Get your popcorn ready… Backyard Productions’ biggest Star Wars film is showing on the big screen again, at the Chapter Art Centre, Cardiff on 14 November 2009.
CLONYY yng Nghymru
The Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff, one of the largest and most innovative arts centres in Europe, will be showing our Star Wars-spoof, The Emperor’s New Clones, as part of a series of fan films. And what’s more, to see our fan-film sequel on the big screen again will cost you nothing, but you will still need to book a ticket (click here).
“This is a really excellent opportunity to showcase our work,” says Darren Scales, Backyard Productions’ ‘Bwlio Gweithredol’, “and it is always great to work with people that show such strong commitment to film.”
And you won’t have long to wait – it will be on Saturday 14th November at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. As if that wasn’t all, you’ll get to meet some of the crew that made the film. We at Backyard Productions would like to say a big diolch yn fawr to the folk at Chapter.
Time: 3 pm
Date: Saturday 14th November
Place: Chapter Arts Centre, Canton, Cardiff
Links:
Chapter Arts Centre
The Emperor’s New Clones
Cloniau Newydd yr Ymerawdwr
If you’ve ever been on Facebook, you’ll have done it; looked through the pictures of someone you haven’t actually met in ages. Nothing unusual in that, but this one had me particularly transfixed. She was standing in front of an olde world sweet shop, waving her arm at her young son who was taking the picture. For me, it was a very strange coincidence. There was no doubt, this was where I was going to be spending the following weekend, and what a weekend it turned out to be.
Of course, the brave and tragic stories were being played out well before I arrived. The Backyard Productions team were busy setting up their very odd devices to start filming at a new location – Sundown Adventureland. This is a theme park in Nottinghamshire aimed at the under tens, and they create such imaginative settings that it seemed the logical choice for our make-believe fairytale world.
This was always going to be one of the greatest challenges we had ever faced. From day one, our small group was having to deal with a large supporting cast to get the right atmosphere of a bustling town. Luckily they are were all willing to get stuck in and join in all the fun, and Caroline was amazing to get them all into the right costumes! We had to set up a scaffolding framework and platform to get a high shot over the castle walls into the courtyard below. At one point they had to put a ladder up against one of the towers, as the Prince clung to it.
Although most of the filming on the first day was done in a little corner away from ride entrances – the theme park was fully open during all this – some of the most complicated scenes had to be filmed with people going in and out of rides around us. Each of us was carefully directed by Dom and Julie, so it looked like a bustling marketplace or a rhythmical dance number. Some of us were yelling out like market traders and some of us were just walking past pretending to buy orange and melons, sometimes even in front of the main action.
The Tractor Ride in the park is one of the most popular ones, but we took over part of the entrance to film Cinders’ house exterior. The little ones wanting to see all the farmyard displays were bemused by the sight of our pantomime dames hanging out their bloomers. One particular scene involving a fight took place in the Robin Hood ride, the pirate ship, the Wild West area as well as the market. If you’ve ever done filming you’ll know how difficult that is, with all the starts and stops and doing it over and over again for different angles.
It was in the market that a lot of the more complex scenes took place, including the opening song. Doing very tiring dance routines over and over couldn’t have been easy for our performers. Even my very mundane bit had me out of breath after the tenth take!
The scene that was the most technically complex and challenging, involving a the same dedicated supporting cast and lots of very sophisticated-looking equipment was another song. To get the right effect, we had to move until we were told to stop and remember exactly where that was, before continuing on cue. We then had to wait for it to get dark, return to the same spot and position and stay perfectly still while the main action was being recorded, with the aid of a huge spotlight. On the cue, we then had to keep going as if nothing had happened. Some people had to stop dead while walking past and stay like that for the whole song. Of course, I had it easy, because my group was just standing around chatting. And where was I standing? Next to the same olde world sweet shop that my friend was posing outside in the Facebook picture.
On Wednesday (Oct 14th 2009), Darren and Ed attended the Institute of Videographers Trade show and (in the evening) their 20th annual Awards ceremony. Darren was nominated for best film for ‘Sugarcubes’, and we met Maggie Philbin of ‘Tomorrow’s World’ fame, who was genuinely interested to hear all about Backyard Productions.
If you’d like to be involved in the Cinders project download the application form here, fill it in, and email it to the address given in the application. Pre production will be from January to June 2010 with filming in June and July.
Filming for the Cinders Trailer is all over. We’ve all put in lots of work and produced a mountain of footage for Darren to get through. Thank you, everyone, for making it happen so far. You can all give yourselves a pat on the back, and here’s a big thank you from everyone at Backyard Productions.
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