icebluenothing | Entries tagged with fan film

You might well have wondered -- whatever happened to that Doctor Who fan film I was going to make? Seeing as how the one day of filming we ever did was over a year ago.

I just wanted to mention -- the project's not abandoned. I've still been doing some pre-production work on it in my spare time. Just this weekend, in fact, I finished building a major prop, really the major prop* my script calls for aside from the TARDIS exterior and interior. I'd had a couple of different versions of this before that I was never really entirely happy with, but now I have something I honestly think looks pretty outstanding, easily as good as some of the props the show itself has. I'll try to get some pictures of it up soon.

So what's the hold-up? In short, for those of you who don't know, I had some fairly major social upheaval last year, and ended up losing a couple of friends over it. One of them was going to be playing one of the lead parts, and another was borrowing the camera and sound equipment for us. Both of these things, as you might imagine, seriously killed the momentum on the project.

But I haven't given up. I believe I've found a replacement for our lost actor, and I've had another friend step forward and volunteer to borrow the AV equipment -- and frankly, now that I'm finally making decent money again, I'm seriously considering just buying a camera and sound equipment.

I need to take stock of where I am with pre-production, polish the script up a little bit, and sit down with my actors and have a read-through sometime soon. I'm not 100% sure we can really get things going again fast enough to shoot the outdoor scenes this year before the weather starts to suck. But we shall see. Further updates as events warrant.

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* For those of you who have read the script, I'm talking about the transphasic reactor.

RE: my last post:

So. Umm. Yeah.

What if I told you I'd already started .... ?

So some of you may remember the pictures of my TARDIS console prop for my Doctor Who fanfilm (which I will get back to work on soon, dammit).

I built it with my dad way back in my early teen years. And I was always perfectly satisfied with it when the actual prop still looked like this, this, or even this.

But the console looks considerably different in the current series, and it's really changed my head around about what the console "should" look like. Every time I look at my own prop, it looks, well, hopelessly old-fashioned.

Of course, since I already have a perfectly good, finished prop, one that's been waiting patiently to be used for years, starting over completely with a brand new prop, especially when I only have the limited space of my condo to work in, would be crazy.

.... Right?

I never did sit down and write this up, so here it is now:

Set Report: Day One

Last Monday was out first day of filming. I had the day off, which means I had the entire day to plan and fret and generally bounce around. I went out and bought some lights and some material to use as reflectors; I didn't think we were going to need them for this shoot (although I'm sure we'll need them later), but my general rule to live by is that I'd rather have something and not need it than need something and not have it.

I also needed a couple of things to make this "meeting" look like a meeting; a couple dozen Krispy Kremes, and some Starbucks cups. I asked my local Starbucks if I could have a half-dozen empty cups and lids, and they wanted to know why, naturally, so I told them I was shooting this little video of a meeting scene -- "just something me and my friends are going to put on YouTube," I oversimplified. "Oh, okay," was their reaction -- and I've now discovered a magic word to get supplies and assistance for an amateur film without making it seem like a big deal. YouTube sounds safe and inconsequential.

I picked up

capnexposition and the camera he was borrowing from the U-District and headed out to Bellevue. We got to our location, and almost everyone was there, so it looked like things were going well -- but I got a call from

lokheed telling me he was going to be about 45 minutes late. Was there material we could shoot without him? Well -- no, not really. But that turned out not to even be an issue, because we had a much worse problem on our hands.

We'd been issued the wrong camera -- one that didn't have the right jacks for our external microphone. That left us with three choices -- use the on-board microphone, make a trip back to the U-District for the right equipment, or scrap the whole venture and reschedule.

I didn't want to reschedule; for one thing, this was the only time

lokheed was going to be in town, and second, I was worried I'd lose momentum on the entire project if we didn't manage this first step. I also didn't want to make do with the on-board microphone -- those are always crap, and they pick up the hum of the camera motor. The main thing that makes an amateur film seem amateur is crappy sound, and I want to avoid that at all costs.

So we waited for

retcon to make the round-trip to the U-District. He made good time, but oh, lord, it felt interminable to those of us waiting. We went ahead and broke into the donuts, realizing that dinner was still hours away.

They came back with the right equipment, and after some trouble getting it set up, came the question: where did I want the camera for the first shot?

I hate to say this. But I froze. My brain just completely locked up, faced with the prospect of actually, finally doing this.

endorphan saw the look on my face, and stepped forward and made a suggestion. It was a good suggestion, too, so that's what we did. I joked at the time that he was the "assistant director," now, but really, what that did was set the tone for a productive and creative evening where everyone felt free to make their comments and suggestions on camera angles, line readings, everything. I hope that carries over into other shoots -- I loved the feeling of collaboration. It felt more like a drama workshop than just me poncing around being an auteur, and I loved it.

Once we had all the technical hitches out of the way, the rest of the evening went really smoothly. My actors are great. Line fluffs and corpsing were kept to a minimum, and no one had that stiff awkwardness that one usually associates with amateur acting.

I didn't write

lokheed's part with him in mind, but now I can't imagine having done this without him.

ursako is just as good an actress as

windbourne and

briara have been telling me she is, and she really nailed the main scene that's going to sell the emotion of the opening. She has the biggest part aside from the Doctor and his companion, and after this first night, I am 100% confident she's going to be able to carry it off. And

endorphan was a real pleasure to work with, as well -- it was really gratifying to watch him go through a read-through that seemed really off to me, then give him just a few words of direction, and then watch him turn around and give me exactly the performance I had in my head when I wrote those lines.

It's an amazing feeling to watch all this coming to life in front of my eyes. I can't wait for our next shoot.

Thank you so much to everyone who was there and made this happen, and thank you to

georgmi for getting us such a great location. I can't even tell you all how much this means to me.

Here's the character list for my fan film, along with who's playing what part, and the roles that are still uncast. (I'm posting this here instead of in

dw_eleventhhour because I want as many people as possible to see it.)

_________

Archivist
Our alien menace. To be played by retcon. We'll need to figure out what we're doing for makeup, and I'll need someone to be in charge of his makeup. (windbourne? artvixn?)

Brodie
A physicist. To be played by ursako.

Castle
A manager. To be played by lokheed, schedule permitting.

Co-Worker
Another small part, with just a couple of lines. Needs to be a "techy" type.

The Doctor
My own humble self, natch.

Extras
Will need some extras for a conference room scene at a physics-lab-type corporation. If you'd like to be in this, but you can't act to save your life, we do need bodies.

Security Guard
Minor part. saheeb138 was willing, if not especially enthusiastic, to do this. If someone out there actually wanted this role, I don't think he'd be too upset to have someone else do it.

Jackson
A technician. To be played by georgmi.

Alien Leader
To be voiced by str1.

Nathan
A physicist. To be played by kespernorth.

Pryde
A physicist/entrepreneur. To be played by endorphan.

Rebecca
Nathan's wife. To be played by hetaera15.

Receptionist
This is going to be just a voice-over part, actually, so this could be done by anyone, anywhere, who could record their part and send me a halfway decent quality MP3.

Susan
The Doctor's companion. To be played by windbourne.

Current Music: Nine Inch Nails - Closer (Precursor)

Some of you got a sneak-peek at this the other day -- I accidentally posted the welcome message for it here, instead of there, but then I deleted it:

I've created a community for discussing and planning my Doctor Who fan film project. If you're going to be in it, or you'd like to help out, or you're just curious, check it out at

dw_eleventhhour.

I keep forgetting to post a link to this -- !

The other day, I was down at my mom's house, doing a little work on my TARDIS prop, and on my TARDIS console prop. Here's a photoset of them.

Basically, I updated the signage on the TARDIS to match the prop as seen in the 2005 series. Also, I finally added a Time Rotor to the console (that's the tall, clear cylinder in the center). I'm very excited about that. The main body of the console I built with my dad when I was thirteen, fourteen years old -- sometime around then. Finally putting something I'm happy with in the center of it was kind of like putting the last spike in the Transcontinental Railroad. It was a neat moment of collaboration between past and future.

My mom's reaction was, "It's too bad your dad can't see this." On consideration, she added, "Or maybe he can."

---

For those of you who have wondered, yes, I am still going to make the film, even though he's not still here to see it. It'll be a tribute, at this point.

(I'll admit, I stopped being in a big hurry to get it done when my dad told me several months ago that he was having a lot of trouble following television shows and movies. It really, really would have sucked if I'd finished it in time for him to see it, and then he wasn't able to enjoy it.)

Calling all location scouts! I've gotten a little sidetracked these past couple of weeks, but I do still want to shoot my Doctor Who video. Here's where I need your help.

I'm going to need the following locations for filming my fan vid. There are some street shots, scenes in the woods, and other throwaway locations, but those I'm inclined to just shoot-and-run without bothering with permission. But these are locations I need to actually nail down.

Suggestions welcome. Offers even more welcome -- if your home or workplace would be suitable for any of these, please speak up. (So long as you're absolutely sure that having me and my little film crew come in won't get you in trouble with where you work or live. In other words, make sure you're in a position to actually grant permission.)

We need:

Office building interiors. Specifically, we need a cubicle we can film in, and a hallway with an elevator.

Parking garage. Needs to convincingly be the parking garage of the aforementioned office building, so while an apartment building's parking garage would probably be fine, it needs to have that "official" kind of look to it, if you know what I mean. If it comes down to it, I'll probably use the UW's parking garage -- they're used to LARPers and other weirdos.

Coffee shop. Shouldn't be too hard to come by in Seattle. (I'd ask Aurafice, since I've done so many readings there, but I'm looking for something with a more "mainstream" look.)

A workshop. This needs to be a fairly sizeable space that I can bring some fairly large props into. I'm thinking a clean, empty garage, or a loft-space of some kind. The script involves a scientist who's building a new energy source on his own time and resources, so this will be that workshop. I'm very flexible on what kind of space this is.

Convenience store parking lot. Again, probably a shot I can steal, but getting permission would be better. (

ulrich?)

Urban setting -- TARDIS landing site. Might be kind of a tricky one to arrange .... The TARDIS, for those unfamiliar, is box a little bigger than a phone booth. I need somewhere in "the city" that the TARDIS can be parked. Ideally an alleyway or something like that, if anyone reading this works somewhere that has one out back .... Maybe a parking lot? Street outside a business? Wherever we can get permission for, really. Go nuts.

Rock pit, quarry, or something similar. For an alien planet scene, of course. Another tricky one. Filming here isn't going to be extensive, so a day trip would do it -- but still, somewhere reasonably close to Seattle. Oh, and we need to be able to drive a car out into the middle of it, too, so we need somewhere we can get permission to do that, or somewhere that won't care.

As many of you know, I've been wanting for years -- decades, really -- to make a Doctor Who fan film. The first Doctor Who I ever saw was a fan production, actually, and watching it gave me the bug.

I've accumulated costumes and props, built large set pieces, including a full-size TARDIS and TARDIS console. But due to never finishing a script I was happy with, and general procrastination, I've never done it.

My dad helped me with the set pieces, and he's given me lots of other encouragement for the project over the years, and, well, I'd like him to be able to see it. That means if I want to do it, the time is now.

I've finished a script I like. I've lined up

windbourne,

retcon, and

endorphan to be in it.

capnexposition will be bringing a near-professional quality video camera to the production.

I have more parts I need to cast -- I'll be posting a casting call here in a day or so -- and there are some locations I need to find, as well. I'll need help.

*deep breath* Let's do this.