GUY de BEAUJEU’S BLOG

NB This is my personal blog and does not reflect the thoughts, ideas or opinions of anyone else in the production.

In June 2010, Simon asked me to come and see Twelfth Night at Bath’s Theatre Royal. By the time pizzas were delivered and I’d watched a grown man besport himself in bright yellow leggings before an audience of greyhairs begging for more, I knew I wanted to make a documentary about Filter.

Simon invited me backstage to meet the cast, even introducing me as a ‘film producer’. They tried to look impressed, but no doubt they’d heard it all before.

Simon and I worked on the doc idea and it soon became a mock - we realised that with a cast that was so experienced in devising their own work, perhaps they might go along with a few ideas of ours as well.

On a tiny budget, Simon would direct and co-produce and I would produce.

And What You Will was born.

Creatively it involved a trip for Simon and I to a tiny cottage on Exmoor to bash out the plot outline - this would follow the contours of the play, driven by Ferdy (who plays Malvolio - he of the yellow leggings, sorry cross garters) secretly thinking he was better than all the other actors. He believes his time has come to leave these travelling players and take his rightful place at the RSC.

Simon had already had some ‘research’ time with the cast at Latitude, trawling for oddities and tales of life on the road. Many of these true stories made it into the outline.

Ollie (Sir Toby) had also collated some ideas for us after more extensive ‘research’ with the cast and these too were fed in on our return from the wilds of the moor.

The excitement was all too much for Simon who retired to a Greek Island in August to prepare himself for what was to come. He left me to start pre-production and I was allowed a week off on the Yorkshire coast.

September came far too fast and suddenly we were full speed ahead in pre-pro. Our cameraman Josh Randall came recommended by an old cinematographer friend, Terry Flaxton. Josh brought soundman Neil Sherman on board and in due course he also recommended our hard working camera assist Ellie Newbury.

We decided to shoot on the Z7 and also hoped to use Josh’s D5 where appropriate.

Simon begged an old VW Camper off a friend, to star as the cast’s official vehicle and we were ready to meet the cast in Bristol on Tuesday, 21st September.

BRISTOL - THE TOBACCO FACTORY

21 - 25 September

As a way to get the crew gelling, we spent the first few hours out and about with Ollie in full Sir Toby costume. Ollie is the only one in the play in Shakespearean costume and he was an instant hit on Bristol’s streets.

Best moment was the shot of him standing handing out flyers in front of a huge poster of Barbara Windsor on the front of The Hippodrome (where she will star in the Christmas Panto).

Ollie plays the loveable (if slightly drunk) co-director of Sea-in-the-Sieve (the name in the film for Filter). To get to know him better we took him for a drink in the Hope & Anchor, filming him chatting with fellow cast member, Nick Tenant (who plays Duke Orsino and Sir Andrew Aguecheek). For the film, Nick plays an actor at war with a capitalist society he sees is bent on dumbing down the arts.

That afternoon, up on Bristol’s downs we filmed an interview with Poppy Miller, Ferdy’s wife (for real). She plays Viola and in the film is also Ferdy’s wife, although she is new to the acting business, having given up her job as a banker. There’s just a hint she might quite fancy Vic (who plays Olivia).

The crew watched the show at the Tobacco Factory for the first time and then headed up to a radio station for to shoot an interview between Ollie and Keith Warmington, a local DJ.

After that it was off to Bristol legend Renato’s, next to the Old Vic for cast dinner. This was interrupted by an interview with understudy Alex Avery. Alex understudies all the boy’s parts and in the film plays an actor terrified of acting. He’s also full of useless knowledge.

And that was day one!

Our time at the Tobacco Factory was perfect, made possible by everyone’s kindness and understanding. The space is just right for Filter, the audience is close and easy to interact with.

Filming there enabled us to get very near the action and to see the reactions of the audience to the show.

We shot all over Bristol; interviewing digs landladies; gatecrashing a school workshop at Colston School; setting up a scene at the Tobacco Factory when Ollie returns too drunk to go on stage - and then appearing unexpectedly on stage with understudy Alex; a post-show discussion almost taken over by children asking suspiciously clever questions; on the Suspension Bridge; at the docks; in the actors’ digs. We also managed to eat lost of delicious pies thanks to the very lovely people at Pieminister in Stokes Croft.

Later in the week, Ollie’s wife, actress Zoe Tapper, came on set to play the mean wife wanting Ollie to take a TV job he has been offered. She is the antithesis of Ollie, wanting him to chuck in theatre for better paid work. Ollie loves his company and is resisting, but she brings growing emotional pressure to bear.

TRURO - HALL FOR CORNWALL

27 September - 2 October

Somehow I got to drive Josh and Ellie in the van and Simon drove my car with Neil to Truro....

Our digs just west of the town were a step up from Bristol, with an indoor pool. We may be cheap but we’re not mean.

Hall for Cornwall (1,300 seats) is as different a space as is possible from the Tobacco Factory (400 seats). It was hugely filmic with wings and a raked seating structure that disappeared into the gods.

We were brilliantly looked after by the whole team there, with a dedicated minder for the whole week.

We were able to cover a lot of the devised set ups around the theatre - particularly memorable was an argument between Ferdy and understudy Sandy which set us up perfectly for the wind up  the girls hatch in revenge.

Other highlights of the week include most of the cast taking to the water in terrible weather off an almost deserted beach; following Sandy on her way to get the pizzas at Pizza Express; joining the cast as they woke up in their country cottages; vox pops at the theatre; Vic’s interview and her creation of an all-female theatre group; the scenery; and interviewing Gemma’s and Tom’s mums and dads.

EXETER - NORTHCOTT THEATRE

5 - 9 October

The Northcott represented something of a homecoming for Simon and I as were both students here. I managed to bore most of the crew and cast with my stories of student derring do....

Simon on the other hand actually did worthwhile things here; meeting his future wife on stage (in Romeo and Juliet - it’s true), acting, producing and directing theatre at the Northcott - things that all had a huge impact on his working (and home) life.

For the cast this was the ideal venue in size terms - and audiences turned out to be perfect too - many sell-outs with plenty of audience participation and all round hilarity.

Again the Northcott team could not have been more helpful and welcoming - they were a joy to work with - and had a delicious cafe/restaurant, with pies that almost equalled Pieminister’s.

Highlights this last week included: our final scene as Ferdy tries to catch a train that fails to stop at the small station; Sandy’s comedy song about Ferdy, rhyming impetigo with Malvolio; the multi-camera shoot of the show; Gemma’s delivery as she reveals to the rest of the cast that it was she pretending to Ferdy that she was calling from the RSC.

And then it was a wrap. Simon and Neil left for Bristol and Josh and I tried to leave for Somerset. Except we couldn’t because I had managed to leave a large pink bag containing most of the tapes on stage. And they were now performing a matinee.

That no one had noticed a large pink bag on the stage says a lot about Twelfth Night.

It’s that kind of show.