King Chopper: Pimp My Girlie Bike, Lucy Frears

This article has been copied from bbc film network site.

What is your name? What was your role on this short?
Lucy, I’m the director, writer and producer of the film.
What was the inspiration for your short and what ideas were you exploring?
I wanted to show how children’s happiness and confidence can change with the input of special people. In this case it was a man.. it didn’t need to be his father, it was someone who did intersting things with him. I had seen them working on another bike and saw what was going on between them, I also like the visual change of the bike! Lovis had an old girl’s bike, his mum had never told him it was really a girl’s bike this was his chance to change it into something that suited him better. that suited the new him. I also wanted to get across how awful bullying is.. how one child managed to isolate him. I wanted the film to be short, fun but with some emotional truth.
Where did you find your cast and crew?
I knew them all. The DOP is a colleague of mine. I had never seen his work and he had never worked with me... but we just got on with it. The editor, who did it in a day, was loaned to me by Denham Productions who had set up a workshop trying to inspire people to make short films. Offering me an editor removed my last obstacle to starting! Luckily he is good, quick, and shared an understanding of what was wanted without seeing any footage before we started - really impressive. The sound man was a friend, Chris Gray, who owns Troubador Studios. The cast were people I knew and their connection was the inspiration for the film... they’ve gone on to make go-karts, 3-wheelers.. all sorts now!
What was the biggest challenge in making your short?
I should say begging and borrowing everytihing but in fact various sweet people smoothed the path for me - Neil Cole from Denham Productions and Paul Inman, Karl Phillips, Paul Bason and Anne George from University College Falmouth.Lovis fell out with Chris the night before shooting.... that was bad timing! Worrying about people being happy because I couldn’t pay them, that was the worst! Not one person complained for a second. Lovis fell out with Chris the night before shooting.... that was bad timing! Worrying about people being happy because I couldn’t pay them, that was the worst! Not one person complained for a second.
If you could go back, what would you do differently?
It was a learning experience so a lot would be different...clearer directions to DOP, recce of location with DOP, more chat about it before and more accurate logging afterwards. More time between shooting and editing so that I could find all those shots we simply didn;t have the time to look for in the one dat edit! I would have asked Chris to shave if I could have believed he wouldn’t!
What opportunities has this short opened up for you?
It’s rough but now I actually have someting to send with script/ film ideas. I’m hoping I’ll get funding for another short. This one be screened at the Cornwall Film Festival 2007. I was the Festival Director in 2005 and have been on various Festival selection committees. I felt that I needed put myself in the vulnerable position of making a film that would be judged and screened in public. I wanted to do it and I wanted to say to my students... look I did it... do it now while you get the equipment for free!
What advice would you give to other filmmakers?
Get on with it! I couldn’t start because I knew a film with no budget would offend my high standards, but I decided to live with that rather than the frustration of not making a film. It is rough.. we can all see that, but I got it made! It’s been selected for competition and is going to be online.
Any further comments or information about your short?
I took a workshop with Maud Hand which kicked me into action to make a short film with no budget. I thought of the idea and the 2 people I wanted on screen agreed, the locoation was agreed too - hurrah! A colleague at work, John Parker Rees, offered to be my DOP and a friend of mine, Chris Gray from Troubador Studios in Falmouth agreed to do the sound. I borrowed top equipment from University College Falmouth. Denham Productions who had arranged the workshop with Cornwall Film Festival, offered an editing suite and their top editor and former MD, Mike Foren to me for a day. King Chopper (named so by Lovis the boy in the film) is more than rough at the edges because it was shot in a day, edited in a day with an on-set crew of 3, 2 people infront of the camera, and 3 people offering support and editing behind the scenes, namely Neil Cole and Robin Field from Denham Productions and Mike the editor. I had to get it done quickly to meet the second deadline for the Cornwall Film Festival. There are many themes that are supposed to come over but I doubt they do in the time. I was the only person apart from Lovis that knew what he had said so none of the crew really knew what the narration was going to be really... they were probably really worried about it being too dull! I did film Chris talking about the relationship with Lovis but he was doing something very loud under a car at the time so we couldn't use it. In a way it's nice to have a child speaking his mind without being over-shadowed by an articulate adult. Lovis speaks frankly and honestly - the only daft thing is that he did fall out a little with Chris the day before and so was less gushy than he normally is! Timing! The music is from Chris Ryan's former bands, The Concrete Geraniums and The Sacrificials. Although infront of the screen, Chris was a great help moving lights around etc.. As you can tell the film was very spontaneous and thank goodness had some structure forced on it by the process of making a girl's bike into a chopper!