For all those who still regularly check this site – thank you!
It has been an awfully long time since I posted on this site, but fear not, progress on the Great Raven Waiting (that’s how I’m introducing it now) has been made.

We have begun filming, and the results are more than I could of hoped for. The real struggle has been to keep filming. One day here and one day there is a less than ideal approach on a complex and ambitious movie such as this.

We are also hampered somewhat by the construction of the creatures. They are incredibly complex to build and we are an incredibly small team. All this adds up to a ‘Jaws’ like situation where we have to film scenes around the creatures until they are ready. Whether this will workout in our favour only time will tell.

I’ll update again soon… I promise.

It’s been some time since we received our funding and things have been progressing well for Raven. As usual, i’m impatient, I’d like to be filming now!!! But the truth is with limited resources ( even with £5000 secured) everything takes time.

We have however made progress, the quantity of costumes have substantially increased, more soldier jackets, soldier hats, and now…rifles. We’ve developed our female extras costumes as well, completed men’s waistcoats and jackets, hats and trousers. Katie, who designed and made the original Juliette costume has completed 3 Elders cloaks which look fantastic and we are into dirtying up all the costumes.

The creatures are being sculpted and the first of these should be moulded by the end of the week. The animatronics are progressing and should be ready for testing soon.

Locations have been hard to deal with and this has led us to split (besides cast and crew commitments being an issue) the filming into multiple sections over the next 4 months. We’re also constructing a set in our workshop, meaning we’ll be able to film in this whenever we need to.

Cast and crew calls have gone out for the film and we’ve had a good response so far, meaning our first shoot day at the end of August is looking good.

Expect more fun things like picture and videos to be uploaded soon.
Dan.

It’s been a week now since we completed our funding campaign on Sponsume and in that week things have really turned around for the project.

Between those wonderful people who donated on Sponsume and friends and family we’ve managed to raise our target of £5000, which means only one thing…. production time.

We’ve also managed to secure some additional funding for equipment, this means that we can upgrade one of our computers and invest in a new camera for filming. This is fantastic news for us as it has liberated parts of our budget that would have been spent on equipment hire.

So this is it, after 2 years or more we finally move towards production. We’ll keep you informed of our progress as always but for now..it’s all systems go!

Today is our final day for funding for our fantasy adventure movie Raven Waiting. I feel we’ve done amazingly well to get this far. Crowdfunding is an incredibly hard process, every new donation brings a cheer and every day without a donation brings much grinding of teeth.

I’d like to day a huge thank you to everyone who’s donated to the project and also to everyone who’s sent us messages of support. It’s been fantastic to hear such positive things about the project.

Please spare a moment to look at our funding page and if you can a donation would be fantastic!

http://www.sponsume.com/project/raven-waiting-movie

Raven Waiting has been my obsession for over 2 years now (as those who’ve watched the funding video will know).

The story is a mixture of adventure and mystery set in a fantastical world, but at its core is a narrative with (I hope) real emotion.

I always want to give my projects an emotional heart, without it there doesn’t seem much point. Creatures running around fighting terrible foes is great, but there has to be a purpose, an emotion behind it all.

In Raven Waiting, I’ve tried to write a journey for each character, taking them emotionally from point A to point B. For Juliette, our hero, the journey is one of discovery of self. She feels at odds with the world around her, she just doesn’t fit in, but over the course of the movie we the audience will hopefully see and take part in her journey.

If you haven’t already seen our funding page please spare a moment to check it out:

http://www.sponsume.com/project/raven-waiting-movie

Every donation counts! We’ve only got till Thursday – EEK.

Apparently Orson Welles was bad at finishing projects. This is at least one thing he and I share in common, I have always been bad a finishing projects.

But this year, things are different, oh yes! I’ve completed every piece of commercial work I’ve undertaken and I’ve not let Raven Waiting drop. It would have been all too easy to quit, give in and move on to an new idea, but I haven’t.

For over 2 years I have worked hard at developing Raven Waiting into the best Independent Feature film I know I can make and I’m not going to stop now.

The funding campaign has been hard but rewarding and it has been fantastic to receive so many positive emails of support. Thank you to everyone who has contacted us.

If you haven’t already seen our sponsume page it’s here:

http://www.sponsume.com/project/raven-waiting-movie

Francis Ford Coppola, whilst making Dracula, remarked that ‘the costumes are the sets’. The fantastic Eiko Ishioka created designs were pivotal to the look and feel of the movie.

I knew that in creating Raven Waiting I was going to have to create some costumes that would sell the world of the movie just as much as the sets and actors.

In our latest video we take our first look at the costumes. Let me know what you think.

http://www.sponsume.com/project/raven-waiting-movie

As i write this we have just 23 days to go on the raven waiting funding campaign. We’ve almost hit our first £1000 (and thank you to everyone who has generously donated so far).

We still feel confident we can hit our target, but we need supporters more that ever. We’ve just completed a new video about the movie, which will be up and running later today. Check back soon, as it features a first look at the costumes of raven waiting.

Also,we’ve been mentioned on Pulp Movies and that nice man Neil Oseman wrote a wonderful Blog entry.

If you haven’t been to our sponsume page, please spare us a moment a check it out. http://www.sponsume.com/project/raven-waiting-movie

Raven Waiting is an ambitious British Fantasy Feature Film. It has been in the making now for just over 2 years and by 2013 we want to complete production and release the film.

We’ve completed the script, produced artwork and designs, fashioned costumes and props, begun set building and found locations,and we have some actors (we still need more).

Our workshop now has a small studio space and we have accumulated much of the equipment we need for production…we feel ready.

So this summer we’ll be filming raven, finally. This of course can only happen with a successful funding campaign which is why we’ve launched our new campaign on sponsume today.

Www.sponsume.com/project/raven-waiting-movie

If you can spare a moment hop on over to sponsume and check it out. As part of the campaign, expect new blog entries and videos to start appearing.

The other day we visited Victoria Baths in Manchester as part of a film we’re making for a client. On Friday we were once again lucky to get a trip to Platt Hall in Manchester, home of Manchester’s costume gallery.

The gallery has among other things lots of examples of period costumes, many the right kind of period to inspire Raven costumes. Although the development of costumes is reaching it’s end as we prepare to shoot it’s still exciting to see costumes of the right period and to know that our costumes are pretty close to the mark.

For those in the area check out Platt Hall here.

In the meantime our costumes are coming together nicely and our soldiers costumes in particular are looking fantastic.