'Source Material' Shoot

'Source Material' is an idea that I have had kicking around in my head in one form or another for about 6 years now. It's something of a cross between Stranger Than Fiction and the Adjustment Bureau where a 'coder' (Chuck) who works for a company called 'The Corporation' who are in charge of writing "life" as it were. Without them keeping the narrative of things ticking over everything would go to pot, or at least so the bosses of The Corporation do.

Chris and Ted trying to discuss shots even though it's late

 Chuck has always thought that he was destined for greater things. In his mind he should be in charge of writing for the President but instead he has got landed with someone boring and mundane. In previous drafts of the script Chuck is constantly trying to move to writing for someone who is deemed a "success" and eventually decides to alter the narrative so that his character accidentally becomes one. This then spirals out of control with him having to fight for the control of his characters soul eventually having to meet him and directly intervene in his life in order to save him.

Ben Rosen getting a touch up before he goes on camera

In this short version it was simply that Chuck meets the girl (Kate) that he thinks that he is meant to make his character fall in love with and in turn falls for her too. He then only has a limited amount of time to rewrite the narrative in the hope that no one from The Corporation finds out what he has done. However, was it all meant to happen his way with the ending shot seemingly being another coder sat in the lobby writing away as Chuck lies in bed happy with Kate.

A very happy Austin at the bar

Basically the shoot was another great experience for myself and BottleRocket Film. We've come on leaps and bounds from our first outing together on the 48 Hour SciFi Challenge and hopefully when Source Material is cut and finished this lessons that we learnt will show. The cast were great, the crew were amazing (and a special thanks to the staff at Ennios in Southampton who were amazing hosts for the two days that we were with them!) and we managed to not only film everything that we wanted but actually finished a-head of schedule and a tiny bit under budget!

Ted directing Austin in the opening shots

Personally I learnt lessons from being involved in helping out  on The Fitzroy and watching Andrew direct that piece and had a much greater understanding of what it is to be a director. I'm not at the point where I understand everything about the craft but I'm slowly getting there I think.

More direction of Austin in the lobby scene

The lessons that we learnt are much the same as before but now with the need to be looking at more ambitious shorts we know that we have to start attracting not just more people to work with us but have to also start looking around for more money. Out of necessity we have frequently had to either be in our own films (Chris Richards is now a staple motif in our work - some might call him a modern day Hitchcock!) and often we have had to share a few roles amongst each other that isn't ideal but I think that we've managed to pull it off. In future productions I think it is now essential that we ensure that there are enough people to fill each role in the film and stick solely to their jobs.

Emma and Joey at the table in the restaurant

I am also indebted to my friends who came along and helped out on this production for nothing other than my eternal love and respect. Everyone who we called on stepped up to the plate and really made the film their own. It has really made me think hard about how I would like to conduct myself if I were ever to really make this filmmaking malarky my full time job, I would want to ensure that everyone on the production was treated as fairly and equally as possible right down to how the "profits" of the film were distributed.

So to the future. I've got until mid September when my year is up and I'm happy with what I have achieved so far on this adventure; but there is no real money in short films and unless we get lucky and one of our videos manages to gain thousands of views we're never going to establish ourselves as a legitimate production company. We've got plans to make another few short films this year but after we have maybe got five or six under our belts I would really like to start looking a tackling a feature film - hopefully as early as late next year. This is obviously a pipe dream - but if you can't dream big, what's the point in dreaming at all?!


If anyone wants to see some more photos from the shoot, or keep up to date with BottleRocket's adventures like our Facebook page here:

https://www.facebook.com/BottleRocketFilm

We've got some time in the editing suite booked on the 5th June so look out for the rough cut making an appearance shortly after but we're hoping to have some original music written for the piece that will accompany the final cut hopefully before the end of June!