http://www.willowcreekpictures.com/
In memory of John Henry, much loved member of the Edinburgh Cine and Video Society, 2008.
Mind of Obsession has been my most ambitious short films project to date, filmed in Spring and Summer, 2008. It is a short youtube spoof fictional film running 30 minutes which I produced for my HNC Graded Unit which I got the idea for making after watching the original classic movie online, an Ealing Film, Kind Hearts and Coronets. A moment of inspiration led to months of hard work to produce the final college movie from Willow Creek Pictures.
Looking back at this college film, it's full of mistakes, particularly continuity and problems with the spoof film trying to be a period which is no easy task. I look back though on the humrous movies spoof project as being a great learning experience for learning how to make a short film spoof online. I've not been involved with anything as complicated as this project since so it's at the forefront of my mind in terms of being a useful experience to apply to future projects.
The spoofs filming used some impressive locations around Edinburgh which included the beautiful setting of the village of Duddingston in Scotland where the Church scenes were filmed at Duddingston Kirk. We were really lucky to film here for free after the kind gesture made by the Minister, James Jack who remains there today. I remember on one of the shooting days, we had a large picnic lunch prepared by James which everyone really appreciated. Oddly, I discovered that my parents had got married where we were filming which I hadn't known before so it was an interesting piece of the past to know.
We also filmed the short movie online spoof in the Secret Garden known to Edinburgh residents as Edinburgh's Secret Garden, a maze of well kept flowers overlooking a nature reserve on the Loch underneath Arthur's Seat. This provided the perfect backdrop for shooting some of the movie free scenes which included a conversation on a bench. The other noatable location here was the Ministers house which again was kindly offered for filming in. This house was perfect for what I was looking for, what better location to set a Ministers house than their own house itself. Of course, I'm unsure if the time period is at all accurate but I think I was more enjoying making the film at the time. The deeds of the Minister never end as he offered to play the part himself and it turned out to be one of the best performance despite not having had any previous experience of acting.
Other locations we filmed at included the interior and exterior of the Edinburgh Cine and Video Society at Fettes Row in the New Town of Edinburgh. We filmed the kitchen scene with Mama there and some other comical moments although I dislike the movie spoof videos interior shots for this segment of the film although I like the exterior.
One of the parody spoof movies locations which didn't work well was the Media Village. I think I can speak for all of the crew by saying that it felt like shooting inside a skip; there wasn't enough room to move around and the lighting was poor. Maybe something to reflect on for the future when making another collection of spoofs movies.
The best free movies location was Newbattle Abbey which doubled up for our grand historic estate where the Williamson family stay. This movie spoofs location was kindly offered for filming as long as we adhered to some rules and guidelines. The grounds worked really well for creating a sense of grandess and I'm happy with this apart from me including the shot with cars seen in the distance? Cars in the past, wrong!
We also used the Newbattle forests neary for the final online movies sequence. I think to reshoot these movies to watch, I would have got a hold of some film gun props although the logistics for this are more challenging. I'm happy with how the forest setting worked but feel a little work on my part needs to be done on the dialogue, it just didn't flow too well.
United Kingdom Crew:
Screenplay adapted from British Kind Hearts & Coronets movies online.
Director & Producer -- Alan Taylor
Unit 1 Sound Recordist -- Bevan Tait
Unit 1 Camera Operator -- Ross Davidson
Unit 1 Production Assistant -- Tom Antram
Unit 1 Making of Footage -- Robyn Smith
Unit 2 Director of Photography -- Willem van Heemstra
Unit 2 Sound Recordist - Marcin Knyziak
Unit 2 Production Assistant -- Debbie Hannan
Music Composed by Kevin MacLeod
Editor -- Alan Andrew Taylor
Distributor -- Alan Taylor
UK Cast:
James Jack as Henry Williamson
Ian Jackson as the Duke of Williamson
Lindsey McLeod as Edith Williamson
John Henry as Inspector Bergon
Nazir Ali as Louis Mulligan
Kathryn Lamble as Scottish Mama
Willem van Heemstra as Hamilton Williamson
Ali Mclaren as Hopkins
Michael as Trapped Poucher
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@auldm A brilliant classic I would agree, I was really inspired to make a film based on it. It's quite funny as some people have commented before on how they can't understand why I would make this. I think my answer would be it just happened and felt right at the time. I think if I were to do it again, I would make a modern adapation rather than try and make it old with cars in the shots etc, lol amongst other things! It was great experience though to go through the process of making it.
WillowCreekPictures 4 months ago
An excellent production of one of my favourite Ealing Comedies, but I did miss the Sibella (Joan Greenwood) character with her husky posh voice. Alas there could only be one Joan Greenwood.
auldm 4 months ago