Survivor Production Diary

by Matthew Kopelke

This was a very different style of production to what BTR is used to. We've never done a comedy video before, so this bit alone presented us with more problems than what we're used to - basically, none of us had written comedy before! Sure, we're funny people, but there's a big difference to being a funny person, and being able to write funny comedy scripts. However, this production proved that we do have it in us to write side-splitting comedy!

Thankfully, my friend Witold managed to rise to the occasion rather admirably - although it was at extremely short notice! Although I had asked him to write me a 6M2 script a month ago, a number of events in his life (ie: work experience for his uni degree!) lead to the script not being written until a week before the film was due to be shot! This lead to my actors not getting a chance to learn lines properly, which made filming even more difficult - but I wasn't worried.

The biggest problem we faced with the script was that Witold had written it to last 10 minutes, which meant that I had to chop great chunks of it out to make sure it fit the 6 minute format. Some scenes were merely shortened, while other scenes vanished completely. I also changed the ending quite radically, because I felt the original ending wasn't very funny. However, I hope Witold isn't too annoyed about this, and that everyone finds the new ending funnier! :-)

The actual day of filming (Tuesday 12th June) also had it's fair share of problems. Due to the fact that the camcorder battery went flat barely an hour into filming the movie, we had to relocate to my house and film all the dialogue bits in my backyard! Thankfully, I'd already filmed all the covering shots I'd needed, which left us with the dialogue to be filmed. See if you can pick which bits were done in my backyard - all the close up stuff is a fairly good guide!

So, in summary, the film turned out quite good - not as good as we were hoping, but to be honest, the faults in the film lay in the lack of planning on our part, as well as an inexperience in making comedy films. However, as a first attempt, it's very good (well, of course I'd say that!), and here's hoping that our next comedy film can be twice as good! One last thing - a big "Thank You!" to my very talented trio of actors, who grabbed their parts with relish!