David Ives Films

Here's a short video me and my friends farted out today in about an hour.

An hour to film and a decade to edit.
I haven't posted up a video in a while so i thought i might as well make it one of my own!
Don't judge it too harshly, it was just us getting up to some shenanigans

Yes indeed we did. However complications arose...

My camera was not available today because its charger had decided to break itself. No idea why it did that. So, i asked my friend Dave if i could use his camera. When we got there though his camera decided it didn't want to work either. So as a last resort we used my friend Craig's camera..which is old and has a reputation to not work properly. after a lot of faffing around we managed to film quite a lot...then we discovered most of what we had filmed had been destroyed by the camera as it filmed it. Tell me about it.

We managed to salvage a short scene and edit it which lasts 44 seconds...however, we need to film it all again as it wasnt filmed in widescreen and converting it makes it look like shit.

So anyhoo, heres the footage we filmed today. Get a good look now because it will probably be gone tomorrow.

Yes indeed, said comment is the truth.

Filming does indeed resume tomorrow and i am very excited. its been a ridiculous amount of time since we last filmed anything but it i am hopeful that tomorrows footage will be better lit and as professional looking as possible.

Well, obviously i have nothing to put up on here at the moment other than that piece of information but rest assured that tomorrow there will be a behind the scenes footage video of tomorrows work. Hooray!

Peace out people

Filming OFFICIALLY resumes April 15th. I know it has been a long time since any updates and for that i am very sorry. I want this film made. I really do. Not a lot of chances to actually do it in the past 4 to 5 months though. Still the weather is getting nice again so its probably a fitting time to do it. I know that all the people involved including myself have a lot on their plates at the moment so i really appreciate them doing the film. (for nothing...but the obvious fame!)

Anyhoo! After the filming this upcoming Wednesday i promise there to be another behind the scenes video on thursday by the latest.

In the meantime, have this:

Its not much, but hope you like it!

Well, its 2009

I suppose its about time i got my arse into gear on finishing this damned thing. I am really glad i took a break from it though. Not that it was particually difficult filming it and that, i was actually really fun but taking some time off (not to relax) has had the benifit of making me want to do it more now. I still have literally LOADS to film, and thats not to mention editing, dubbing and composing the music.

I know i havent updated this blog in a while but i dont want anyone to think i have forgotten about the project. Unfortunately because we havent actually done...anything with the movie over the holidays i dont have anything to show you so for that im sorry, but i hope to get up and running as soon as plausible.

I hope everyone had a decent Christmas and new year and i hope to keep you updated on a regular basis. I promise it won't take too long to finish.

Talk to me!

Dave

It has been a really long time since this has been updated and dont worry the film has not been cancelled or anything. Due to it being the annoying time of year that is Christmas, everyone is low on time and low on money so i think its best to say filming will resume in january.

I have been keeping busy though thinking up a few more ideas for scenes and shots. Also been concentrating a bit more on the editing of what we have so far. 10 minutes of edited film fo far. need more though obviously.

Sorry if anyone has been waiting for an update, but there should be one in the first week of january.

Hope you all have as good a christmas as you can.

Dave Ives

Filming Day 2!

Behind the Spleans!!!

Today we filmed a few more scenes for the upcoming movie "Splatterpus" that i am directing. Today we had a bigger cast than usual. We had Dave Cowell, Craig Finch, Dan Cowell, Callum Dallimore anda new addition Tom Portman. This was great as it meant we could get much more done. The only problem was that those darstedly clocks had to be changed and we lost a whole hour of sunlight (an hour we could have done with) but thats ok because today we managed to get the shots of Brad playing with his baby in the park (before it gets snatched by a zombie) and we also got th legendary intestine pulling out scenes!

We did these scenes by first making a few bottles of fake blood. We then filled up a standard plastic chinese takeaway pot with it. Then we got some tights and filled them with tissue paper and then left them to soak in the pots filled with blood. They came out pretty well i have to say, so if you ever want semi realistic fake guts give that a try.

Like i said before, we also managed to get the shot done of Brad (Callum) playing with his baby at the play park. That was a fun one to film as there were also parents and children in the park. The parents seemed amused at our childish looking antics, where as the children...well they looked sort of terrified. The stunt baby we were using was our THIRD and most expensive baby yet. The other 2 werent really in a fit state for re using after the last day of filming and we had no more luck finding 50p ones in the local charity shops. In the end i had to bite the bullet and get the cheapest Argos one i could get. It was £4.99 and her name is Sally.

The other shots we managed to get today before it got too dark to film were the introduction of the actual Platypus and an introduction to the 2 police officers Officer Jenkins and SGT. McDibble.

All in all i am really pleased with how today turned out. As promised heres a few pictures of the cast (not including ALL their different roles) and also a behind the scenes video from today:

BEHIND THE SPLEANS VIDEO :

Its here! Finally, i have it in my posession. The platypus i ordered off of Ebay...

...well i didn't order it as i have no Ebay account. Having no source of real financial income means i dont have the required minimum of money to open a proper debit card which in turn means i cant order anything off Ebay. So bascially i had one of my good friends order it for me. It cost £5.00 however plus that dastardly postage + packaging it boosted up to £7.00. Still as its in glove puppet form i think its worth it. However when it was delivered to my good friends house no one was home! The post people claim the package was too big to fit through the letterbox (it wasn't at all) so in its place they slid a red slip through instead. This red slip gave instructions to visit the post office where it was being held (not our local post office mind you) and then show valid I.D and proof of adress to recieve the beloved Platypus. One problem...i needed my good friend to come with me to get it as he was the person it was adressed to. Also it had to be between 8:30 and 13:00! well unlike me, he has somewhat of a life. He has University AND work on various days of the week. Fortunately today i managed to haul his arse out of bed (on one of his days off!) to go and get the beautiful Platypus. We walked and walked and walked and then we walked some more and finally we reached the blasted postal dungeon. We went in, saved the poor Platypus from its demented postal overlords and trecked back home.

Quite an eventful morning i must say.

Here is a video i made exactly 5 minutes after i got back:

In other news: Callum Dallimore got so sexually frustrated on set that he felt the sudden urge to strip a zombie!

SPLATTERPUS

Gender Benin' and Killing babies

Day one of filming! Finally it arrived. I have been waiting for this for quite some time now. Over the past couple of weeks i have been developing a basic script for this horror movie "Splatterpus" Granted, its not the most complicated script but then again none of the best horror movies are. Im not a huge fan of modern horror so for this movie i have tried to keep effects as classic as i can. That means were talking about loads of fake blood and guts. Even today for our first scenes we filled 2 balloons with home made blood, a cola bottle filled up, some food colouring and 2 bottles of ketchup. We dont actually have one particular method for the fake blood. We attempted (and failed miserably) at the 3 parts water, 1 part maple syrup with red foodcolouring trick. In the end we just decided to improvise.

The first scene i shot today is one about a quater of the way through the script. Its one of a few side stories involved in the movie. Basically our "hero" Brad is being asked by his wife to take their young baby to the park while she goes out with her friends. Seems like a simple enough shot right? Well not when you have no female cast. So again improvisation was needed and a quick trip to the local charity shop was arranged. When we got there we found a great prop baby to mutilate that was much better than the previous one we had. My initial idea for the way to shoot the wife was to just buy a large sunhat and film the wife character from behind. Have the male actor (Dave Cowell) say the lines in his voice and then get my sister to dub over the lines. We still did this but Dave also had the urge to buy a pretty little dress he found for £2.50. Im glad he was comfortable enough to do that because it really made the shot look better. Its still a very broad shouldered wife...but its better than no wife at all.

After these shots were done we turned the kitchen red with our pathetic attempts at making fake blood. The real disaster happened when i started tring to fill up a balloon with red water. They turned out to be very useful in the end but at the time it fell out of my hands and drenched me in fake blood. Im the director! Im not supposed to get bloody. its my right as the director to take advantage of the actors and cover them in blood. Anyway it was pretty fun. We then lugged our bags of props to the local park where theres a lot of forest area. There were 3 scenes in total i wanted to film today. I wanted to film the wife and brad shot...got that done. I also wanted to film the shots of Brad getting attacked by a zombie and having to kill his own zombified baby...got those done. The only shots i didnt manage to get time to do was the montage of Brad playing with his child on the swings and slide leading the audience to think perhaps Brad is finally starting to bond with the foetus. Its not a big deal, i can get them done another day. Im really happy with most of the footage i got today and am really glad Dave and Callum didnt mind getting bloody and muddy

to see a BEHIND THE SCENES video on todays shoot play this video! :

Hello!

My name is David Ives and i am an ammature film maker!

Basically what this blog is, is a way for me to document my progress through the stages of making an ammature film. The film i am working on currently is called "Splatterpus" which i am writing, casting, directing, editing and writing the music for.

Splatterpus is inspired by light hearted gore movies of the 80s such as "Evil Dead" and "Braindead"

The story is as follows: While doing genetic experiments on various animals 2 scientists inject a Platypus with a mysterious syrum that turns it into a demented killing machine. When bitten by this beast the subject then becomes a zombie. No one is safe ... Not animals, men, women or children. Who can stop this terrible curse? Maybe a careless father and a small town cop? we will have to wait and see.

Obviously the film is low budget...in fact it doesnt have one. its being shot mini DV and edited with Sony Vegas 8, however i am trying to keep the effects retro so naturally were slaving away making fake blood and guts.

Whos the cast? (pictures coming soon)

So far the cast of actors reads:

Callum Dallimore
David Cowell
Craig Finch
Daniel Cowell
David Ives

but as we progress more should come