How to make a film in Scotland - or "Watch a group of indie filmmakers have a go at it in the form of a video blog"

With "Night is Day" at the middle of production, moving into the 2nd edit, I thought it would be a good time to post all of the behind the scenes videos that the wonderful John G McCall has put together so far.

So please enjoy and meet the wonderful cast and crew of our little superhero movie!

Sci-fi Mafia is out to get you, well us, well, they said nice things about Night is Day

Our first proper piece of net-attention thanks to a wonderful site called "Sci-Fi Mafia" - check it out -

http://scifimafia.com/2010/12/night-is-day-glasgow-needed-their-own-superhero-and-fraser-coull-is-bringing-them-one/

Silly Wee Films Updates

My official site - http://www.sillyweefilms.co.uk - was moved to a new server a couple of weeks ago, and since then I've been unable to edit the site properly and there are a lot of code problems...

SO I'm having the site re-designed - it'll celebrate 4 years of Silly Wee Films.

As part of this I'd like to produce some 3-5 minute short films in 2011 - as well as releasing my debut feature film "Night is Day"...

So if you want to write a short film, direct, work on camera, be a runner, production assistant, costume person, makeup artist, actor, editor, grader, colourist, boom operator, sound designer, composer, get in touch with your CV and samples - we'd like to give everybody a chance to make an affordable short film that can be shot in a day.

Email contact@sillyweefilms.com and we'll be in touch in the New Year.

Thank you.

Silly Wee Films Project Slate

Just a quick update on what Silly Wee Films is up to at the moment...

"Night is Day - The Movie" is our debut feature, starring Chris Summers, John Gaffney, Kirsty Anderson, Clare Sheppard, Steven McEwan, Tam Toye, Mark Harvey, Catriona Joss, Colin McCredie, Elaine C Smith, Tiger Tim Stevens MBE and Simon Weir - Night is Day is an action drama superhero film set in Scotland. The film was shot between June and August 2010 and is currently in post production with a 2011 release date earmarked.

Visit http://www.nightisday.net/ for more information.

"Night is Day - The Series" is set BEFORE the movie - meet the characters from the movie, as Jason learns to deal with his powers and fights the evil businessman Mr. Philips. Series 1 was filmed in 2007 and can be seen for free at http://www.sillyweefilms.co.uk/nightisday.htm.

Series 2, which has 7 episodes lasting 25 minutes each, is nearing it's post production and will be online soon!

http://www.nightisday.co.uk/ for more information.

"Get Funded" - Working Title - is a comedy focussing on three best friends, Katie, Mark and Chris, as they try to find the money to make their first feature film - even if that means robbing people! The film is currently in pre-production with the script being completed. We will then seek funding and start auditioning, finding the crew, locations, props etc. Hopefully shooting in 2011.

Apart from that we're still working on promotional videos, corporate website adverts, music videos and showreels. 2010 is nearly over but 2011 is going to be filled up with great videos, movies and memories.

Bring it on!

To be a part of Silly Wee Films please send your CV, headshot and details to contact@sillyweefilms.com - we can't promise you anything but we do consider everybody!

Fraser

The difficult second movie, and maybe a third to be optimistic.

Whoops! I've not made a blog entry in around a month, that's bad. I've been so busy with actually working on promoting "Night is Day" and corporate video work this kind of slipped my attention. Sorry! To be fair I don't even know if anybody reads this, or if it's even useful for anybody.

Just in case I'm going to make this a three-point blog, so I hope you enjoy it.

NIGHT IS DAY THE MOVIE

Recap: "Night is Day - The Movie" is a Superhero movie set in Scotland. It follows Jason Mackenzie (Chris Summers) as he uses his powers of foresight and lightning to protect the city against demons, gangsters and villains. The Caillech (Catriona Joss), who once formed the hills and landscape of Scotland, returns to the world and tells us that in 3 days everything will end. Jason has to team up with cops Superintendent Sloan (John Gaffney), Detective Chief Inspector Mullan (Steven McEwan) and Inspector Munro (Clare Sheppard) to stop this from happening, while evil businessman Mr. Philips (Tam Toye) and his assassin Frank Stone (Mark Harvey) will do everything they can to help the Caillech destroy the world.

The film started pre-production in January 2010 and with no funding whatsoever, using support from friends and family as well as sponsorship of our main characters, we cast the movie in January and shot it at weekends in the Summer from June until August. 

The movie is now complete and the first edit is finished. The movie is currently at 1 hour 52 minutes, and going by the notes from our producers the movie should go down to 1 hour 40 minutes. We then plan to send it off for special effects, sound work and scoring. We will then take it to festivals, film markets, conventions as well as holding special screenings to secure a sales agent or a distributor - whatever comes first. 

A 10 minute "sizzle reel" has been edited together and being worked on so we can show it at the Glasgow Film Festival in February. For more information go to http://www.nightisday.net and the trailer is at http://vimeo.com/14298694. 

We have a Facebook so please join us at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=237674711930.

Here is a production still from the movie involving Jason protecting a young girl from an attacker:

All going well, we will sell Night is Day and people will be interested in our future projects, and on that note...

THE SECOND, AND MAYBE THIRD, MOVIE

Any filmmaker worth their salt, or at least in my case, won't just have one movie in them, or hopefully the experience of making their first movie wasn't so terrible that they decide to back in filmmaking and decide that a career in the circus, fast food industry or window selling industry is where there destiny really lies.

So of course I've got ideas for more movies. Ideally I'd LOVE Night is Day to be a trilogy. I wrote the characters and I love them all dearly (even those who don't survive to the end of the first movie!) so I would love to carry on with them and see where they end up...

Just not yet. I need out of the Night is Day world to prove to myself that I'm not just a Night is Day writer, but I am in fact a credible filmmaker that makes movies that people enjoy. 

Even before Night is Day I wrote two film scripts - one called "Space Defence" which is about three normal people from different planets who get super powers and become the protectors of the realm (aka the universe) and it was all about how they got their powers and became the protectors. I really liked that script, and I think I've lost it forever now.

The second was "The Journey" in which sword fighters from all over the world were given sponsors to back their campaign to enter the tournament - the last fighter standing won a 50 million pounds and got to walk away with their lives. My script focused on 3 of the fighters - we started pre-production, filmed a trailer and it was going well - but the funding never showed up and the film fell apart. Then I got ran down by a car and broke my leg and arm... I'm glad that happened - in a weird way - because then I made "Night is Day - The Series"

Now I'm writing a script that's going through two/three name suggestions but the working title is "Get Funded" and it's about 3 friends who went to a TV production college course (just like me) and they have the perfect script, but nobody will give them money, so they decide to rob and exploit people - yes, it's a comedy. So I hope, HOPE, that come next Summer, "Night is Day" will have been sold or close to it, and private investors will get on board "Get Funded" and we can shoot it next year.

I know you are all thinking "But Fraser, isn't two movies enough?" well, maybe, but not for me. I LOVE writing, I LOVE filmmaking and it's what I want to do! (For now anyway, ideally I'd love to be a showrunner for the BBC or STV, writing and executively producing a TV show ala Russell T Davis, Steven Moffat, Joss Whedon et all) and about a year ago I was in a computer game shop and I saw an X-Box game with the most brilliant title.

I'm not going to reveal the title, it will give too much away - but I racked my brain to see if it was feasible, and if anybody had done it before. Google tells me that a low-budget indie movie has attempted the genre, and it got pretty bad reviews, and sorry to the filmmaking team involved, but it sounds like cheesy b-movie porn. 

My filmmaking influences are Sam Raimi's "Evil Dead" and Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs" (or as my girlfriend said to me "Reservoir Puppies", which was genius) - so one day I hope to do my Tarantino film and maybe with this 3rd film idea, I'll get to do my tribute to Sam Raimi and attempt two genres I never said I would do.

But first, I'll finish "Get Funded" and try to get...the funding I need to make it, while completing Night is Day and getting it sold, and writing my third, as of yet, untitled film. 

Now on to my final point of this unnecessary long blog post...

JUST DO IT (this one gets a bit ranty, sorry!)

Disclaimer - I am not claiming to be a filmmaking genius, I am not claiming to have made award winning masterpieces of cinematic history.

However I must, must say this. Recently a lot of people, well a few, okay, one or two people have been asking me how do they go about getting involved in films, how do I do it, can I give them work experience, or a full time, fully paid job on a film, or can I produce and make their film scripts for them.

No.

Is the short answer. 

The long answer is sorry, but I just don't have the time to help everybody. The filmmaking industry in this country, particularly Scotland, is in a really bad state of affairs. Yes, there are a few good films coming out every few years, but when you look at countries like Holland, Sweden and America, they are making 60 films a year - we're making around 6. And some of them stink. But give them their due, they are still making movies and in a way that's great.

So here's my advice to anybody who wants to write a movie, direct a movie, star in a movie, produce a movie - just do it. There's nothing stopping you. A lot of people are saying "But I'm too old to get started now" or "I don't have the training" etc. 

I didn't make my first short film until I was 21 - I didn't go to college until I was around 19/20 years of age, and I have just made my first feature film. Yes, have your influences - Sam Raimi was 19 when he made "The Evil Dead" but that didn't put me off filmmaking because I was older than he was and there are filmmakers now who are 17 and winning awards, and I haven't won ANY awards, but this doesn't bother me. Your audience is out there, somewhere.

Here's how I got started in this industry...

2003 - I was accepted onto the E-Force Training Programme at the BBC in Queen Margaret Drive in Glasgow (I really, REALLY miss that place).  I learned to be a "pleasant pest" and to stick in people's minds.

2004 - I was accepted on to the HND Television Productions and Operations course at James Watt College, despite not fulfilling the requirements of higher education certificates. I met a lot of like minded people and I attended the course for a year.

2005 - I wrote, directed and edited my first short film, "Night is Day - Dusk" - it was terrible but I learned SO much from that. I also made a lot of enemies unfortunately as this industry does create terrible egos in people, but we live and learn.

2005 - I went to Business Gateway with a Business proposal and was awarded grants and funds to start up "Silly Wee Films" 

2006 - I had my road accident and my first feature film, "The Journey", folded. I then wrote and directed "Night is Day" series 1 by going on Mandy.com and looking for the cast and crew. 

2007 - Due to lack of business experience and work, Silly Wee Films folded and I worked as a website admin assistant in Stirling and learned how to run a business. I then made Night is Day series 2 and several short films.

2008 - Silly Wee Films came back with a vengeance. I made another short film, wrote a movie script and moved to Glasgow. Business continued and life was good. Unfortunately any hint of success - articles about yourself in newspapers, your TV show being shown on the TV, will create a bit of jealousy towards you, spite and people bitching behind your back. People will take incidents that they weren't even involved in and spin the rumours out of control and sadly, even to this day, there are a lot of people who dislike me for what I do - but I have NEVER lied nor have I messed people around. I will always be honest and treat people the way I expect to be treated back.

There will always be negativity in this world and especially in this industry - ignore it - do your work, keep your head down and keep on going. If you are going to make it in this industry then the bad press, negativity and "enemies" don't matter in the long run. 

And to be super cheesy and quote "Angel", - "If nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do."

And I'm spent!

Post production continues - pre production begins... the filmmaking circle just goes around and around

Not much of an exciting blog post, I will admit, but I felt it was time for a small update. 

The producers of Night is Day - The Movie, have now watched the first cut and have told me that they are happy with the flow of the story but they have notes on changes they feel will benefit the movie, so I look forward to reading them - although I am slightly terrified too haha. 

Then again, anything that does get cut-out will likely go on a DVD as "deleted scenes", so nothing is lost forever, which is nice.

It feels like a life time ago since we started making the movie - in fact I've moved house twice in that time - and I already miss it. We only wrapped in August and my life has been a mix of editing the movie, promoting the movie and working on corporate video work to pay the bills.

I've started writing my next feature, well, I started writing my next feature a year before I wrote Night is Day, but I've went back and chipped away at the script for "Get Funded" (working title - other favourites are "Go Fund Yourself" and "Fund It!") which is a comedy about three filmmakers who are so desperate to make their movie that they resort to robbing people and exploiting them - only to get mixed up with gangsters and the police. 

"Night is Day" is a miracle, really, because we're in Scotland and it got made. We didn't wait for someone to give us a big wad of cash to make it, and we were VERY lucky to find a cast and crew who understood that it's far more important to make a movie, rather than wait until someone gives you the money to do so.

I'm not saying the movie is going to win awards for being clever, thought-provoking or ground-breaking but I am DEFINITELY saying that if you like Doctor Who, Angel, Buffy, Spider-Man, Torchwood, superhero movies, Scottish movies, then you will (hopefully) enjoy this movie. 

Now that we've made the £3,000 movie, we can take it to investors, distributors, sales agents, private sources of funding with a pitch for "Get Funded/Fund It/Go Fund Yourself" in the hope that they will give us enough money to pay everybody, get the equipment and whatever costs come up along the way (locations, props, costumes etc) and that we can make a Scottish comedy next Summer. 

Once "Night is Day" has been "locked" (where the actual movie itself won't change shot wise) we then take it to the composer, sound designers and visual effects artists who will work on it and then it will be coloured and graded.

Whoever says making movies is easy is lying, but it is a LOT of fun.

That's enough of a blog post for now...

Later folks.

We have a movie!

Mark the date and time - Saturday the 23rd of October 2010, 11.40am. Fraser Coull completes the first cut of "Night is Day - The Movie".

I sat down this morning and blitzed through the last few scenes, having spent a week editing 3 fight scenes that intercut. 

I am so unbelievably happy that the first cut is complete. It's 1 hour, 52 minutes long, at the moment. The cutaways are still to go in, and then it will be sent to Lindsay and Gavin, my brilliant producers, and we will sit through the movie together and suggest changes, maybe trim the length too.

Then once we're all happy we can send the movie off to be scored, have the special effects worked on, sound effects and probably some ADR too. 

The movie will also need to be coloured and graded to match up the two different cameras we used, and then we can organise a cast and crew screening before deciding what to do next and trying to get the movie sold! 

Thank you SO much for everybody who gave up their time and used their brilliant skills to make this movie.

Here's to it's success!

Night is Day The Movie officially becomes a movie

The 70 minute mark!

Night is Day - The Movie has officially become a feature. In order to be classed a film, the feature must be 70 minutes or longer.

And a week ago we hit that mark with the first cut of the film, and a screencap of the scene that made it, is above. No spoilers of course. Please note that this scene is ungraded with no widescreen bars etc etc, it's just for a bit of fun.

I'm now fast approaching the 100 minutes mark too, as I head into the final section of the movie. I've got to move house in 4 days, so that will hold up getting the first cut finished, but as I won't have internet for a week, I've got plenty of time to get the first cut finished and onto a DVD to send to my producers for feedback.

All going well we'll be able to take the movie on a tour next Summer for fans, sci-fi and superhero fans and movie goers to see the movie before we take it to distributors. 

Wish us luck!

Also, be sure to see the latest Night is Day Confidential at http://www.vimeo.com/15136619

Enjoy!

Edit, write, edit, write, edit, write...

Making a movie in Scotland is much like hanging from a ledge. You keep holding on, hoping something will happen and save you, and then you realise it's not going to happen. Regardless, failure is not an option as this is a path I have chosen to go down.

I've worked as a cashier in Ikea, a sales representative in GAME, a junior administrator in an office and a BETA tester for computer games. Oh, and I worked as a web content developer for an SEO company.

But NOTHING compares to filmmaking.

You get to do something different everyday, meet a lot of like minded people who become your family, and there is something so amazing about seeing your words being acted out on the screen, and in front of you when you are actually filming it.

Scotland has a LOT of talent. I know, I've seen it. A lot of my friends are filmmakers,  writers, actors, directors, editors, camera operators, special effect geniuses, composers, makeup artists, costume designers, producers, the lot, and they are all amazing. 

All they want to do is make films and TV - Monday to Friday, from 9am til 5pm... but of course that can be 7am til 12am, depending on the shoot :p 

It's just a shame that there doesn't seem to be too much support for filmmakers at the level we're at. Nobody seems to want to take a risk on our level of filmmaking where people are making romantic comedies, gangland dramas, superhero movies just to name a few.

Instead the money goes back to those who have already made their big movies, made their money, and would have no problem getting backing elsewhere to help them.

Congratulations to Shed Media, whose web series, "Being Victor", was picked up by STV and is now being shown on a Thursday night. If there are any STV people reading my blog I've got a web series too - 13 episodes to be exact, two seasons, with the 2nd season having 7 episodes running for 25 minutes each and you can find out more at www.nightisday.co.uk. 

I've now edited 61 minutes of Night is Day - The Movie! 7 more minutes and it becomes a feature film officially (for a film to be classed as a "feature" it must be 70 minutes or more - "Jonah Hex" starring Josh Brolin, made it, just and no more with a run time of, yep, you've guessed it, 70 minutes!) and there's a LOT more editing to do.

Without giving too much away I'm at a scene where Mr. Philips (played by the brilliant Tam Toye who channels a little bit of William Shatner) is discussing the world of demons to his demon-racist assassin and I suppose closest friend, Frank Stone (Mark Harvey, who can flawlessly impersonate Johnny Depp, Eddie Izzard and Mr. Mackay from South Park - trust me - we've got it on film!) when The Caillech (the wonderful Catriona Joss) appears and asks Mr. Philips to assist her in her earth-shattering scheme.

The Caillech however only speaks Gaelic. So that'll be fun for me to edit :p

Once the film is edited I'll send it to my lovely and talented producers, Lindsay and Gavin for them to go through it and suggest changes and then it's off to Philip Martin who will start to work on the score with live musicians, Jack Ashley will start to look at the sound and what needs fixing with Gillian, and Mathew Crisp will start the hard work of special effects, making it a superhero movie with special effects.

All going well we can take the movie on tour of Scotland - Glasgow, Aberdeen, Stirling, Edinburgh, Inverness, Dundee, Greenock - for all the fans, movie buffs and sci-fi fans to come and watch it - before taking it to the film markets and trying to sell it so it can be released in cinemas and on DVD world wide.

While this is going on I'm writing my next feature which has a budget of around £50,000, so I may pay my cast and crew. Now, to find the budget...

I hope the filmmaking industry in Scotland gets better.

Post production begins! Sci-fi legends support Scottish superhero movie Night is Day

Annnnnnnnnd we're off!

"Night is Day" The Movie became a reality in September 2009 when the script was completed and pre-production began. What followed was a long process of assembling the crew, auditioning the cast, rehearsing the script, fight rehearsals, location hunting.

On June 5th 2010 the cameras started rolling.

On August 28th 2010 we wrapped.

After immersing myself in a LOT of superhero movies (The Dark Knight, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Unbreakable, and Push) the editing process has began. So far 28 minutes of "Night is Day" The Movie is laid down in the Final Cut Pro session. Once a rough cut is completed it will go to Lindsay and Gavin, my two wonderful producers, who will go through it again and again and from there we can start to shape the movie the way we want it to look.

Everybody is working hard already - Philip Martin has started to think about the score, contacting world famous musicians to work on the score with him - contacting upcoming singers and bands to contribute their work to our soundtrack.

Ash Loydon is working on pieces of art for the opening title sequence while Jack Ashley and Gillian Glencross starts to think about the sound design and so forth and so forth. It will be a long process but we hope to get the film ready in time for a Summer 2011 release.

With Mark Millar, creator of graphic novels "Kick Ass" and "Wanted" has now started filming his own Scottish superhero movie - he watched our trailer and said it looked fantastic, also stating that his film was different, with a darker tone - so you're in for a treat.

Sonja Blietschau and Dougie Coull were both at Collectormania Glasgow this year taking lots of photos - documenting the two day event where Danny John Jules, Chris Barrie, Dominic Keating and Sylvester McCoy visited our stall and gave us two thumbs up for our movie. Check out some of the photos below!

Star Trek: Enterprise and Heroes star Dominic Keating with cast and crew

Red Dwarf and Tomb Raider star Chris Barrie supports the movie.

Sylvester McCoy, who played the 7th incarnation of The Doctor in Doctor Who popped along to say hello!

Danny John-Jules, who played The Cat in Red Dwarf supports the movie too.

There's lots of work left to go but we'll get there and all going well this will be the start of a prosperous film and TV career for us all.

Night is Day at Collectormania Glasgow Braehead 2010

We were lucky enough to be able to attend and promote the movie at Collectormania in Glasgow this year.

Star Trek: Enterprise star Dominic Keating, Red Dwarf legends Danny John-Jules and Chris Barrie along with Doctor Who alumni Sylvester McCoy all supported the film by watching the trailer and going on camera to support us.

Check out a small highlight of our weekend fun!

And that's a wrap!

Frank Stone (Mark Harvey) has no idea that vampire Lexi (Nicki Fleming) is in for the kill. Photo by Dougie Coull Photography

This is a little bit of an emotional entry to write, so I am listening to the WONDERFUL soundtrack from "Scott Pilgrim VS The World" - a great movie from Edgar Wright, who is definitely an inspiration for me, starring Michael Cera and the lovely Mary Elizabeth Winstead. If you've not seen it, please do. It is awesome.

It was about September last year that I finished the first draft of "Night is Day: The Movie" when I was living in Partick and it was a pipe-dream that I would actually make it. Thanks to a fantastic crew made up of Lindsay Dowell, Gavin Orr, Andrew Dougal, Ross Hardie, Simon Ferguson, Adam Wardrop, Gregg Houston, Gillian Glencross, Leigh Butler, Bethany Apedaile, John McCall just to name a few and an AMAZING cast, we wrapped filming on the 28th of August.

We started filming on the 5th and 6th of June, oddly enough, in my flat in the city centre of Glasgow, followed by what was one of our biggest days in The Hub in the South Side, filming with Colin McCredie and Simon Weir and a room full of supporting actors playing journalists. Even now it only feels like a few weeks ago.

On the 21st and 22nd of August we were lucky enough to be at Collectormania Glasgow in Braehead promoting the movie - showing our brand new trailer (which I'll get to at the end), selling a limited edition comic book by the wonderful Ash Loydon, postcards from the movie, t-shirts and badges, and meeting a lot of wonderful people. And some seriously strange people too.

Thanks to Lindsay and Gavin we were able to give a talk as a guest had dropped out due to work commitments, and maybe one day someone will put a video of that talk online, it was certainly an experience and I loved every minute of it. I could get very used to a convention life style as long as I had enough money to pay my bills. 

Chris Barrie and Danny John-Jules who played Rimmer and The Cat on Red Dwarf came along to watch our trailer and they were very supportive. As was Dominic Keating who played Malcolm Reed in Star Trek: Enterprise and Sylvester McCoy who played the 7th incarnation of Doctor Who. Again we've got video footage of all of this somewhere.

Okay, so getting carried away in convention land...

On Saturday we started at 8am, travelling in convoy from Glasgow to Airth in Falkirk, to a beautiful farm (thank you Angie!). We filmed some of my favourite scenes from the movie, where Jason, who has just taken a serious beating from 3 scavenger demons, wakes up in the cottage to be greeted by his long lost uncle, who he believed was dead. 

I won't say anymore as I don't want to spoil my own movie, but it was sort of my tribute to the movie, Teenage Mutant Ninja/Hero Turtles - so if you know the movie, you'll get the reference. 

Back in Glasgow and on to the patio of my building to film a fight scene between Jason, vampire Lexi and Frank Stone. It was a brilliant shoot and we managed to wrap in time. In fact, an hour early. So well done to everybody.

Now the hard work continues. Both Lindsay, producer numero uno, and myself will be editing the movie. I'll be laying down a rough cut and handing it to Lindsay to go over, correct, tidy etc. Then it will go to Mathew Crisp for special effects, Jack Ashley and Gillian Glencross for sound correction and design and Philip Martin for scoring before all coming back (hopefully) in time for the festivals. 

In the meantime it would be great if you could watch the first official trailer for the movie and let me know what you think.

Until then, this is Fraser Coull, a low budget filmmaker from Glasgow, saying "I've made a feature film" and I am damn proud.

The interview with Elaine C Smith

We interrupt this blog with the latest episode of Night is Day The Movie: Confidential - by John G McCall.

In this episode Scottish superstar, Elaine C Smith of "Rab C Nesbitt" fame is interviewed and tells us her views on filmmaking in Scotland:



Enjoy!

Lack of a filmmaking blog due to the actual filmmaking!

We're getting really close to wrapping principle photography on Night is Day - The Movie now. We're filming this weekend and then we've only got the 14th/15th and 28th and 29th of August to go and then we're WRAPPED!

It's been an amazing journey, filled with lots of ups and a few downs along the way. Like everything I've done it's been a massive learning curve though. It lets me see which crew members work well together so when it comes to making my next film (whenever that may be!) I'll know who to bring back to the team. I've also worked with some fantastic actors on Night is Day and I don't think we've seen the end of their stories so I really hope I get to continue them.

Since my last post we've been to the Caledonia Club House in Falkirk and filmed a LARGE chunk of the movie involving the evil Caillech who wants to destroy mankind and start again, while poor Jason got the living snot kicked out of him.

Sean Clancy, a professional cage fighter, joined the film and he has co-ordinated every single fight that you'll see. And they are vicious. Jack, our sound designer, has a lot of work ahead of him with adding in cracking bones, punches and kicks, but it'll be brilliant. 

We were filming in a warehouse in Falkirk, and it was mostly Sunny. Mostly. When it rained, IT rained. The wind pounded against the warehouse, birds chirped, the sound was almost impossible and everybody had to try to understand Gaelic. To top it off we then had to film the final fight of the movie. Jason VS three scavenger demons - round 2. 

My hats off to Chris Summers, Sean Clancy, Sean Anderson, Crawford Young and Graeme McIntosh for working so hard to get the fight filmed. Well done to Adam Wardrop, Simon Ferguson and Gavin Orr for filming the fight. I can't wait to edit that section.

We wrapped two hours later than planned, which, in the grand scheme of things, wasn't that terrible. Well done to everybody - you worked your hearts out.

The previous day was lighter in comparison, but only just. We had to film Jason's first encounter with Lena, resulting in a mind-numbing (with a little help from CGI!) vision of Lena being attacked by scavenger demons. A nice relaxing scene of conversation between the pair, and then off to the Botanic Gardens for the third and final time to film Jason VS the Scavengers round 1! 

The following weekend was hectic too. 

We filmed scenes with Nicki Fleming, who plays a 197 year old vampire, Lexi, who wishes to help Jason's quest to stop the Caillech, in return for a little help in stopping the bad guys along the way. Lexi leads Jason to a warehouse where ancient daggers are being stored for the war, resulting in a fight with Jason and Frank Stone - official assassin and psychopath for Mr. Philips.

It's hectic to say the least. In Scotland we've got two types of weather. Wet and Dry. When it's wet there isn't much you can do - and when it's too sunny we can't film without white-out and shadows messing with our continuity. Weekend 5 and 6 consisted of filming in the Hub again - with Gavin creating an art gallery for Lexi to peruse, and the warehouse foyer for Jason and Lexi to investigate, Mr. Philips and Frank to arrive in to meet the Caillech and kick-start the apocalypse. 

Miss Jones arriving to help Jason after finding herself on the wrong side of Frank, and Lexi getting shot.

Oh and there's a box in there too ala Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Arc. 

Next up is a scene that my special effects guy Mathew is dreading. Taking 3 actors in Scavenger demon makeup and turning them into hundreds. But there will be a BBQ so it's not all that bad! 

So yes, I had to finally bite the bullet and buy an iMac. a 21.5" bad boy. It's powerful, it's fast, and it edits HD footage like you wouldn't believe. And it's DAMN expensive! I'll be paying this one back for quite a while so I need Night is Day The Movie to be sold and go into the cinemas, and I need a lot more paid corporate work.

Or you'll next see me at Macdonalds asking if you want your double cheeseburger to be upgraded to a meal with fries and a drink...

Next up on the old filmmaking blog is weekend 7's adventures, a look forward to the final days shooting up north in a cabin with a man called Angus, and the beginning of post production. All going well the movie will premiere at the Edinburgh Film Festival in 2011 and rumour has it we might be off to Comic Con next year too.

But for this year we'll be happy with Collectormania in the Braehead Arena in Glasgow. 21st and 22nd of August we'll be there with scavenger demons, sexy girls, a vampire or two, a brand new Night is Day comic, pictures, postcards, and a brand new trailer exclusive to Collectormania. 

See you on the other side! 

An earthquake comes to Glasgow - superhero action film

(Super)natural disasters hit Glasgow!

I completely forgot to post about Sunday 27th June's shoot on my blog as I was too busy recovering from it all and then it was suddenly the 4th and 5th of July, but we'll get to that later.

On the 27th the crew headed off to Muse, a bar near Queen Street Station in Glasgow. We'd been given permission to film in their downstairs bar to film a scene early on in the film (scenes 6, 7, 8 and 11) where we catch up with Detective Inspector Iain Mullan (Steven McEwan) for the first time since series 2. He's on a blind date with Mandy (yes, a reference to the filmmaking website Mandy.com) played by Rachel Loughran. 

The date is going well until Mullan goes to get another drink and there is an almighty earthquake!

Queue 20 or so extras flailing around the bar on my command (Bang! I believe was their queue) as Simon our camera guy shook his camera around each group of extras, creating the desired effect. 

The extras take a break while awaiting their next stage of direction

Eventually we would ask everybody to close their eyes while we brought in our villain of the movie, The Caillech, a Gaelic speaking old hag in battle armour, screamed at them in Gaelic. It was wonderful. Everybody reacted brilliantly and the footage looks brilliant. 

John G McCall took the extras up stairs and filmed each of them for his Behind the Scenes blog (which you can see here http://www.vimeo.com/user4040085) so everybody will get a little bit extra screen time which is nice.

It was then on to the task of smashing glasses, bottles and shaking tables safely with the extras away from the bar to add to our earthquake. 

Smashing! (Yes, I went there)

It was then on to the next scene, one of my favourites, where Mullan's colleagues, Superintendent Sloan (John Gaffney) and Inspector Rebecca Munro (Clare Sheppard) find him and he tells them about the Caillech. Confused, they decide that Mr. Philips (Tam Toye) could be involved. Jason (Chris Summers) arrives and they have a heated argument over their involvement with the supernatural.

With the scenes wrapped we took a break back at the base (aka my flat) and I took the footage from the cameras and edited the earthquake scene together quickly and it looks brilliant. Once it has proper special effects, sound effects and music - it will be fantastic.

Off to the South Side of Glasgow we went to film the last scene of the day - Scene 10 - where Sloan and Rebecca arrive outside the Night Club and meet PC Douglas (the fantastic Kenny Boyle who runs his own web review show called Queens of the Pawnage) before going down into the club. 

On the next blog I'll talk about how I've had to succumb and buy an iMac to edit the film in all it's HD glory and how I'll be in massive amounts of debt thanks to it, the stressful weekend which was the 4th and 5th of July when we filmed a large chunk of the end of the movie (where Jason fights three scavenger demons...twice) and our plans for the film when it comes to conventions.

Scottish feature films - Sci-fi superhero movie in production

Scottish feature films - Sci-fi superhero movie in production

The second weekend of filming our Scottish superhero movie "Night is Day - The Movie" came to an exhausting end on Sunday evening at around 11pm.

(Superhero's Jason and Caitlyn, played by Chris Summers and Anna Walseth. Next to supervillains Gwen and Angel portrayed by Kelly Love and Liz Strange)

I've made around four short films in my 4 year career, as well as two seasons of "Night is Day" as a web series, all with very little money, but this movie is tough. That's not a complaint - if it was easy then everybody would be doing it. It's just a lot of work and time goes into making sure everybody knows what they are doing, where to be, when to be, what to wear, etc etc. And then you need to make it look brilliant. We're shooting on two HD cameras, Sony WEX3 to be precise. We've not got a £50,000 or a £1 million budget, we've not even got £2,000!

Let's just say I'm very glad to have a fantastic production team and a wonderful cast around me - that keeps me going. I love making the film - it's a huge step for me - and I've got a lot further this time than I did with my first attempt at a feature in 2006 - so I am grateful.

The footage is looking great and three scenes have already been edited together and coloured - I am definitely very happy with how it's going.

On Saturday the 19th we filmed a LOT of scenes. We started at 8.30am outside the Pitt Street police station,  waiting for Elaine C Smith to arrive to film her cameo scenes. In the movie she plays Rebecca Munro's mum. Rebecca is a new character to the Night is Day world, working with Superintendent Sloan and DCI Mullan in their F-Division group for the police.

(Clare Sheppard on set with Elaine C Smith)

Elaine was lovely, a real pro and very, very funny. Her and Clare worked really hard on the scene together and we got the result we wanted in the end. It's only a shame Elaine is only in two scenes of the movie. I hope I can work with her again one day. We wrapped her scenes and headed back to the Base (aka my flat) and we filmed another scene with Clare before taking a break for the day.

(Fight director Sean Clancy takes the girls through the fight)

Thanks to Glasgow City Council we've been given permission to film for three days in the Botanic Gardens, with two scenes shot over the two days, the first was a fight scene between Caitlyn (Anna Walseth) and Gwen (Kelly Love), which was directed by cage-fighter and fight director, Sean Clancy. Everybody worked really hard, and the last part of the scene was DAMN impressive. Well done to Anna and Chris for that brilliant scene.

We wrapped just before 10pm and the next stay started at 9.30am again as we filmed two scenes with Mark Harvey and Tam Toye, who play villainous assassin Frank Stone and corrupt businessman, Mr. Philips respectively. Mr. Philips has genuinely no connection to our main villain, The Caillech, but that doesn't stop him from wanting to share in the havoc that she is creating. Leigh Butler, our makeup artist, did an amazing job on The Caillech. We are NOT releasing ANY photos of the Caillech at all, not until the next trailer is created, and even then we might not. All we can say is that she is really freaky. In a good way.

With those scenes filmed we wrapped until the evening when we had a few problems with timing. We needed to film a scene where The Caillech summons her soldiers, vicious Scavenger Demons (Cat Joss, who plays the Caillech, referred to them as "her puppies"). The makeup for the scavengers is long and complicated, but scary and fantastic at the same time. Back to the Botanic Gardens we went to the abandoned train station there to film that scene before heading up the road to film a scene where Sloan, Mullan and Rebecca are confronted by the Scavenger demons for the first time. I can't wait to see the footage! 

We wrapped at 11pm, which totally wiped me out and I'm sure the cast and crew are exhausted too.

Sunday the 27th sees the next day of filming until the 3rd of July - we'll be in Muse near Queen Street to film 5 scenes of the movie - some involving The Caillech again. Can't wait to get started!

Night is Day - Confidential - Behind the Scenes of Night is Day The Movie

Thanks to John G McCall I can now show you the first behind the scenes video from making "Night is Day - The Movie".

Warning - I'm in this video :p



Next weekend we're filming with Elaine C. Smith who played Rab C Nesbitt's long suffering wife, Mary, in the long-running BBC Scotland comedy of the same name. We're in talks with a few more well known actors to take cameo roles in the film to help boost the profile of what we're trying to achieve.

On the 18th of June we're holding a Superhero Costume Party in Karbon Night club in Glasgow City Centre from 7pm which is free for everybody to come to (18+ only I'm afraid) and on the 2nd of July we're holding a sponsorship party to help us raise the funds we need to pay for expenses, costumes, makeup, and yes, locations.

Despite being granted access to film in places such as The Botanic Gardens and The Hub for free, we're still struggling to find a big enough office to film Mr. Philips (Tam Toye) office scenes. The cheapest we can find is £300 for a few hours in an office in the city centre, but that's still a nightmare!

Wish us luck on our 2nd weekend of filming!

Night is Day The Movie: Filming Blog - 1st Weekend

Filming for Night is Day: The Movie has started! Woo hoo!

Things have really stepped up a gear this time for the production, giving it a proper movie feel. We have proper departments dealing with hair, makeup, costumes, locations, production, producing, assisting etc, and it's brilliant. We're filming on two Sony WEX3 cameras - which are giving us brilliant HD quality. 

On day one we started a bit later at 3pm, where we filmed three scenes. Two right at the very start of the film where we have news reporters working on the story of a lightning-powered vigilante fighting crime on the streets of Glasgow. Unfortunately the sound for the first scene we filmed didn't work out, and we had to re-film it on the Sunday, but regardless it's in the bag.

We had Lynne Hoggan who presents the breakfast show on Real Radio with Robin Galloway and she was a pro. Really lovely girl and her acting was spot on. Simon is going to add in special effects to make it look she was in a news studio. 

DCI Iain Mullan (Steven McEwan) gets caught snooping around by Taylor (Colin McCredie)


After which we took a break from filming and once Chris, aka Jason Mackenzie, arrived on set, we filmed a scene which sets up the story, driving Jason to the heart of the film - the villain! It took a little bit longer than we hoped to film that scene, but we got there in the end.

Day 2 started MUCH earlier, arriving at the Hub at Pacific Quay at 9.30am and setting up to start filming at 11am. We were given access to what I can only describe as a hanger at an airport. A massive open space which we transformed into our press conference where the evil Mr. Philips is opening a new medical centre, only to get interrupted by our police heroes who think he's been up to something dodgy. 

We had around 15 extras playing journalists, as well as a real journalist from the Evening Times showing up to interview us. The scene wrapped and then we moved on to the interrogation scene with the cops and Mr. Philips. A much smaller office made the scene feel really tense and atmospheric and it looks brilliant.

We were very lucky to have Simon Weir (The Acid House, Taggart, Monarch of the Glen, Take the High Road) step in to play CS Carlisle, Sloan's superior. The two of them acted out a scene in the hallway of the medical centre which blew everybody away. The entire cast and crew stood to watch and it was something special. 

Simon Weir wrapped his scene and then we quickly set up for the scene with Mullan and his informant, Taylor, played by Taggart actor, Colin McCredie. Again another tense scene where Mullan has a gun pulled on him and it's all very exciting. At the end of the scene the cast and crew applauded, which was brilliant.

While our great team tidied up the offices and restored it to the way we found it, a few of us went downstairs to re-film the scene where Sloan is hounded by a TV news journalist played by our very own producer, Gavin. 

With the filming wrapped at the hub it was back to the flat to debrief and eat some pizza. Yum! We all took a breather before heading to Kinning Park to film Jason's first scene in the movie. Wow is all I can say. We had already filmed the scene once (it's in the trailer) but we really upped the game this time. There was far more electricity (no pun intended) between the actors and it was so good to watch. 

We finished just in time for the rain to come down and I got home, collapsed on the sofa and fell asleep. 

9 scenes filmed, 59 to go. 

Next Saturday we've got fight rehearsals as we continue to fight with Glasgow City Council to find an office to film in which won't cost us £1,200, and permission to film in the Botantic Gardens on the 20th of June.

Ah, the joys of being a low budget filmmaker...

Simon Weir (CS Carlisle), Clare Sheppard (Inspector Rebecca Munro), Steven McEwan (DCI Iain Mullan) and John Gaffney (Superintendent Sloan) prepare for "Night is Day: The Musical"

Pre-production of a Glasgow film - Shooting starts on our sci-fi superhero film project in Scotland next week!

LOW-BUDGET WEB SERIES BECOMES SILVER SCREEN ACTION MOVIE THIS SUMMER!

Who is Jason Mackenzie? That's the question you'll be asking next Summer if all goes to plan for Silly Wee Films and their associate production companies Goldray Productions, Artist Media Ltd and FK1 Productions.

Originally a low-budget web series shot in and around Glasgow city centre for less than £5,000 using local actors and filmmakers from all around Scotland, "Night is Day" follows the adventures of Jason Mackenzie, a man in his mid-twenties who has the power of foresight and lightning thanks to a good demon, Ames, who believes Jason is the man to fight crime on the streets and protect us all from evil.

Series 1 was shown on the Sky Channel Propeller TV in 2007 and featured "Sweet Sixteen" legend Martin Compston as a gangster while series 2 is going to be complete in 2010 and features Colin McCredie who is best known for playing DC Stuart Fraser in long-running crime drama series "Taggart".

Now armed with 5 years of experience making short films and promotional videos for local companies in Greenock, Glasgow and beyond, I'm turning my attention to feature length films in the hope to advance my career and let people see how serious I am to succeed at putting my ideas on the big screen. 

The script features a brand-new exciting story with Jason having to use every ounce of strength he has to find and stop a mysterious entity only known as the Caillech, who is determined to wipe out mankind in three days. To make matters worse a corrupt businessman, Mr. Philips, is in league with the Caillech in hope that he can benefit from their mutual arrangement. Meanwhile tough city cops Sloan and Mullan, teamed with the latest member of their team, Inspector Rebecca Munro, have to investigate who and what the Caillech is and the connection she shares with a young highland girl, Lena Dwyre.  

Producers Gavin Orr and Lindsay Dowell of Goldray Productions have locked down the schedule which will see the team film in Glasgow and surrounding areas at weekends from June until August, with the hope they can take a completed cut of the film to International film markets next year in order to find a distributor and a Summer premiere is currently planned.

Joining the current cast of Chris Summers, Steven McEwan, Clare Sheppard, John Gaffney, Kirsty Anderson, Tam Toye, Nicki Fleming, Alexandra Mackenzie, Vharri Lavery, Kenny Boyle, Mark Harvey and Anna Walseth is Rab C. Nesbitt legend Elaine C. Smith who features as Rebecca's mum. Taggart star Colin McCredie plays Taylor, Mullan's informant, and Simon Weir who starred in "The Acid House" and "Monarch of the Glen" plays CS Carlisle - Sloan and Mullan's boss who isn't too pleased with their recent methods of police work.

Filming starts on the 5th and 6th of June with sponsors such as The Hub at Pacific Quay, local bar Muse providing the nightclub locations, West Beer providing the on-screen alcohol and locations and props gurus The Quickening backing the first Scottish superhero film.

If you want to get involved visit http://www.nightisday.net or our Facebook group http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=237674711930&ref=ts. 

A superhero fancy dress party is being held in the Karbon Nightclub in Glasgow on the 18th of June from 7pm onwards where everybody can come dressed as their favourite superhero or villain to meet the cast and crew and win the chance to appear in the movie itself! A sponsorship party on the 2nd of July will let people bid to sponsor the characters for the film to help us raise the budget needed to pay for costumes, props, locations etc. 

Your superhero needs you!