Elizabeth Boag
Yorkshire born, bred and educated, Liz eventually migrated south to study at Mountview Academy. She was later selected to perform in the inaugural Old Vic New Voices 24 Hour Plays working with Writer, Mike Bartlett and Director, James Grieve.
Recent career highlights include:
TV: Stephen Poliakoff’s "Joe's Palace" (BBC 1); "Stuart: A Life Backwards" Neal Street Productions (BBC 2).
Theatre: "Present: Tense for Nabokov" (Trafalgar Studios); "The Apathists" (Theatre 503); "Shortcuts" (The Arcola); "20th Century Which Art In Heaven" (Soho Theatre); "Las Meninas" (The National Gallery); "Kiddy-Fiddler on the Roof" (Edinburgh Fringe).
Film: "Mission London", due for theatrical release later this year, (Dimitar Mitovski); "The Jam" (Angelo Abela); "Cross-Eyed Waltz" (Peter Hearn); "Jack Malchance I & II", selected by filmaka.com, (Dean Loxton).
Liz is also a founder member of Dog Ate Cake, a theatre company dedicated to resurrecting lost farce and discovering new comedy: www.dogatecake.co.uk
Darren Bransford
Darren's film credits include Taylor in "Alpha 66" (dir. Matthew Hope), Giro in British horror Feature Film "Psychosis" (Lionsgate release, summer 2010), and a cameo in Darren S. Cook's "Sure Fire Hit". He also has leading roles in "And Then We Kissed" (screened on NBC in the US), "Girl" (worldwide distribution), "And the Colours Are Like Summer" (UK/Brazil), "Submerged" and "Heim".
Darren has recently been cast as the central character in "Britpop", a brand new 18 episode TV drama series shooting Spring 2010. Other Television credits include 3 years as series regular Nick O'Connor in "Hollyoaks", Nehemiah in the internationally distributed biblical epic "Esther", "Pie in the Sky" (BBC) and "The Mag" (Five).
Numerous music videos and TV commercial campaigns credits include Playstation 3, MTV, and Vodafone, and his UK Theatre credits include Max in "Bullet Shaped Heart", Rudy in "Bent", and Romeo in "Romeo and Juliet". www.darrenbransford.com
Alexa Brown
Trained at the TVI Actors Studio, L.A., Alexa has appeared on stage in productions across the UK, including Murder Mystery Musical (Edinburgh Fringe), A Last Belch for the Great Auk by David Halliwell (OFS Studio, Oxford), rehearsed reading of Blind Eye (Prince of Wales), Absolute Zero (Barons Court), L.D.50 (Kings Head), Hell is Empty (The Space), and Jellicoe (Shaw Theatre).
Her screen credits include The Secret Philosophy, Return to Ravenswood and two Cannes-shown shorts, Stand and Deliver and Gorgeous Labour of Love, along with numerous TV commercials including the Welsh Tourist Board, DFS, Volvo, Nintendo DS; Alexa also played a newsreader in a trailer for South Park.
In addition, Alexa works as a freelance writer and a model, recently appearing on TFL’s cycling posters.
www.alexabrown.co.uk
Katie Cotterell
A graduate of the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, , Katie's theatre credits include Weapons of Happiness (Finborough Theatre); Airswimming (The Courtyard Theatre); Les Enfants Du Paradis (Arcola Theatre); NewsRevue (Canal Cafe Theatre and Edinburgh Fringe); The Revenge of Anubis & The Curse of Elizabeth Faulkner (King's Head Theatre) and The Hypochondriac (English Touring Theatre).
Television credits include Wild West (BBC).
Film credits include the forthcoming indie feature Dead Cat (Low Fat Films)
Will de Meo
Based in London and the U.S., Will has recently made the transition into film and TV after performing on stage throughout his life. Having recently studied in New York City at the William Esper Studio, and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, he is enjoying living and working on both sides of the pond.
Recent leading roles in the U.S. have included “Hands” (Sony), "The Harpist" (Pentatonic), “Pride and Prejudice” (Dreyfuss Theatre) and “The Manhatten Project” (Alonquin Theatre). and in the U.K. “The Boy Who Couldn't Sit Down” (Lets Play Productions), "A Bike Thief" (Fourth Films) and "Bus 83" (MG Films) .
Valmike Rampersad
Valmike trained at Central School of Speech and Drama. He has already acted in three award-winning films - 'Hotel', alongside Art Malik and Danny Webb (Best Drama L.A, International Film Festival), 'Open Secrets', lead role, also starring Saeed Jaffrey (Best Film Buffalo-San Film Festival) and 'Daisy’s Last Stand' (Audience Choice Award, Film London). His first feature film, 'Right Hand Drive', was nominated Best British Feature at the British Film Festival L.A.
He recently finished filming 'Read My Lips', a new mini film for Channel 4. His film 'Get To Know Me' shot at Lars Von Trier's Zentropa Studios, Denmark is currently making its way around the film festivals and was in the official selection at the Copenhagen Film Festival.
www.valmike.com
Sandrine Rigaux
Sandrine studied at the Conservatoire in her native Paris, as well as Atelier International Blanche Salant & Paul Weaver.
Best known for her TV roles in “Préjudices” (created by Michel Reynaud) and “Paris Enquetes Criminelles” (adapted for France from “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”), she was also in Luc Besson’s “The Transporter” and worked alongside Marion Cottilard in feature film “Ma vie en l’air”.
She is also experienced on the other side of the camera; working as a direction trainee on “Asterix et Obelix : Mission Cleopatre” directed by Alain Chabat, and as an assistant director on “Ocean’s 12” with Steven Soderbergh and “La Panthère Rose (The Pink Panther)” directed by Shawn Levy.
She has just finished filming a TV movie “Quand Vient la Peur” directed by Elisabeth Rappeneau; and episodes of “Brigade Navarro” directed by Gérard Marx and “Femmes de Lois” directed by Klaus Biedermann
Adrian Turner
Adrian studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, the Shena Simon College of Performing Arts in Manchester and also studied the History of Italian Theatre at the University of Perugia.
Described as “a real find” for his performance of BAFTAwinning writer John Foster’s monologue at the Edinburgh Festival in 2008, his 2009 feature film credits include “Infamy” (Schadenfreude Productions) and independent feature “I Shaved My Legs For This?!” (Cunning Plan Productions).
Other credits include short films ‘Boxes’ (Cyrox 7) and ‘Day Of Reckoning’ (MIT Productions).
Remarkably Adrian also once swam in the Olympic Games for GB.
Nicholai la Barrie
Ray Bullock Jnr
Jennifer Evans
Sandy Foster
Conor Irwin
Rayyah McCaul
Samantha Seager
JUNE 2010: Movers and Shakers....the marvellous Mr Phil has been shaking things up (in a good way) and we've been solidifying our position in preparation for the funding launch. So, last weekend we got together with some of the Grasshopping Team to film some rehearsals and do some cast & crew interviews...check out the rehearsal screenshots above! xxxDirector Teja
APRIL 2010: A huge welcome to our new Producer, Mr Phil Hunter! It has taken a long time to find him, but we thinks he's absolutely the right person for the job, and we're very excited to have him on board.
We're also inches away from signing a very talented DoP, and have started meetings to talk about visual style; watching lots of films for reference and beginning to get a sense of what the film will be visually. A big part of this is developing a shooting style that complements the needs of editing all this together, and the continuity problems we'll be facing with improvised scenes, so our next target will be getting our Lead Editor on board as well to design our way around these sorts of issues. Watch this space for more info coming up on those two!
A couple of weeks ago Phil, Rob and I met in London for a mammoth 9 hour story session, where we went through the whole film, scene-by-scene. We were able to talk in depth about the character arcs, relationships, locations, pace and content. We didn't change a lot, but swapped a couple of scenes around, tweaked a few details, strengthened the storylines, and we're feeling really good about the shape of the film now. I think we're getting pretty close to the final running order now!
Phil and I are putting our heads down now to get the crowd funding package off the ground finally; this means the test scenes, prospectus, webpage, and treatment all have to be perfect We're hoping to be in a position for a big launch next month, and we'll need a lot of help to get the word out once we do, but we'll let you all know what you can do when the time comes! Please join our FaceBook fan pageto stay in touch.
As always, I have to extend huge thanks to everyone for your undying patience; it is your continuing faith in me and this project that has got us this far. Things have been moving much more slowly than we'd hoped, but I can feel the pace beginning to pick up and gain momentum now, and I'm incredibly excited about what's going to happen over the next few months.
Big Love!
xxx Director Teja
JAN 2010: Well, the New Year has certainly kicked off nicely, with the Sound Edit underway, a new Editor on board (welcome Tristan!) and online meetings with our Musician Shaun on the very near horizon...we're feeling pepped and ready for a fresh focus on getting things moving.
So the search for our new Producer is on! The advert has been sent to Shooting People, the emails are going out and we've got the social networking on overtime. We're looking forward to interviews over the next week or so and getting our new partner all signed up and on top of things by the end of January. Which coincides nicely to when we'll be hiring our Marketing/PR Teamand when both Test Scenes *should* be ready.
Much Love and New Year's excitement xxx
The Grasshopping cast and crew are not just collaborators; they are partners. This is their film, and it wouldn't be happening without their wonderful support, ideas, creativity and undying enthusiasm.
We've focused on enlisting up-and-coming crew who are talented, committed and dying to prove themselves. Experienced in short films, music video, corporates and documentaries, for many of them this will be their first feature film, making this a truly grassroots production.
It will be their ability to think outside the box and come up with creative solutions to this unique way of filming that will hopefully make Grasshopping a truly extraordinary film.
jobs
Director Téja Hudson has been involved in the production of over seventeen short films (directing ten herself), three features, including "The Dark Side of the Earth" (Neil Oseman) and "Born of Hope" (Actors at Work); and two award-winning documentary series, "The Eco-House Challenge" and "Constructing Australia: Pipe Dreams" (Prospero Productions).
Since starting PowerHouse Independent in 2008, she has provided creative services to low budget projects including script editing, production advice and mentorship, and teaches Collaboration workshops to actors, directors and writers.
Passionate about low budget, intensely collaborative filmmaking, Téja is focused on achieving what small films can do best; strong, personal stories and incredibly truthful performances.
Grasshopping will be her Feature Film directorial debut.
Robert Lee is a director, writer and all-round film addict. A long term collaborator with PowerHouse Independent, on average Rob has six feature film scripts at various stages of completion at any one time, as well as several shorts and one persisting TV series. His feature film script "Pepper" was a top-50 finalist in the Australian Project Greenlight Competition in 2007, and he has sold scripts to Leo Media and Entertainment and 20/20 Television.
When told at film school that his first project should not be too adventurous, Rob took this as a challenge and directed the 4 minute WWI drama "No Man's Land", complete with trenches, explosions and one lost kitty.
He currently resides in Brighton with his wife and an entirely different lost kitty.
Producer: Phil Hunter
Executive Producer: Adrian Turner
Co-Producer: Téja Hudson
Story by: Téja Hudson & Robert Lee
Casting Director: Leoni Kibbey
First AD: Tiernan Hanby
Second AD: Giles Dearn
Runner: Claire O'Shaughnessy
Continuity: Duncan Rice
Stills Photography: Owen Billcliffe
Catering: Richard Roberts
Director of Photography: TBC
Camera Operator: Fabio Dominguez
Camera Operator: Richard Nimmo
Focus Puller: Kris Dallimore
Focus Puller: TBC
Steadicam Operator: Chris Cummin
Steadicam Operator: Rudolph
Gaffer: TBC
Camera Assistant: Colin Smith
Camera Assistant:
DIT: TBC
Sound Supervisor/Mixer: Michele Caruso
Sound Recordist: Mark 'Boots' Dicks
Production Designer: Pauline Reuss
Assistant: Lisa Whetmore
Costume Designer: Mimi Milburn-Foster
Hair & Make Up: Sara Austin
Editor: Jennifer Sheridan
Editor: TBC
Assistant: TBC
Grade: TBC
Titles & Credits: TBC
Supervising Sound Editor: Michele Caruso
Sound Editor: Mark 'Boots" Dicks
Foley: Mark 'Boots' Dicks
Sound Mixer: Michele Caruso
Music Supervisor: TBC
Composer: TBC
Music Recording & Mixing: Severine Lee-Hamon
The RED One is cutting edge HD technology, providing twice the image quality of conventional High Definition and four times that of Standard Definition; they are film quality cameras at a fraction of the cost of shooting 35mm.
To film our improvised scenes live, we will be using two RED cameras - one trained on each actor - to capture the action as it unfolds. This means we will have two angles on any great performance moments, negating the need to shoot traditional coverage.
Experienced Costume Designer Mimi Milburn-Foster heads up the Costume Department, which involves 14 script days, 8 main characters and 7 minor characters, plus a host of extras to dress.
We see this as a fantastic opportunity to showcase local talent and the work of individual designers and small boutiques, and we have already started approaching people about using their work to clothe our main characters, which will increase the value of our film (without increasing our tiny budget) and provide them with important exposure and advertising opportunities in exchange.
Nothing fits like your own shoes, so for the most part costumes for our minor characters will be carefully chosen from their own wardrobes. Extras will be asked to dress themselves and prizes will be offered for the best fancy dress to encourage spectacularly dressed extras for our major crowd scene, which takes place in a fancy dress party. Check the competitions page for details and dates in the coming weeks!
Stay tuned for more information as we start to confirm involvement and profile our wonderful contributors.
Set entirely on location in London, Grasshopping takes place in everyday settings - homes, cafés, parks - and we are excited to have this opportunity to showcase the idiosynchratic 'real' London that locals know. Which means no Big Ben!
The challenge for our fabulous Production Designer Pauline Reuss, will be to dress these locations on such a tight budget, so we are hoping to find as many 'fully loaded' as possible - meaning we don't have to do much to make them ready to shoot in.
We're now looking for 15 real and interesting locations in London, including a cosy restaurant, a large private garden/park, a large house (for a party), a small theatre, a roof terrace, three apartments, a first floor balcony, a pool hall, a sidewalk cafe, an office elevator and an ambulence bay (with ambulence!).
We will be posting details and pictures of what we find...
If you have any suggestions or contacts, then please get in touch!
What do you do when you want a track-driven soundtrack and don't have enough money to pay for one? The word is 'independent'!
Like most areas of the art world, there are sectors of wonderful work that are not yet commercially recognised - unsigned and independent artists with quality music who could benefit enormously from the exposure and profile a film would give them; and we could definitely benefit from having their material to use on screen!
We'll be building a library of music from talented independent / unsigned bands & artists, who are interested in being part of the film and involved in mutual cross-promotion that will benefit us all. It's already started with these tracks from The Kill Devil Hills...
Please get in touch if you want to be part of it too!
At the core of the PowerHouse Process, is the decision to prioritise the actor process above the technical processes of filmmaking. There is no "script", only an overview of the larger story and what is trying to be achieved in each scene. Within these parameters, the actor is allowed to move wherever he pleases and say whatever he likes in order to reach for the spontaneous truth in that moment.
Rather than starting with character, PowerHouse creator Téja Hudson starts with circumstances and a relationship she wishes to explore - these have been talked about and generated by the actors themselves earlier in several days of intensive group workshops and then woven together to form a cohesive plotline for the film by Téja and co-writer Robert Lee. Together, Actors and Director then use these facts and circumstances to create characters during the rehearsal period and they try various possibilities for the scene until one strikes them as the most truthful and most interesting.
Beginning with a four-day devising retreat in Wales, Téja has taken the main actors through 21 days of rehearsals, building relationships, history and character. The scenes are subject to the needs of characters and story, and are changeable right up until the day of shooting.
devising photos by robert lee
In order to test all our processes, from performance to using multiple cameras to RED workflow, we got together and shot two scenes in June.
These scenes are not meant to be part of the film, but companion pieces - scenes that exist in a parallel universe to the Grasshopping events.
It rained a lot, the lift was broken, the neighbours complained, and we never found the walkie-talkies we'd hired, but we made it. Fantastic crew, beautiful location and one day/night with no sleep...
Video coming soon!
test shoot photos by anna holbek
Our desire to collaborate on every level means we have the incredible potential to involve the artistic community and their work in the making of this film.
We offer a fantastic opportunity to have your work showcased in a feature film that will hopefully get international distribution and be a hit locally, as well as displaying profiles, links and banners on the website.
Grasshopping is seeking talented artists of all kinds, but specifically including;
Visual artists (painters/sculptors/graphic); to provide a rich backdrop to the film settings
Designers (clothes/shoes/jewellery); to provide costumes for our main characters
Performance artists (bubble artists/firetwirlers/acrobats); for a big party scene
Musicians (bands/groups/solo artists); for soundtrack - see production/music page
Poets (Slam poetry); for the opening sequence of the film – see competitions page
Through this kind of collaboration, we can achieve a level of richness in the film that we would otherwise never be able to afford; boosting the profile of the film and greatly increasing the chances of success. And in turn, our success will support the artists who contributed by helping to raise their profile too.
Contact us now!
Poetry Competition
Think you can write an amazing Slam Poem?
There's a lot of talent in the UK and we'd like to harness some of it for our film, so we're holding a competition to find the best poem, and the winner will get their work showcased in the opening sequence of the film, a profile here on our website and the opportunity to perform it live at the premiere.
The theme is Romance, and we're going for something generally optimistic, perhaps a little whimsical and definitely under 2 minutes; check out videos of Rives here and here for an idea of something we really like (we might have considered inviting him to contribute, but he's not local!)
You can submit in written form, audio, or video – it's up to you, but please send files/links to poetry_grasshopping.co.uk
Get creative! Get involved!
Coming Soon:
Get your music in the film, win the chance to be an extra, win tickets to the premiere and more!
There are so many things that go into making a film, and we couldn't possibly afford it all without the help of our wonderful sponsors!
There are many ways to be part of making this film without money changing hands at all; it could be providing free space (as a filming location, production office premises, or for an event or premiere);it might be contributing a free service such as graphic design, marketing or production accountancy, or it might be donating/lending items that we can't afford to buy.
However you help, it's all collaboration and it makes you a cherished Sponsor and part of the Grasshopping Community.
You'll get access to special updates and Sponsor Benefits (such as invitations to be extras, access to crew areas and previews, and much more) as well as promotion here on our website - including personal/company logos, banners, links and profiles.
Become part of the Grasshopping Community now. . .
Please feel free to drop us a line if you've got something to say, want to get involved or think you can help!
collaborate_grasshopping.co.uk
cast
Imagine an independent film made by a truly collaborative process, where filmmakers and artists are encouraged to lift the lid off their creativity; where the film is grown out of a single idea, with no limitations to what can be achieved; imagine a film made by artists, filmmakers, shopkeepers and the public all working together to create something marvellous that is so much more than just the sum of it's parts . . .
Grasshopping
is an ensemble, devised feature film about infidelity and how people so often want something more or something better or sometimes just . . . something else.
A girl taken for granted . . . a boy in love with his best friend's girlfriend . . . a woman torn between two loves . . . a man desperate to reveal his secret. . . a woman reclaiming her power . . . a boy becoming a man . . . a girl letting go of the past . . . a man trying to win back the woman he loves . . .
Eight intimate stories of passion and confusion and moral ambiguity. Because the grass is always greener . . . isn't it?!
collaboration
cast photos by owen billcliffe
© powerhouse independent& filling station films 2009
