First about Catherine Balavage. Catherine is so easy to work with she makes it a pleasure. She is working so hard on this film and I believe she is going to make it such a better film for that. The producing and writing skills she has brought to the film was one thing – but then she started acting. And that was better. She is embodying the character and really has a great handle on who exactly the character is. I feel bad when as a director people give me what I want first take and all I can say is “that was great” but  so far that’s what I’ve said to Catherine. Almost all the time.

Now onto Bo Wilson who is portraying Paula in the film. Paula is the character I felt was always going to be the beating heart of the film. This was the character the done right would lift the film. I had worked with Catherine before but I had never worked with Bo before. I only knew her from the excellent web series Love Tourettes. If you don’t know about it look it up on youtube. We had a talk about the character and about various aspects like costume. Before I get into performance I’m not sure how she managed to still look gorgeous in the frankly unflattering attire she had to act in but she managed it. Now back to performance. I wasn’t sure exactly how it would go. I had an idea of what the character was like in my head. But Bo gave me a more human, honest portrayal of Paula then anything I had in my head. There were a couple of moments I forget I was directing. Genuinely forgot I was directing and was just watching the performance. Once I let the take go too long because I had forgotten to say cut. Why did that happen? Because she had me. I was in that moment. I was hooked by the performance. It’s heartbreakingly real. I’m not blowing smoke or over hyping the performance. There are lines that I never heard delivered the way she delivers them when I wrote them but she does it better. Even though this character may not be exactly how I first envisioned it now – it’s better and I stand by saying that Paula is the beating heart of the film.

Now onto crew. What a crew. Mel Thomas there isn’t much to say apart from she is one of the most talented people I know. http://www.melthomas.co.uk/ please check it out. She is super talented. Between her and my trusty right hand man Rhys Taylor, who is DP on this film, they make my stuff look better than I ever could without them. Kirby Moore came on board the crew today and she is a professional in how she works. She was on sound today and did a great job. There are very talented people who hopefully will be on the crew as well when we go into full production but I can big them up another time. Yes Ross I’ll call you awesome eventually just you’ll have to wait is all.

The movie is looking good. I’m listed on IMDB now so at least it looks like I’m actually involved in the film. And I just have that performance from the talented Bo Wilson going round and round in my head. Jay Mohr delivered the famous line in Jerry Maguire “it’s real you should say something” and that performance was real. And now I’ve said something. I have put my name on it and you can charge that to the game.

This coming weekend see’s the first two days of filming on the project. What we are lovingly referring to (at least in the directors head) as Pre- Production production is two days of filming where we shoot some great scenes. Then we cut them together and give the world and all those lovely people we hope will give us money a sneak peak at the film itself. One of the scenes is a really look at what the film is all about.

Expect to see a Crowd Funder Campaign over the next few weeks. We will be looking to raise funds so that we can bring you the best possible production. Not Much we’re not looking for a big budget still trying to keep to the spirit of No Budget film making but we know that a bit of cash will help us honour the cast and crew.

Also in other casting new Lynn Howes will be playing the part of Spuds. I’m Very excited to be working with this talented actress. She has a comic edge to her and we’ll using that fully in this film.

The casting process has been interesting and we’ve had a very tough time choosing between some great talents. Sometimes I do feel bad about not being able to cast people I would really like to work with. But that’s the nature of the beast sadly.

The film is coming together nicely and we hope that the film continues in this vain over the next few weeks. We’ll be announcing hopefully some interesting ways of raising some attention for the film and the crowd funder campaign and ways you can get involved with it.

Nothing much to add about the film but I thought I would, as director and someone who enjoys writing, indulge myself a little here and put up something I wrote yesterday. I was just listening to some music and had a lot of stuff about the recent rioting in London and other parts of the UK going around my head. Maybe it was because of the piece of music I’m not sure but I found myself writing this and I quite like it but wasn’t sure what to do with it. So as it’s longer then 140 characters I present it here. I hope this is ok.

Light. Dark. Good. Evil. Can one ever truly exist without the other? The eternal struggle within the very nature of mankind. Inherently good or rotten by nature? The acts that define us are often a blurred line of good and evil. A Grey area we can shrug at and say that this is what life is. A Grey area where we live and act. Sometimes doing things for good and sometimes doing things that are inspired by self or greed. We live a life that often straddles the line between what we ought to be and what we hope will never be. The moral tightrope that spans our lifeline and we take so much care to walk along. Light. Dark. Good. Evil. Some would say morality is a circle and good and evil are defined by one’s own sense of the world. That what we see as acceptable is directed by our own moral compass. That we define what is, for us as an individual, wrong. That we ignore the world and turn out nose up at the community and say that I am right there is no other. This might in fact be the case but right now I don’t care about that. All I know now is that there are things that are not debatable. They are not Grey areas. They are not defined by one’s own moral compass. There are things that are just wrong. Evil is a word that has lost some of its punch, some it’s meaning. Like so much it’s become little more than just another word. But where there is dark there is light and where there is evil there is also good. There are Times that are so evil they inspire good. Times so dark they inspire light. Acts so vile that they can connect people who would never have been connected. Yes the world looks on and asks why? But this isn’t about the world. Just for now the world can take a back seat. Just for now we look to ourselves. To what must be done. This is about here. This is about now. This is about us.

Right so news about the film. There is nothing new to report about the film. Yes we’re working hard but honestly it’s like stuff that isn’t that interesting. I worked out how I want to shoot a certain scene. Is that news? I’ve figured out I want a scene in the film where the camera doesn’t stop moving. Is that news? I don’t know I’ve never done one of these before. I usually just make stupid jokes when I write stuff for the internet. For example if you want to take a few minutes to search youtube for the version of Build me Up Buttercup a band called The Goops did for the 1995 comedy Mallrats. I’ll wait.

But that has nothing to do with this film. I am a big fan of film scoring and know how just the right music can lift a film. I have no idea what we will do for the music at this moment in case you thought I was about to drop some kind of information bomb about that. Because I’m not going to do that.

So lets’ introduce you to one of leading characters – Sarah Wheston

Sarah Wheston is a poetry writer with quite the impressive resume. In Fact to be lazy and quote the film “Sarah Wheston is a young poet who rose to national fame with her bestselling book of poems “Things that I wrote that don’t always Rhyme”. She is a graduate from Oxford with a First Class Honours degree in English. She has been the winner of many awards including The Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize, The Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry and The Newdigate Prize which was won during her time at Oxford” Yes Sarah had quite the impressive career. And then it all stopped. She got writers block. She couldn’t write anything anymore. For 1,504 days to be precise.  No matter what she does she can’t turn out a good poem. Sarah lives alone in a routine trapped by her writers block.

That gives you a little bit of a clue as to who Sarah is. I hope you enjoyed that.

Richard Wright

Follow us on Twitter @UnderSadTears

I am working on the film in a major way with Co-Writer, producer, lead actress Catherine Balavage. It is a honour to be working with such a fine actress and talented person who frankly could be working with people better then I.

Right now there’s not a lot of news for you guys. We’re dating the first days of shooting and rehearsals. So far we have lined up Rhys Taylor to be Director of Photography and Mel Thomas & Kirby Moore also to be on crew and Catherine Balavage has been cast in the lead role of Sarah Wheston. A few casting ideas are being kicked around and locationgs being scouted.

Over the next few posts I’ll outline the film briefly, bring you any news that may be and talk very openly about the process.

Incase your big into twitter, which is probably how you got to this, then you can follow us @undersadtears and you can follow me @richywright.

Until next time thank you for reading

Richard Wright

PS: Why UnderSadTears? It’s relevant to the film