Living Bliss Productions: VERY Early Screen Tests

There's nothing like time constraints to motivate a person and the onset of Autumn has certainly done that for me!

A few weeks ago we filmed James running through the countryside, lush and green - you know how it is; then Autumn hits and the trees start to turn orange, red and brown - well that's gonna wreck my continutiy!?!

With a script still being tweaked, extablishing shots to capture while there's still a little green on the trees and character development work to do, time is tight. This weekend I drove down to Nottingham to work with Luke on facial hair creation and script improvements. Luke is currently sporting a seven-stitch scar on his forehead thanks to a fight scene he filmed a week previous - he was a trooper though and allowed me to glue a fake eyebrow over the wound!A scriptwriter himself, Luke offered suggestions to enrich the characters' backstories which sent me away buzzing - I will try and write these additions into the script tonight - so much for cropping it down - or my other film school homework!

My time in Nottingham was cut short due to family business but this afforded me the opportunity to film some landscape plates in and around North Yorkshire and Teesside, to use in the montage sequences.

I was using the Panasonic P2 camera on my own and, for the second time running, forgot to check every single switch for every single shot; top tip everyone: check that the ND Filter is where you need it to be for each shot - these things can get knocked and your images may end up a little darker than you want them... very rich colours in the clouds mind!

I am in a good position this week to sculpt a stage #1 and #2 fox makeup on the bust I made of James but obviously the way I draw Jonny Fox allows me to distort the proportions of a man - with James I might need to adapt the mask or employ a little computer trickery - or a combination of both!

Jimmy Hagri contacted me with script feedback earlier in the week too, his suggestion was that Lord P and Sebastian Delaval ought to be drinking fine old whiskey; Luke would like to see a gamne of chess being played as well - I think both are great details and both shall be included!

One big piece of news from mid-week - we now have a producer onboard: Sophie Crawford, CCAD graduate from 2011. Sophie will make sure locations and cast and crew all function correctly, leaving me to concentrate on creative... on a different day I might need to employ a production designer and model shop manager too!

Here's a look at Sophies work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTSdcBOEfr8

And here's a few photos from the past week:-