ACTORS CONFIRMED: ED GAUGHAN AND SAMUEL HASKELL (WITH VIDEO)

So I have finally cast the two main roles for Autumn Leaves. William (The son), who will be played by Samuel Haskell who I was lucky enough to come in contact with back in London, through my mum who works with a part time theatre director. Thomas (The father) will be played by Ed Gaughan, who I mentioned before who is best known for his role in the feature film Skeletons, which was also my introduction to him as an actor.

It's great to finally have found the two actors that will hold the film together and I look forward to working with them both when it comes to shooting.

Here are the two video auditions that I asked Sam to put together from my instruction a few weeks after I met him in London. They are really great and after viewing them both, I knew I had my William.








And here are two clips from the movie Skeletons starring Ed Gaughan:





Am really excited to work with them and will keep you updated on the progress of the film over the next few weeks before the shoot. Hopefully the blogs will pick up again after I have handed in my dissertation.

Film Donations. (Contributors will receive copy of Dvd and film credit)

As a poor student, funds are not at their best at present and although the film does have a budget , it is still approaching a level which never feels enough. Without sounding preachy or begging (which I'm not) I thought it would be great to get you guys involved with the film process and help us out with a little bit of cash to boost  the film and hopefully make it better in the process.

What we can offer YOU though is a copy of Autumn Leaves on dvd once it is fully finished and at the stage to be sent off to film festivals (around May-June). For anyone that donates money to the film, you also receive a FILM CREDIT, for being a contributor to the film's production.

I have handily set up a pay-pal option which will enable safe and easy access in order to help us create the best film that we possibly can. If you cannot help us with funds than we are still grateful that you're even reading this and following the film.

Just click on the button below and e-mail me at Lee.Barham@hotmail.com to just tell us that you have donated and then we'll keep you up to date once were ready to send the dvd off.

THIRD DRAFT OF AUTUMN LEAVES SCRIPT (READ HERE)

Above is the third draft of the Autumn Leaves script, just click on the images to get at bigger version, so you don't strain your eyes. I saw that many other people were starting to post their drafts upon their blogs, so I wanted to get in on the action and it close enough to the shoot. I plan on creating one more draft before the shoot. I am really pleased with this draft and this draft has remained unchanged so far for about two months. There are definitely things that needed to be changed, certain things about the scenes will change and the dialogue which is still a little bit clunky, but I imagine that the dialogue will change when given to the actors upon the set. What I will say is that there will be no drastic changes, just things that make the scenes better and cuts to the scenes for action and dialogue that is not needed at all.  Please feel free to give me feedback upon the blog or whether you can, as it is nice to be told what I'm doing wrong as well as obviously what I am doing right.

Enjoy!

Location for Pub scene

Here are some more location photos, this time from the pub we are going to shoot the third killing that William partakes in, which is the pub landlady Josie. It's quite a nice darkly lit pub, with brown walls and lit with very tungsten lamps which I like and is what I am going to go for, for some of the other scenes as well, to give it a darkish, noirish overtone.

Location for Butcher shop

Here is the location for the Butcher's shop in Perranporth that we will be shooting at. Here is where WIlliam kills the Butcher who is his first victim. It's a really nice old fashion styled butchers, so hopefully we will be able to create a great scene using glide cam and the mis-en-scene that comes with it to show the front and the back of the Butcher's shop.

Here are some photos:

Location scouting for Funeral Parlour Office...

I only really looked at one location for the Funeral parlour office in person but that is because I had a really good feeling about it. I will post some other potential ones if this does not work out but the living area of the Hawthorne Dene hotel in Falmouth is definitely how I envision the office to be. It's really homely and is Edwardian in room design. Many of the hotels around that part of Falmouth (Which is near Gyllyvase beach) were built before 1910. It definitely fits with the film being set in a village that is living in the past. The Funeral director Thomas has inherited this from generations of family that were also funeral directors and what I imagine from his parlour is that he is so infused with the job that it is his home. The Funeral parlour and the actual home all spill into one, which is why a hotel like this is perfect because it is just one huge house. I also hope to use the outside as well because what we did have in Perranporth just did not match up to anything that we could find, so hopefully having this location will be great.

So I went and bought a Coffin...

So this morning I came to the decision that instead of trying to get a coffin made from scratch, it would be best to buy one and that's when I stumbled across a really nice one on Ebay which should hopefully be mine in the next week or so.

It's a great design and definitely fits with the traditional theme that I have, looking at least a few decades old. The only problem is that it may have been 'used'. Used you say? What on earth are you doing? Well with a little bit of cleaning and varnish work this coffin will look brand spanking new and hopefully safe enough to eat a three course meal off of (Not that you would ever want to)

I think creatively, it is important to get the look of a coffin right and by using an real coffin it will be a lot easier to believe in what you are watching.

Here are a few pictures of what the coffin looks like

It looks really nice and because it is quite old it will definitely add to the vintage and do-it-yourself ethics of this Funeral director living in the past. It's quite a nice touch with the cross on the top because although in no way does this film include any religious over tones, it is obvious that Christianity would most definitely be the religion of choice for the village.

Enjoy!