Purple Tentacle's Second Class Male - NOW UPDATED!!

[Purple Tentacle]

I gone done made a film.

Following on from the Richard Geefe adaptation I did five years ago as a student (Click here), after watching it again and cringeing at all the bits I found rubbish, I decided to try again and adapt another Geefe story.

Here is the link to the original story

And here is Second Class Male by Purple Tentacle, 45MB, DivX format (edit - this is the remastered version)

Please do let me know what you think, although this is about as finished as it can get, the first London screening is this Friday, and any feedback would be appreciated as I'm bricking it.

================================================================





Eagle-eyed viewers will have noticed that Verbwhore favourite Partridge's Love Child is playing the part of Richard Geefe. I think he's dead good.
My mate Danny stepped in fairly late as the locksmith, as he suggested a connection between being scouse and being able to get into people's houses.

I shot the entire film on about £500 budget, after I did some freelance Microsoft Excel work out of the blue, and decided to get off my arse and do something about my frustrations with my career. To be honest I haven't really got much of a clue how to get funding for this sort of thing, so decided that at least if it all came out of my own wallet I'd have total control. Incidentally the most expensive componant were the police uniforms.

Overall I'm rather pleased with how it came out, considering the budget and the ludicrous 2 day schedule I set to shoot it. (We ended up being rather too casual on the first day, only shooting up to Mary Shrew's exit, and having to cram 75% of an entire film into the remaining day, causing a 14 straight hour shoot and seriously pissing off the neighbours.)

Hehe, actually the neighbours were the reason that the whole thing nearly sunk. Regular readers will recall that downstairs are the prude australians who object to swearing, and upstairs is the mad Indian prune woman who hears voices. To be honest I thought I was pretty safe asking my neighbours across the way if we could use their flat for one shot, and the bloke seemed very friendly. It turns out that beneath his chummy exterior lies a man of extreme anger, as he spent most of the sunday screaming 'SHUT UP YOU FUCKING CUNT!' at regular intervals behind his door during filming. I have a whole stack of takes ruined by shouty screaming, and you can still hear it if you listen closely during certain scenes. He never came out though. To be honest I was probably taking the piss with the neighbours, I dropped a letter into them 2 days before shooting telling them I would be setting up lights in the hallway, and then proceeded to set up a deathtrap of white hot electric lights and cabling on the stairs. I also blacked out the communal windows with bin-liners.

PLC actually suffered a remarkable amount, we  filmed about an hour of footage of him walking around a sub-zero Chiswick High Road in bare feet, no t-shirt and medical scrubs. At one point a woman tried to give him her coffee because she thought he was a homeless. Quite what she thought I was doing pointing a sodding great camera into his face I don't know.
In time honoured cunt editor tradition, I cut it all down to about 10 seconds.

By the way, the man Morris was very nice about me doing this, although I'll be interested to know if he thinks I've taken liberties with his material.


I could talk about what I think of the film and where I think it's flawed, and what I've learned for next time, but to be honest I'd rather hear it from you lot. Like I say, I'm showing this in a cinema in London this Friday, and any feedback at all would be much, much appreciated, to give me a taste of what to expect. Please don't be shy.


[http://server10.web-mania.com/users/carbonpr/second/second_class_male_remastered2.divx]Just in case you missed the link, right-click save-as[/url]


===============================================

Some pictures


Me, arguing while PLC lurks.


Why has he got spunk on his shoulder?


This must have been early in the day, 'cos they're smiling.


Pigs at rest


I put loads of effort into getting the puke just right, and it never really came out on film. Still, she's a honey.


PT pose #1

More smiling. I think the 2k light was shining in PLC's face.


I'm at a modern drugs party. (My poor flat, sob.)


How is it possible to look camp while holding a light? Dunno, but it is.


After Chiswick. Cold.


I almost look like I know what I'm doing.

[butnut]

Excellent! I can't wait to see this.

[Frinky]

How much did it cost to get Gary Lineker to do the narration?

I liked that, it was very impressive. I thought you got round the horror of using DV really nicely there, especially given the locations you were filming in. Really impressed with the angles. Out of your budget, what was spent on lighting? It's funny how you can write so much about a short film like that, but the best I can come up with is a list of technical questions. Did you pre-plan these shots, then, or was it all improv direction?




Nice Bongos cameo.

[fanny splendid]

That's pretty good. It's great to see someone putting some effort in; well done you for doing it!

Are you showing it in a festival, or have you had words with the manager at the local cinema?

[mook]

Well done mate, I really enjoyed that, I'll have another watch of it later. Strange though how PLC can look as camp as a row of tents in a still picture, but pretty much hetero in a moving image. Must be some kind of camera trickery at play there. ;)

[imitationleather]

Hah, very well done! I really enjoyed that.

That's all the insightful criticism you're getting from me, m'laddo.

[Squirrel]

PLC actually suffered a remarkable amount

We approve of this.

[Purple Tentacle]

Really impressed with the angles. Out of your budget, what was spent on lighting? Did you pre-plan these shots, then, or was it all improv direction?

hehe, the angles are kind of an accident, the standard lens on the XL-1 isn't that wide, so most of the film is close-ups, as the space was very small. It gives it a claustrophobic look I suppose.

The shots WERE pre-planned, and thank god they were, I would have died on my arse out there if I hadn't storyboarded it. Of course when you're actually shooting you deviate quite a lot from the storyboard, but at least you've got the option. There were three basic angles, overhead (which never really worked out and mostly got cut), profile (ditto) and reverse/close-up.

The lighting, oh christ the lighting. Paul (the camerman), Danny and I all skived our lighting lectures, and by god it shows. The lights cost about £120, but annoyingly the BEST light was the tiny but powerful lamp I usually have in my living room. You can see it in the photos, the small thing on the stem. It was fucking great, just shined it in everybody's faces when it was their turn to talk, it made so much difference. I could probably have lit the film with that light alone.
However the shadows are a fucking nightmare, and by far and away the thing I am most ashamed of. We really tried to minimise them using the 3-point lighting technique, but it was too small a space and I simply didn't know enough.


I'm probably going to field-remove it for the screening, there's a horrible disparity between the raw video stuff (which looks video-ey) and the effects shots, which are progressive scan, it looks very artificial to jump between the two, especially when it's not an OBVIOUS effects shot (like some of the colour correction), so I'll make it all progressive scan.

Nice Bongos cameo.

Thanks.

[Purple Tentacle]

Oh yeah, Suzy, Geefe's bird, very gamely stripped to her pants and no bra and put my sicky shirt on, but sadly the pan up her legs to her face had to be cut because a) Paul forgot to focus the bloody camera, and b) every pan paused momentarily, but noticably, on her fanny, so in the end she might as well have been wearing plus-fours and boots.

[Lookalike Mark Chapman]

Awesome - really very, very good. I have no idea how you did most of it, and I'm not clever enough to notice the minor technical problems you point out, but I honestly didn't see any problems with lighting and shadows. When the door is finally opened, the light there was great - was that done live or added after?

So what now for this? It's a nice little showcase of talent you've got there. Great work and good luck with it.

I probably shouldn't cheapen it by pointing out that I found Partridge's Love Child strangely attractive in this, especially with his hairy little tummy showing. Aw.

[Lee]

Wow. Very good stuff. And better than the Time To Go film too. The Love Child's quite a good actor isn't he? Looks unnervingly like Nathan Barley, but I'll forgive him for that.

What correspondance with Chris Morris did you have then PT? Was it the same as with TTG, or did you actually speak to him personally this time?

[Purple Tentacle]

Yeah, he DOES look like Nathan Barley doesn't he? I suppose the poor love can't help it.

Yeah, Time to Go seems really really embarrasingly primitive now, but it's all a learning curve.

Still dealt with Morris via his agent, he seemed a bit more concerned that I don't make money off of it, which is fair enough. I'm currently legally bound not to profit from it in any way, although if there ever came a point where I could concievably make a profit somehow, I'm sure he'd be interested in negotiating a percentage.

Not really sure WHAT to do with it now, like I say I primarily made it because I wanted to, and momentarily had some money that would otherwise have been spent on computer games or something. I'll whore it around some festivals I think, see what sort of reception it gets. It's been so bloody long in the making, I got my limbs smashed about 3 weeks after it was shot and my laptop nicked. By a massive, massive stroke of fortune I had decided to borrow an external HDD from work, and had left it at home that night. It had 95% of the work on it, it would have been horrific if I'd lost it, capturing and labelling footage from tape is about as tedious a job as I can think of. I still had to wait for my arms to get better to continue though.

Somewhere out there a gang of mugging youths have an early rough cut of the film on my old laptop, it'll probably turn up in a The Streets video or something.

[Circusfire]

Nice work.

Which scenes can you hear the neighbours shouting in?

[Purple Tentacle]

Mainly in Suzy's 'big one with the dove on it' speech.

Hehe, interesting factoid maybe, the bit where the camera whizzes upstairs is actually me going into Mad Indian Prune woman's letterbox. I had to shoot it about 5 times to get it right, and was absolutely terrified that she'd open the door and find me pointing a large camera lens into her letterbox. Probably wouldn't do her 'voices' any good.

I'll put some out-takes up later, they are full of nutty neighbours.

[Frinky]

C'mon then, how are you wangling getting it shown?

[Purple Tentacle]

I offered Westbourne Studios £50 to show it in their cinema. It's full of media wankers and production companies, they normally charge £250. I promised I'd be out after 20 minutes.  I'm going to put up posters and shit.
Primarily, however, it's more of an interesting way of showing the finished product to the cast and crew in an environment that's not my front room. I won't be paying any more theatres, so it's more of a pilot screening.

I have absolutely no illusions that it's just a little film.

[Frinky]

For what it's (not) worth, I can try to get yours screened at my local indie here in Derby... wouldn't hurt to bung me a DVD and a few posters or handouts or whatever. The indie is built inside the Uni, y'see, so we can usually get stuff shown.

[Purple Tentacle]

Cheers!

I'll send you a DVD when I've actually authored one, and worked out a way of getting DVDs to actually recognise an anamorphic aspect ratio.

[A Passing Turk Slipper]

A very good little film though. Edit: shit, that was in reponse to PTs last post saying it was just a little film. sorry.
I really enjoyed that PT, had a really nice feel to it. I can't really think of any criticisms, the acting was fine and as someone said up there, camera work etc was great, there were some really nice angles. What editing software did you use, out of interest? Well done though, that was better and more well made than a lot of short films I've seen by professionals (assuming you aren't a professional, from the tone of your posts).

[Purple Tentacle]

Final Cut Pro 5 and Adobe After Effects, I decided to fuck Adobe Premiere off after many years loyal service. Final Cut is the tits.

If Adobe After Effects was a woman, or indeed a hairless man, I'd marry it.

[Almost Yearly]

Yay!


My favourite bit was Linekar's spunky shoulder thinks at 2:55. I'd like to see any rubbish attempts he may have made at getting that right, please. :-)

It wasn't all fluid and perfect, but pretty bloody good I thought. Only spotted the one big shadow clanger, even after you'd mentioned it.

The logo looks a bit like Baby Cow.


Last night I was stroking that Simon Channing-Williams' BAFTA in the pub. Well, his editing lady's BAFTA really. He lives in my village you see, and actually John Le Carre only lives down the road a bit too. Anyway, I could pester him with a DVD if you like, for whatever good that might do. Maybe he'll go "Alright Matt, I'll get yer Eddie a load of cash for his next project," or maybe not. Seriously, I've been back to his gaff a couple of times and was witty and charming and everything.

[Lee]

Actually, you could try speaking to Signals Arts about getting it screened around the country.

www.signals.org.uk

[Lt Plonker]

Sensational stuff! I really enjoyed that.

With regards to screening, have a look at Future Shorts. The film lot down here organise screenings every month and the turn out is great.

I'm glad you're making more films. Can't wait for the next! :)

[El Unicornio, mang]

It's good...I take it he's not a novice.

and

Partridge's Love Child is a looker.

And she's very critical too

I can't watch it cos I'm at work but I'll heck it out when I get home [grandma voice]You'll be rubbing shoulders with Steven Spielberg at the Oscars before long![/grandama voice]

[Al Tha Funkee Homosapien]

That were reet good. Well done.

[sick as a pike]

It's very good.  Well done.  I agree with Mr Yearly about the reacting to the sperm and the V/O.
I'd also like to make the incredibly incisive comment that at 4:54 when Mr Lovechild says "its... a bird," he sounds like Angus Deayton in One Foot in the Grave doing his "telling Janine Duvitski the latest Meldrew madness" style acting.

[sproggy]

My word, that was superb, very professional and slick.  The fact that it was done for £500 quid and in just two days makes it all the more impressive.

Well done to everyone involved.




<Pedant> Anyone else spot the continuity blip during the 'viscous & gummy' dialogue outside the cafe'?

[gazzyk1ns]

(picture)
I put loads of effort into getting the puke just right, and it never really came out on film. Still, she's a honey.

Yeah, I was going to say, I bet you spent plenty of time applying that to her shirt juuuuust right. I hope you explained to her that you had to smear it on with your palm whilst she was wearing it to correctly emulate a true vomit stain; a schoolboy error made by most inexperienced directors is just splashing it on there.

Seriously, I enjoyed the film PT. I won't bother elaborating because me talking about the nuances of film-making would be like the Pope talking about where to find the best prozzers in Amsterdam.

[Purple Tentacle]

<Pedant> Anyone else spot the continuity blip during the 'viscous & gummy' dialogue outside the cafe'?

No??

Thanks for the comments everyone, glad you enjoyed it!

[sproggy]

<Pedant> Anyone else spot the continuity blip during the 'viscous & gummy' dialogue outside the cafe'?

No??

In the first shot from behind PLC the cafe' awning is down, in the second long distance shot from his left it's in the up position.

The closing titles were ace BTW and added a nice polished feel to the whole thing.