Monthly Archives: March 2012

The Wakefield Digest

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We’d all love to talk about filmmaking. I mean, practical, hands-on filmmaking. I wish I could post something about how wonderful (or how bad) was a shoot today… but we’re not quite there yet. So you’ll get what we have 🙂

Casting: we met an actress in person, and we’re in touch with a couple more. We only have one candidate for the male lead (that is, Wakefield himself) …we’ll see what is going to happen. As we want to shoot with native english speaking actors, we have to deal with a lot of communication/travel/expenses issues, which makes things even harder than they would be anyway.

Script: it’s in the works, really. Jonathan Robbins and I agreed to a diagram as the base of the pilot/standalone short script. We also talked about the outline of the series, and being such positve people, we brought in topics like “first season” and “second season” 🙂 Jokes apart, Melanie Hunter is currently working on an actual second (or is it the third, or fourth?) draft of the script, which I hope to lock down soon. The idea is to have slightly different edits for the short and the pilot… but just one great script.

Technical: our DoP is currently abroad for a shooting, so we haven’t been able to talk with him about locations, light, lenses, cameras and all of this nice-but-expensive stuff, which leads to:

Crowdfunding: the sponsume campaign is going slow, but we’ve never thought of it as the only funding method. Nonetheless, help is appreciated, as we have just about 40 days ahead before the campaign ends 🙂 It’s still a little early for product placement, but we’re working on it.

Talk to you people soon… and don’t be afraid to post a comment, it’s free of charge 🙂

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Ready… Steadicam… GO!

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Steadicam OperatorJokes apart, lots of things are happening around here…
As a matter of fact we eventually have a new member: our Steadicam Operator! His name is William Castaldo and we’re really glad he joined us!

See you soon with much more juice!

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Salve a tuttti, un sacco di novità in arrivo per Wakefield ma, intanto, ecco a voi il nostro Operatore di Steadicam: William Castaldo! Siamo davvero felici che si sia unito alla Crew!

A presto con molte succose notizie!

going to Wakefield

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Spent some time scouting the main location yesterday… It still misses a lot to look like Wakefield’s home, but that is something our set decorator will have to work on. Placed some phone calls, sent/read emails… Crowdfunding still going slow, but we hope in some improvement now the full italian presskit is out. We started talking about product placement with an agency, let’s see if it turns out as a good way to get funded. Still way too much road ahead to see the first lights of Wakefield…

Pomeriggio di ieri passato a fare un sopralluogo nella location principale… mancano molte cose per farla sembrare la casa di Wakefield, ma è qualcosa su cui dovrà lavorare la nostra scenografa. Fatte un po’ di telefonate, lette/inviate un po’ di email… Il crowdfunding stenta a decollare, ma speriamo in qualche miglioramento ora che la cartella stampa ufficiale è uscita. Abbiamo iniziato a parlare di product placement con un’agenzia, vediamo se si rivela un buon modo di avere finanziamenti. Certo la strada che abbiamo davanti è ancora troppo lunga per vedere le luci di Wakefield…

Director’s chair

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Hi everyone, as you can see from the avatar, from now on we’ll have different profiles for each team member… so you’ll know exactly who’s writing. Lisa has done a great job so far taking care of the latest major updates, but I thought it could be a good idea to go back talking about filmmaking. After all this was supposed to be a work-in-progress diary!

Well, putting crowdfunding aside for a moment, we’ve been thinking a lot about the cast, lately. The Wakefield Variation features only two characters, but since we’re looking for native english speakers, it makes things harder. That’s why we’ll likely have someone coming from…. well, we won’t say that yet 🙂

Giving the crew a sound recordist

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Alberto BattocchiThe crew is growing in number and skills and here’s another introduction of one special new member: sound recordist Alberto Battocchi!
Alberto “Abi” Battocchi attended a EU-sponsored professional training course in 2002 and then he graduated as sound engineer. At the moment he works as a live audio technician (both FOH and on stage) and as a boom operator for feature films and documentaries. His most recent films include “The First Beautiful Thing” by Paolo Virzì, “Eaters” by Marco Ristori and Luca Boni, “I Più Grandi di Tutti” by Carlo Virzì and “The Cricket”, by Stefano Lorenzi, which was chosen to compete in the Venice Film Festival in 2011. He has also been collaborating with a web-series association based in Livorno, “I Licaoni“, for a long time.
He’s got a great experience and talent and will massively contribute to make our project a great short-film and, why not, a pilot for a future web-series. We really believe that his skills, together with the other members’, will make our crew highly competent. At this point we technically have all we need to shoot the Wakefield Variation video- and sound-wise… isn’t it exciting?!

Moreover, have you seen an incredible drawing on our Facebook page? It was made by Marco Torricelli, Italian cartoonist at Marvel and Bonelli. It is an illustration of how he imagines Wakefield, the protagonist of our short film. Check it out and tell us if you like it!

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La crew cresce di numero e capacità, infatti ecco a voi la presentazione di un nuovo membro: il fonico di presa diretta Alberto Battocchi!
Alberto “Abi” Battocchi ha frequentato un corso professionale europeo nel 2002 e successivamente si è diplomato come tecnico del suono. Attualmente lavora come fonico di presa diretta e microfonista per lungometraggi e documentari. Tra i suoi film più recenti troviamo “La Prima Cosa Bella ” di Paolo Virzì, “Eaters” di Marco Ristori e Luca Boni, “I Più Grandi di Tutti” di Carlo Virzì e “The Cricket”, di Stefano Lorenzi, scelto per partecipare al Festival di Venezia 2011. Alberto collabora da tempo anche con l’associazione livornese “I Licaoni“, che si occupa a tempo pieno di web-series.
Alberto ha grande esperienza e talento e contribuirà largamente alla riuscita di un grande cortometraggio e, perché no, pilota per una futura web-series. Crediamo fermamente che le sue capacità, insieme a quelle degli altri membri, renderanno la crew altamente competente. A questo punto possiamo dire di avere tutto ciò che ci serve per girare The Wakefield Variation, dal punto di vista del suono e del video… non è emozionante?!

Ma avete visto un disegno a dir poco incredibile sulla nostra pagina Facebook? E’ stato fatto da Marco Torricelli, fumettista presso le editrici Marvel e Bonelli! Si tratta di un’illustrazione su come Marco immagina il protagonista del nostro corto, Wakefield. Che ne pensate? Vi piace?

Wakefield Variation Team’s Photo Shoot

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Hi everybody,

Just a quick work-in-progress update.
We are making up a press kit with all the explanations, introductions and details about our project and team members. So, yesterday we decided to take some professional photos to be attached to the kit and here’s one, freshly posted for you only, another sneaked look at our everyday move on.

The Wakefield Variation's Team

A great thank you to NDPhoto Studio, who did the photo shoot.

A real pro team for TWV!

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Hi everybody!
Things are going on and we have further news everyday. New collaborations are coming up and with them new team members!

We are really proud to introduce you to one of the best “feathers in our cap”, a Director of Photography who will be actively working to The Wakefield Variation, a professional with credits and great experience: Alessio Valori.
Alessio was born in Florence and started working in the film industry in 1999. Since then, his works have been shown in cinemas and TVs worldwide, as he mainly practices in the UK, Italy and Middle East. He has taken part in several international projects of massive importance and has also received awards as Best Cinematographer at Yellow Fever Film Festival in Belfast (2010) for “Seeing Heaven” and at MIFF in Milan (2011) for “Days of Harvest”, which are both feature films.
Alessio will give The Wakefield Variation a great contribution in experience, talent and know-how. And you can imagine how a qualified and prestigious Cinematographer can completely influence the whole visual aspect of a film!

Therefore, we suggest you to go visit Alessio’s showreel and IMDB profile to get an idea of how his work will be a substantial part of our success.

However, the novelty is not over yet! Another professional has joined our team lately, his name is Andrea Mugnai and usually works as 1st AD and a film/tv organizer in Rome. He will help The Wakefield Variation Team raise funds as Associate Producer and will provide useful contacts to the crowdfunding campaign.

As you can see, there’s plenty of experience, talent, skills at The Wakefield Variation‘s disposal, and together with your help we will make it happen!

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Ciao a tutti!
Tutto procede nel migliore dei modi ed ogni giorno crescono anche le novità. Arrivano nuove collaborazioni e con esse nuovi membri della squadra!

Siamo davvero orgogliosi di presentarvi uno dei nostri “fiori all’occhiello”, un Direttore della Fotografia che lavorerà attivamente a The Wakefield Variation, un professionista di grande esperienza: Alessio Valori.
Alessio nasce a Firenze ed inizia a lavorare nel mondo del cinema nel 1999. I suoi lavori sono proiettati nelle sale e trasmessi dalle TV di tutto il mondo, dal momento che Alessio esercita principalmente nel Regno Unito, in Italia e Medioriente e partecipa a progetti internazionali di grande importanza. Alessio ha ricevuto alcuni premi come Miglior Direttore della Fotografia presso il Yellow Fever Film Festival a Belfast (2010) per il film “Seeing Heaven”, e al MIFF di Milano (2011) per il film “Days of Harvest”, entrambi lungometraggi.
Alessio darà a The Wakefield Variation un grande contributo di esperienza, talento e capacità. E potete immaginare come una direzione della fotografia qualificata e prestigiosa possa influenzare completamente l’aspetto visivo di un film!
Di conseguenza, vi invitiamo a vedere lo showreel ed il profilo IMDB di Alessio Valori, per farvi un’idea di come il suo lavoro risulterà una parte sostanziale del nostro successo.

Tuttavia, le notizie non sono finite! Un altro professionista si è unito alla squadra ultimamente. Il suo nome è Andrea Mugnai e lavora abitualmente come aiuto regista e organizzatore per cinema e TV a Roma. Andrea aiuterà l’équipe di TWV a raccogliere fondi come Produttore Associato e procurerà anche contatti utili per la campagna di crowdfunding.

Come potete vedere, ci sono esperienza, talento, abilità a disposizione di The Wakefield Variation, e insieme al vostro aiuto renderemo tutto possibile!