DIGITILHEART ORIGINAL
An adventure of self-discovery and battling
inner turmoil.
97% Match 2019 FANTASY
FILM
THE PRODUCTION
CAST AND CREW
AWARD NIGHT
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TRAILER
“Tyrannosaur and the Secret Garden” is a film very dear to my heart and my first step into the Fantasy genre. I was wanting to make this film for a few years now and was only really able to do it recently because of the amazing cast and crew. This film took us 9 days to fully film, a few weeks on editing and a few weeks on VFX and Grading. The main issues we faced with Tyrannosaur was that we filmed this film during Winter which really slowed us down at times but we all pulled through together and got this film done! If you are interested in how the process of the film was read below! Tyrannosaur did amazing in film festivals winning just over 8 Awards.
Starring Steve Price, India-Lily Cooper, Jude Forsey, and Val Monk And also Co-starring Alfie Cooper, Elisha-Rose Rowley, Lamissah La-Shontae and Cory, and Cole Hebden. And of course, this film would be absolutely nothing without the amazing crew Camera: Charlie 'Tank' Harris and I Animation: Nat Costume Designer: Jasmine Cooper and I First AD: Ellis Dawkins 2nd AD: Holly Brown BTS: Jay Innes, Teravis Ward, and Thomas Alec Jackson Gaffer: Teravis Ward Colorist: Nicky Williams Score: Charlotte Auzins Sound: Dafydd A. Mann and a huge huge huge thank you to Peter Banks who lent us all the dark material which made our tent look amazing and last but not least RED GIANT who gifted us an amazing VFX pack
Don't want to read? No worries We made a video!
The Secret
Garden
Filmed in Leicester
There were 5 locations Tyrannosaur needed, A set, a forest, a church, a house and an open grassy space.
Many places like St Nicholas church, 369 Film studios, My home ect were super easy to contact and secure but what was very hard to find was the main forest. as it not only had to be beautiful but also had to be privately owned so we're able to go in and out without any problems. Luckily we were able to find that before our pinned shooting date. The forest in the end was a private garden and the owner allowed us to do any kind of filming and use any props we require as long as we took care of his garden.
After a few meetings we accepted. this area also had a cliff edge, open grassy field and many many areas we could film in, we set 90% of the film here.
Casting
The first-ever post I made of "Tyrannosaur" was to announce the film in Oct 2018 and with the help of Bondi Talent, the film was cast within a month!
Writing
Tyrannosaur
Writing Tyrannosaur was one of the easiest undertakings of the film. At the time I was going through a very raw moment which I used as motivation for the story. Ideas, Stories and Characters just oozed out from page to page.
Of course, the fun/childlike moments came later which I was super interested in blending with my raw story.
DAY 1: Meeting
After the location was secured we scheduled a meeting with the whole cast and crew to go through the shooting plan why I want to make the film, the future of the film, cast and locations. This was insanely helpful because I got to personally talk with all the key members of the crew to explain why this film is being made. It was great to hear the questions they needed answered and go through all the tough VFX shots for the end of the film. I also went through all the main concerns I had for the locations just so they are aware (Which was mostly UK weather). We also went through the script to see if they had any suggestions for their characters and casting. What I learned from this day is that little production meetings with the team are 100% needed for every production.
Huge thank you to Zoe from Bondi talent, Digitilheart crew, David from 369 Film Studios and Steve for attending.
DAY 2: The House
The first shoot we did for Tyrannosaur was "Grants House" scenes, which included 5 scenes for the film. The first few "Day time" scenes took only a few hours to shoot. Steve was so professional and helpful as we had a limited crew that day that these scenes flew by. Later we had Skye turn up who played the first "Kirsty" (First because we sadly had to recast Kirsty a few months later as Skye couldn't commit - her scenes had to be reshot at a later date). After a long day, as soon as the sunset we were ready to shoot the "Night scenes" This entailed us shooting 2 scenes, one with Grant waking up from a bad dream and the other being kidnapped by the kids. This scene had India and Alfie dress up as their characters for the first time.
DAY 3 - 7: The Forest
The forest days came up fast - we had a very limited time to shoot them as Winter was approaching and daylight was slipping through our fingers every minute. The place was wonderful, with spectacular cliffs, stunning water features, pure nature and of course the most amazing arch structure. We to this day still feel like we lucked out on these locations and are forever grateful. As amazing as it was the Hardest sequences in this film were every single one of the outdoor "Forest" scenes. One of the biggest setbacks for these scenes was the weather. Almost every single shoot we were surprised by rain. so we had to make sure there was cover in every location, Not only that like I said it was almost winter so the sun was going down very fast to the point where a lot of work was added to the post to 1) make the scenes look brighter and 2) not make the scenes look so wet. One theme I wanted to carry out in this film was "magic" so having wet leaves everywhere in these scenes of the film was kind of a "no-no" for me.
Day 1 of the forest consisted of shooting every scene that had the "Jail cell" for Grant, this was so that we could dismantle it and remove it asap as it was a huge prop that took up a lot of room on set. Day 2, was getting all of the follow-up scenes done now without the jail cell. These scenes were amazing because we were all together in one location filming various scenes so we were able to stick together and smash them out! Day 3 had us revealing through the stunning gardens to film the VFX scenes, tent scenes, Cliff scenes and hillside scenes. These were great days that were only really slowed down by weather and travelling to and from locations. Day 4 was all the solo scenes with Hop and Grant
Every single one of the cast and crew did amazing on all 4 days on location and I couldn't have been more proud of every one of them
DAY 8: The Blanket fort
One of the most exciting parts of the film for me was creating the atmosphere of the blanket fort. It took us over 3 days to create this set-up using real blankets, no actual structure, fairy lights, party poppers, bedsheets and string. I made sure it was bigger than it needed to be so we had space for every character and of course the camera. I also made sure that every blanket could be lifted if needed in case there were any issues on set. Luckily there were only 2 scenes in the blanket fort so we were able to take our time and make sure every shot worked. We also made sure to fill this area with loads of children's toys and structures that kids would make out of cardboard to settle in that ethereal look.
This whole scene was such a great experience as
1) It was the last day with all the kids and
2) it was just so amazing to be in a controlled environment finally and focus on what shots mattered.
I would love to make more films with sets like these.
DAY 9: The Church + Reshoot
Day 9, the final shoot day! We were super lucky to have St Nicholas church on board with this film from day one and they were lovely enough to let us use their Church for the final scene of the film. We only had 3 shots to shoot and the addition of some new lovely cast of characters for the church audience made this shoot special. We only had 3 hours to shoot so that included 3 setups, and directing everyone who hasn't seen the script. We luckily got this all done!
We then had to go back to my house to get the reshoots done. We were very lucky to have Elisha- Rose Rowley who jumped on the project last minute to fulfil the role of Kirsty and we are forever grateful as she did an amazing job.
The Production of Tyrannosaur was super hard due to the weather and Locations but with the help of the amazing cast and crew of the film, the film came out so much better than I imagined. Thank you, team.
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