Godspell Movie

this is the video teaser made from the first act .. .

We are stoked to screen the first act to the public ::

Happy Bar 3 September 8pm. It’s a fundraising event with performance poetry and live music. Featuring Shane Hollands, Andy Coombs, Craig Ireson, Glenn Ashworth with musicians Michaela Manley, Ben Wood.

In November there will also be a screening at MIC’s Short Fuse in Auckland.

October - December will see a hive of activity in Auckland as we shoot the second act.

The first act has screened very well in NZ and Australia to cast / crew and interested parties, giving us confidence to continue to the next step . . It is now in the capable hands of Editor Al Cossar for finetuning while the director has gone shooting Elephants in Vietnam . .
Public screenings and further filming are planned for Sept/Oct in NZ . .

If you’re a talented actor or performance artist, we want you to be in our film - - make contact for details.

After months in the editing room, the first act is complete - or at least complete enough for cast / crew screenings. We still haven’t filmed the important house burning down scene so have used footage from other movies as stand in . . If you want to burn your house down for our film, please get in touch !

Here’s a pic of our wonderful production manager - also a talented photographer, Melissa Pronk. Thanks Mel for all the help and resources and sense of family.

note there’s a facebook group up here if you’d like to join that :

Here’s a pic of the crew during filming in Auckland. From right to left : Strobe, Giulia (sitting), Martino Frongia, Dominic Fryer, Darcy

We’ve been blessed to have the people who’ve helped already . . here’s hoping we can get some money and finish this film !

Unfortunately we left a case of character clothing in New Zealand. No worries, we’ll get it couriered. We did, but the wrong case got sent! We’ll shoot something back in New Zealand that will take care of the continuity issues…aah the joys of multi-island shooting . . .

The day’s shoot went well with Gil Tucker, Chloe Gavin and Marco Maglaic in acting roles. It just so happened that James Solomon from New Zealand was in Australia and he signed on as DOP, we gave him the extra challenge of shooting with one small light only. He rigged some nice bounceboards and did a stellar job. Also thanks to Erin McDonald who helped in so many ways . .

Funniest part of the day was the production van - usually used as a Fruit and Veg delivery vehicle, the rear is a refrigerated unit with no windows thus complete darkness, the insulation nicely cutting sound as well. So the crew rode around Melbourne in this ’sens dep’ chamber, luckily they were good humoured about it - hey there was a bean bag in there . .

So all progressing well, just a few more shots to put in the can back in NZ, to tidy things up . .

Here’s a few pics from the filming in Auckland.
Thanks to Martino, Giulietta, Mel, Dom, Jarad, Dean, Preston, Jim, Surrey Cres people, SUBSCRIBE to this blog and get updates

We’ve just completed most of the first act shoot ! A team comprised of Directors assistant, DOP, cameraman, art director and assistant, sound recordist. Four days of long hours, intense concentration and heavy labour - well, we did have some fun too. ha.
There’s some great footage in the can.
We ended up shooting on a Sony HDV camera - which, while not ideal, produces decent images, especially when the lighting is controlled.
The wild Auckland weather threatened us constantly with squally bursts of intense rain, then brilliant sunshine.
The ‘rushes’ are now on the hard drives, and some serious editing awaits. . .
not to mention setting up the Melbourne component of the shoot, scheduled for 8th, 9th december . .
stay tuned . .

well, it’s shoot time already ! Are we prepared ? We’ve got a camera crew, production manager and support people. Locations are locked - got some amazing situations to work with.
What’s busying us now is actors auditions. around 16 have repolied to the callout and we’re working through those in the next couple days.
A good time to get fresh input and have that inform the script.
Busy rewriting and all is looking well.
We’re to be shooting on a SONYZ1, while not being ideal, is better than standard Def and is free for us which is nice so we can spend more on food!

Well, i’ve been racing around Auckland city calling in on film and creative friends and associates - pulling a crew together.
We’re pleased to announce Melissa Pronk has joined as assistant director. Already she has provided lots of knowledge of props , locations and other resources.
I’ve also been developing the script and Shane and I have been having some excellent sessions.
The video blog sermons are about to be filmed on handycam and there’s a website to build . .
In the meantime, i’m living on the sickness benefit, my credit card is maxed out and future income is looking scant . .
What I’m finding in visiting people and talking about the project is that we (society) is very much determined by face-to-face contact. As much as we elicited a response to the Godspell website a couple months ago. The real ideas and contributions are flowing over cups of coffee and beer. As great as the internet is ,, land-based communications rule anyday . .
We’ve set shoot dates of 12,13,14 October, which is just over two short weeks away.
I’m staying at my Dad’s house which is fine but as production office not ideal .. no internet — neighbour has a printer. Currently housesitting an old school friend’s house not far from my Dad’s which has internet, but no printer . .
An associate of mine named Mika suggested I approach camera distributors and ask for a loan model - this sounds excellent idea which I will do.
Sony is just now releasing a high def. camera (PMWEX1)) which looks ideal !
Fallback positions is to go Std. Def (proliferation of camera’s) or bite the bullet and rent a P2 Panasonic — $400 / day
oh well, better get back out there . .

currently scouring op-shops and garage sales for props. Things middle-aged men collect - cb radios, hats, models of tanks, cars etc . . also elephant paraphrenalia.
very important.
Refining First act and contacting actors and crew . .