How do you make a World War II epic short film with nothing but passion, faith and no idea where to start – oh, and on a £200 budget? It started when I became inspired by a trip to the Imperial War Museum. I researched as many stories as I could on WWII and decided to contact some re-enactors who might be able to help. I found a group that had been doing events around the UK and had been extras on a few WWII features. I got their contacts through a friend at Pinewood Studios I met up with some American re-enactors who had jeeps, firearms trucks and half tracks. This was great, but I still didn’t have a story or a script, so I didn’t want to waste their time before I had any ideas, so I visited an old book shop in Upper St Martin’s Lane, London. It was a goldmine for stories, and I soon found what I was after – something without big film sets and set mainly in a forest, like the feature film I had previously produced for £500, Dark Hunter. So I looked into battles that took place in a forest and came upon a few towards the end of WWII near Holland when the Germans where falling back after the Battle of the Bulge.
OK, so I now had an epic idea, but no funds and no script, so the next step was to find a writer. A friend of mine Jez Foster – one of the actors I cast for Dark Hunter – was a very good writer, so I linked up with him and got the idea over to him. Jez then went to work. Getting someone else to write your ideas is a very trusting thing, but I trust Jez. Three months later we had a script all in English, but I figured we needed some German lines and either German actors or at least someone who could speak German fluently. This was tough, but there was a German actor I’d auditioned a year before for another project, and I thought he’d be perfect for what I had in mind, so I texted him and shortly afterwards sent him the script. I then put an ad in UK Screen and got loads of talented actors replying. I set a date a week later and called them in for auditions. In the release forms I said the filming may cost the actors £20 towards the cost of a role-playing event.
The next step was to meet with two vets from WWII who had been involved in this battle – one German officer and an American GI. It was a real experience talking to these guys and getting a firsthand account of this horrific battle. One of the vets passed away over Christmas, and I decided to dedicate the film to him and his family. Next I called my German re-enactor friend Paul Dolby, who told me he had sorted out a location in Ashby de la Zouch near Coventry. So now I had the actors, the story, the script and the location. All I needed was costumes.
I made contact with a guy called Simon Pugh Jones – a professional photographer from Wales. We had met at one of the WWII events, and he offered to sort out costumes for my four actors in exchange for some stills on location. This was great: now everything was in place.
A few weeks before shooting the battle scenes I met up with an old paratrooper friend called John, who said he would get the actors into shape with a bit of combat training. The next thing was to train them up with signals and firearms handling. It was a cold morning in Epping Forest, but the actors turned up and really worked hard, having loads of fun playing soldiers.
Next was the real shoot. The logistics were going to be a nightmare, but I got the actors to the location for the Saturday morning. They where going to be camping out all Friday night, but a friend of mine, extra Tony Bowden, brought a few tents for the actors to sleep in. He was a star, so I got him a costume and put him in the battle scenes firing real weapons. He loved it. I also called my friend Chris Adams, who brought a generator and loads of great kit – including the all-important kettle, which was a godsend in sub-zero nighttime temperatures.
I slept in my car, but before retiring we all sat around a campfire talking and getting pissed in preparation for the next day’s shooting. Saturday was a nightmare. We got to the location late and then had to set up camp, but it all came together. However, I was losing the light and lost loads of filming time on the Saturday, plus I had lost a camera man the night before, so I had to produce, direct and film some of the shots myself, which took time away from working with my actors. But the actors had faith in me, and I’ve had a lot of experience shooting stuff on the hoof.
Sunday 6am: I set up the shoot for the day from my storyboards and called the American and the German re-enactors together for the day’s battle plan. I planned it like a real battle: it felt a bit odd being in a US WWII tent with WWII maps and plans around, with me acting as the general telling my majors what was going to happen during the day. Due to the lack of camera people, I was pretty much forced to shoot in sequence, but this saved us time.
There were a few nightmares, including an actor almost shooting his face off with a gun that jammed and backfired. I’ve a good record on health and safety, and had experts there to deal with any problems with the guns and tell everyone how to use them properly, but if people don’t take notice, accidents will happen. However, he received no further damage than a bit of eye-watering, and he went on to complete the filming and turned out to be one of the best actors I’ve worked with. The biggest shot was the bazooka shot, which blew up a mound of dirt. This was great fun, and was the first time I had used pyrotechnics or explosives. This was a one-take shot. We didn’t have as many explosives ready as I’d planned for, but it worked great.
We had WWII jeeps, trucks, a motorbike and side car and a half-track tank. The actors hired some real weapons, which wasn’t necessary, as I said we’d give them dummy plastic guns, but boys will be boys, and they turned up on set with an assortment of machine guns and authentic WW11 weapons. They had a wild time firing real firearms with blanks, and it’s the first time I’ve shot a movie where the actors had smiles on their faces all day and never complained once.
I really wanted it to be a different experience for the actors: getting right into the battle with the re-enactors, rather than reading the odd line, then sitting around all day waiting for their next scene. At the end of it, I had produced, directed and shot the movie, made food and cups of tea, sorted out the special effects and planned out the logistics of a battle featuring 60 re-enactors on both sides of a massive forest, and managed to keep everyone happy and prevent them from blowing their heads off.
The footage looks great, but I shot with three different cameras, so there’s a bit of match-grading to do in post. I shall edit the footage on Premiere Pro over the next few weeks. It took me a week to edit a trailer together.
Shooting Living on the Line has been an amazing experience that I’ll never forget. There are too many people to thank. But the main lesson is always be honest with people from the start and never promise anything you can’t deliver. I told everyone on the film I had a budget of £200, and there’s still a small amount left, so let’s see what we can do.
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Johnnie OddballJohnnie Oddball has spent over 10 years in the film industry, learning filmmaking firsthand, rather than “going to film school and learning how other people make films”. He created and ran the 48-Hour Challenge in 2002 and in 2003 expanded it to the National 48-Hour Challenge, which attracted 4500 entrants, and also ran the Trailer Challenge. Later this year he will organise the International 48-Hour Challenge. He has just produced the full-length DV feature, Dark Hunter. |