Electric Man at the Glasgow Film Festival

The Electric Man production team headed west on Friday to attend Mark Millar's talk at the Glasgow Film Festival. Mark was there to chat about the new film of his comic Kick-Ass (featuring Nic Cage as Big Daddy, and a wee girl with a big potty mouth as Hit Girl - everyone agreed she stole the show). He also mentioned the dead straight superhero film he was planning to direct in Scotland this summer, so it seems like superheroes are in the air at the moment. Director Dave managed to catch up with Mark after the talk and he seemed very positive about our (slightly) smaller and decidedly un-straight superhero project. Meanwhile, Scott and I hit the comic and film loving crowd with our new business cards, which had arrived that very day. Everyone agrees they are particularly cute (just like Scott's smile...!) The other big news is that applications for our open casting on Friday March 5th have been coming in thick and fast. In particular there seems to be a lot of interest in the role of Jimmy - who'd have thought that so many actors want to play a complete maniac?! The venue for the casting is the Braid Room at the Pleasance, Edinburgh 10am - 4pm and it looks like we'll be busiest in the morning, so there'll be someone on duty in the Pleasance bar to take names and details and to hand out a copy of the scene to be read. It's great to get all this interest and to feel like the film is already beginning to come to life. Anyone who wants more info on the casting can check out our website or contact me or drop a line to all@strangeboat.com.

Happy New Year!

2010 is a big year for Electric Man - the script's ready, key people are all on board, the publicity campaign is underway and as long as we can raise the funds, we're getting set towards shooting in the late spring. It's a tricky time to ask people for money, no one knows how long the credit crunch will last, it's freezing cold outside and backing our film may seem like a shot in the dark. But I'm hoping that we can persuade people to give us just a little to get the snowball rolling. C'mon, spread a little sunshine! Although that might adversely affect the snow...
In the meantime, we're starting some important production planning. Just before Christmas, Dave, Scott, our DOP, Rich and I all went to have a look at our main location - the comic shop, Deadheads. It's a fantastic place and looks just like a comic shop. I mean exactly like the kind of comic shop you'd get in a movie. Gaf (who runs the place) had re-painted the front of the shop, so it's all bright and shiny on the outside. The inside is a different story - it's just the sort of place our loser heroes, Jazz and Wolf, might hang out. But, sometimes reality is just too real, so we'll need to do some set dressing and we're thinking of rigging up a frame so Rick can put the lights exactly where he wants and we can build displays around the vertical struts, conveniently giving our mysterious femme fatale a place to hide when the boys think the shop is empty.

We're also planning to recce a few more of our outdoor locations just as soon as the snow melts and we're looking for places that show a different side of Edinburgh, so feel free to make suggestions!