Still Life (Reiff Gaskell)

A STILL LIFE OF A DEAD BODY

My second fiction short with the NFTS. For this production there are no producers, although the students from the producing course advise as Executive Producers. So in that respect the Production Managers (such as myself) are essentially the producers. The budget was £4,200 + £400 contingency. The pre-production period began at the start of January and the shoot was four days from the 6-9th of February 2024.

'Still Life' follows a young woman, Katie, who goes to visit her aunt (Eileen) and uncle (Danny) to discover that her aunt has passed and she has been summoned to paint her aunt's portrait. Eileen believed that in order to preserve a soul after someone had died, they needed to be painted soon after their death. However, Katie's once strained relationship with Eileen and painful memories of painting for Eileen as a child make the experience difficult for her. There are brilliant moments of humour and grief throughout the film.

I shared the production responsibilities for this film with another Production Manager, Sarah. Sarah is an experienced and confident Production Manager, and I was excited to learn from her. My key goals for the project were to learn to say no when necessary and work on my negotiating skills. Sarah was vital in helping me strengthen both abilities. The areas for which I was responsible included: the budget, casting, locations, catering, sustainability (green memo and Albert), and any miscellaneous bits such as clearing artworks and securing insurance for the action vehicle. 

I initially started with a draft of the budget based on Sarah's preliminary schedule. I continued revising the budget throughout process and worked closely with Sarah and our 1st AD, Isabella. At points I also had different budgets for various potential locations and travel plans so that we could have a full picture of our options. I was very happy with our final budget and the organisation of the cost book. The film has been delivered on budget.

For casting we worked with a Casting Director, Sharon. I liaised with her, drafted the CANs, and communicated with the actors and agents. Our cast were great to work with and I was lucky in my first experience with agents / actors that everyone was very easygoing and supportive of the production.

Finding our locations, on the other hand, was a long and tedious process. Sarah did most of the location scouting and we pulled 80+ locations for the Director (Reiff) and Cinematographer (Cal) to review. We were limited by the parameters of the production: locations had to be within 30 miles of the NFTS and with our budget we could only afford £100/day for location fees. The script was also being developed throughout pre-production, so the needs for the location were consistently evolving (i.e. Scottish cottage to Manor House). Cal found a small house in Rickmansworth (the Fisheries) with a room that fit exactly what Reiff had envisioned. I arranged two visits to the house and we ultimately filmed there for three days of the shoot. The owners were incredibly accommodating and I built a positive relationship with them – this was particularly beneficial when the crew damaged a few areas of the filming room (glasses and a lamp were broken, paint was chipped, and an oil diffuser was spilled down a wall). The house was very small and the production base, video village, and ACs + Sound Recordist were all cramped into the main room. We made it work nevertheless. The dog and children that Sarah and I had been nervous about rarely interfered with filming.

The biggest problem with the location was the parking situation. A dirt path led up to the house which became increasingly flooded during the filming week. After a car became stuck during our tech recce we did our best to avoid this during the shoot: we included clear parking directions, notified all crew that were driving, provided videos on where to go, and gave multiple reminders. Despite all this, our art department van became stuck on our first day at the location (due to the driver's error). Ironically the van contained the cones and tape we were going to use to block off the road. I called the RAC, and after seven phone calls (and the driver also briefly getting his van stuck in the mud), our van was retrieved. On the final day of filming, a poor parking decision from the art dept. van driver and 2nd AD resulted in the van becoming stuck again. The day after we wrapped I Uber-ed the Director to the location to await the RAC, as they had been unable to send someone before we needed to leave the night before. These instances resulted in a £252 fee that came out of our contingency. 

The other location (Goldingtons), which we used for our first day of filming, was ideal in many ways. It was a beautiful museum-like manor that we found by letter dropping. All of the crew wanted to film there for the full shoot; however, the Director could not let go of the room in the other house and felt the exterior did not fit the film. Many of the crew and tutors were concerned that the two locations would not blend together as one house in the edit, but to our surprise, movement between the locations is almost seamless. After lots of back and forth with the owners and a meeting so they could get to know us, I secured the location. They even decided to let us film for free. The house was very spacious, which meant that we had enough space to work comfortably while also containing our mess. It was admittedly stressful during the filming day ensuring that all crew adhered to the rules we had set with the location owners (i.e. shoe covers at all times, no access to certain rooms, doors to key hallways remaining closed,...). Sarah and I completed a walkthrough at the end of the filming day and the owners were happy with the tidied house. 

As we departed, one of the 9 seaters hit a brick wall, damaging the wall and scraping the van. This was a result of low visibility in the darkness. The school decided not to repair the door to the van and the crew semi repaired the wall. The owner was very generous and decided not to charge us. However, a few weeks after filming had wrapped, the owners emailed me and claimed we had damaged a carpet and flower arrangement. From this I learned that in addition to the before photos I had taken and the walkthrough, I should have taken after photos. I requested photos of the damage but the owners luckily decided to not pursue the claim and wished us well. This production was a great experience in dealing with location owners and writing location agreements. The damage incurred, issues with vehicles, and differing complications of both locations kept me incredibly busy on set. I also had a few accident reports to complete related to the locations: (1) the 9 seater bump, (2) an actor tripping on a stair in the bathroom, (3) a working light being left on in car at wrap leading to a burn mark, and (4) a piece of lighting equipment being blown over into the river along the Fisheries house. The last incident occurred in the final 15 minutes of filming at the same time as the van getting stuck again. The lighting team had rigged the kit somewhere that the school had not approved during RA meetings. This was a trying situation in which I had to practice my professionalism and act as a I knew my role required, despite the protests of another department. The whole shoot was an exercise in prioritising and remaining professional under stress.

Although the shoot was a draining experience, I learned a lot on this production and I am incredibly happy with the finished film. We had a very talented and hard working team and all the long hours paid off! I'm ready to tackle the next production and I hope that people love 'Still Life' as much as we do.

(All photos were taken by me).