Set Stills & Screen Grabs - HARD SHOULDER

Done & Dusted

Hi guys,

Been a long while since I updated this blog - due I must confess to being totally snowed under with prep work on HARD SHOULDER.

Well latest news is that we have officially wrapped on principle photography (Sept 1st - Sept 26th) and bar a few pick ups and a couple of days to reshoot - the movie is in the can.

Next up is the long process of edit, grade, sound, and score in preparation for a March 2010 delivery of the final cut of the movie.

There's a definite subconscious something going on with this film - a sort of homage if you will - to the great classics of the 80's like Duel, and The Hitcher, and also to more recent "classics" like Saw, The Devil's Rejects, Lost Highway, From Dusk Til Dawn, Dead End. I don't know how exactly but I genuinely feel this is the sort of movie that would float QT's boat. Let's hope he gets to see it............and has something good to say about it too!

I've been absolutely amazed at the quality of the raw footage - not so much in that I didn't think it possible, for my great friend Steven Priovolos, Cinematographer extraordinaire, was behind the lens - but that after struggling for 12 years to get my work read and produced to finally see my written words in a 3D world, with life and colour, and characters I had created walking, talking, and breathing - it's truly awesome. I still can't believe we've done that!

So as a taster of things to come I have included a couple of set stills and a screen grab or two from the original rushes. Enjoy!

So, back to "The Room" they call the edit suite - otherwise you guys will never see the finished product.

Thanks for hanging with me. More updates soon!

Nick

No Rest on the Hard Shoulder................

We are so close I can smell the coffee and doughnuts at my 4am wake up call! Everything is moving along well, despite having to put back by 6 weeks owing to a foul-up with the financial completion. Now just tidying up cash-flow we have a confirmed schedule start of 10 July for pre-production with a 24th August 2009 first day of principal photography. Everything is in place - cast, HoD's, studios, equipment , and post-production elements. Money in the bank with a little more to gather and we are rocking ready!

It's getting very exciting as Steve Simmons completes the storyboards, concepts, mood boards, and costume preliminaries ahead of our first production meetings. Steven Priovolos, currently overseas will be back to help me with test shoot and equipment compilation ahead of final delivery requirements from Panavision. currently we are still negotiating with both Kodak and Fuji for their best stocks, unsure quite of which to go with. We may end up shooting test strips of both the Eterna 500 and the Vision2........only because Vision3 I feel will offer too saturated an image for our needs.

We are continuing with our production design ideas and will undoubtedly have something very intriguing for the Production Designer and Art Director when they are brought onto the project and the production meetings begin in earnest. Mike Peel, heading up our SFX department, is also working hard, currently on a scale model of the set, again for those first production meetings in July.

So all in all things are incredibly busy. If you want an update on any other of Oceanstorm Films projects then you know where to head by now........the blog is online here as well.

Catch you later!

Nick

Set the Rigging....

Well just time I think in my busy schedule to get you up to date with what's happening.............

1) Studios agreed - London, down at 3 Mills Studios it looks like - same place Danny Boyle Shot 28 Days & Sunshine.

2) 2 perf 35mm supplied by Panavision it seems plus a coupla 3 perfs for the 'stunt sequences' and those are under wraps.

3) Set build designs under way.....a really gruesome, wet, slimy, abandoned roadside diner.

4) Finance proceeding with good contacts and negotiations well under way with a final budget approaching £300k.........a far cry from the £50k I first conceived possible....maybe on my DV cam but not now!

5) All cast in place.........deal memos being put together.....Jamie Foreman and Wil Johnson headlining.

6) Discussions ongoing for theatrical distribution.....with major sales/distrib entity. Coming to a cinema near you now more than likely!

7) Storyboards being compiled from a very comprehensive shotlist but we won't be slaves.....adaptability is our maxim. Great design work from my buddy, Steve Simmons!

8) Website due to go 'live!' by March 14th 2009 so keep an eye open for it!

9) Now confirmed participation from the Vfx guys behind Hellboy and BM: The Dark Knight, the sound people on Captain Correlli's Mandolin, the post prod guys on Hunger, music score from the composers of Rise of the Footsoldiers, and model makers from The Descent.

10) Also stunt prep for some amazing road, and fire work being completed by a team whose credits include Saving Private Ryan, and Casino Royale.

So there is a bit of information to keep you excited for what HARD SHOULDER is going to deliver. How did we achieve all this you might ask, on only £120k cash budget? The answer is we didn't. Without the support and passion of many talented individuals we would never have got this far let alone be on the verge of something so exciting....and so sizable.

Remember one thing as you go about preparing your own projects................there is nothing more valuable than a..................GREAT SCRIPT!

Keep truckin everyone.

Nick

This Ain't No Park 'n' Ride..............

Here's the gig - "Hard Shoulder" is now only 12 weeks, give or take, away from production. Watch this space. The new website to promote the film goes live on March 14th 2009 at http://www.hardshoulderthemovie.com/

It's going to be one helluva film!

Nick