Mixed Up stills

A week or so into filming and apparently everything is going well.

“The best thing I’ve ever worked on” was one wildly over-enthusiastic response.

Hmm … well, we’ll see.

For those of you who haven’t checked out the Facebook group, here are a few stills:

Lisa McCallister and Faye Tozer … with Lee Otway and Staten Eliot hiding off to one side.

Katia Winter and Giles Alderson.

Adele Silva and Zara Dawson.

And of course:

Sylvester McCoy, obviously repairing the TARDIS there. I think the next Doctor should definitely carry a big bastard drill around with him. There are very few problems in life which can’t be solved with a big drill.

“EXTERMIN– Argh! Get off! Jesus Christ, he’s drilling through my head!”

There are a load more stills, but I’m not 100% certain which ones I’m allowed to show you. There are one or two I’m pretty certain aren’t for general consumption - but I’ll post updates if and when I’m given the all clear.

Remarkably, so far I’ve only had one ad-hoc re-write: a new cameo to squeeze in another bit of named talent. It appears they’re just filming what I wrote without fuss … either that or they’re just making shit up on the spot.

Either way, it’s forging merrily ahead.

I’ll keep you informed as I find out more.

Mixed Up Facebook

Even more Mixed Up goodness: there’s now a Facebook group for you to needlessly throw sheep at.

There’re even pictures of Sylvester McCoy with a drill and the odd bit of cleavage.

Those are separate photos, by the way. It’s not Sylvester’s cleavage. Not that that would be a bad thing, I’m sure he has a very nice cleavage - it’s just the ones on display are a little more … more.

So go on, join up or become a fan or both. All your friends have and you don’t want to look stupid now, do you?

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=13670566917

Mixed Up bits

Bit of a pointless post really; but hey, it’s early here.

Firstly: Mixed Up is now up on IMDb - that means it’s real. Officially real, as opposed to the imaginary project it was yesterday. Which obviously means my IMDb page now has another credit. I know this is a sad bit of worthless self promotion but … no, I have no defence. I just want people to look at my IMDb page.

You can be amazed, jealous, bored, dissmissive … whatever. Choose your own reaction.

And secondly, there’s now an official website other than the myspace page: www.mixedupthemovie.com.

There’s fuck all on it at the moment, but it’s there.

And with those pointless words, I’m off to breakfast.

The filming so far …

A couple of days into production of Mixed Up and here are my impressions of the shoot so far …

If you look dead centre of the horizon, roughly 4210 miles in the distance is Beanos.

Looks good from here.

Kick off

Mixed Up starts shooting today.

This is good news, I like it when projects start shooting - there’s a lot less chance they’ll fall apart and disappear. It’s not a guarantee of course, but it’s marginally less likely.

What impresses me most is the speed with which this has all come about. It was the end of November last year when the director, Lawrence Pearce, took me to peer through the windows of Beanos and mentioned something about a slacker comedy.

Since we’d met to talk about a different project, I thought we were just idly chatting on the way back to the station. It wasn’t until a week later I learnt I was writing it.

Lawrence provided the story, I provided a synopsis followed by a treatment and started the script near the end of January.

That’s three months from typing FADE IN: to the director yelling: ‘ACTION!’

That’s pretty quick.

By way of contrast, there’s another project I’ve been working on which is still going SEVEN YEARS down the line. SEVEN FUCKING YEARS! Three months? That’s the way it should be. All films should work like that.

In those three months (or less really, since it took three weeks to deliver the first draft) producer Jonathan Sothcott has secured funding and a great cast: Billy Murray, Adele Silva, Lee Otway, Zara Dawson, Abi Titmuss, Anna Brecon, Terry Stone, Giles Alderson, Katia Winter and of course, Sylvester McCoy.

Great cast, great location, great director.

Great script? I don’t know, people seem to like it. I’ll reserve judgement until I’ve seen the final product.

Despite my own paranoia, I have high hopes for this one. It’s exciting and it’s happening right now. No messing about, get the script, get the money, make the film.

I love it.

Having said that, with production starting today, I am, of course, going to go and hide in the Caribbean until it’s all over.

Love the script

As a project nears production, everyone involved is keen to tell you how much they love the script. It’s a fantastic script, you’ve done a great job … etc, etc.

My usual response is to mumble thanks and try to change the subject.

It’s not that I don’t appreciate positive comments, it’s just … surely not every script is fantastic and not every person involved can like it?

Rightly or wrongly I’m suspicious of profuse praise. It wouldn’t be so bad if, every now and then, someone turned round and told me they “hate the genre, but the script is tolerable”.

And you never hear: “It’s a pile of shit, but I need the money.”

Or: “The script sucks, but I’ve just slept with xxxxx and owe him/her a favour” (where xxxxx is someone involved in the production; usually, but not exclusively limited to, the producer).

I’m not saying I want to be bombarded with torrents of abuse either; hell, I’m not even sure I want people to be honest: “It’s fairly mediocre but I quite like my part.”

Nah, I don’t need to hear that.

But I always remember having a drink with a visual effects guy who’s worked on some fairly high profile films. I’ve mentioned it before, and no doubt will do so again, but he told me everyone involved in the film he was currently working on (big film, big budget) knew it was shit except for the director, the producer and the writer.

Everyone. Cast, crew, teaboy … everyone.

So why do they work on a shit project?

Because they still get paid and good visual effects in a bad film will still generate work for the effects guy. Plus, he enjoys doing the effects, he doesn’t really care what the words are around them.

Sure enough, when the film came out the reviews were all the same: an expensive pile of wank.

So how do you tell when people are being honest and when people are being professional?

And by professional, I mean lying, sycophantic bastards.

Hence my embarrassed mumblings and desire to change the subject whenever anyone offers any praise. I really don’t have any idea how to behave in this situation. I’ve experimented with declaring my genius and refusing to speak to lower lifeforms; but, weirdly, that just seems to upset people. I’ve tried shouting random words to confuse them:

“Trousers! Fishsticks! Voles riding negligent sisscors!”

But that just seems to scare people. I’ve even opted for staring fixedly at their teeth, dribbling and saying:

“Wrestling makes Mister winkie go hard.”

But apparently that’s normal behaviour for a writer and To Be Expected. So I give up, I have no idea how to react and might opt for just not talking to people at all.

Either that or stick to my guns: mumble thanks and try to change the subject.

One thing I do know, if any actor, male or female (usually female) tells you “Thanks for the words” … punch them in the throat. The world doesn’t need that level of pretension and any court of law would reward you for meting out swift justice.

Probably by giving you community service and a fine; but secretly they’d be commending you for services to humanity.

Honest.

Writing for Doctor Who

That’s right, that’s the secret.

Me, Phill Barron putting words into the mouth of The Doctor.

Sort of.

Okay, so it’s not the current Doctor and it’s not actually Doctor Who, but it still counts.

What? Don’t look at me like that.

I’ve just had a phone call from producer Jonathan Sothcott (who I now love in a totally manly way, and promise not to refer to as my pimp for at least a week) saying Sylvester McCoy has confirmed for Mixed Up.

In a fairly exciting day with lots of work stuff materialising out of the blue, this is by far my favourite piece of information.

(Apologies to everyone else; but in fairness, I don’t own a crappy plastic figure of anyone else I spoke to or about today)

Mixed Up already had a great cast, but in my eyes it just got better. With only six days to go until shooting starts, I am now officially too excited to sleep.

Hee hee hee … Sylvester McCoy.

Hee hee hee

I know something you don’t.

Well, hopefully I know lots of things you don’t; like passwords, bank account details and where the spare keys to my house are … but, there’s one specific thing I know which you don’t.

Which I can’t tell you.

I want to …

But I can’t.

Not even to the usual people who email me privately asking for details. I’m not going to tell you, not this time. Hopefully, I’ll be able to talk in a few days time …

Which is not to say I’m in any danger of losing my vocal chords, but hopefully contracts will be signed and I will be free to tell you.

The sad thing is, this is probably only exciting to me … but I don’t care. It excites the geek in me.

I know and you don’t.

Hee hee hee.

Do they really have sex in sex scenes?

For some reason, that question is the top search string for this blog. I have no idea what post it finds or what the hell I’ve been talking about; but since people are obviously really interested, I thought I’d clear it up in a neat, concise post …

No, they don’t.

Unless it’s porn; in which case … yes, they do.

I hope that answers that burning question and people can get back to finding my blog by searching for “Phillip Barron” and “genius writer”.

Closer

My anonymity grows.

It seems Abi Titmuss is running all over town, completely failing to mention me at every opportunity. After not being mentioned in Hello! and The Sun, I’ve now not been mentioned in Closer.

Okay, okay, so the Hello! article was actually Adele Silva not mentioning me. Meaning, technically, Abi’s only given two interviews which doesn’t really count as running all over town; but it’s still moderately exciting to see yourself failing to be mentioned in national publications. I really am on track for no one knowing who I am in the next few months.

In fact, I’d go so far as predicting that by Christmas, my anonymity will have grown to such proportions even Mandy will never have heard of me.

Truly we live in wonderous times.