Sunday 3 February 2013

My Big 2013 Update 03/02/2013


Introduction
This is quite the long one, so I will make this part short (*insert dick joke that'll have you listening to Radiohead while weeping in the shower*). This is a huge update blog about what I’ve been up to, what I’m doing and what I’m going to do. You have no idea how lucky I feel to be given some of these opportunities, so thank you all for your continuing support. Anyway, less mush more reading, good luck!

Some Girls
The episode of the BBC 3 comedy I was in came out on December 6th and it couldn’t of gone better. The reaction was brilliant, especially on the ol' Twatter. As some people find these “behind the scenes” notes quite interesting, I’ve compiled a little one of those for you now. 

  • A thing I did quite a lot with Natasha (who played Holli), to which we now still do over Twitter, is point our fingers at each other. This is a tribute of a brilliant SA who sat with us one day during lunch and would continuously point his fingers at me while laughing after most of the jokes I’d say.
  • The book I was given at the bus stop scene had a fantasy style cover but, the contents inside were actually a collection of short stories about infidelity.
  • The glasses constantly mentioned being of the awful variety throughout the episode were actually my own glasses. These glasses now reside on my face as I write this blog.
  • The wild make out scene between Saz (played by Mandeep Dhillon) was my first day on set. So I was definitely thrown into the pool head-first there (which is a metaphor and not a statement).
  • I’m in the behind the scenes video quite a lot, which is available on iTunes.

Twitter was a great source of entertainment and love throughout the weeks afterwards. I still find it all really surreal but it really means so much to me. To all of you who have said kind words, I will find you all one day and hug you. Anyway, here’s an example of some fantastically funny/sweet comments I received! I love these guys <3!

Praise be to the Mother of Bacon!
I'm coming to Nottingham



























Just in case you haven’t seen the episode, here’s the trailer to wet your beak some more (not that I want you to watch it if you do actually have a beak, you long faced badger killer).

Indian Chief not happy

















Which is Witch
I will go into this properly on another blog once I’ve finished filming. But for now, I’ll just show you a few photos and tell you a little bit about what I’ve done so far. This show is one of the first tv series to be shot in 3d, which is quite fun to say! I’ve done a whole load of impro, more than I thought I would. Whether any of it makes the final cut, I don’t really know. We will just see nearer the time. Here is 3 examples, from the top of my head, of a bit of impro (which is in red).
 
1. GILBERT
Ok, the fairy sidekick is cut. Chop chop get on with ya work, 
come on Jack do your work now! Get closer to the paper!
I want that page to feel your breathe.

2. GILBERT
Thought so. No need to yell, I'm just doing my job, just spending a little timey timey on my jobby wobby.

Me looking like the high-price prostitute that I am
Another is, after bribing a member of a gossipy girly girl group (played by Emily Hyland, her blog is available here) with lipstick for information, I then grabbed the remaining lipstick and decided to apply it during the scene. The photo from the result is on the right.
I’ve also crowbarred in a catchphrase that started off as a line but then ended up being a little singalong, which is “who needs magic when Gilbert’s in town”. Got it in about 5 episodes so far, I like having fun on set.

I’d be a liar if I didn’t say the most fun I’ve had on this show is scenes that involve impro, it creates such a great vibe when all the actors/crew are having fun. Which can be good as doing 26 episodes in 13 weeks can be/has been very stressful (that’s two episodes a week). It's been a great few months and I wish the actors and the very fun crew all the best for the future.

That’s the most I’ll go into it, for now!















I do love these people (Gia, Tim and Betsy), they've been good fun to work with. The left picture doesn't do justice on how awesome the smoking jacket I'm wearing is. The top right is from shooting on location in a pine forest for the first and last episode. The bottom left is us doing a conference during an episode called "Ruthless Gilbert".  The guy in the middle is an awesome bloke called Bruce, whose always been a highlight when he comes in.

One on Young
To say this went even better then predicted would be, well, correct. I originally did a prediction table that I would get about 400 downloads by December and about 900 by 2013. Well, January came and so did the 10000 download mark. I never in my wildest dreams (and I have some wild dreams, one example being not allowed in Argos because I had a tattoo on my elbow) did I think it would go this well. The feedback has been great and by Django (cinema reference there, tip at the door) am I pleased about how it’s all gone. You never really know how well something will do until you just do it!

And because it has gone so well, series 2 will be even more awesome. I’ll be planning on doing 14 episodes over 14 weeks, with some previous guests from series 1 and some completely new ones. Not only that, I will sometimes be adding musical interludes/3 part radio plays/sketches into them. Either written/sung by the guest, or I will invite a music guest on to perform.

So a big thank you to all my guests for series 1, without you, all of this would seem pointless. Without you all, I’d just be a guy talking. And without those downloading, I'd just be a guy talking to a friend with no one to share their brilliance to.
My main competition, I'm screwed, peacefully.
S1 list


And big love to my buddy Tim Luxter for letting me use his song for the intro! Here's his Soundcloud page

If you’d be interested in being a special guest or a music guest then email me at Mynewcapefilms@gmail.com

A different thing about Which is Witch
I’ve kept this pretty quiet other than inside the inner circles (the name of my Druid/Jazz fusion club). A few months back (or one blog back, I’m about as consistent with these as referees decisions ((*chugs beer, plays with belly button, questions why single*)). But long story short, I was very insistent on being involved in the writers meetings for the last few weeks before leaving for Liege. I had sent the producer a script I wrote for the show (as an example) and emailed him talking of how I would love to be part of the show in the creative way as well. Well, he took a chance on me and let me come to the writers meetings. And well, I got involved. To the point where this happened:




I didn’t think I’d get a full on professional TV writers credit until I was in my 30’s, no matter how persistent my desire to write has been. So having this is a huge stepping stone for me. Another thing is I’ve been promised a complete script of my own if series 2 happens, which I’m very much looking forward to. For this episode, I was part of the barebones, the construction and the creation of pages to be sent to the broadcaster. The script had to be written by the other writer (the lovely man that is Bennett Arron) as I have been filming a very heavy schedule for the last 2 weeks (we had to do 18 scenes on Thursday!) but I have been editing bits, changing stuff and adding gags for the past three days. So you can play the game of, “Sean definitely wrote that bit” once it gets aired! And here’s a little easter egg, the main antagonist for the episode is called Clarissa, which was the name of my imaginary assistant during the pilot of WiW in between takes.

The Two Housemates
I actually did a casting for this at the Pump House in Watford (many thanks to Ryan, Daniel, Rory, Dean and of course the Pump House for helping me out) and I saw some absolutely fantastic people which made it very hard and easy at the same time. So this is one of many projects of mine for 2013!

It’s about a failing thespian becoming the recipient of a new housemate forced upon him by his mother. It’ll be 7 short episodes written and starring myself alongside the very funny and quirky Lucy Chappell. Will there be guest actors? Will there be surreal jokes? Will there be a huge Russian spider? You’ll have to wait, but for now here’s the teaser trailer. Just to warn you, it's explosive and action packed so, you'll have to be ready for that.


The Two Housemates Teaser Trailer from My New Cape Films on Vimeo.

Big props to my buddy Ryan Watson as well who tolerates me while he does all the hard work of editing it while I'm away.

Other Stuff planned for 2013 so far
I’ll also be writing an article for Pinch.tv, doing a collaboration short film with Cecilie Harris (going to be needing a female for it) as well planning on making 2 or 3 radio plays and about 7 short films over the year. 

Conclusion
Well done if you managed to read all of it, send your finishing times to me on Twitter! 

To be serious for a brief moment, I have never been more determined/had more drive than I have in the last year. I can’t sit down and do nothing, I’ve got to be out there doing exactly what I want to do, and on my terms. Whether I become famous or not, it truly doesn’t matter in the long run, I’m here to be a success in what I’ve set out to do and I won’t want to stop until I feel complete. Whether that takes a year, 5 years, or my whole life, that’s what I want and believe I will achieve one day. I'm fully aware that I've still got a lot to do and learn but, that's the excitement of it all, isn't it? Other than the drugs and bitches of course (and by that I mean pills for my Crohn's and the eventual Dogs I will own as a 70 year old  whimsical bearded wizard).

If you would like to collaborate/help out/act/sing/make me cupcakes, then email mynewcapefilms@gmail.com with your enquiry/cupcakes. 

Thank you all for your continuing support, everything would really be so much more difficult without your kind words, your reassurance and your pretty faces.

Sean x

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