News

High Standards

October 13, 2009

Our latest work for Standards for England was featured in the September issue of Televisual Magazine. The piece was written in the form of the production diary of Vicky Steele, our Senior Producer.

The joys of producing a training drama for Standards for England with the intervention of the fire brigade, wayward dogs, forgetful actors and rapid hair loss.

­DAY 1 : Katy (Jacaranda MD) sweeps in to announce the good news that we’ve again won the new training drama for Standards for England. The not so good news is that the subject matter is ‘focussing on local assessment of complaints of councillors’ conduct’ and she’s promised the client a sparkling script with dynamic visuals...

DAY 60 : We have 30 pages of (sparkling?) dialogue, the bulk of which takes place in (visually dynamic?) council meetings. - How to lift this into something with a pulse?

DAY 72 : Friday before the shoot, our main character calls to say he’s have trouble learning his script so can we get autocue? For God’s sake, whatever happened to learning Hamlet – actors!

DAY 75 : First filming day starts sluggishly as crew and cast settle in. We have 10 minutes of dialogue to shoot each day, with numerous location changes. Mid afternoon, we’re already behind schedule when a fire alarm goes off. We ignore it, it’s just a test... No it isn’t... We’re herded into the street to wait for the Fire Brigade to arrive, check the building and finally give the all clear. Out comes the first clump of hair. We end the day two hours behind.

DAY 78 : We move to Richmond where we’ll shoot a council meeting over two days. It’s hot…and the actors are dripping. An alarm goes off. We ignore it, it’s just a test. No it isn’t... WHY is this happening to me? Out comes another clump of hair.

DAY 79 : Last day of filming. Very early start with exterior shot of ‘elderly man walking his dog by the river’. Said mutt trips elderly actor, elderly actor on his back .. and the mutt is off. Final clump of hair is extracted. We run over - but we’ve got it! One or two beers are cracked open.. as I put in a late night call to Nicky Clarke..

DAY 100 : The client has viewed the offline and is delighted with the programme and its sparkling script and dynamic visuals. I’m quite pleased with my new hair-do.

On to the next one...

You may watch an extract from this film ­here.

Watch the film: