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I am fascinated by the 'Previously Ons' which proceed episodes of TV shows. It is usually a little movie all in itself trying to get people up to speed on what is happening so that they aren't lost. Sometimes they are selectively edited so that not all the details that happened before even make the cut , only the most important element to keep the story moving forward.
When the Attic studios in Dublin where running a little short film competition I thought I would make a short film using this format.
The Attic Studio was a little get together of Actors, Directors and others who were in the film and theater business that I used to frequent on a Tuesday night. It was a nice group of people and I always found it inspiring to meet up with other creatives there. It was always a good laugh to go to the pub after for a drink or ten. While it was running it was a big part of my social life in Dublin and also where I met my wonderful wife, but that's another story.
I teamed up with Craig Kavanagh, another would be director that I had worked with before on his short films, he's a great go getter and has great producing qualities that I lack.
I had just finished watching '24' a Tv series staring Kiefer Sutherland and that was where I got the idea and inspiration. Craig was also a big fan of the show and we were immediately in the same page. The sense of urgency that 24 had always added to the action of the show and the fact we had to write, produce, direct and edit a short in 72 hours made me feel like Jack Bower.
Somewhere along the way I gave in to one of Craig's suggestions that we also make a scene from the actually show to follow the 'Previously On'. He was worried that there would not be enough info in the first part to let people know what was going on and it may be a little too short. I decided to go along with it but I really never liked to second part even though I think it came together quite well. I would have preferred to stick with the one singular vision, sink of swim. So this is why I divided this upload into two part. The first one is my Directors cut and this one I look on as the Extras.
Craig and I got together over the internet and over a skype session we wrote the story and script. we would write a bit and then send the text files across for the other to see and edit. It all came together quite nicely in the evening we gave ourselves.
It was difficult enough to get everything organised as we tried to get as many of the actors involved as possible and make sure that they could be a certain locations at an exact time to do their shot. As I said Craig is much better at this than I, he knew everyone's phone numbers and knew everyone. I was still a bit of an outsider. During this time I was mostly getting ready for the shoot, making props etc and getting camera gear together.
We took turns in directing and sometimes we went our own way just to catch that one shot necessary. The Previously On shoot was a fun day of running around Dublin city and and trying to organise the next shot while doing the present one. For the Torture scene we spent a day in Craig's garage with the two actors. I shoot while craig did most of the directing. Even though I wasn't too excited about this part we had a good laugh.
WE also edited together with two computers running at the same time. I did the Previously On and special effects while Craig did the torture scene. We had a good partnership as we would do a bit and the show and critique each others work. We were really down to the wire as we rushed to get the DVD burned and delivered on time,
There was a big night organisered for the film festival and prize giving. Lots of new faces in the crowd including Clodagh (my now missus) Our little movie stood up quite well to the others and we were awards nearly every prize during the evening including best directors and best film. I was elated at what we had achieved in the 72 hours but what I was mostly happy with was that our little movie helped put me on the map in the attic as a director, up to that most knew me as that sand sculptor guy that was always hanging around.
I do like how our little movie worked out even with the ropey acting at times. It gave me a good boost to my ego and got my creative juices worked up about making movies.
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