Bertrand the Terrible - LINK funded film
After the recent shoot of the LINK funded film 'Bertrand the Terrible', which was funded in the second round of 2009, Yvette asked director Karen Farmer a few questions about working with kids and puppets.
In your words, what is Betrand about, and why did you want to make this film?
'Betrand the Terrible' is about a boy who believes he is a knight.
I really wanted to make a film that I would love to watch. Producer Bridget Curran and I both love fantasy adventures films. After musing over some fairly average ideas it all just hit me at about 3am one odd night.
How long had you been developing Bertrand before you received funding?
We received the LINK grant on our second try. It's a crazy film with some crazier sequences and we had to convince the panel we could pull it off. The script took approximately 10 months to develop.
I don't think there are many funded short films these days with Puppetry - can you tell me a little about the thoughts behind building Fretel as a puppet, and not trying CG?
Having a half goblin, half shrub, forrest creature in your head for months and suddenly seeing him as 3 dimensional, on set and occasionally talking to you is the weirdest experience ever.
It was never choice of CG or puppet, he was always going to be a puppet. I am a huge fan of Jim Henson's Creature Shop and growing up I adored 80's fantasy movies like Labyrinth, ET, Dark Crystal and Gremlins. The character of Fretel is laced throughout the film and I never thought on a LINK budget we could get a great looking CG character that could touch, bite, run and jump in full daylight. I miss puppets in films and with a whole kid cast I thought it would be better to have something they could interact with. Though I think more crew than cast fell in love with him.
That said we do have a CGI dragon. But he only exists if you believe in him.
Tell us a bit about working with a puppet and puppeteer.
The puppet, Fretel, took a lot of preparation and planning. We knew that we would need at least 2 puppets to play the one character. A stunt Fretel that we could throw around and the Puppet Fretel that was used for all his close ups. One of my favourite shots in the film was the cowboy switch (sometimes called a texas switch) where we threw stunt Fretel at the camera and he landed off screen and the puppet Fretel sat up into frame.
Fretel is half goblin, half shrub. Based on a very detailed description and a lot of reference pictures, Jesse Emmerson drew an amazing concept picture for him (which was freakily exactly as I had imagined). Ian Tregonning headed the team who made him and was our puppeteer. Jesse Emmerson and Alan Murphy were our onset Puppet Assistants.
Jesse sculpted Fretel in plasticine around a metal armature, then Ian moulded him and made the latex skins. He was filled with foam, then painted by Jane Tregonning.
Fretel's face is so inherently expressive. Little things like wetting his eyes and bouncing light off them really brought him to life. Puppet saliva good, puppet sweat bad.
The puppeteer needs somewhere to hide so Ian was always tucked behind logs, underneath wine barrels or lying upside down being pulled along on a dolley.
The old saying never work with children - how many children were you working with? How did you find the experience? Any limitations?
I loved working with them. We have five cast members, all of them between 11 and 14. Jenni Cohen was our amazing casting director and we wound up with a phenomenal cast. They were so kind, generous and hard working. It was a very physically demanding script and they really looked after each other.
Our two leads were Craig Hyde Smith who played Betrand and Jamaica Vaughan who played Cassie. Our three bullies were Troye Sivan, Dacre Montgomery and Macey Robertson.
We did a lot of rehearsals beforehand in acting, horse riding, stunts and sword fighting. Andy Fraser choreographed a wonderful sword fight and the kids just loved it. The shoot was fairly grueling for the crew but I think for them it was like a bizarre summer camp.
They were some of the best actors I have worked with and I am so proud of them. The difference being they had to have a chaperone on set (the brilliant Chantal De Souza) and the occasional game of funny faces.
What locations did you use?
Our locations were the Leeuwin ship and Fred Jacoby park in Mundairing. The forrest took many days of scouting to find. After a long day of falling down trails and not finding anything suitable, I decided in a moment of delirium to climb the Golden Pipe Line. Unable to climb it, I army crawled under it and came up in Narnia.
What have you learnt from this shoot?
Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Don't shoot in a no mobile phone coverage area and crews are unhappy when you forget jam at breakfast. Juggling fantasy and reality elements is really hard especially when the line is meant to be blurry.
What is next for you?
We are developing a few TV series ideas and I am trying to write a feature.
Bridget is working as a researcher and associate producer on "Who Do You Think You Are?" for Artemis International.
The Nick Shorts Film "Hairoes" which Bridget Curran produced, with writer/directors Jesse Emmerson and Gaetan Raspanti recently screened on Nickelodeon Australia and FOFF. It follows the adventures of hair stylist crime fighter, JAMES BLONDE and his 'kurlrate' sidekick GOLDIE ROCKS and the THREE HARES as together they battle the villainous hair abusing enemies of Fringe City.
At the moment we are in the thick of Betrand the Terrible Post production.
In your words, what is Betrand about, and why did you want to make this film?
'Betrand the Terrible' is about a boy who believes he is a knight.
I really wanted to make a film that I would love to watch. Producer Bridget Curran and I both love fantasy adventures films. After musing over some fairly average ideas it all just hit me at about 3am one odd night.
How long had you been developing Bertrand before you received funding?
We received the LINK grant on our second try. It's a crazy film with some crazier sequences and we had to convince the panel we could pull it off. The script took approximately 10 months to develop.
I don't think there are many funded short films these days with Puppetry - can you tell me a little about the thoughts behind building Fretel as a puppet, and not trying CG?
Having a half goblin, half shrub, forrest creature in your head for months and suddenly seeing him as 3 dimensional, on set and occasionally talking to you is the weirdest experience ever.
It was never choice of CG or puppet, he was always going to be a puppet. I am a huge fan of Jim Henson's Creature Shop and growing up I adored 80's fantasy movies like Labyrinth, ET, Dark Crystal and Gremlins. The character of Fretel is laced throughout the film and I never thought on a LINK budget we could get a great looking CG character that could touch, bite, run and jump in full daylight. I miss puppets in films and with a whole kid cast I thought it would be better to have something they could interact with. Though I think more crew than cast fell in love with him.
That said we do have a CGI dragon. But he only exists if you believe in him.
Tell us a bit about working with a puppet and puppeteer.
The puppet, Fretel, took a lot of preparation and planning. We knew that we would need at least 2 puppets to play the one character. A stunt Fretel that we could throw around and the Puppet Fretel that was used for all his close ups. One of my favourite shots in the film was the cowboy switch (sometimes called a texas switch) where we threw stunt Fretel at the camera and he landed off screen and the puppet Fretel sat up into frame.
Fretel is half goblin, half shrub. Based on a very detailed description and a lot of reference pictures, Jesse Emmerson drew an amazing concept picture for him (which was freakily exactly as I had imagined). Ian Tregonning headed the team who made him and was our puppeteer. Jesse Emmerson and Alan Murphy were our onset Puppet Assistants.
Jesse sculpted Fretel in plasticine around a metal armature, then Ian moulded him and made the latex skins. He was filled with foam, then painted by Jane Tregonning.
Fretel's face is so inherently expressive. Little things like wetting his eyes and bouncing light off them really brought him to life. Puppet saliva good, puppet sweat bad.
The puppeteer needs somewhere to hide so Ian was always tucked behind logs, underneath wine barrels or lying upside down being pulled along on a dolley.
The old saying never work with children - how many children were you working with? How did you find the experience? Any limitations?
I loved working with them. We have five cast members, all of them between 11 and 14. Jenni Cohen was our amazing casting director and we wound up with a phenomenal cast. They were so kind, generous and hard working. It was a very physically demanding script and they really looked after each other.
Our two leads were Craig Hyde Smith who played Betrand and Jamaica Vaughan who played Cassie. Our three bullies were Troye Sivan, Dacre Montgomery and Macey Robertson.
We did a lot of rehearsals beforehand in acting, horse riding, stunts and sword fighting. Andy Fraser choreographed a wonderful sword fight and the kids just loved it. The shoot was fairly grueling for the crew but I think for them it was like a bizarre summer camp.
They were some of the best actors I have worked with and I am so proud of them. The difference being they had to have a chaperone on set (the brilliant Chantal De Souza) and the occasional game of funny faces.
What locations did you use?
Our locations were the Leeuwin ship and Fred Jacoby park in Mundairing. The forrest took many days of scouting to find. After a long day of falling down trails and not finding anything suitable, I decided in a moment of delirium to climb the Golden Pipe Line. Unable to climb it, I army crawled under it and came up in Narnia.
What have you learnt from this shoot?
Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Don't shoot in a no mobile phone coverage area and crews are unhappy when you forget jam at breakfast. Juggling fantasy and reality elements is really hard especially when the line is meant to be blurry.
What is next for you?
We are developing a few TV series ideas and I am trying to write a feature.
Bridget is working as a researcher and associate producer on "Who Do You Think You Are?" for Artemis International.
The Nick Shorts Film "Hairoes" which Bridget Curran produced, with writer/directors Jesse Emmerson and Gaetan Raspanti recently screened on Nickelodeon Australia and FOFF. It follows the adventures of hair stylist crime fighter, JAMES BLONDE and his 'kurlrate' sidekick GOLDIE ROCKS and the THREE HARES as together they battle the villainous hair abusing enemies of Fringe City.
At the moment we are in the thick of Betrand the Terrible Post production.
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