Production Diary

During the filming of Hunter, Beth shared an idea for a new film which she called "Marty's Project". Andrew liked the idea and agreed to do another co-production with Kanga Reel. However, this time it would be a closer co-operation and Andrew would co-write the script with Beth.

During the rest of 2009 Andrew & Beth wrote out the plot line and then started to write the dialogue script. This would be the first Kanga Reel film with a lot of dialogue. Aware already that two scenes would require a large amount of people they decided to take advantage of Beth's birthday in September to have a Birthday party with over fifty guests and cross this with filming!

 Saturday 13th September 2009

So on Saturday 13th September 2009 filming started at All Saints Hall, Whitstable for the opening sequence of Marty's dream award ceremony. A large number of people turned up as guests, with Pete from Spygenius cast as the losing Director and Alex Harvey as the "Film Star" giving Marty his award. After filming finishes the party started as 'Spygenius' played, followed by 'Elbert Felc' to celebrate Beth's birthday! The night ends with everyone trying to burn down the woods next to the hall with Chinese Lanterns!

   6th November 2009

The main cast meet for the first time for a read through of Beth & Andrew's script.

 Saturday 13th February 2010

Block Two starts with rehearsals early at Herne Bay Little Theatre, with Lauren & Jon being taken through their scenes. Once Alexa arrives she starts the main cast photo shoot.

 Tuesday 16th February

Filming starts at Pete Frost's house in Upstreet, doubling as Marty's house.  Here we film all of Jon's bedroom scenes, with Andrew balancing on the bed!  Then the bathroom scenes, where Noah feels it is important to strip for the shower scene and then some scenes with David as Ed trying to get Marty out of the house!  After this it's a mad dash to St Mary's School in Faversham, kindly arranged by Naomi, to meet Lauren and film all her scenes in her office.  Andrew enjoys getting the right angle to shoot Holly, playing Vanessa's secretary, and Beth tries to control the mayhem!  Despite a major fit of giggles from Jon & Lauren, they finish bang on time!

  Wednesday 17th February

Over to Faversham to film at Eddie & Dave's house, being used as Francis' house.  Charlotte and Illy shoot their scenes, with only Beth and Andrew as the crew.  They watch Ed's cat, Mr Jinks, very carefully after it takes a swipe at Illy!

  Thursday 18th February

Back to Marty's house to film Jon & Charlotte's scenes.  We wrap bang on time and Jon, Noah & Andrew get a take away while Beth clean's up Pete's house!

 Saturday 20th February

Sadly Albert has to drop out of the cast the night before and a frantic phone call to Noah means they get a replacement! Alexa photographs the Future Kids in the Green Room at Herne Bay Little Theatre.  With the six "Kids" taking turns to have single & group shots.  Alexa has to work fast as Sophie only has a limited time available.  The room is filled with smoke and all doors and windows are opened! This is followed by the crew photos.  And so ends the first Block of filming!  Well done everyone!

  Tuesday 6^th April

Block Three starts with Andrew & Beth meeting at McDonald's for breaky and a quick read run through of the days work. They are joined by the rest of the cast & crew and then head off to Headcorn Drive in Canterbury. Andrew fixed his cameras to Charlotte's car using sucker pads Phil had lent him. The team then filmed Charlotte and Jon driving to the convention. In the back was Noah recording sound with Beth holding a monitor. Andrew waved them off, praying the suckers were strong enough, and kept in touch with Beth via her new walkie talkies. They then filmed them arriving at the convention. After this they headed to a small parade of shops at Kingsmead to film an insert of David waving frantically, and then headed to Holter's Mill to film at Helen and Robyn's flat. Here they filmed Illy's flashback scene with Karol, Dottie and Joe Robbins, before moving inside to film Charlotte getting a phone call and answering the door to Illy. It was then off to Faversham to film at Eddie Thomas' house for the scene with Francis getting into the taxi. Lynx taxis turn up on time with their black cab, but there was no sign of the actor who was going to play the Driver! Just as we need to start shooting the actor phones to say he can't make it! Fortunately David, Ed's partner, agrees to play the driver and our bacon is saved! And he turns out to be really good! We then film the first time Marty and Francis meet with Ed and Robyn rushing away. But it's now rush hour and they have to snatch shots between traffic! But they finally get it in the can and wrap for the day.

 Wednesday 7^th April

Andrew & Beth and the team meet at McDonald's again for breaky. But Beth hates the pancakes and syrup! They head off to a field outside Harbledown and film Charlotte looking sorry for herself followed by Jon and Charlotte ad libbing the plot to the Future Kids movie! They then get drenched three times as they are rained on courtesy of a neighbours hose! Successfully completing the scene they head for Herne Bay Little Theatre to film the green room scenes with David, Lauren and Illy, with Sharon and Eloise as "TV Stars" and Pete in a Voc robot costume!  The day ends with Jon unexpectedly chucking water into Andrew's face - to much hilarity!

  Saturday 10^th April

The team meet at Middle Wall car park in Whitstable and head for the high street. They are joined by Joel, for the first time on sound. Shooting starts outside Whites of Kent with Chessi as the shop manager. She has fun shouting "Pervert" after Jon at the top of her voice, as the rest of Whitstable ignores her! Saying goodbye to Chessi the team record Jon running around the streets. This is after Joel takes them on a short cut round the backstreets, along the beech, up an alley to find themselves 10 yards from where they started!!!! Joel gets a cameo as the newspaper seller and also puts up a sign saying, "Marty Crisis" which stays up for a week after they forget to take it down!

 Sunday 11^th April 2010

The next day, we meet at 6pm at the B&Q car park in Whitstable. With all the Future Kids in attendance it was planned to film all of the Film Trailer shots. Charlotte came along as PA and Joel recorded the sound. They slowly got through the shots, in the bitter cold, but eventually ran out of light, until Andrew got the car's over and used their headlights! Although everyone froze, it was great fun getting the cast to pretend to be the next stage in Human Evolution! There was a lot of laughter as Beth tried to get everyone to "Transmute"! Eventually they called it a day, hoping to get some more shots in later in the filming.

  Sunday 9^th May

Block Four kicks of with a very early start as Beth, Noah and Andrew meet Illy, Charlotte and Tom at a boot fair in Canterbury. Everyone shopping ignores the filming, but wants to buy Andrew's camera and the props! Filming goes smoothly apart from increasing traffic noise from the A2 behind the scene. But two cold burgers later, Charlotte and Illy get their first scene finished.

  Saturday 29^th May

The team arrive at Martin & Linda's house to film the Film Studio scenes. Toby and Jo are there early, so Beth and Andrew start shooting bits for the Trailer. Linda and Martin continually supply tea & biscuits throughout the day! Slowly other members of the cast arrive and they start shooting the trailer scenes with Charlotte and the Future Kids. Sophie gets delayed, and so they shoot as much as they can, but then the heavens open and it starts to pour with rain. Quickly erecting a gazebo, everyone huddles for cover. All the extras then start arriving, and there is a break in the weather just as Sophie arrives, so filming continues! Finally wrapping bang on time!

  Friday 18^th June

Beth and Andrew start creating the Future Kids Base set, having borrowed flashing gadgets from Pete and Nick, and silver hangings from Jo. They finish in the early hours of Saturday and head home ready to get up early the next day!

  Saturday 19^th June

The Young Future kids day! The team arrive for 8.30am. Andrew finishes off the set whilst Illy and Beth rehearse the kids in the green room. Mid morning they get ready to shoot the first scene with the kids. Tim's on sound and Illy acts as PA as well as chaperoning with Jan. Things start slowly as the kids get used to filming, although they have done loads of stage work with PPA, this is their first time in front of the camera. They soon get up to speed and they finish their scenes.  David Bedford steps in to voice JON the computer, as Josh can't make it. Once they finish all their scenes, Andrew & Beth show everyone the Future Kids Film trailer - they go wild and demand their own trailer! Ben carries out the photoshoot with the kids. After they've gone, Illy and Jon shoot their emotional scene, causing Beth to cry! They end the day filming Marty at the premiere with everyone who's there beig the audience! But tiredness kicks in and no one can keep a straight face!

  Thursday 22^nd July

Eddie helps Andrew to repair and re-paint the twenty year old TARDIS prop that Andrew used to use in some Fan Films he shot in the 90's. The idea is to use it at the convention on Saturday.

  Friday 23^rd July

Beth joins Andrew to get final things prepared for Saturday's filming, heading over to Tyler Hill Hall to set it all up. They head back to Andrew & Illy's and Beth & Andrew finish off painting the TARDIS. They finally get it finished in the small hours of Saturday morning - 2am! Shattered Beth heads home.

  Saturday 24^th July

An early start means Andrew & Beth are shattered before they start, but with copious amounts of Red Bull and fantastic support from the new Production Managers, Ben & Ella they get through the day. They start with Andrew & David frantically building the TARDIS whilst Sophie waits to shoot her scenes before heading off to Coventry. Eventually they are ready and shoot Pete introducing Sophie, before she leaves. They then move up to the Green Room to film Charlotte's emotional scene with Illy and then move back down to shoot Marty trying to get past the guards, with Andrew & Beth making a cameo. They then attempt a very complicated shot with a moving camera making a long journey through the hall to finish on a Movie scene. They then break for lunch, sitting around the field behind the hall. Next they shoot Jon & Illy's argument, which is plagued by sound problems and interruptions from the extras arriving, but they manage to get it in the can, even though Jon causes hysterics by dropping his trousers, whilst trying to cool off. Next up is the convention scenes with all the extras cheering as Pete introduces the Future Kids. Roger has brought a Dalek and Darth Vader and Andrew positions the Dalek to hide the fact that Sophie is no longer there! Finishing this, there's a break for dinner and Andrew finds a dark corner to sleep in for 40 minutes. Beth wakes him, and shows him what's she's set up for premiere scenes - the barriers, posters and the red carpet. More extras arrive and they start screaming as the Future Kids arrive. The Pink Rolls Royce turns up and Tony kindly agrees to let them use his posh Audi. So they both drive the kids up to the red carpet. As darkness falls the air is electric, attracting the locals, who get dragged in as extras! Finally the premiere scenes are completed.  They finish with the scene of Jon and David outside. What a day! Andrew & Beth give a short thank you speech to everyone who's there and say goodbye to all the extras and the Future Kids. Then it's outside to release some Chinese Lanterns and have a drink to celebrate! But it's an early start the next day!

  Sunday 25^th July

The final day of shooting! The main cast meet together for the last time at the hall where the first day's filming took place, All Saints, Whitstable. Here they shoot Jon & Charlotte's final meeting in the film, with Lauren and David. This time Andrew remembers to pick Lauren up, after forgetting her the day before! They quickly shoot the scene before the Vicar arrives to conduct the sunday school. They head off for Kings Hall in Herne Bay to shoot the arrival at the convention. Jon hasn't got his coat, so he and Andrew dash back to Andrew's to get a substitute. Getting back, they film them running into the hall, hoping to avoid the management! The final shot, slate 220 is of Jon on the phone to Charlotte. It's perfect and principal filming wraps!

 So the long process of editing starts and the film is finally completed on Thursday 14^th October ready for the premiere at Herne Bay Little Theatre on Saturday 23^rd October.