Lisa and David at Galway FM
It was two days worth of good old Irish hospitality as ‘Under the Mud’ actress Lisa Parry and me (UTM writer David Catterall) headed to Galway for the 2007 Junior Film Fleadh.
The flight over was an interesting one as neither of us are particularly good with flying, especially on such a small aircraft. It was a good job we both had a lot to catch up on, and prepare for. We were heading straight for a radio interview as soon as we landed. Galway FM’s Craig Kelly was our host and what followed was a lively and fun interview that would hopefully get a few more bums on seats for the screening the following day.
From there we headed to our guesthouse to settle in and glam up for dinner.After a wonderful evening of wine, food and good company we turned in for the night.The screening took place at the Town Hall Theatre, a really cosy venue that was able to play host to a generously sized audience. The majority of this audience were teenagers and film makers who were interested in the process of how the film was conceived, so both of us has plenty of interesting questions to answer in the Q&A afterwards. The film went down extremely well with people, and we discovered that we had inspired the local Film companies to want to do something similar.
After sampling the local Guinness and a good old Irish knees up in a spectacular old tavern we set off home the next day content, happy and terrified of the bumpy ride home!
Mick, Lenny, Roy and Sol entertained the crowds at the Cambridge Film Festival screening of UTM on 7th July, getting a great review in the process.
The team at Cambridge Film Festival
Lenny, Mick & Dolph Lundgren
Mick Colligan and Lenny Wood went to the Cannes Film Festival followed by a camera crew to promote Under the Mud. As well as hanging out with the stars there was time for some useful insights into the world of film.
See what Mick and Lenny had to say to the BBC in this video.
Just back from California – and a truly memorable trip. After a last-minute drop-out by Natalie (one of the writers who had to attend an interview for Oxford!) Five of us went over – myself, Sol and writers/actors Lenny, Mick and David (Magic, Worm and the barman). It was not only their first trip to the United States, but their first trip abroad – and a life-changing trip it was for all of them.
We stayed with supporters of the festival – officially titled Sonoma Valley Food, Wine and Film Festival (so you can imagine the hospitality we encountered). Our accommodation can only be described as breath-taking (including a hill-top luxury villa with valley-view infinity pool). We had a fleet of new Jags at our beck-and-call 16 hours a day, we mixed with Robin Williams, stars from Lost, The Sopranos and the creative team from Pixar – Toy Story / Cars etc (one of whom watched the UTM DVD twice on the run, she enjoyed it so much!) and all-in-all had a total blast.
Oh yes, and the film went down really well too. One slight gripe was that our screening slots weren’t great – 10am first day, 8.30pm last day – clashing with the awards ceremony, which meant we had no chance of the audience award, which was disappointing – but its fair to say we did win the hearts of Sonoma. Lenny and Mick did a couple of impromptu gigs and we socialised 24/7.
After one panel, during which I had told the long saga of how the film came to be made, two people approached me afterwards, one an entertainment Lawyer offering pro-bono work on the music clearances, the other offering investment to help pay the outstanding music clearances (both have been in touch since we got back, I’ll keep you all informed).
So, thanks to South Liverpool Housing and Niace for making the trip possible, next up – a screening at BAFTA, Piccadily (date tbc) meanwhile the search for a distributor goes on.
Roy Boulter
Quiet on the set!
Early start to sort to low loader- type vehicle and first port of call is DKW Autos where Big Dave and Little Dave have sorted many a last minute hitch for us! They reckon a towable dolly which will tow the vehicle by its front wheels horizontally will do the job and Sol goes for a quick lesson in how to operate the thing! Need to sort food for tonight as the ever dwindling budget needs help wherever possible and Iceland come up trumps (cheers Kathy!). Production Office kitchen turns into a bap-buttering production line and Gill Williams (add “Head of Catering” to her list of acknowledgements) whips up a fine feast for all! First hitch of the night (these things are sent to try us!) is that the tyres on the towable dolly deflate. No foot pumps around so Gill (add chief mechanic too!) takes the tyres to a petrol station to pump ‘em up. Hook the Cherokee up and there are problems galore. The towing vehicle (Sol’s people carrier) is lighter than the jeep making towing difficult. Crew are asked to sit in the people carrier to add weight (it’s a good job we all ate so many of Gill’s sarnies).
However a bigger problem arises when we discover that we can’t tow the vehicle. Young Dave from DKW autos comes out to help (dressed in full biker leathers!) but we discover that the 4 wheel drive automatic can’t be towed, even in neutral, as the wheels lock. We need to drop this scene and move onto another scene involving DJ WORM (Mick) clinging to a set of aircraft step which are being driven by MAGIC (Lenny). Paul Barry again comes to our rescue with his low loader (and no we couldn’t use this earlier for the car stuff if that’s what you are thinking!!) transporting the steps from Liverpool Airport to us. Shoot some great stuff with the lads and steps and our next job is to create a mud bath for our 5 x Widnes Wool’s to muddy themselves up for the next scene!
A paddling pool and 2 sacks of top soil are put in place and Roy, Lucy, Peter and I set about filling the pool with every utensil we can find. This involves traipsing to the toilets at the National Bloodbank Toilets and filling our mop bucket, jugs, saucepans, washing up bowls etc etc. A couple of trips in (it’s a big pool!) and good old Roy finds a big plastic bin! Hurray!! That makes it our final trip and we get mixing the mud! Whilst mixing, our stand in make up lady (Suzanne) applies mud make up (supplied by Mersey TV!) to our wools faces and then our five brave lads (Michael Ledwich, Graham Mullen, Graham Hicks, Paddy Bleakly and Steven Hodgeson ) brave the cold mud (that’s showbiz) but they do it with a smile on their faces and treat me(!) to a muddy, bear-hug for asking them how cold it was (it was my good jacket too). Their scene is excellent, really, really funny and applause too for Tom O’Rourke our Unit Driver who plays a passing drunk convincingly and comically!
We then shoot Lenny and Mick’s specially composed song “Steps” pop promo stylie, razzing around the Business Park on a set of aircraft steps! Fabulous. We wrap at around 05.00am but hit a further hitch when it starts to rain and we have real trouble getting the aircraft steps and forklift truck back onto the low loader. The forklift keeps sliding off and even witn 5 x burly crew pushing we can’t get the thing on. Gill to the rescue again as she retrieves 2 mats from her car and puts then over the slippy tracks and with a hefty push and a big cheer, we get the forklift on. We leave at around 05:30 and head back to the office with the equipment. Saturday off and then a “Green Screen” studio day at Toxteth Tv on Sunday.
PS some crew and cast (our 5 x widnes wools) decided to pass the time waiting for their scene by, wait for it… skipping!! Gill (now entertainments’manager) whipped out an old tow rope from her boot and no sooner than you could say “I call in my very best friend” a cast and crew skipathon had commenced! (we have photographic evidence!) Top laugh. With best skipping awards being given to Lucy, Tom, Peter (happily recovered from his abcess!) and the Widnes Wools, who have definitely done it before!
Anyone for Double-dutch at the wrap party??
First night of our stunt week and although its only been two weeks there is a nice crew re-union type atmosphere!
We’re shooting some of the car chase sequences and tonight’s location is the Estuary Business Park. Ed Whitehead has given us permission to film here and the location is perfect as we need a private road to use our stunt car which is a clapped out old ford fiesta (not stolen this time!) that has been kindly supplied by Rifkins Scrapyard in Kirkdale (Cheers again Kevin!!). This is the car we’ll eventually see hurtling into the River Mersey so we need to use an old banger as its going to be wrecked but it also has to be roadworthy as it needs to be driven in the car chase sequences. We also need to mock a junction and we have borrowed a set of traffic lights from Mersey TV, who have been fabulous to us throughout our shoot (we love Colette Greenwood!!).
Our first hitch occurs when we realise that the voltage of the traffic lights and the control panel we need to use to activate the lights is incompatible! We need a generator/power source quick and Ed Whitehead comes to the rescue with an electrican friend, Neil Winterburn, who drives over from Widnes at short notice to sort the problem. Typically, much later when Neil has headed off home to bed, the generator packs in!! After much twiddling, petrol topping and head scratching, Gerard Bailey (Adam’s Dad) comes to the rescue and with a polish of the spark plugs we have our lights!! The car chase sequence can begin and our trusty stunt driver Andy Westbrook is on hand to stand in for Adam.
Supper is called at around Midnight and runner/problem solver/all-round heroine Gill Williams has produced a fine spread including a birthday cake for our sound recordist Alan Watson. Fed, watered and Back to it and the tow bar we are using to tow Adam in the Cherokee Jeep is not working so we call it a day and drop the final scene to be picked up on tomorrow (Friday; when we’ll need a alterative to a low loader (can’t afford one!) to enable us to film our young actor seemingly at the wheel.