Selective Listening production company All On Five.

In order to dedicate myself to a filmmaking career, I left my previous job in 2008 (just before the economic downturn). Between that time and early this year, I completed four feature screenplays – a high-budget martial arts/action story, a mid-range-budget horror and two low-budget comedies – Tall, Dark & Hopeless and The Guest List. We also completed four short films.

Knowing that any first feature would be hard to raise the budget for, we temporarily placed the action and horror scripts on the shelf and, in 2011, set to work on developing Tall, Dark & Hopeless but, even with what is considered in film production terms to be low-budget, and a terrific fresh and talented principal cast in place, we exhausted every route we could, approaching those who could help us get it made.

Therefore, in 2012, we created The Guest List, a comedy that could be made on an even more modest budget. After a period of development, we could sense that we were once again in a similar situation as with Tall, Dark & Hopeless and so Miriam decided that we needed to create a story that could be produced without any outside help.

Logic would say that I should have done this in the first place but... I didn't. Firstly, I had developed ideas for the action and horror films for years before I wrote them. Also, I was not 100% confident in any of the micro-budget/non-budget ideas we had discussed up until that point.

Fortunately, an idea that I'd had some years ago for a short film came back to me and, with a great deal of development, together we arrived at the story for Selective Listening.

We have both given up secure employment and, over several years, have dedicated ourselves to getting our film careers moving forward. Financially, we've put more into this production than most sane people would but, in order to prove to those who might help us progress and make the great stories that we have ready to go, we've had to put everything into Selective Listening.

Needless to say, we would not have been able to make this film without the time and talents given to the project by the cast, crew and others who will be named on the film's thank you list, who worked for much less than they deserve. That said, the reason for this community effort is that we all hope that each of our careers will benefit from the end result.

So, for those reasons, five years down the line, because (counting our short films) this is our fifth production and our fifth feature script, we chose to name ourselves All On Five.

Oh, and the loaded die in the logo? Well, that just indicates that we've had to fix "the game" ourselves!

Production, Day 13...

Wednesday 25th September – Day 13 of the shoot was the official last day of the shoot.

...Unofficially, we still have some pickups to do with our Cinematographer, Phil Moreton, at some point over the coming week. It was a packed day but much fun was had as it was mostly a day of toy action with a variety of themes.





It was sad to say farewell to everyone at the end of the day, but the journey is far from over. Now we get straight into post-production with our editor, Ricky Wood.

Overall, the film Gods must be smiling on us as, in a block of flats that almost consistently has some kind of activity (we even made reference to it in the script!), the shoot was relatively undisturbed. Yet, the first day we don't require the sound department, drilling works begin outside. Very lucky!

A big thank you to every member of the production crew and cast for making the shoot a pleasure to work on!

Miriam & Tim

Production day 11 and 12...

One more day to go! Today we finished the scenes with the lovely and talented Emily Holt. She and Salvatore did a great job and their performances really moved me. The picture below, was taken from my "little hideout" as we were preparing to shoot the very last scene... Time to sleep now. Will be back tomorrow! 

M. 

Production, Day 10...

With such a small shooting location and humble number of crew, it's inevitable that we all have to pitch in with a variety of duties, including puppeteering...!

Production, Day 9

Production, Day 8...

We've passed the half-way mark!

Production has been going well, with new challenges every day. I'm not sure if there's ever been a more claustrophobic working environment for a cast and crew to work in, but the good humour, professionalism and community spirit of everyone involved is second-to-none and we're getting very good at multi-tasking!

– Tim, Writer & Director

Production day 7

My eyes are still half-closed but I don't want to leave the blog for later as the work tends to pile up really quickly around here...

Yesterday we did our first shots in the kitchen. After two weeks, I am starting to struggle to picture what the flat was like before we changed it into Harrison's! 

It's 7.10am, and as much as I'd like to write some more, all I have in my head right now is that I have to get some cooking done before the cast and crew arrive... :)  M. 

Production day 6...

That was another very busy day! Camilla Rowland was with us all day today. She was great! Salvatore and her make a very good pair and I can't wait to see what we'll get from them tomorrow. 

Phil Moreton, our cinematographer, and his team, Jack and Rita, did a fantastic job too. We managed to fit in special lighting, smoke and a couple of dolly shots... And this is still happening in a 20sq metre room! 

Anyway, for now, it's time to have dinner and get ready for tomorrow! 

Production day 5!

I've heard that when you cast well 90% of the problems that you might face during production are solved. Selective Listening is not an exception to this. We've almost worked with all the actors at least once. From Denise Mack and Andrew Holloway, who have a small role, to Camilla Rowland and Emily Holt and, of course, Salvatore Stella, everyone has been phenomenal and a pleasure to see perform. Today it was the turn of Phil Gyford who plays Robin, Harrison's friend and everybody who was watching the monitor was in stitches. Ann Tillinghast, our hair and make-up artist, was crying with laughter. Salvatore and Phil really did a great job. We have intended for the film to have sad, emotional and tense/spooky moments as well as funny...Yesterday it was one of the funny ones! :D 

Miriam

Production day 4...

Yesterday was a great day... And I say yesterday because I was so knackered that I was not even able to write on the blog. It's now 6.40am and I am going to get ready for the day as soon as I finish writing and posting this. As much as both Tim and I are wearing loads of hats for this one - I even had to fulfill a role as cable basher at one point... I hope it's spelled like this, I have no time to check it -you can't make a film like this without the great cast and crew we have. Everybody was really kind and stayed for longer than expected and, on top of that and the fact that our camera crew had to wrap under heavy rain and ended up soaked, they still didn't lose their smiles. Thank you! The meaning of our production company name,  ALL ON FIVE,  really is relevant... 

Miriam

Production day 3

Production day 3 is done. Today we had to post-pone one of our outdoor scenes for another day due to the weather, but we managed to shoot the other two big outdoor scenes as well as a couple of shots indoors with Molly and Mousey as the protagonists. The toys are starting to be part of the shot and it is really bringing the film to life, as them and the interactions they have with Harrison are such a huge part of the story. In the picture below, Molly and Bean are taking over the frame as Harrison walks away. Tomorrow, a full day of indoor scenes... I'll let you know how it goes! M. 

Shooting day 2!

Today was our 2nd day shooting and our first day of outdoor scenes only. The weather behaved pretty well, as we only had a little bit of rain. Our cast and crew were great. We got some very lovely shots and our youngest actress, Basia (4), did a great job too! The aim for tonight is to go to bed before midnight...

Production, Day 1...

It's all underway!

The first shot of the production:

Clapper board:

Contemplating a shot:

Down by the riverside:

Bean lives...

Another great day of rehearsals...

A lot more fun and great moments today with Salvatore Stella, Philip Gyford and Emily Holt, rehearsing for 'Selective Listening'.

Rehearsals day 1

Camilla Rowland and Salvatore Stella on an encouraging, productive and fun day of rehearsals.

Cast and crew gathering...

It was great to have a social event with some of the cast and crew for 'Selective Listening'. A lovely evening!

P. Pigginess Pinkerton lives...

With huge thanks to the director's Mum, P. Pigginess Pinkerton lives...

Meeting with our Production Designers...

A good and productive first meeting today with our Production Designers, Lucy Isdale & Daniel Mangham from Sailor Beware.

Every day is different...

The vibe

Storyboarding is almost done and we have started the toy-making process.

This morning we experimented with various techniques of how to make a toy vibrate.

I'm sure Jim Henson's workshop never considered these techniques...

Raw materials...

Getting it all together. Need to dress these toys!

A great weekend of auditions...

A great weekend of auditions with our runners, Lucy and Yeg. We met many great actors. We'll be in touch with all as soon as we can.

Many thanks to our friends at Alan Zafer & Associates for the use of their office for the auditions with a blue plaque that never fails to impress historians and motor enthusiasts...

A great day of auditions...

We had a great day of auditions - many thanks to all the actors who attended and showed us their interpretations of the various characters. It was tremendous to see them brought to life.

This also gave us the opportunity to spend the day with one of our fantastic Runners, Lucy – splendid to have her on board!

We'll get back to all who came along today with news as soon as we can!

T&M

Storyboarding...

Storyboarding isn't part of the process for everyone, but I view it as a vital element of the preparation. It's more accurate to show what you want, than it is to describe it, and you don't have to be Rembrandt to do it.  Indeed, in a change from my past projects, I'm doing my best not to be a perfectionist with the drawings as, going on past experience, without a storyboard artist it can become a lonnnnnnng process...

- Tim

What a great week in the making of Selective Listening!

We are coming up with ideas to make the toys, getting ready for the first lot of auditions, meeting potential crew, almost finished designing the graphics for the film... Loads of work but well worth it!

Video Diary - Designing Toys VI - P. Pigginess Pinkerton

The final toy of the bunch.

Writer / Director Tim Prescott's preliminary design for P. Pigginess Pinkerton... (he's a pig).

Video Diary - Designing Toys V - Bean

Writer / Director Tim Prescott's preliminary design for Bean...

Video Diary - Designing Toys IV - Molly & Mousey

Writer / Director Tim Prescott puts preliminary designs for a couple of the toys down on paper...

Video Diary - Designing Toys III - Conrad

Video Diary - Designing Toys II - Smiling Herbert

'Selective Listening' Video Diary 1 - Designing Toys

Things are hotting up!

We're getting lots of emails from actors! Thanks to everyone who has responded so far!

More applications...!

Thanks to all who have been in touch so far. It's been another very busy day.

Once again, sorry if we don't have the opportunity to reply to you personally, but we are looking at every email and will be in touch with those chosen for audition/interview as soon as possible – over the next few weeks.

If you're an actor or crew member and haven't been in touch yet - please do!

View the casting posts here.

View the crewing posts here.

And email us via our contact page.


Have a great weekend!

Getting lots of applications

It's been a good day – lots of applications for the crew positions, and we're looking forward to receiving many more!

Please do bear with us. If applications are anything like we've experienced in the past, then it can become difficult to reply to everyone individually.

What we can say is that every application will be seen and considered and that we do appreciate them!

If you know someone who may be interested in being part of the cast or crew, why not let them know?

Thanks!

He’s coming...

The script nears completion...