emphasisminemovie

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Not Casting Aspersions - Part 3

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Not Casting Aspersions - Part 2

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Not Casting Aspersions - Part 1

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Welcome to the Jung Howl

Yes, I am using a bad pun on a dying platform to promote a new film we’re going to shoot in black & white in, of all places, Leicester. Eh, I’m nothing if not whimsical.

And very likely stupid.

But let me tell you about the film anyway. It’s called (obviously) Emphasis Mine, and its script has been variously described by people I owe money to as “original”, ��bonkers”, “intellectual” “funny and weird”, and “a very quirky, twisted, dark love story”. There are also a couple of good wanking jokes in there, only one of which is remotely intellectual, so there’s also that.

Anyway, the plan for this here Tumblr is for it to be a sort of production diary/never-ending begging letter. So here’s where we’re at.

The first thing I should tell you is that the film is very deliberately set in Leicester, in the East Midlands of England. Largely because all my stuff’s here, but also because it’s a place that always seems to be overlooked in filmmaking terms and I don’t really know why. Perhaps it’s because the city’s traditionally been seen as unfashionable, but as an immigrant myself (I’m Scottish) I don’t really get that. It’s a beautiful city, and the talent I’ve worked with here on both sides of the camera has been world-class. Even on my wee productions I’ve worked with people in demand in both TV and film, but they have to travel elsewhere to find “proper” work in the arts because there’s not enough being made in Leicestershire for them to earn a living in their chosen fields here. And I’d like to contribute to changing that, in my own small way, by filming in the city of Leicester using local cast and crew.

Anyway, to the Emphasis Mine pre-production process proper (ugh, alliteration): We’ve cast most of the main characters, and a mighty bunch of thespians they are too. All bar three of them live in the area, and one of those is from just up the road in Solihull, thus proving my point about the area. I’ll be posting about them individually in due course, but first a quick word about the three actors whom I wrote parts specifically for, and whom I believe it is obligatory to refer to as dear, dear friends.

First up, our lead boy, Job.

(NB - Job is pronounced in the Biblical sense rather than as in JobCentre. Unless you’ve been pronouncing JobCentre wrong all these years, in which case carry on, you’re doing the Lord’s work.)

Job is played by Kenton Hall. I wrote the part for him because I thought it would be both fun and challenging for him to play. I’ve known Kenton since 2004, toured the country in a band with him, was a groomsman at his wedding, and got into screenwriting through a course he ran a few years back. He played the eponymous Seeker in my first short film, I scored his first feature film, and he may have moved in with me once (we were both drinking a lot at the time so the details are a little hazy). In spite of all that, he’s someone whose friendship and opinions I hold in some regard, and I’m looking forward to starting this project with him on board as both actor and co-producer.

Karen Gordon plays Callie, Job’s boss in the film. I first met Karen when she let a door slam in my face at The Little Theatre here in Leicester. She did apologise profusely afterwards, though. I was at TLT that night to watch a rehearsal of a play being directed by a young actor I’d worked with, Edward Spence, and which happened to star the aforementioned Kenton. It turned out that the door-slammer was also in the play and by eff was she good. Edward told me later that he’d noted how my eyes lit up when Karen appeared on stage and how he knew I’d be casting the hell out of her as soon as humanly possible. He was not wrong; in fact, I cast her as his boss in a short film not long afterwards. Karen is a wonderful, natural actor, a supremely talented painter, and just an excellent human being altogether.

The third in this unholy triumvirate is Kieron Attwood, who plays Job’s housemate Ezekiel. Kieron and I first met when he auditioned for a part in my short film, Vandella Day. This audition consisted of meeting for a coffee to discuss the film. After an hour, we switched to beer in the pub next door. After another six hours, we were thrown out of that pub under the feeble excuse that it had shut an hour previously. We filmed Vandella Day a week or so later, and it went on to screen at thirty-five film festivals around the world, winning plaudits and awards along the way. Which isn’t bad for a 59-second film we shot in a shed in Loughborough for a laugh. Also we apparently invented a genre, the zomromcom. To date Kieron has appeared in two of my short films, his dialogue across both amounting to exactly one word. He has a lot more dialogue in Emphasis Mine, but at his insistence he will again be caked in blood.

I did write another part specifically for an actor friend, but she decided it was a much better bet to instead tour Europe in a minivan, solving crimes with a French boy and a dog called Pablo. Which does sound like fun, actually.

And that’s all for now, except to say please feel free to kick into our crowdfunding campaign to help make Emphasis Mine and to attempt to kickstart some kind of filmmaking industry hereabouts. There are many pretty rewards for contributors, which you can find here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/emphasis-mine-feature-film#/

Till next time,

Courtie.

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