Trying for some more complete looking pieces, rather than just characters dumped in a white space.
This is fanart from one of my favourite moments from Terry Pratchett’s novel, ‘Mort’.
Dole Warriors – That’s a Wrap!
That’s a Wrap!
Well post-production is officially over! Dole Warriors is finished and has had its first test-screening, during which it was exceedingly well received!
Now, a few final tweaks are being made, it will be available to preview-level sponsors later this week and will be released publicly online on June 7th – A slightly later than originally planned release date, but we want to make sure the film is the best it can be before we unleash it upon the internet!
It’s a bit late in coming, but here’s a few more production photos and some info about the behind the scenes of the rest of production:
Our location shooting took place on the Truro College main campus; a stunning main building with impressive open lobbies, glass walkways and several fully glass walls 3 floors high, giving that perfect, modern setting for our film. For obvious reasons our bulk of shooting had to be done during the term holidays, which took a fair bit of logistical organizing, but meant that we had the full run of the building and had no issues with people wandering in the background of our shots – a benefit not to be sniffed at for the average independent filmmaker. We were really lucky to be able to use the location so extensively and it really paid off, delivering a sense of scale to the film that we might otherwise not have achieved.
Production was exceedingly fast-paced due to the time restraints of everybody’s availability, and unfortunately we ran over schedule and had to delay shooting certain scenes until weeks later. However, we soldiered through and wrapped our location shooting not too far behind schedule.
Our set shoot also made use of the Truro College facilities, by way of the fully kitted out production studio in which we assembled the Dole Warriors Studio set, with help from Sammie Stairs and our epic lead set artist Charli Bunce, who was also responsible for hand-painting some of the amazing looking prop guns affixed to the set.
We had outstanding performances from our cast members Danny Vincent, Steven Kelly, Jackson Leivers, Jonathan Hill, Peter McHugh and Bryn Oldfield, with a few cameo appearances from our DOP Tim Stratton, wardrobe assistant Corinne Church and Writer/Director, Vic Hill.
As an action short, there was a fair amount of stunt fighting that had to take place as the previous blog entry on the subject explained, and we were pleased to report that with just one exception, the fight scenes went off without a hitch or injury. The exception in question was to Danny Vincent, the fight choreographer who, as he is a trained first aider, was able to deal with the whole event himself! We are pleased to report there was no permanent injury and apart from a bump on his head and perhaps a dent in his pride, he is otherwise completely fine.
Also, we’re delighted to inform you that we will be holding a Q&A session with some of the key cast and crew in the coming weeks, and so we welcome gratefully your questions about the project. You can ask us anything (provided it’s not too rude) and we will answer in a videoed group chat, which will then be released as part of the behind the scenes material both on the Youtube Channel, and an extended version for Sponsors via private link. Feel free to submit as many questions as you like, either about what you know so far, or about the film after you’ve seen it. Questions can be left as a comment here, an email at hatdayproductions@gmail.com, a Youtube or Facebook comment or messaged to director Vic Hill on her twitter @Iddstar.
For now we will leave you with that, but we will be sure to make an update by the weekend regarding post-production and VFX, but until then, here is trailer number 2 for the film, and the production photos.
(Production Photos by Joshua Alex Billington)
Why Zach is Right
Everybody’s talking about Zach Braff’s Kickstarter project “Wish I Was Here” for his follow up feature to Garden State. There seems to be some controversy about it, with people asking whether or not Zach, as a multi-millionaire from the more mainstream film and TV industry, has a right to ask the public to hand over money so he can make his project with the full creative freedom that Hollywood so rarely provides. I’m struggling to understand why. Given the fact that just 2 months ago I finished up my dissertation about the future and potential of crowdfunding, I simply HAD to put in my 2p’s worth.
So a few years ago there was this story in the news about a bunch of office workers and bankers, etc. coming home from their 9-5, getting all scruffed up and going out on the street pretending to be homeless, begging for money. This was a tax-free way of supplementing their regular salaries.
So imagine there are normally 5 homeless people on a street per day, begging for money. Imagine that every day, each of them receives £1 in spare change. Then, imagine that 5 office workers pretending to be homeless join the street. Suddenly that £5 a day is being split 10 ways instead of just 5. So not only were these bankers etc. getting their money tax free for no work, they were also depriving the ACTUALLY homeless people of their chance of spare change.
Let’s apply this to Kickstarter.
Kickstarter IS NOT A STREET FULL OF BEGGARS. It is an online platform for people with a project or a product to pitch it directly to their audience and ask for assistance in funding it.
Zach Braff is not the metaphorical banker, and the other users of Kickstarter are not the metaphorical homeless. Zach is using his pre-existing fan base as the audience he is pitching directly to. If a Zach-fan signs on to Kickstarter and donates $10 or whatever, Zach is not depriving other users of that money. And at the end of the day, he’s not being dishonest about it, and nobody HAS to donate
The whole point of crowdfunding is that creators can pitch their ideas and have them judged on the merit of their project alone. Yes there are the die-hard fans who would fund Zach Braff no matter what he pitched, but mostly people want to help him out because he’s a good director, and they believe in his vision.
It’s highly likely that people who are complaining are people who feel that Kickstarter is their thing. Like they alone have a right to ask perfect strangers for money. But the chances are, if they aren’t getting their projects backed, it’s not because Zach has signed up to Kickstarter, it’s because people don’t want to back their project.
Film finance works on pre-existing audiences and advertising and that’s the same from micro-budget through to blockbusters. Complete nobody’s who have no previous works and no pre-existing audiences will struggle because even if their idea is great, and even if they advertise it well enough to reach millions of people, people won’t part with their money if they think it will go to waste.
Zach’s a popular guy. He has an audience. He has previous work that pays testimony to his talent as a filmmaker. He’s doing what he needs to do to get his project funded, and filmmakers shouldn’t fund projects out of their own pocket otherwise how will they keep going?
Take away his previous jobs that have earned him his serious dollar, and suddenly he’s just a filmmaker with a vision, a compulsion to make it the way he wants it and the means to do so.
I say more power to him.
Iddstar Artwork 