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So I am not one for hyperbole or big grand statements so let me just start by saying that Haphazard are the future of all media. FACTBOMB EXPLODES!

So the obvious question is why are Haphazard the future of all media? Answers below:

Zombie Musical. A BAFTA winning short that dared to be uplifting and funny when short films are meant to be about children with sad faces staring at council flats with acoustic guitar music playing on the soundtrack.

They share a philosophy that part of being good at your job is by being good to people and that’s the best way to get the best and hardest work out of them.

They are true geeks who want to compete and stand alongside their heroes and not just pay homage to them.

They asked me to direct a taster for a kung fu comedy for them. Clearly they are geniuses or profoundly stupid. I wasn’t going to check as I really wanted to direct this and didn’t want them to change their minds.

To this day I have no idea why they asked me. I had done some kung fu comedy with a Jackie Chan spoof for a kids comedy show called Hedz. I own maybe 50 or so kung fu movies with a major emphasis on early ’80s Jackie Chan. I owned my own North Face jacket. Who knows? But I am very happy they did.

So here were the challenges: We were going to shoot on a camera that is usually used for still photography or for “filmy” bits on BBC 4 docs about the history of chairs. A talking head interview is very different to a big action sequence. We pulled it off without me having a proper monitor as we couldn’t afford the tech. So playback had to be factored into the schedule. Big props to Alan McLaughlin the DOP and his team who is also my long lost son as he is only about nine years old. We are halfway through the edit and we might just have pulled it off.

The kind of Kung Fu you see in movies is performed by people who have been working together for years and often rehearsing for weeks. Naysun, the producer and leading man, said they did all theirs in five hours. There is a mixture of so many styles from slapsticky to acrobatic to Wrestlemania. My jaw dropped at just how good these people were. I truly believe that Glasgow could become a centre for action cinema with the kind of people who are out there. Stunning. We are halfway through the edit and we might just have pulled it off.

Comedy. That’s a tricky one. Especially as our audience were young and we couldn’t rely on the easy fallback of swearing or ’90s paedo gags that most British TV relies on to get laughs. Plus our target audience just don’t watch TV and films that much these days. Not when games and cartoons provide all the comedy and adventure they want. Luckily Scuba, the writer and tallest man in the world, had something which referenced gaming, manga and mythical archetypes in a way that didn’t exclude old farts like me. And when Scuba acted out his lines he essentially became a living cartoon. Then came guest stars like Sanjeev Kohli, Innes Smith and Vivien Taylor who don’t do Kung Fu but do know how to get laughs in a way that is big, fearless, silly and yet subtle – perfect for this taster. And I could observe the non-comedy actors watching and learning from them which was a joy to see. We are halfway through the edit and we might just have pulled it off.

Then the heavy stuff: The themes we wanted to explore were big. All of us are truly worried about young people and their future. We wanted to make something that encouraged yoofs to respectfully question authority, exercise more, read more books and not to give in to greed and anger. And if this makes me pretentious and worthy then fine, I now know about 10 guys who can fly through the air and kick you in the face. As they are flying they will shout: “We are halfway through the edit and we might just have pulled it off.”

Soon you will see the stuff of Legend. I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I am making it.

Marcus

Detective Dickens is a loose cannon and a total wiseass, so the Police Chief tries to teach him a lesson and pairs him up with the best officer on the force…. a wild grizzly bear!

Ryan C

That short film was the appropriately titled ZOMBIE MUSICAL and it does exactly what it says on the tin… No, singing zombies though –  that would just be stupid.

FLASHBACK

TWO YEARS AGO TO THIS DAY – With the help of some amazingly talented friends, we set off to Dumfries to begin shooting our biggest ever short film, ZOMBIE MUSICAL.
The shoot was six-days long. We had around a 20 strong crew and a good number of blood covered extras. For us is was a massive project, and I think most of us were expecting the most stressful shoot of our lives, especially considering how many times I uttered the phrase ‘this is going to be a tracking shot…’.
Yet to all of our surprise, we managed to pull it off in a ridiculously smooth manner and were left with a final product that we could have only dreamed of.

THEN STUFF HAPPENED – festivals, nominations, awards etc, and I slowly started to become known as ‘that Zombie Musical guy.’ A title that probably wouldn’t have stuck for so long if it weren’t for what happened next…

The lovely people over at Black Camel Pictures (OUTPOST, LEGACY, OUTPOST: BLACK SUN) caught a screening of ZOMBIE MUSICAL and decided that it could work as a feature film.

Our reaction to this -

PRESENT DAY

The feature script is pretty much complete, I can happily announce.

It’s been a long process,trying to make sure that it’s meeting high standards. Drafts upon drafts, re-drafts, notes, revisions, turning two characters in to seven, and deciding who to keep alive and who to die – decisions that were made much easier when working with my co-writer, Alan McDonald.  Co-writing with Alan has been great, I’ll make one of the characters use the ‘C’ word, we’ll laugh until we’re made to remove it…

What was a 16-minute short film with next to no character development (or dialogue for that matter) has become a 90-minute heartfelt, horrific, funny musical with some great characters and some catchy songs (…TBC). I’m sure I’ll be able to release the official synopsis in the near future.

So stuff is moving forward, the script is starting to become visual and we do have a rough date for the shooting to begin. We ALSO have a rough idea of what date it shall be released…but that’s all I can really say, I have to be pretty cryptic.

So take from that what you will, or take nothing from it. It’s up to you.

As well as all this zombie related stuff, I’ve also started to write a new feature film (also with Alan McDonald) which has no musical numbers and no walking corpses. This time we’re going towards a more sci-fi genre with a time travelling, romantic comedy.  I like to describe it as a blend of ‘INCEPTION’ and ‘500 DAYS OF SUMMER’. Yes, they are two very different films, but so are HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL and DAWN OF THE DEAD and look where that’s got me…

Love from Ryan McHenry x

I dont like cinnamon Jellybeans…

Ryan C

Every now and then we here at Haphazard have to head down South to the central hubbub of the British Film Industry (known as London to some) for a barrage of very tightly packed meetings.  It usually involves an overnight dinosaur trip down on particularly uncomfortable public transport, where you have to selfishly pretend to be asleep as soon as you sit down so that you can get a double seat and spread out once the journey begins, followed by some sort of heavily caffeinated drink in the morning to knock you out of your semi zombie state and then jumping on the tube for an endless day of toing and froing.  It was just the other week that I made one of these trips for a number of meetings to do with a very exciting project we’re working on here at Haphazard, one we haven’t really talked about on the blog before – CITY.

CITY is a noir crime thriller written and to be directed by our good friend, Mikey Murray. The story follows a young detective whose hunt for a stolen baby becomes personal after the father, a childhood friend and now dangerous, wanted criminal, comes to him for help.

We’ve been developing this project  for a while if truth be told, almost as long as the Zombie Musical feature, and over the past year or so there have been some very exciting things happening;  script re-writes, concept art design, pretend casting (this is where we sit in a room and talk about actors we like), attaching Sarah Radclyffe as Executive Producer (yes I’ll just casually throw that in the middle even though it’s probably the most exciting thing to have happened) more script re-writes, a trip to Wales (this was just for fun), I think there was then a re-write, until we come to now, where we are almost ready to start sending the script out. Yes, almost ready!!

So why talk about CITY now? Well, call it a quick introduction to the project, or a quick ‘Hi’ from me, or just procrastination from editing GOING VIRAL; however you want to see it, keep an eye on the CITY page and the blog, because in the next couple of months we will have a lot more to tell you. So, stay tuned, and in the illustrious words of my mother’s favourite stripey character, TTFN ta ta for now.

Nic x

Our most recent corporate project completed – a film about the charity Aquabox and the good work that they do.  Check it out and consider helping this worthy cause!

To read about our experiences working on this project, read the previous blog.

Aquabox is dedicated to providing short term, comprehensive aid relief, in particular clean drinking water, to disaster areas. They’ve developed a water filter that can pump any sort of horrible bacteria-ridden muddy water into clean, clear and safe drinking water. Many diseases in disaster areas are spread through contaminated water, and the knock-on effect of what Aquabox has managed to do has been tremendous. For example, we visited a school while we were in The Gambia where the attendance went up by 80% when they had a few Aquaboxes set up on the premises. Kids stopped getting sick, and stopped dropping out of school. Simples! Despite this, contaminated water continues to be an issue worldwide, and Aquabox need all the donations they can get to carry on doing their good work.

What has any of this got to do with the kung-fu fighting-zombie-killing-toast-eating-viral-going-guys (and girls) at Haphazard? Well, we like to do things that, whilst often a bit silly, are ultimately good for the world in some way or another, so when an opportunity came along to pitch for making this, we all thought it was a great idea.

So, after having shot for a couple days in the Aquabox warehouse down in Derbyshire, Mike (directing), Ryan M (camera-ing) and myself (producing) set off to sunny THE Gambia (not to be confused with Gambia, which I am told is the river, not the country) to film some Aquaboxes in action, leaving behind the other Haphazard chaps freezing their thingies off shooting LEGEND in the Glasgow rain.

Whilst on our tightly packed Monarch flight, Mike pulled out the latest issue of Empire to take his mind off the fact that his knees were pretty much pressed up against his forehead. Ryan squealed in excitement – as this was no ordinary Empire magazine – it was the one with the special edition BANE cover. The one where you can “really see his muscles”. Mike promised he could have it when he was done, and Ryan was happy for the rest of the flight. About 5 hours later, Mike handed it over, and as Ryan stroked the cover gently for the remainder of the flight, I continued my episode of Fawlty Towers.

When we got off the plane at Banjul airport, we had to stand around to wait for the bus to take us to the terminal and there were some young local lads helping with everyone’s luggage. One of them came over to chat, “is that a magazine?” he says. We had, literally, just read a paragraph from the guide book that said that locals really appreciate English magazines from the West, as they were very difficult to obtain in Africa. We gave Ryan a look, Ryan gave us a look. He looked at BANE, then at the young lad, then back at BANE. Eventually he looked up and said, “why yes, yes it is. Would you like it?” and handed it over. “Thank you” said the lad with a big smile on his face. The bus had just arrived, and it is all Ryan can do to get on without BANE. As we drove off, we saw them all gather together excitedly around the magazine. Mike and I gave Ryan a deserving pat on the back.

The next day, we set off from our hotel to film in Ebo Town – a compound just outside the city where dirty water is a huge problem, especially during the rainy season. It was quite something to be faced with such poverty and living conditions. I had never been to Africa before, but the scene felt somehow familiar, and I realised we had just arrived in the kind of place you see on TV all the time – on the BBC, on Comic Relief, on hundreds of pleas for donations to various charities. Adorable but skinny children running around barefoot playing with an old tire, beautiful African women wrapped in frayed yet stunning colours, carrying heavy baskets effortlessly on their heads. It was strange to feel guilt, inspiration, disappointment and admiration all at once – but not really know which feelings were right to have. It was strange to see a sickly child look expectantly up at me, and have to force myself to think – Ryan, come over here and film this, quickly! It was strange to lie by the pool in the evenings after a day of filming and relax. It was strange to have to remind myself that the best thing for us to do to help everyone was to get as much useful footage as we could to put together a good film that would encourage viewers to want to give, and to help.

And that’s what we did! We got some great footage of people using the Aquaboxes, and the aid items that are sent within them. We filmed kids using them in schools, and we got some good interviews with district leaders who told us how much of a difference clean water was making to the communities in the area. We met some great people who were welcoming and hospitable, who were proud of their country, and who wanted us to leave with a positive memory of their home. We left with their gratitude for those who have given either time or money to help those in need.

Mike and I have been working hard on the edit of this short film, and it will hopefully be available for public viewing within the next few days. We’ve also got some good behind-the-scenes coming up so get excited for that. Watch this space for more info, and for more info on Aquabox and the work that they do, you can visit their website – www.aquabox.org.

Until next time!

Charlotte

10. The Dark Knight Rises Prologue

A little housekeeping to start with – I (KK) foolishly set the criteria for this chart as anything with a “UK theatrical release between 1^st January 2011 and 31^st December 2011 inclusive” – so technically I suppose this is eligible.

Ryan M: I don’t care if it was only SIX minutes, it’s been the most exciting SIX minutes of film I’ve seen all year… IN 70mm IMAX!! Bane is f**king bad ass!

Ryan C: Seen it 3 times. In IMAX. Actually can’t wait to see the whole thing, just as long as they make Bane understandable…

9. Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Ryan C: Never have I felt so much for a chimp, great special effects and a nice way to lead into the inevitable sequels

Nic: I was surprised by this film. I thought it was going to be average at best, but it was fantastic.  Very nicely done, Lithgow was on form as ever and Weta are simply amazing.

Ryan M: This was my surprise of the year. Wasn’t sold by the trailers, but thought the film was brilliant. CGI was incredible, as was Andy Serkis’ motion captured performance.

8. Arthur Christmas

KK: Dangerously close to perfect, and that’s all I have to say on the matter.

Nic: It’s been a very long time since I’ve seen such a wonderfully magical Christmas movie.  The little Christmas nuances that are in both the script and the animation are fantastic, and really get you in the holiday mood.  Aardman are the British Pixar…great animation with great stories!!

7. Troll Hunter

Naysun: a tad unoriginal in format with crappy characterisation save for a couple of characters, but engrossing with great humour and awesome trolls.

KK: I know I’m not meant to say this sort of thing out loud, but I really hate subtitles.  I struggle to sit still for more than a couple of hours, but throw reading into the mix and it’s normally only a matter of time before I’m sound asleep in the cinema. For some reason, Troll Hunter was different – and in all honestly I think the subtitles made the whole thing funnier. By no means an original idea, but really well executed and thoroughly enjoyable.

6. Crazy, Stupid, Love

Bizarrely, this in the only one of Bob’s choices to make the Top 10, and he doesn’t even seem to like it that much…

Bob: […] This wasn’t a ‘bad’ film per se, but it wasn’t great either. I felt that the story arc took too long to resolve (a happy resolution 45 minutes earlier wouldn’t have been out of place) and the characters were too obviously shallow. That being said it was a good romp with some fun little moments.

Ryan M: A smart romantic comedy which isn’t cheesy and very original. Carell and Gosling make a great double act.

KK: Deceptively and refreshingly sophisticated for a rom-com , ticked all the boxes and exceeded all my expectations.  Gosling and Carell are a brilliant combination.

5. The King’s Speech

Charlotte Very British is the first thing that comes to mind.  The acting, pacing and directing were all superb – very engrossing for such a simple storyline.  A story well told.

Naysun: Yes, it was directed like a TV show and it is unbelievable that it won the Best Director Oscar, but despite that the cast brought a very tight script to life and managed to make royalty relatable and even a little bit fun. The two leading men showed us what chemistry means on screen.

Justin: Thought the premise sounded boring, but I was quickly engrossed in the story and the characters. Also gave me the strange feeling of being momentarily interested in royalty.

Justin: Did not expect to enjoy this as much as I did – just the right tone of humour, with great characters and an exciting story. Might not recommend it to kids, but definitely would to adults

Charlotte: As good a Disney movie as they come!  The sequence with the horse fighting the man holding a frying pan sold it for me.  I like it when things make fun of themselves.

Nic: Best Disney film for a long time- classic humour, great animation, and a really good soundtrack

3. Drive

Naysun: A little self-indulgent on the director’s part, but this film shows that Ryan Gosling has real depth to his acting ability. And the opening car chase is just pure film making excellence.

Justin: I love movies with little dialogue and thought Gosling did a great job of not talking. I especially loved the music and how surreal it made the action

KK: Admittedly, I wouldn’t have bothered with this movie if it wasn’t for Gosling, but I did and he was bloody brilliant.

2. Super 8

Naysun: Super 8: The thing that bugs me most about this film is how much people went on and on that’s it’s not as good as Close Encounters or E.T, and that I’m too young to remember those films. I watched those films as a kid too, and I do love them, but this was a great fun homage, with an astounding young cast. Abrams did a great job to get what he did from them, and I did get just enough of that childish magic feeling to leave me happy for the rest of the day. Fun stuff.

Nic: As soon as I had watched this I said “this is the kind of film I want to make.”  It just reminded me of classic Spielberg. “Production Value!!!!”

Charlotte: Like Nic says, coming out of the cinema all I could think was “This is exactly the kind of movie I want to be making.”  Love the power of that “childish magic.”

1. Warrior

Ryan M: This gets number one as not many films brings me close to tears like this film did, even on repeat viewing. Tom Hardy gives a great performance, especially in his last fight, but I was surprised to see what an outstanding job Nick Nolte did. What a film!

Justin: I don’t really like MMA in real life, but the action inthis was great. After I got over not cringing, really enjoyed the acting in this, especially from the old man. Surprisingly emotional.

Ryan C: Amazing performances from Hardy and Edgerton, and quite cool to see Kurt Angle up there as Koba. Brilliant movie!

Naysun: Yes, it was essentially a conventional sports film, but it did it beautifully and brilliantly, and acting, directing and cinematography were superb, the emotion palpable, and it put MMA into a film without making it stupid, which is no mean task. Shame no one went to see it.

And there we have it – the Haphazard Top 10 of 2011. Interestingly, not a single choice on this was unanimous. I’ve used a highly exciting and complicated algorithm to calculate scores and table positions, but if we were to go more down the road of “broad agreement”, Super 8, Troll Hunter and The Kings Speech would all be tied for the top spot.

 
While I would like to think there is some degree of diversity to this list, we’re clearly swinging more toward geeky fandom than life as art house regulars. That said, I think there’s a sense that these movies reflect the kind of things we aspire to make – and I’m more than happy with that!

Sloppy kisses

KK

]]> http://haphazardmedia.co.uk/our-top-ten-movies-of-2011/feed/ 3 http://haphazardmedia.co.uk/legend-of-the-four-fists-wrapped/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=legend-of-the-four-fists-wrapped http://haphazardmedia.co.uk/legend-of-the-four-fists-wrapped/#comments Mon, 19 Dec 2011 04:15:01 +0000 Naysun http://haphazardmedia.co.uk/?p=525 →]]> It’s been an interesting and slightly frantic few weeks for us here at Haphazard. There have been lots of new experiences and all round unfamiliar territory, which really has been a great, if challenging thing. Not that I’m complaining – it’s always been that way for us ever since we all started out making films, because the films we want to make are in themselves sometimes stupidly ambitious. Luckily for us, our stupidity (or is it ambition?) has usually paid off.

Recently we’ve had two projects filming at the same time, which is new for us and quite a test since we’ve grown to rely on our tightly knit Haphazard family for crewing. One three person team buggered off to shoot in the Gambia (more on this from Charlotte soon), and the other group – myself included – stayed in disgustingly wet and windy Glasgow to shoot a concept trailer for our aspiring to be upcoming web/TV series LEGEND OF THE FOUR FISTS.

LEGEND is a kung fu comedy, because there aren’t enough around. It’s fun, childish, with a lot of heart and amazing stunts, and is my dream project because all I really aim to do when I make films is to have playtime. But turns out you really should be careful what you wish for because this time I got my wish and actually had to act. Or at least, try to. I think legally it’s known as attempted acting.

I have done this acting thing before, but it’s been years and I’ve always kind of sucked at it (unless I’m acting an angry person, in which case I just enjoy shouting loudly). When fellow creator/star/fight choreographer William Barber and I came up with the idea for a short film in the summer, it was going to be something fun and silly and ultimately pointless. And I’m fine acting in pointless things. But when we asked the immensely talented Marcus Harben to come on board to helm the project, I should have known it would not end up being something half hearted.

So what we’ve ended up with is something much greater and better than I imagined we could have achieved in the time scale, but therefore it’s also something I’m altogether uncomfortable with being in front of the camera for.

On the other hand, despite my discomfort, it was a real eye opener as to the skill, talent and dedication of those around me. When producing you tend to take a step back and come in to fill the gaps and solve problems when they appear, so you naturally end up seeing the holes and screw ups. From the perspective of an actor I instead got to see how things I take for granted are really bloody hard to achieve. Marcus’ crafting of performance using an in depth knowledge of the mechanisms of comedy, the attention to detail of Costume, Make up, and our Art Director, the physical ability of our stunt guys (mainly sourced from the awesome Glasgow Parkour club) and everyone else involved in the process.

And that’s not to mention how astonished I am at how hard it is just to be funny and yet how easily it seems to come to so many of the talented actors who were involved. I’d watch the takes of Sanjeev Kohli or Innes Smith (whose roles we’ll keep under wraps for the moment along with all details of the story) and try to understand what they’re doing that’s making all the crew crack up every time, but I simply couldn’t put my finger on it. I’d try to replicate it, and yet somehow end up just badly acting my normal self.

I think it’s what I’ve known all along – during those sleepless nights when I’ve been thinking up those witty comebacks, or when I attempt a light-hearted insult that cuts a little too deep, or when I have to rewrite a sentence in a blog seven times before I think there’s just the right balance between dry wit and eloquence.

I’m just not funny.

Luckily, there’s a lot of other funny people working with me, including Marcus, Sanjeev, Innes, William, James Kirk and Vivien Taylor. Even KK is quite funny as a 1AD. Instead I’ll be content with kicking some ass and looking like a bit of a douchebag.

And I’ll be content because the promo will be awesome, since the script, production design, comedy and action are all brilliant – I have no worries that you are all going to love it!

Watch this space for a teaser coming in the next few weeks.

Naysun

Apologies for the delay in what I’m sure will be a highly anticipated second blog. We’ve had some really productive brainstorming sessions over the past few weeks but right now I want to talk about a project that we have currently have in post, Going Viral. Here’s a blurby bit:

Written and directed by Stewart Robertson and Alan McDonald, GOING VIRAL is an online sitcom (5×5 minute episodes) about a man who will do anything to become an Internet sensation. Justin Cole’s life might be on a downward spiral – he’s stuck in a dead-end cinema job, his best friend is tuned to the moon and his ex-girlfriend just became his newest flatmate – but he knows that his whole life can turn around in just the click of a mouse. Well, lots of clicks. And there is no Internet trend too humiliating for Justin – parkour, Internet dating, singing animals… he’s willing to try them all. At the same time, if need be.

Going Viral is the first project we’ve produced exclusively for online distribution. Obviously, we have a few projects under our belt now – but what with the festival circuit and the on going development of Zombie Musical, we’re still not able to put this stuff up on our website and go “Hey! Look what we can do!”

I’ve always found this a bit frustrating – it would be nice to be able to refer people to YouTube to see our work but patience is a virtue and we are trying very hard to be virtuous. With this in mind, we figured now was the time to do something explicitly for the online audience.  This isn’t about festivals, this isn’t a pilot for a feature – this is an absolutely self-contained project which will be online, free and hopefully a great demonstration of what we can do on a shoestring budget.

We shot the whole series on location in Cumbernauld in August 2011. It’s by far the fastest we’ve ever had to work on a project, but we can eat lunch pretty quickly these days and we seem to have got away with it. For those of you who are interested, we shot 50 script pages across 5 days - contrast that to the 11 pages in 6 days we took for Zombie Musical and you’ll start to get an idea of the pace we were chasing.

As always, I should extend a huge thanks to our lovely cast and crew (some returning, some new faces) for a colossal effort in pulling the whole thing together in such a short space of time. Haphazard really has been extraordinarily lucky over the last couple of years to work with people with such a great attitude and enthusiasm for our projects – we don’t run glamorous sets but we genuinely have a lot of fun with the people we work with – something that will always be fundamental to what Haphazard is and aspires to be.

A couple of months since wrap and we’re currently at first assembly on a couple of episodes – Nic has been working surprisingly hard (“we don’t need a dining table, we need an edit suite”) and Haphazard buddy Mike Callaghan has just completed a first run at our season finale.

We’re hoping to launch Going Viral in early 2012. Until then, you can keep up to date with our progress by following the project on Twitter  or “liking” the Facebook Page. Please do spread the word – it will make us feel better if we have a big audience to launch to come January!

Sloppy kisses all round,

KK