Challenges to the Producer on the Production of Wife and Husband

Casting

One of the first challenges we faced was finding a cast. Our script required 3 middle-aged and older actors, who were preferably locally based for ease of transportation.

We issued a casting notice on the website StarNow, as well as e-mailing it to local acting schools.

We had a healthy response for the female roles but only one male apply so, although we didn't reveal this to the actor, we knew we would have to cast him and work with him to ensure we got the performance we wanted.

These are the audition tapes:

https://vimeo.com/110479715- copyright Charlie Poyser 2014, Sheffield Hallam University.

Location

While location scouting with Chrissie Wood (Director of Wife and Husband) I took her to a pub I had used as a location for a previous project. We had a verbal agreement with the pub to use their upstairs function room (pictured below). the location was ideal for the characters we had and the environment we wanted to create.

Copyright Chrissie Wood 2014

Copyright Chrissie Wood 2014

The day before we were scheduled to film the pub cancelled the booking because of an electrical fault but said we could re-book. For a week I chased by phone and e-mail trying to secure the venue again until I went in person 4 days before we were meant to shoot (on the re-arranged schedule) and was told the room was no longer available. Not only was this disappointing because I had placed trust in the existing relationship with the landlady but also meant I had to find a new venue at short notice.

Drawing on my contacts and using social media to seek advice I received a few suggestions and happily secured another venue for free. Sadly, the venue was not as suitable aesthetically or spatially for our purposes, but was available at our scheduled time.

The lesson I learn on this occasion is to get written agreement as soon as possible and to communicate in person where necessary.

Sound Production

One of the biggest challenges to our production was the quality of sound recording and post-production sound design and for me, as Producer the lesson was in how to get the best out of my crew, especially when I cannot simply hire someone new.

There are good and bad ways to handle confrontation and I think I managed to work through this particular point well, with the assistance and backing of the Director. Using a screening opportunity to ask the Sound Designer to comment on their own work I was able to tackle the fact that the sound recording was poor and a second screening in public allowed us to assess the sound mix and areas for improvement.

I recognise that what I found challenging in this situation was the potential loss of relationship with the Sound Designer, who is not only a course-mate but a friend.  I am more confident in addressing situations such as this now than I was when I began filmmaking, and have previously had to let crew go on other projects, but there is still room for further growth.

Here you can see the finished film. Particularly poor sound recording can be heard between 02:36- 03:20 minutes.

Wife and Husband


Bibliography

Wife and Husband (2014) [Film] Directed by Chrissie Wood, UK, Sheffield Hallam University

Charlie Poyser (2014) Wife and Husband Audition tapes, ACES faculty, Sheffield Hallam University, unpublished