Our highest number of locations per film is 12
What you don’t see when you watch a film is the amazing army of industry professionals who create the magic for you, both during and post production. Many of them have worked with us before and feel like part of the Acting on Impulse family. They work for low charity rates, give up their weekend for us, and we are eternally grateful to them.
The person who kicks it all off is the Producer, who sorts the budget, recruits the crew, searches for locations and plans all the schedules. This year Lauren took on the challenge of writing and directing the film, leaving production in the very capable hands of Luke Filz. ‘On the ball’ doesn’t do justice to his efficiency and ability, he is the best. For the cast, seeing their call sheets revealed for the first time that the film was to be called PENALTY.
Our highest number of locations per film is 12. Utterly exhausting! This time we had just one, sheer bliss. Luke and Lauren found a hotel in Salford that met our requirements and had very helpful management. They gave one huge and one small reception room over to us, and 2 bedrooms. We shared their kitchen and stored our kit overnight in one of the bedrooms. Two of the crew slept in that bedroom to guard it, freeing the stalwart David Tomlinson from the usual late night ordeal of having to load and unload the kit back at his house.
The last weekend in April saw it all come together as the crew of 30 and 14 of the cast arrived ready for action. Over the next 3 days we got to know the residents of the hotel a little and concluded that we needed to return to make a documentary about them. Truth really is stranger than fiction, their stories ranged from the bizarre to the heart-breaking. Maybe we could go back one day and run one of our outreach projects with them.
The days were long and exhausting. Days 2 and 3 saw the full cast of 21 in action and as ever they were disciplined and patient and in fact had a lot of fun making this film. It was full of surprises for them. The catering crew kept us well fed, what would we do without the team from Altrincham Baptist Church who feed us every year. The make-up team were particularly busy with some prosthetic challenges, but we mustn’t give the game away…
All told, it was a successful film shoot. The post-production team is busy at work as I write and we can expect some interesting special effects, sound and music to be added.
The premiere is scheduled for 11am Saturday 7th July at HOME, Manchester. Tickets are free from Eventbrite. There are 230 seats to be filled and our hearts’ desire is to see our actors take a well-earned standing ovation from a capacity audience.
Thank you for reading and we hope you can join us. All photos by our stills photographer, the fabulous Howard Wilkinson.
