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!

Night is Day - Sci-fi web series online - superhero webseries

"Night is Day" is the one project that has been constant throughout my filmmaking career. When I was training at the BBC in Glasgow on their E-Force training program in around 2003 I came across a competition to shoot a trailer for a film that hadn't been made yet. It was there I decided to make a trailer for a film about a superhero in Glasgow as at that time there were no Glaswegian superheroes so it felt like the right time. 

From training at the BBC I went to James Watt College in 2003 until 2004 and I made a short film version of Night is Day called "Night is Day - Dusk". We shot it in 7 days and while it could vastly be approved upon, it was still my first proper short film and I'm very proud of it.

After making the short I decided making a feature film was the next way to go - a sword fighting epic called "The Journey" which came to an abrupt end after I got ran down by a car. With a lack of funding and a stable crew, I decided to make "Night is Day" as a web series instead and come 2006 we had started filming the 6 episodes. 

The series was filmed in 9 months and released online for £1 per episode for people to watch, and while there was a steady flow of viewers, we never did manage to reach the target of making the expenses back we had incurred while shooting the series, so thanks to KenKai Projects in Stirling we got the series put onto a DVD (which you can buy here) We then took the episodes off-line and kept them for the DVD.

In 2008 in May we started filming series 2 of the show. This time it was bigger and better. Instead of 6 episodes we went for 7 and instead of random length we stuck to the 25 minute format. Over 40 cast and crew were involved and we filmed in Glasgow and Stirling. Finally episode 7 is in post-production with the complicated special effects (demon vs demon in the Hamilton Mausoleum!) being worked on and episode 4 is having the sound effects worked on while the music for episode 6 is being scored. 

As series 2 nears competition and with "Night is Day" branching out and becoming a full-length feature film, originally titled "Night is Day - The Movie" (not to confuse any one who might be aware of the series),  which starts filming on the first weekend of June - I've put episodes 1 and 2 of series 1 BACK online for people to watch for free. So feel free to check them out below and if you like what you see then you can always order the series 1 DVD. 

Enjoy!