BAFTA Short Film Assign – Research
Questions by Email with Oliver Kaempfer – Director of ‘Ralph’.
Hi, so, in answer to your questions:
1.The idea for the script was already in place when I met with Alex Winckler, the director, to discuss the project in early 2007. We then developed the script further before finally shooting in summer 2007.
2.The initial budget was intended to be £12,000, however when we returned to london following the shoot in Marseille, we discovered that one of the rolls of super16mm had been fogged, and it contained key shots which meant that we had to spend our post-production budget on a re-shoot. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise as we were then forced to apply for completion financing from the UK Film Council, and we were lucky enough to be selected for the Completion Fund, which meant we were given £6000 to complete the post-production and end up on a married 35mm print. The final budget of the film was therefore £18,000
3.It took 6 days of principal photography, and then 2 days in the re-shoot.
4.It took us in total 6 weeks to edit, however it was sporadic as we had to wait to secure the completion financing.
5.We were in development for 2 months, then pre-production for another 2 months. In the end, with the wait for the completion financing, it took over a year from when Alex and I first met, to having a completed film in may 2008
6.The main actor was someone Alex had worked with on his previous film. Julie Dray, who plays the waitress, was a french actress that her London agent approached us about. She was not originally what we had in mind for the role, as we originally thought of the character as being eastern european, however Julie’s audition was so strong that we decided to adapt the character to accommodate her. We cast Edouard, the café manager (Jean-Francois Malet) in Marseille, he is a local actor that works on a well-known french soap-opera. We cast the role of Claire (Emily Seale Jones) through an audition process in London.
7.Although it was my first film out of film school, I in fact made many film exercises during my time at London Film School, and had worked on film sets in Italy as a production assistant in Italy for a year in 2003, so it did not come as too new an experience.
8.Alex had developed the idea for a few months before we had met, we then developed it further together for about 2 months, before finally going into pre-production.
I hope that all helps! Good luck with your case study,
Best wishes,
Olivier
–
Olivier Kaempfer
Producer/Managing Director
Parkville Pictures
4a Parkville Road, London SW6 7BX
mobile: +44 (0) 7836 551 683
tel: +44 (0) 20 7381 4224
email: olivier@parkvillepictures.com
web: http://www.parkvillepictures.com
