I'm Fraser Coull, currently training at the BBC on their production talent pool to become a production management assistant. It's my goal to become a writer and producer for television. I've had several years experience writing, directing and producing a web series, short films, a pilot for a TV show and a feature film about a superhero in Scotland. I'm confident in research, production management, and pulling together a project.
Tomorrow I'm showing a preview of Night is Day (the movie...) at Comic Camp, which is part of the Glasgow Film Festival. It's being held at the CCA from 11am until 1.30pm where some of the biggest names of the comic book industry will be in attendance.
I'm really happy with the preview, as the post-production team have put together amazing special effects, sound design, music and grading and colouring the shots - so I hope everybody likes what they see and want to see more!
After the preview I'll be giving a Q and A with my producer Gavin, so I'm feeling good about that, but still pretty nervous.
As of yesterday the 4th edit of "Night is Day" was complete. I took the train to Falkirk so that I could go through the 3rd edit with the producers, Lindsay and Gavin, and our co-producer Andrew. There weren't many changes at all - just tweaks here and there - we've cut a couple of scenes down just to keep the pace of the film tight.
Everything could change once the music, special effects and sound effects are done - plus we'll need to bring some of the actors back to re-dub their dialogue and I'm working with a comic book artist (or two, or three!) to work on a web comic for http://www.nightisday.net that will explore the characters of the movie a bit more so potential fans can become invested in them, a sort of expanded universe in a way.
All going well we should have a version of the movie to show to distributors and fans in the Summer before taking the movie to the American Film Market in November.
Cross your fingers for us!
And on a final note - here's a trailer for a film called "Sucker Punch" and I really hope I get to make a movie this awesome one day soon.
A couple of days ago I went out and bought "Scott Pilgrim VS The World" on Blu-ray. I'm not going to lie to you, this is one of the reasons why I bought a Blu-Ray player (that and Iron Man 2). While my blu-ray collection is less than impressive (Scott Pilgrim and Beauty and The Beast... yep, I admitted it), Scott Pilgrim is so many levels of awesome.
The synopsis for the film is simple - Scott Pilgrim is a slacker who plays guitar in a band. He starts dating a 17-year old high schooler, Knives, but then he has a dream about a cool girl called Ramona and starts to date her instead. Yet, Ramona's most recent ex, Gideon, wants Ramona all for himself, so sets 6 evil ex-boyfriends out to kill Scott.
It's directed by Edgar Wright - who is best known for making "Spaced" here in the UK - "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz" - two brilliant UK films about zombies and the police in a sleepy town in England. They are American movies, set in the UK. Strangely, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzzed were loved and adored in the States, yet Scott Pilgrim just didn't set the box office alight over in the US. However Edgar is now apparently working on Marvel's "Ant Man", so fingers crossed that works for him.
"What's your point Coull?" you might be thinking. Well, I'll tell you. It's all about special features baby. Scott Pilgrim VS The World on Blu-ray have THE most amazing special features ever. Ranging from pre-production (animatics, storyboards, casting tapes and rehearsals) to filming the movie itself (video blogs from cast and crew, outtakes, behind the scenes) right through to post-production (how they did the special effects, sound design and editing) - everything you need to know about making a movie is RIGHT here.
Yes, they probably had MILLIONS of Dollars, a ton of crew and yes their cast is amazing, but that doesn't mean that independent filmmakers who are still trying to crack the industry shouldn't use these special features as a guide-line, a template, on how to approach making a film.
Sadly not everybody goes to film school (or a TV production course at college) and just think they can hop into the director's chair - resulting in a poor final product, if the project is fortunate enough to get that far. This can be damaging for the industry at this level for many reasons - a lot of people will spend a lot of their time, energy, and even money (travel costs, costumes, props, missing days of paid work to be a part of it) only for the final product to not go anywhere because a distribution company will not take sub-standard work.
So go work on someone else's short film, make your own short film, keep it simple, learn how to do it, and make each project better than the last one.
Before I made "Night is Day" I went to college and studied TV operations and productions, I then made a short film, then 13 episodes of a web series, followed by three short films - just making sure I knew what to do and what crew and cast were best to work with me on them. Only then did I put my foot into the feature film world.
Despite being so proud of the movie, I know my next film will be better, as I understand it all better now, and I know how to work the industry a little bit better. My next film (which might be a comedy called "Get Funded" or a monster movie set in a remote Scottish village) will not be made until proper funding is in place so the cast and crew can get paid and we can pay for locations, the proper equipment etc, and do it right.
In short, go out and buy a Blu-ray player and get Scott Pilgrim. You'll thank me.
