Screening

Spoke to Meredith Ostrom (CALLAS) yesterday as she is here in LA for a while.
We are going to try to have a rough cut sales screening here in about a month.

Um, I guess that means we better get to it. _______________________________________________
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The casting of Meredith Ostrom (CALLAS)

Meredith Ostrom, South Bank, CALLAS 2005-07

Meredith is the second actress to play CALLAS in the film.
We shot with the fantastic Rosalind Blessed in 2004, but when we did the major rewrite in 2005 we thought it would be better for the part to be played by someone substantially older and with a more vampish/camp quality, so did another two casting sessions for the part.


Rosalind Blessed, CALLAS 2004

2004 CALLAS (Rosalind Blessed) in action

Again Thea MacLeod did a great job of finding us great actresses, and we were pretty certain we were going to cast an older UK soap actress, known for villainous (and sexy) roles. Then as a 'throw in' we included a blonde American who was also auditioning for something else in the casting studios the same day.
Her interpretation of the role was completely different to anything we had seen that day.

I mean, COMPLETELY different.

Everyone else had read the part as it was written - icy, straightforward and a bit vampy. Meredith's version was psychotic and over the top sexual. She completely destroyed the line readings of the script, and spent most of the audition on the floor. We were baffled but very intrigued.
I was very excited by Meredith, but still wasn't sure, so had our top three choices come back to do it again. We had really already decided to give the part to the other older actress, but I was still keen to canvas wider opinions on Meredith.
So a week later we were back in the same studio. The first two were fantastic, (the other girl is appearing in the next Bond movie), and again everyone was thumbs up about the older UK actress.
I'd organised Meredith to audition last, and this time she was even more different. But the mood in the room changed completely. She had won everyone else over. And boom, she was in.
Since that day she has been one of the most powerful forces involved in the film, happy to reshoot if needed and just a great energy to have involved.
She took CALLAS places we absolutely weren't expecting, and for me that's a good thing.

- MT


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DELETED SCENES 2 - SUSAN

Thea MacLeod, Meredith Ostrom

This scene may still make the film, but the subplot it comes from was never fully shot. Here Australian masseuse Susan (Thea MacLeod) gives the very busy killer Callas (Meredith Ostrom) a massage. 

The Susan character was supposed to have another few scenes to flesh out the wider portrait of London, but we decided to cut all those extra strands before we shot them. So now its simply a scene about Callas, and her rather unique foot fetish. 

This is also a good time to praise Ms MacLeod, whose great work behind the camera as a casting agent enabled this film to be completed. We owe her an enormous debt. She's also a pretty useful actress. 

- MT

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Nitty Gritty time

If you're wondering where we've been, the edit suite repairs took a bit longer than we thought, and well, we spent the weekend blowing off steam.

As some of you know, I have a business to run, and that plus this film is stretching things a bit. Poor Jeremy is tying himself in knots trying to horseshoe some of the older scenes back in to the film, and I'm just desperate to get all the dialogue scenes sharpened so we have a decent rough cut by the end of this week. 

Both of us are strung out from rearranging the sequencing of the film. It never ceases to amaze me how flexible a story is, right up until the final piece of audio post. One scene for example was cut completely, then became a flashback, moved forward in the day but now in real-time, and its central theme completely changed twice, all since Friday. 

Its also been a time of concentrating on the pacing of the film. We watched Peter Berg's 'The Kingdom' the other day, as it uses a lot of the frenetic, multi-camera style NIL has. In fact, almost EXACTLY the same style as NIL has. While its a pretty good film, it never lets you breathe, so hopefully we've got the right blend of fast, handheld cross-the-line energy, with enough moments of reflection and stillness. And that those moments happen at the right time in the story. 

The picture above is from the Paul McGann shoot that will never make the picture. In this ending the gorgeous Callas (Meredith Ostrom) comes in to save Roy (Mark Rathbone). In the version we have now, Roy meets a rather different fate. 

- MT

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Hard at work 5

EP Jerome Scott, hard at work

Primary sound, Angus Sutherland, Islington

Writer Jeremy Henman one hand clapping, Southbank

Meredith Ostrom, 'Callas' about to kill the director (seriously)

The above was shot in the Southbank loft of original LFS member and all round great guy Daryl Folkard. He was also a producer on the excellent British sex comedy The Man Who would Be Queen, which had its own tortuous journey to screen.

Ah, the joys of indie film. 

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Death in Soho

Meredith Ostrom & Colin Salmon

What begins so promisingly above, ends very messily below.

The meeting of the two killers in this film (Callas & Ralph) was shot in the original Soho House in Soho. No celebrities (apart from us) were in attendance at the time. We also had all our extras drawn from London's young and itinerant New Zealand community so its good to know that we funded a lot of Islington and Clapham drinking with this scene.

We used to joke that it was the United Nations of NIL: the crew and cast featured Australasians, Scandinavians, South Americans, North Americans, Eastern Europeans and even the occasional Brit!

Perhaps above all, this is the part of the film that is most reflective of London.


Ralph & Callas
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There Will Be Blood

Nick Townsend as 'Peter Denby'

NIL is not a violent film but we did have fun with the Peter Denby torture sequences. Its not Hostel, but we do cut his toes off, and perform other unspeakable acts on his person.

In recompense, Callas (Meredith Ostrom) does strip down to bra and pants to do it.

PS: P T Anderson was robbed. I mean ROBBED. I could go on about this for hours.

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THIS WEEKEND: Lions Den & Peter/Callas

Steven Berkoff as 'Lawrence Masters'

Meredith Ostrom as 'Callas' and Nick Townsend as 'Peter Denby'

This weekend was spent putting the sound back on a pair of characters who were completely recast and reshot in 2006/7 from their 2005 versions. ( a longer post on the actors they replaced and why is forthcoming).
Both Steven Berkoff and Merdith Ostrom were joys to work with, and brought incredible energy to the project. Both characters are pivotal to the story, with 'Lawrence Masters' being the decadent mentor who in a brilliant and devastating cameo spurs the run in the first place , and 'Callas' the sexy, violent killer who pursues Steve Lynch through the film.

Berkoff managed 17 pages of dialogue in his day on set which is certainly a record on this film, and possibly many others. We also ran 4 cameras on that day, so sound sync took most of the weekend.

Some of you may recognise the lower set as being The Loft, the office and studio we were based at for most of 2006/7.

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And so it begins......

Meredith Ostrom as 'Callas'

Ok, so after 4 years of shooting, many crews, actors and recriminations, today we finally began the edit here in Los Angeles. This blog will keep you up to date on all that's happening. Feel free to post questions, although you may not get answers. :-)