PRODUCTIONS 2000-2005

One of the major projects in this period was a full length drama which was made using the script which won the first Barnet Script competition.

THE MAKING OF HUBERT'S TRAVELS - as told by producer Trevor Williams

Former Chairman Joe Spalter, being the liaison officer between BBAC and the Phoenix Cinema was appointed ExecutiveProducer and organised the reading of all the scripts. They were distributed among various members of the Society and marks out of 10 were awarded; after re-distributing them several times so that each script was read by several members, the scores were averaged out.

The criteria were that the setting should be based on local locations and that the plot should actually be do-able, bearing in mind the absence of a large budget. Many of the scripts were eliminated at the first reading, and a couple were no more than religious tracts! Eventually, six were short-listed and a select committee spent an evenin's countdown debating which the winnerwas. Hubert's Travels, written by Rick Limentani, was chosen as a delightful episodic story about a very special bear that has magical powers to influence many people's lives. The script was do-able in its entirety, except for just one scene, which Rick duly offered to rewrite.

MASTERMIND

In a weak moment, Joe asked me to be the actual Producer, and in an even weaker moment I agreed to do it! This was to be a completely new experience for me, but first I needed to determine just what a Producer does! I realised that I was following in the footsteps of the late Edward Agius, the Producer of most of the famous FCS blockbusters of yesteryear. One sees the Producer title fairly prominently on most important films, but what do they actually do? After discussion with professional colleagues, I began to realise how important the job is! Too late to back out now! Apparently, the Producer is the person who actually masterminds the whole production to take place at all!! All subsequent appointments were now my responsibility.

Firstly, I decided not to allow any committee to interfere with any of my responsibilities - if it was to be my job to make it happen, then the slowest way would be to let a committee discuss all the decisions. I needed to find a crew that would work well together and would accept the authority of working firstly under the Producer, then mostly under the Director. So my first appointment needed to be a Director. Michael Slowe, one of the most successful film-makers in the Club, and known internationally for his documentaries, was approached. At first Michael turned down the opportunity; this being a drama, he had little or no experience of directing a cast of actors. However, I had learned that persuasion is one of the skills needed by a Producer and Michael was duly appointed!

My next problem was to persuade Michael that he needed a Cameraman, or even a Director of Photography, and an Editor. Michael had always controlled his own camera and edited his own films as an individual operator, but I explained to him his main job was to direct the cast and to get them to interpret the script suitably, at the same time he was allowed to demand that the rest of the crew created technical lighting, sound capture and camera angles to suit his direction. The next appointment was to be the Editor and I chose Bruce Allams. Being aware of his experience gained at the Television Centre, I had high hopes that he would be able to cut each take in a way that actually worked. It was several weeks later before I could decide who would be Cameraman, but from my shortlist, I asked Bruce to do this also. Firstly, I needed someone who could work well with both the Producer and the Director and appreciated the command- structure of film-making and secondly, it is important for the Cameraman to know at the time of shooting whether the takes are likely to cut together in the edit suite.

A self-appointed second film unit headed by Alan Amor was to follow our progress by making The Making of Hubert - and no doubt this will haunt us for the rest of our lives! The remainder of the crew was easy to appoint - members of the Club were queuing up to volunteer to do something: boom-holders, lighting riggers, props providers, continuity and location catering, but there remained a major problem. How many times have we watched Club films where all the cast were taken from Club members? Without natural ability and experience it is difficult to obtain a convincing performance. Fortunately, I had friends, members of the Garden Suburb Theatre, and also Susi Earnshaw who runs a dance and drama school for young people. Michael Slowe introduced me to various members of his own family who had some acting experience.

A special audition day was organised, and the major casting was done, including our own Kenneth Seeger, Norman Saville, Vincent Tempest and Muriel Agius. Various locations were sought, but we made full use of our home base of Avenue House grounds, taking advantage of the beautiful pond and the cafeteria area. The biggest problem here, was getting together all the cast and crew on a day when it promised not to rain! One Saturday we took over Philpott's Mezzaluna Restaurant in Hampstead for a major shoot with extras, and on another occasion we all trooped off to Eileen and Gordon Kenning's cottage in leafy Hertfordshire.

At that time, I had a beautiful, highly polished Range Rover, and as the script called for a limousine and chauffeur, I thought that would be just the ticket. I was rather peeved when the Director kept referring to it only as the car and driver! He always complained of my over-acting! This car was my pride and joy! This was the obvious casting choice. The Director later decided that he needed to re- shoot one of the driving scenes, but he was too late!

Two weeks after the original shoot I was driving to Devon with my family and a caravan, when without warning the car caught fire and exploded, and was completely written off. Unfortunately, unlike The Italian Job, our Treasurer had no budget for written-off cars! Meanwhile, the Director and Editor completed their tasks of putting the production together, and a rough-cut copy was sent to Marc Folan who agreed to write a special music track, which made such a difference to the enjoyment of the film.

I reported to the Club Executive that we now had a product! What did they wish to do about a launch? Another weak moment revealed that I was also to arrange the launch. In conjunction with Joe Spalter, a date was booked with the Phoenix for Sunday, December 12. The manager gave me a book of tickets and a sales drive had begun. A small reception for all visitors was arranged, courtesy of Michael Slowe. To everyone's amazement we had a full house, and even ended up in profit! Can anyone else remember when FCS had such a successful public show! Well done, the whole team - film-making is team work.

Apart from producing copies for distribution, our next job is to enter Hubert's Travels into various competitions just to see whether the judges and critics are as enthusiastic about the film as we are. The only consolation is that the critics usually get it wrong!