Projection Room: Secrets of a Haunting- The Pre-Production

 

For the last few months, I’ve been very kindly invited along to join the pre-production meetings for UCLan’s second year Film Production students, to help document the production of their own take on adapting Shirley Jackson’s 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House into a film- with the shoot well underway, this is a unique look into a side of the industry I’ve never experienced before: the tedious pre-shoot paperwork. While it might’ve been difficult to get images sorted due to the nature of this project, this is a unique look behind the scenes of what making a feature film is like.

THE STORY SO FAR…

In September, just as we were formulating the early stages of the Born Independent campaign, UCLan lecturer and friend of the blog Ed Greenberg launched this big feature film project to a group of very capable students. Their mission, which they accepted, was to remake The Haunting using the poorly received Jan de Bont 1999 version as their inspiration, although they could use the book for further ideas if they wished. Obviously Netflix came out with their series not long after this, and wisely the students wanted to steer clear of what Mike Flanagan and his team did in those 10 episodes.

I came on board to witness these meetings in late October (around the time I was offered the radio gig funnily enough), and by that point they had split into their respective departments ready to begin the bulk of pre-production. Location scouting was underway, line producers were preparing budgets, the art department were busy looking at Victorian dolls houses amongst other things (to say any more would spoil some of the film), and everything felt like a well oiled machine. I was primarily stationed with the ‘above the line’ crew, so I observed a lot of the major decisions as to what the film would feature, alongside seeing what the individual heads of department were creating for the film that is now officially shooting. This is about as close as anyone can get to a full on production office environment in any film course in the UK according to the higher ups, so I was in for a real eye-opener.

THE BRIEF

Ed, and overall course leader Ian Crook gave these students one task with the original script- to cut all the CGI-laden elements out, refine the dialogue and deliver a film that could be made dirt cheap in and around the North West. Originally, the film was to be crowdfunded, but after a series of complications around the ‘not for profit’ nature of the production, this idea was scrapped the night before it was to be launched, prompting last minute changes not only to the film, but to this blog’s flagship YouTube series; as the marketing team worked with me on what would have been the final piece of the October Journal. But, they had a plan B in place well before that saga went down: they pitched for and successfully obtained £5,000 from the uni, and with that big win, they were about to make this film happen. The producers were rather relieved to have sorted that little saga out… now all they needed was a script.

THE SCRIPT

Revising the base script wasn’t an easy task. And for directors/scriptwriters Shayla Kirkham, Jack O’Connell and Caitlin Rigney, this was something they leapt into from day 1. They decided to take the brief, and add a distinct Northern flair to it, adding some modern day stylings to truly make it their own, putting in some serious hours to get the job done alongside 1st assistant director Catherine Morris, who handled the creation of the film’s extensive shot list, as well as the all important shooting schedule. I was there for the final read-through with the entire crew, and I was pleasantly surprised at what they were able to turn around in such a short space of time. The draft I was given at that initial readthrough on November 22nd came in at just shy of 66 pages, which stayed true to the source material and only changed aspects that they knew wouldn’t be possible with the budgetary constraints of the project. Once you’ve factored in cinematography/camera positions, rewrites and the usual complications that the shoot can bring along, this film could easily run for at least 90 minutes. So they were off to an insane start- and much like their preparations with the setups, they were ahead of schedule.

CASTING

As the end of November neared, the directors, and their head of casting Adam Hoxha, started auditioning for the main roles. For the team, this was a learning curve, as they were presented with some difficult decisions, most notably when one of the supporting roles dropped out at the very last minute. I didn’t want to witness much of this process, especially the decisions over the final cast, as I will be reviewing the finished film at the end of this journey, but the team handled each minor setback incredibly well, and it gave all of them a real insight into how to run auditions in a professional and timely manner. On January 25th, literally 4 weeks from the start of the shoot, the cast were locked in ready for rehearsals to start. It was time to start getting familiar with the equipment, and for these students, having the state of the art facilities of UCLan’s Media Factory available to them was a blessing.

EQUIPMENT TO DIE FOR

And speaking of the facilities that the university has in its stores for the purpose of this module, the students have really got to know their instruments of cinematic capture incredibly well- as the film is being shot entirely on the ever capable Blackmagic cameras. As a critic, this is one side of the industry I’ve never got to see first hand- especially with the controversy over the Oscar for cinematography brewing at the minute, but this is top of the line equipment to ensure the film looks at home on the biggest screens. For the uninitiated, Blackmagic cameras are responsible for the action scenes in Jason Bourne, as well as sequences in Kingsman, Avengers: Age of Ultron and a variety of major Hollywood releases. They’re effectively using industry spec gear to shoot this film at the highest quality they can, and this is something which is supplemented by the decision to shoot this film in the 2.39:1 aspect ratio- or to simplify it for those of you who aren’t as acquainted with filmmaking and projection terminology, the same format that the majority of mainstream films are presented in with the black bars above and below. The test footage I’ve seen has looked incredible, and both of the directors of photography look set to make this film feel ready for the big screen. However, at the time of writing, I’m yet to seek details from the sound department on what they are working with, but they look to be using Zoom sound recorders and top quality mics to capture the best audio on set.

THE NEXT STEPS: THE SHOOT AND THE EDIT

As of Saturday morning, and until mid-March, the ‘Mad Vision’ production team will be setting up camp at various spaces around Preston, and at a residential hall in Carnforth to shoot the film on location. I’ll be popping down to the set on Friday to see a bit of the shoot and plant some Ripped Ticket shaped seeds with the crew- as this is merely the start of proceedings here with this group, and it’s ultimately going to culminate in a full First Take review. As for production, once the shoot concludes on March 10th, the edit and its associated tasks will take them up to the end of the academic year. As I type this, the crew are nervous for the shoot. But I have every faith that they will make a solid film.