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The Film
Big Dog is a film about werewolves.
Well, kind of.
There’s no CGI neck-hair-sprouting; no brutal goring; no prosthetic make up; and no hokey, stop motion transformation.There’s no howling at the moon; no silver bullets; and no vigilantes on the hunt for wolf hides.
We want to turn away from folklore, Hollywood and schlocky B movies, and, instead, ask the question:
If werewolves existed, what would society do about it?
To find our answer we’re focusing on reality, not myths. We’re drawing from society, and how it treats its outsiders - its juvenile delinquents, its mentally ill, its sex offenders. How does it regulate them? How does it monitor them? How does it control them?
It’s in this world - the real world - that we find our werewolf.
Working in a butcher’s shop.
With three days until the full moon.
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The Story So Far
Big Dog is one of the 21 films selected from 620 applicants to the Film London / BFI-commissioned London Calling short film program for 2015 (http://filmlondon.org.uk/current-short-filmmaking-teams-list#Big Dog). Currently green-lit for pre-production, it is scheduled to premiere at BFI Southbank on 31st August 2015.
We want to continue the tradition of brilliant films like District 9, Under the Skin and Let The Right One In - cinema that takes classic high-concept or supernatural tropes and explores them in socially realistic contexts, free from the typical melodrama associated with the genre.
We’ve been developing the script for well over a year now, and have recently completed several months of Film London-led filmmaking and production training workshops and script development sessions. We are currently in the final throes of script-editing before moving into pre-production, and now we need YOUR help!
The Target
We’ve already received partial funding from Film London, so why ask for extra support on Indiegogo? One of the main reasons is that, as with all of the London Calling shorts, we are required by the scheme to ensure that everyone who works on the film (excluding ourselves) is paid at least the national minimum wage. This is a great, refreshing and possibly unusual (!) state of affairs for a short film, but puts a considerable strain on the production when you’re working with a small budget.
Costs associated with making films mount up incredibly quickly, from camera, lenses, stock and lighting kit, sound and grip equipment to production insurance and post-production costs, and that’s before ensuring that all the brilliant people who work on the film are fed, watered and can get around London for the proposed four days of shooting. It ain’t cheap, and to ensure that the film has the look and feel we’re after, we’ll also need money for production design (including building a soundproofed room where Daniel’s monthly transformation takes place) and some tricky locations (like the meat packing factory where he works).
We need at least an extra £6000 to bring all of these elements together and leave us with some money at at the end to pay for the film to be entered into festivals and ensure that, after all the hard work that’s gone into it, it makes it out into the world and is seen.
We’ve put together some great rewards for those of you who are kind enough to part with your hard-earned cash. We’re really keen to involve all of our donors in the process of making this film and will be posting regular updates/photos and clues as to what’s going on on this page, as well as Facebook and Twitter.
The Team
Jamie & Jamie - Writer/Directors
Jamie Whitby and Jamie Gyngell began directing together at the start of 2013, creating live visuals for bands and DJs and a documentary for the United Nations, before shooting the fashion short for M&C Saatchi which opened The House Of Peroni in London. In 2014 they signed to Hoi Polloi as commercial directing duo JAMIE AND JAMIE. They’ve since made content for Peroni, Dulux, P&Co and Clarks Originals. Their music video for Fryars’s ‘Wedding Crasher’ was the first ever film shot inside the secretive sets of theatre company Punch Drunk.
Big Dog is their first short film as a duo.
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Archie Johnston Stewart - Producer
Archie started out working in script development before moving into commercials production where he has worked on projects for brands including Adidas, Carlsberg, Vodafone, Clarks, EE and VW. At the same time, he’s produced several independent music videos and online films, most notably an eight minute steadicam one-take music video for Austrian Producers Klangkarussel. His first short, 'Guinea Pig', featuring a voiceover from Stephen Mangan, recently premiered at the London Short Film Festival. Big Dog is his third (and most ambitious) short film to date.
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James Blann - Director of Photography
James is a graduate of the NFTS, where he specialised as a director of photography. In late 2014 he won the special prize for cinematography at Camerimage for his work on the NFTS graduate short film Room 55, sharing honours with Mikhail Krichman for Leviathan. He's been behind the camera on commercials for Fiat and Skype, and his work on Notes On Blindness, a video series commissioned by The Times, premiered at Sundance 2014.
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Emily Brockmann - Casting Director
Emily trained under Casting Directors Nina Gold and Lucy Bevan, and started out working on the casting of blockbuster features such as Disney's Cinderella and Alice: Through the Looking Glass, as well as films for DreamWorks (The Hundred Foot Journey and Warner Bros (Tarzan). More recently she was Casting Associate on Oliver Stone's upcoming Edward Snowden film and has worked on the independent UK features Testament of Youth and Mr Holmes (starring Sir Ian McKellen, due for release in June 2015).
The Risks
As with any film production, challenges lie in wait round every corner and unexpected problems can rear their ugly little heads at any time. Part of the reason we’re seeking this extra funding is to ensure we leave no stone unturned in our prep and test days, and to ensure we have the best equipment and people to work with and locations and permissions in place before we start to shoot.
The biggest pitfall associated with any short, however, is in never finishing it. Fortunately, Film London’s strict production schedule means that we will definitely have a finished film to share with you by the beginning of August 2015.
Other Ways You Can Help
We understand that not everyone will be able to support us financially. Fear not, there are many other ways to help us reach our target, and we’d be enormously grateful if you could:
- Tell everyone and anyone about the project - share this page with all your online chums!
- Like and share our Facebook/Twitter pages
- Have a look at our website
- Keep checking the page to find out about other ways you could be involved!
