RIDING LIGHTS THEATRE COMPANY TAKES TOP HONOURS AT HOLLYWOOD FILM FESTIVAL

Click HERE to see a short version of the film Unscripted

Riding Lights Theatre Company's first professional film production has taken four of the eighteen awards at the 168 Hour Film Project Festival in Los Angeles, having been nominated in a record breaking fifteen categories. Their film Unscripted, was produced in collaboration with Reel Issues Films and supported by Bible Society.

Producer Ralph Winter (X-Men, Fantastic Four) presented the prestigious Best International Film award to two of the film's three Producers Jackie Sheppard and Luke Walton. Unfortunately, Jonathan Brown of Riding Lights was unable to attend the ceremony in Los Angeles but said "Unscripted has been a fantastic foray into filmmaking for Riding Lights and we are very excited and pleased by the nominations and awards the film has attracted in the 168 competition".

Unscripted also won Best Drama Screenplay for Riding Lights' Nigel Forde, and their Roughshod Company actress, Rachel Wilcock, won Best Supporting Actress. Young film maker Fionn Watts' short film, on the making of Unscripted, was awarded the prize for Best Behind the Scenes documentary.

The film was produced as part of the Los Angeles-based 168 Hour Film Project which challenges teams to create a film of no more than 11 minutes. It must be completed from start to finish, and delivered to Los Angeles, in 168 hours (one week). Each entrant's film is based on a Bible verse all with a common theme which this year was 'Family Business'.

Unscripted tells of an actor's personal journey set in the family environment of the rehearsal room. Through a 'baptism of fire' of improvisation, he has to face his own failings. The film asks how we would respond if we should hear, in an unforgettable way, the full affirmation of a parent figure. It also challenges parents to give acknowledgement to their children - not for what they have done or achieved - but simply for who they are.

The judges for the competition included critically-acclaimed Hollywood
producers: Howard Kazanjian (Star Wars, Return of the Jedi and Raiders of the Lost Ark); Mark Clayman (The Pursuit of Happyness) and Bill Ewing (The End of the Spear). The awards were presented by Zachary Levi (Chuck and An American Carol) and Ralph Winter.

Reflecting on this work in film rather than theatre performance, Riding Lights Director, Paul Burbridge said "Riding Lights and our Roughshod Company are constantly looking at ways to bring theatre everywhere. We experimented with film in summer 2008, as a way to reach out to new audiences and to engage with those where theatre may simply not be possible. We saw 168 and any other film productions we may become involved in as complementing our work. I am delighted our first serious attempt at film has been recognised in a way no one would have imagined possible. The awards we have received confirm the team's ability to produce film to a quality and level people already associate with Riding Lights and Roughshod".

A shortened version of Unscripted has also been entered into The Doorpost Film Project and can be seen at www.thedoorpost.com. Viewers' online votes decide who goes through to the next round with an awards ceremony in Nashville in September. Voting is open until 30th April.

168 project update!

Monday - The day the editing starts!
8am Jimi Lund, the editor starts work on putting the film together and by 8pm we are able to have a look at the material. In the meantime Jackie and Luke have taken the HD (hard drive – remember we are using the Red Camera – the digital film camera) to the online editor in Barnsley (South Yorkshire) and then crossed West Yorkshire back into Skipton (North Yorkshire) to visit Dave Aston, the Sound Designer before heading to East Yorkshire to deliver paperwork to the film’s writer Nigel Forde. All four parts of the Great State of Yorkshire! The finished review of the edit was completed at 1am! Jimi Lund and Paul Burbridge arranged to meet at 9am the next morning.

Tuesday – Paul and Jimi worked on the editing, Jackie and Jonathan worked on sound and Luke arranged for one of the actors to record some more lines before heading to Bristol to meet the other 168 Project team.

Wednesday – End of paperwork in sight! Luke has seen a rough cut of the Bristol team’s film and come back to York.

Thursday – Back on the tour of Yorkshire! So far – Skipton – the sound has been finished overnight and now he’s off to Barnsley where the film has been edited and they are doing a ‘grade’ (where the sound, colour and pictures are checked) and the credits are put onto the film. There are a few issues with the edit but hopefully these can be resolved quickly as it takes several hours to render the final film before it can head off to LA. The files are so large it could be the early hours before it is all finished.

We’ll update you again later today......

It's a wrap....

The movie business gets quite excited about this moment - when the cry goes out 'It’s a wrap' and the filming is over. Our shoot was no different with welcome applause from exhausted crew and cast.
The last 36 hours:
12:00 midday and we are in the midst of a Riding Light Members day. As a former member of the Roughshod company I am interviewed by Bernadette Burbridge during the afternoon.
5:00 pm Saturday: Crew call for an evening shoot and after a lengthy break from last night the team return to the theatre to set up for the evening
7:00 pm and finally camera's run, until 10 past midnight
Sunday morning and a bleary crew arrive for the Sunday shoot, three locations and plenty of shots to get.
Flat out until finally, at 9:30 the cry goes out 'It's a wrap'.
For one team its all over, for the post production team its only just begun….

Diary of today...

9:00 People arrive from Manchester, Rugby, London and Shropshire or have simply had to fight through snow drifts from the villages around York.
12:00 Crew call and set is prepared for the shoot
1:55 An introduction from Luke Walton (Exec producer for Bible Society) and Paul Burbridge (Director) on the background to the work and how and why we are looking at 'affirmation' (it comes out of a verse in the Bible: Luke 3 v21-22)
2:30 Cameras finally roll
7:15 and we break for dinner.
So as you might imagine today is about detail and numbers. There is a good deal of time setting lights and clarifying moves, but also making sure we can find food when energy flags and discovering that we may have already eaten the entire supply of chocolate for the shoot. The pace is picking up and the vision is all coming together, only 163 hours to go...

And Action...

it’s a cliché but there really is something electric about seeing the crew and cast arrive: everyone focussed and energetic, cast in rehearsal and then finally the hour arrives and cameras can roll. As this is a timed competition, 2:00pm today marked the moment that cameras could roll. They will keep rolling until midnight tonight, but by Sunday night the shoot will be over and we will be onto the post production.

It's all systems go! go! go! the shoot schedule is Friday: 12pm-12midnight, Saturday 6pm - midnight, Sunday 9am-9pm! and after that... well... keep reading!

Snow!

So what does today look like, well that pile of contracts awaits and the snow is already settling, so deadlines and details are of the essence. But so is a great deal of creativity. This year the verse we have been given from Luke’s gospel tells of Jesus Baptism and his affirmation he received from his Father (Luke 3: 21,22), and conversations on how to convey this with crew, cast and producers have been fascinating. We have a great script, written by Nigel Forde, and cameras roll at 2:00pm tomorrow. Which reminds me, those deadlines, and that snow, are really piling up…