BEHIND THE SCENES - CENSURE AND CONFINES

I always enjoy behind the scenes footage and commentary on some of my favourite films. In fact I am a sucker for them. I thought I would share some clips and anecdotes from our critically successful films "Censure" and "Confines".

As I struggled up the huge incline towards the top of The Cheddar Gorge what kept me going was the knowledge of the spectacular view I had seen when doing a Recce there a few months previously for "Confines". The youthful crew around me were making light work or it and I was slowly lagging behind. I knew we were limited by the light and daylight would change soon. “If you get there before me just start getting some footage!” I cried and bellowed a few instructions. Luke F Dejahang, our leading actor, bless him, slowed down to give me encouragement. It was a long walk and needless to say nature called so I told Luke to go on ahead whilst I dealt with matters!. I imagined what it would have been like for Hitchcock on a proper budget. Surely he wouldn't have been able to have made it up this hill/mountain! Would they have flown him up in a Helicopter or carried him up like a King on a Palanquin? But I am not Hitchcock so what was I thinking? Back to reality! Luckily we weren’t far off. With a sudden burst of energy I caught up and we were ready to start preparing to film.

Now I never thought I had a fear of heights but I really didn’t want to get too close to the edge. Looking down, and you will see in the film the tiny cars that looked like Dinky Toys showed exactly how high we actually were. I gave blocking instructions from a safe distance and told them not to get too close to the edge. As Luke performed his scene he edged a bit closer, so did John our Cinematographer. “If I can just get a bit closer it will be a better shot”, said Luke bravely. Talk about dedication. Now if we get the angle right we can give the impression that he is close, surely! I will let you watch the film and decide how close we got! I will give away a couple secrets to the shots. When we see an upshot of Luke arms outstretched in an almost religious pose it is shot on a much smaller outcrop of rocks which we had found just down the road. And when he kicks a few stones as he gets to the edge he is actually nowhere near the edge. All of this with no visual effects although we did have to do some green screen to film the girl as I wasn’t going to take the risk of her standing near a cliff edge!

On Confines we were lucky enough to have Jay Cox who was multi-tasking. As well as doing an amazing edit he also handled lighting and B-Roll as well as some behind the scenes footage when he could. If you have a small budget you need people to wear many hats, I even made some props on the film. In Censure I did the drawings of the mushrooms in the sketchbook and Confines I carved the initials and heart into a section of tree. Some well known Directors will do other tasks, John Carpenter would always do his own very haunting music and Ridley Scott often prefers to storyboard his films himself rather than use other board artists.

I was so glad Jay got some decent behind the scenes footage at The aMAzing Hedge Puzzle. Longleat has a very impressive Maze but it was too far a stretch for our budget but was delighted to find this one at Ross-on-Wye? in Wales and at? a price we could afford. It had been snowing and our Cinematographer John Fry was in his element with his steadicam. We were all fans of Stanley Kubrick of course and his iconic scene with Jack Nickelson in the Hotel maze. We didn’t wish to copy at all and it would have been a mistake to try but it was a great starting point to be inspired. Jay captures me here instructing Luke on his next scene.

Filming inside the Blind House in Box was quite intense. We were three men in sub zero temperatures and to top it I had told Luke to wear a light blue sleeveless sweatshirt. The reasoning being I wanted him to feel like a prisoner to reflect his mind. I didn’t want him in a striped prison suit as that felt too corny and an orange jumpsuit visually distracting so instead I asked him to look like Steve McQueen did in “The Great Escape as a Prisoner of War. I did relent and let him wear an undergarment but he was still really cold. I felt it added to his intensity though. I had also asked him to wear Prison standard footwear (US Prison style Inmate Sneakers) which do not have any laces, I am presuming for all manner of reasons. It may seem a small detail but all these things add to the whole. You actually never see the shoes close up but it doesn’t matter, I know he has the correct shoes! (shot of US sneakers)?

A few months? earlier when filming Censure, I had to rely on my more youthful crew to get to places I couldn't! Literally! There is an old War Bunker in the Village of Box tucked away up a hill in a small wooded area. It has been partially sealed off with concrete but not enough to stop local youths slipping in with their beers or whatever else their substance of choice is. I wanted a scene where our main character would escape here and have a smoke and a drink. There was no way I was going to fit through the narrow gap left. Fortunately both our leading actor Connor Wulfric and Cinematographer John E Fry are of slimmer build than me and were able to get in equipment and all. I was quite happy to stand outside and observe and Direct through the window portals around it.?

I Rrmember the first day of the shoot, John had brought along his Wife’s Wellington Boots as his were leaking. The only drawback was they had brightky coloured flowers on! Well at least no one will see them! Little did we know a year later when The BBC did an Interview with me they also ran an article with some behind the scenes shots and one of them included the flowery boots! The irony is as he filmed Connor walking through the tunnel and he was standing in a very large puddle, he could feel the water seeping in as she had a leak too in her boots!

I do wish we had some behind the scenes footage of the ice cream scene. I briefed Connor and told him he was to eat the ice cream in a spiteful way as it was his Step Sister’s who is terribly cruel to him. So he was to cram it in a fast and as much as possible. We knew it wouldn’t be possible in one take but wanted to give the impression he eats it all at once. After the first two takes he was soon gagging and would dash to the sink to spit it all out, I don’t know what it is about the retching sound but it makes me too want to wretch and we soon had a similar scene in real life to the famous “puking” sequence in “The Meaning of LIfe” where a fat man keeps being sick and? the whole audience end up being sick!

As many of the voices were offscreen I had Angela Hughes (Production Manager and Make-up) read the lines to Connor so he could respond. The other actors were then recorded remotely, Elaine M. Ellis was recorded in Glasgow, Scotland by Samuel Benjamin Wain, Vivien Taylor recorded in her home studio and Tom Conti recorded himself at home also. Whilst we were waiting for Tom’s recording I did some scratch recording at John’s edit suite.?I got quite into it but couldn’t wait to replace it with the Master’s version and it was certainly worth the wait. There is something special about Tom’s voice and performance and I had to pinch myself realising he had agreed to do this for me.

One of the fun parts of making a small Indie Film is that the limitation on budget means you can get more creative in other areas such as using real and local people involved in the shoot whether as extras or a helping hand. In ""Censure", Dave the local Butcher happily obliged and was a natural in front of the camera as we passed his shop front as he prepares meat and looks up sinisterly as Connor wallks by. In fact we got a few people down the street in the Market place to glance out their windows and everyone oblidged. Chris Cunningham The local Post Master also participated. His shop store has a fabulous and very wide from window through which we filmed and Chris even had a coupel lines to perform. In the script there was a lot more in the dialogue exchange but as Chris isn't a trained actor trimmed it down to the minimum and it worked a treat! Other extras icluded Amber Mary Fosh as the daughter (Faith in Confines) and Baby Charlotte Fry at just a few months old!

I remember listening to “The Making of The Iron Giant” with Director Brad Bird and Animator Tony Fucile doing the audio commentary. They got almost half-way through a sequence where I had done most of the animation and supervised the sequence and Tony suddenly mentions me and Brad responded. I got quite a kick out of it and appreciated the mention. I was however just a small cog in that machine and how nice it is now to have the freedom to make my own Movies. Having a record of? “Behind the Scenes” is great to have, especially as the years go by.

Podcast with Award Winning Screenwriter of "Censure" and "Confines" with Director Richard Bazley.