Well, where do I start? Let's see. Let me take you back to March 1996. During a rather long liquid lunch in a pub in the centre of London, a discussion started between two people Ben Davies and Bill Compton.
Fed up with the lack of chances to promote our own script writing, acting, and directing, we decided to make an attempt at a short film. Ben would write the script and I would direct and film it using my Sony 8mm camcorder. Not much of a start, but we had to start somewhere.
I had already filmed Youth Action Theatre's trip to the Eastern Connecticut State University, USA in August 1995 as well as other small projects in live theatre. I was a little bit dubious about approaching this project as this was a different step for me, if only because it would be the first thing I had directed.
After a couple of weeks, Ben was still working on the script and I was pestering him almost daily for the first draft. It was during this period that I got bored. I wasn't happy with the quality that the 8mm camcorder would give us and wanted to find a better format to film on whilst still keeping the filming budget to a minimum. I considered buying a 16mm film camera but the post-production and editing would be a nightmare (I could only work on the film during weekends and evenings) as well as the cost of film and processing. After a couple of weeks of looking through just about every video magazine available I opted for the Sony DCR-VX1000E Digital Video Camcorder which gave me 500 lines resolution and 12bit stereo sound (unlike the 8mm camcorder which gives me only 250 lines and mono sound). We had a decent camera, now all we needed was a decent script.
Ben completed the script in the first week of May, and after another month of re-laying out, basic storyboarding and adding scene numbers we were ready to film The Morning Before.
We completed the film (edited and a final copy on tape) around about the middle of July after 8 hectic weeks trying to fit filming schedules into weekends. I enjoyed making this film, if only because it was my first project to actually come to fruition and because I learnt so much in making it. I made several mistakes during the actual filming and finished up having to "fix" them at a later date which was not ideal. Thankfully, by making these simple mistakes, I will know for the future what to look out forand where to take more care in the pre-production stage of a project.
Pickle Films now plans to produce at least one film a year, utilising as many no-budget or low-budget resources as possible, and providing "hands on" experience in TV and Film for actors/actresses and technical crew.
Bill Compton
