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Diary of the pre/production for the film "LIVING ON THE LINE " :

• diary of johnnie oddballs account of the making of Living on the £200 - 3 min WW2 short film ?
• Sat Jan 14th 2006 : casting for the film has been hard due to their is
• no budget for the film which I know is mad but I cant wait about or funding ,
• the real reason is due to the lack of funds being available
• for a short film based on WW2 ? I hope to produce a trailer
• from the short film which may gain funds to make it into a feature film
• I held auditions sat the 14th Jan 06 all the actors who turned up where good, some where really good but one actor walked out cos he read he may
• have to help pay a small fee of 20 quid to take part in a reenactment event which was not 100% at that time but I wanted to tell the actors
• at the start just encase they where asked later on the shoot ? theirs nothing worse than being asked to help out on the day of the shoot ,
• it turned out the re-enactors didn't want the actors or the crew to pay out anything as it was their event and we could be a part of it for free , one actor
• decided to advertise that I was charging actors to be in my production which was really unfair as I explained to him in the audition it was not
• 100% he did this after I EMAILED him to say he was not cast in the film some actors get really upset nightmare ,I also asked the actor if he would he be up for bringing a sleeping bag to camp out over the shoot as we had British Army tents for the actors like the re-enactors I wanted the actors to feel like they where part of something for once and not just an actor saying a few lines for once , we also didn't know at this time if we could get any costumes
• for the actors German and American uniforms are not easy to get hold of for free , at the auditions I really didn't have confirmation
• about costumes for the 4 actors in the film and asked if they knew anyone with WW2 costumes just encase , so this got said on shooters and uk screen which really upset me that i wanted actors to pay out for the hire of their own costumes which was nuts, i am not a con-man i was not trying to profit from actors in any way i just wanted the actors to be with me on the project as part of the production and any help they could come up with from old dm boots to an old army shirt would help me loads ,i wanted to be honest with the actors from the start as i would if i was an actor to be asked to be part of the exp was important to me actors are the most important thing in the film as they make the words and the story come alive if they feel like they are part of the feel of being a soldier in WW2 it makes for a better performance i think , it all back fired in a big way for me and the production ,i held auditions the following weekend for extras and every single one let me down after they read the article on me and the shoot it was a really hard time for me due to one persons rejection to being in the film everyone else lost out in the film , this was not a good time for me do i forget the film now i cant get the actors ? ill act in the bloody thing myself and play all the
• parts if i have to and learn German as well ill do it ,but me being a hard bastard i thought fu ck it ill find other actors and i did and they where even better ! lucky for me i still had some friends out their and a few actors contacted me and said they would stick it out which was wonderful after all the challenges i had run for film makers the only people to help me out where actors and old cast members who had worked for free on other shoots but believed in me and the project that's all i asked for nothing more and nothing less , if the actors stuck with me instead of bitching about 20 quid they didn't have to pay they would still e in the production , ill make it a wonderful short film and those who didn't believe in me will see what is possible with a good team of people behind you ,i respect everyone like a brother or sister to me on a film no one is unimportant with a good team behind you anything is possible its exciting to think its going to come together but its still a battle like it was for the boys who died in the battle if i don't do it with a passion their is no point doing it , their is no excuse for not trying , some actors still let me down even now due to other paid jobs which is
• fine i understand money talks but its still hard to lose good actors cos i have no funds to pay them i hate asking creative people to help out for free but in some ways they are getting something from it as much as i am so why am i paying to promote them on the big screen im not the one in front of the screen people remember
• i think like this sometime but deep down i wish i could pay the cast n crew something maybe in the future ill get some funding and pay everyone but im not waiting about , i wish i could pay them something but ive got to pay out for kit, tape stock and travel costs to the locations at the moment I've got about 80 quid as the budget and over 6 people in the production all helping out for free amazing what honesty can get you from creative people i told everyone at the start i don't have funds but i have a passion to make it happen whatever it takes and i asked them if they where up for the ride
• i know its a nightmare but who said it was going to be easy , what keeps me going is all the veteran's I've spoken to German and American they never made excuses about going into battle and being shot blown up or killed they did whatever it took to get the job done and that energy keeps me going whatever goes before me , i lost a dear veteran before Xmas his story was amazing like all the others , i was sad to find out he passed away before i had finished ,so i dedicated the film to him and his family as a way of respect , now this is personal and ill shoot this fucker whatever it takes if i have to run around as a GI myself ill do it , one of me best German actors who would of been ideal
• for the film asked for his flight cost from Berlin which i had to say i couldn't afford it , I've asked for German speaking actors for the German parts its been hard as i cant speak German how am i going to direct it ? , if i could afford to fly him over i would but i did explain about the funds their is none ?

The shoot was a nightmare most of the re-enactors where in different parts of the forest and had set camp the night before , me and dan butler and the boys had drove from london to coventry with the jeeps in tow we broke down a few times due to a over heating rad on one of the pic ups but it kept going , we got a bit lost when we arrived at the forest poxy sat navs good old maps next time , we got to the forest lat sat morning so half the day was lost should of came up on the friday with the Germans as dan wanted to go on friday as well , we set up camp well dan set up the WW2 american GI camp which looked amazing like the real thing with nothing modern around the tents only WW2 jeeps and ammo boxes it was unreal even a radio and 1940s music playing it was so amazing to be a part of this i had to keep pinching myself it was real , we spent the 1st few hours putting up tents for the cast as i would sleep in my old range rover so the actors had a good nights sleep

dan and the boys where in costume and went down the local pub and supermarket in the jeeps i wish i could of seen the peoples faces it would of been amazing , i wasn't told incase i told them they couldn't go off the set incase they got into to a fight with the locals who at the time didn't like the American army due to iraq invasion just like in WW2 the americans where invading the local pub but with the accents of southeast london lads on a piss up funny as hell , the 1st few shots of the afternoon where really just a run though for the sunday when i had to direct produce and shoot the film and sort out the SFX pyrotechnics and firearms safety and make the tea for the lads , the German head was my dear friend paul dolby who with out him and dan butler this shoot would never of happened at all they where amazing guys i own them everything for this shoot , the 1st shot of the day was the American troops walking thought the forest into a german infantry position and then all hell breaking out we had a quick de brief and the germans where ready so the American troops walk though the forest knowing at any point the germans are going to attack it was amazing feeling i didn't know where the germans where but they where dug in from the night before and i mean dug in they had mad trenches and slept in them all night like the real thing it must of been cold but they are hard as nails those boys

to become a German paratrooper re-enactor you must jump out of a plane to gain your wings to join the group so no wannabe's join this hard group of Germans they eat sleep and learn to speak german and order their troops in german as well they are the real thing its haunting to see and very very dark ! the shoot started three camera set up one behind the german troops camera girl mykia a real german who was a bit worried about the re-enactors but came to really get what they where about both the re-enactors and the herself got on well after a chat about germany then and now , my other camera man was chris adams he was following me but on the other side of the americans so i had cut away shots of the fighting which worked until he got in the shot as he was opposite me , a few hard words and he was hiding behind the trees out of shot , the shot went well it only lasted about ten min's but it was good all hell broke loose smoke gun fire and shouting from both sides ,

after the 1st scenes where done and the re-enactors got back to their camps i had to de brief the actors and get them some real firearms , these firearms are real they can fire real bullets so safety is priority the team who came with the weapons are known in the filming world and re-enactment world and look after the firearms and blank rounds , their collection of firearms is just unreal everything from flame throwers to bazookas 50 cal machine guns to small firearms , they run though the loading of the firearms with the actors and safety so non of my actors get in to trouble , on had to help them and advise them i called upon two x para troopers who gave the actors some basic combat training and signals which GIs would of used in WW2 as well as how to hold the weapon and search and destroy training finding the enemy before the find you they gave the actors a 5 hour crash course which i wanted to give the actors to help their performance plus they could use it on their CV for future film work , after firearms training the actors had to buy their blanks which cost about 20 quid

In the audition i asked the actors if they would be up for using a dummy gun which would be free or a real gun but it would cost them 20 quid as they had to sign to hire the weapons which i couldn't do without loads of red tape i gave them the choice so they didn't have to pay for the dummy guns as i would use a double for the shooing shots of the firearms to be safe , but when the actors turned up they all wanted to pay for the exp of firing real firearms in the forest "you can take the boy out of the man but you cant take the boy out of an actor " my actors on the day they all got to grips with the firearms and learned some great lessons on how to hold it and how to load it and respect the weapon as it was the thing between them and the hole in the ground ,

DAY2 MONEY SHOTS

This was the most important day everything had to work like clockwork for the shoot to go well i was not going to take any chances i had one day to shoot as much of the story board as i could i just wish john king didn't let me down the night before the shoot with his excuse he had to go into work the wanker ill never call him up ever again , i found out later his poxy girlfriend didn't want him to go cos she wanted him to go shopping with her , what a wanker he will never work in this town again the wannabe dickhead , if he had given me more notice i could of got my friend paul Sullivan an american director cameraman who i should of asked anyway , so it was me 200 American and German re-enactors 6 actors three jeeps a half track german truck a german motorcycle and side cars and x british army rations from my x paratroopers and a cold flask of coffee three cameras one stadycam and 3000 rounds of blanks i set upon shooing the 1st screens of the actors digging a trench and saying their lines which they did amazing then i ran over to find the german actors and then got their lines shot and them to the money shot the bazooka shots we only had two sets of explosives and only two goes at getting this right , i shouted silence on set and all went quiet for the 1st time all you could hear was the trees in the wind them ACTION !!! the German troops run up behind a tree and set up the bazooka shot and we cut to the rocket on a string and the explosive , Bang the explosive went off 1st then the rocket it was an irish rocket the pyro guy got his wires crossed so the shot was waist ed , so we had just one more go at it and if this went wrong the whole shoot would be a nightmare...... ACTION the rocket sets off and bang when it hits the point of impact BANG IT GOES OFF we did it it worked we then got the actors back into the ditch and get them diving on the ground and them getting back up after the explosion it worked we even shot the leafs falling on them after the exposition , the pro man said we could do it with the actors in the hold but i was not going to risk my wonderful actors at any point at all so we worked around it ill have to fix it in the edit as long as i have the shot ill work it out , if i had more time i could of gone off and looked at the footage to see what else we needed but that was the most important shot of the day and it went great ,

The next scenes where the gun fighting scenes with my actors the Americans and the real German actors who spoke in german which was hard to follow as i couldn't speak german but i started to pick it up , it is one of the hardest things doing a film in german but why did i stick at it when everyone told me not to do it ? i wanted it to feel real and i love germany and the german lines it makes you feel like its real and it worked the guys where cast for their look and their accent s which where amazing it got the german re-actors really fired up they where playing real german along side real german actors not wannabe actors speaking like a alo alo programme the costumes where amazing simon pue jones a magazine photographer dressed both the American and German actors in costume and made them look amazing the deal was he took stills of the shoot for his magazine and ill get the costumes from his wardrobe dept , the re-enactors all helped out as well offering advice and stuff for the actors to use in the scenes , most of the shoot was shot and we started to loose the light which was a nightmare as i had to come up with more shots of the American actors walking through the forest talking it worked i found the last bit of daylight out of the forest and shot the last scene of the two GI's walking out of the forest it worked , i did miss a few shots but their was noting i could do the day just went so quick i didn't even have time to eat or drink i just kept going whatever it took to finish the shots

i can eat when im done !! i wasn't going to come back to do it again i could believe i had pulled it off i had made a ww2 short film with no money but loads of help from all who took out the time to be part of it their are too many people to thank they know who they are and without every single person it would never of worked from the person who helped put the tents up and collect the rubbish to tony who brought his tens and gave them all out to the actors and slept in his car like me just to help out the other actors to the 2 real x paratroopers who gave their time and effort and x army rations to all of cast n crew to all of the 200 re-actors who turned up to help out and make it happen the firearms people at vickers to dan and paul dalby for the pyrotechnics and all the German para's to simon pue jones who dressed the actors to look the part to paratrooper simon for his wonderful costumes and advice to chris adams mika for their camera work and most important the actors who gave their time and effort for two days for nothing to be part of this film

'you don't just need a team you need an army to make a film ! ' . stanley kubrick 1977

YOU CAN VIEW THE TRAILER FOR THE FILM VIA

MYSPACE.COM/JOHNNIEODDBALL OR ODDBALLCHALLENGE

Or read the excusive (APOCOLSPE HOW) article in SHOWREEL MAGAZINE .org March edition

you can view the trailer

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