NEARLY THERE

Photo by Matt Hass

Sorry for blog silence - let's say things have been busy, and busier...The summer's gone & we're back to carrying umbrellas in our bags.

We'd like to introduce and welcome the latest addition to the LEDY team: Tuuli Alanärä - our editor. Originally from Oulu, (a town in the North of Finland), Tuuli has been studying at Finland's National Film School for some five years now, cutting all sorts of films, bits and pieces. In fact, she's a bit of wizard and just what we have been looking for - so we are very happy indeed to have her onboard!

Tuuli's cut of Live East Die Young is looking pretty impressive after a short and intense period of editing with typically temperamental equipment, and we should be locking the picture at the end of this month.

Difficult to describe our excitement. More soon...promise.

BRANDY, DIRTY, DALSTON.

Taigen from Bo Ningen by Matt Hass

Congratulations to all of you who survived this Winter! Thank god it's over. The sun is out and we are finally back from blog hibernation...

The first assembly of LEDY was completed in January and the comments from a few selected Hackney guinea pigs recruited to view the footage went along the lines of “DIRTY”…“AUTHENTIC”…“DISTURBING”. Encouraged by this feedback (and occasional encounters with Jallu and other dear Finnish friends), Laura has been hammering away with the fine cut in Helsinki, taking the film to an even darker direction...So much so that for health and safety reasons, it is time for our director to return to the spiritual home of the film, the Centre of the Universe as we know it, the place where it all started – Dalston.


Brigitte Aphrodite by Matt Hass

We are thrilled, excited and delighted to announce that a certain Samir Eskanda, a veteran of Jamboree, Stags Head and other unnamed haunts has joined our team as music supervisor. He’s been coming up with some fantastic tracks for the film in addition to the artist cameos already filmed…For those who haven’t yet heard, we have appearances by BO NINGEN, FERAL, RELICS and BRIGITTE APHRODITE in the film…Also in the post-production team is Myles Hayden, our very talented and charming sound designer wizard, who will work his wonders from his notorious Clapton HQ.

SEASON'S GREETINGS!

The snow is falling softly and we are eagerly trying to spot some red-nosed reindeers in the horizon...Time for the last LEDY update of this decade!

The film's editing is well under way in Helsinki and a rough cut is expected for early next year. And, as promised some months ago, here are some stills from the shoot to give you a flavour of what's to come...Emma (Zoë Grisedale), Max (James Jeanette) and Teddy (Lewis Grolle) in action, as photographed by Matt Hass. Do join our merry Facebook group for more stills and updates...

Happy holidays from the LEDY HQ! See you in 2010.

LIFE AFTER THE SHOOT

About time we gave you the latest on LEDY. In a nutshell, we spent a mad ten days filming in September, and have spent about two months recovering from those ten days. It all went to plan (sort of) and we believe we have some good stuff on the thirteen HDV tapes that were produced during those days. We say believe because we don’t know…it has felt like a good idea to have a bit of a break before embarking on the lengthy process of editing, during which it would be helpful to have at least one brain and a pair of eyes that work.

Shoot trivia: the three-legged dog that was meant to take over Seanconnery's role after he retired to the country, sadly passed away before filming. The role was eventually offered to and accepted by Sausage Dog (pictured above), who did a wonderful job.

Whilst the moving image footage of the film is still in virgin condition, we’ve had the pleasure to sample the hundreds of still photos that were kindly taken during the shoot by the very talented Mr Matt Hass. They look pretty cool indeed! Thanks Matt, and also big thanks to Tania Dolvers, our other still photographer, and Rowan Hand, who took on the roles of 2nd AD, yoga coach, photographer and generally useful person on set (Rowan also plays the cello, teaches maths, writes screenplays and has some pretty interesting stories to tell). Some of these stills should find their way to this blog in the near future…

To stay true to the slightly restless nature of this project, our director Laura has once again re-located, this time to the dark and remote rock & roll capital of Finland, also known as Hell City, to focus on the editing of the film without unnecessary distractions. Here are Laura’s greetings from Helsinki:

“It was sleeting horizontally and was pretty dark when I arrived. The situation has somewhat improved since: it’s now plus five degrees Celsius and grey. I have been trying to organise editing equipment for LEDY in between engaging in various Finnish rituals such as sampling Jallu (a Finnish cognac), eating Pulla (a Finnish sweet bun) and hanging out in Sauna as much and often as possible. Also spotted someone doing Sauvakävely (pole walking) in central Helsinki on a Friday night. In case you haven’t heard of this marvellous sport, you can check out an ace demonstration of the activity by a fellow Finn Mikko Karhu HERE.

Meanwhile Adam & Tree, and our associate producer Preethi are flying the LEDY flag in East London.

FUNDRAISING

We would like to give a big THANK YOU to River of Light [ www.riveroflight.tv ] for their support of the film by covering our communications equipment costs! We are now counting the days to the shoot ...starting on AUG 31... and any donations are entirely appreciated!

CAST REHEARSALS

...are going so well that last Sunday our director Laura decided to rehearse with Ed & Jasmine at the garden of the wonderful local pub, The Stag's Head, whilst enjoying the very generous sunshine & delights of the BBQ on offer - both suitably provided gratis and very much appreciated by our pale & starving team. Interestingly, some way into the rehearsal we realised that our producing team Adam & Tree were two tables away, also enjoying the free entertainment provided by the kind management of the pub. Who ever said there is no such a thing as a free lunch?

Pub rehearsals aside, Laura has been sending the cast on various method challenges, such as on dates and East End partying "in character". If the results of these exercises could be measured in painfulness of hangovers, we'd definitely be scoring many points. More seriously, though, it seems that things are coming together in terms of relationships in the story, and also in achieving the generally chaotic state of mind that is also sometimes called 'creativity'.

LOCATIONS UPDATE

We've secured The Stag's Head pub on 55 Orsman Road with the kind help of Matt who runs the newly refurbished venue. The Stag's Head is the best pub in Dalston at the moment. With a fantastic enclosed private beer garden, pool tables, fine ales, free Sunday BBQ's and a stage/sound system for bands to perform. We haven't been this excited about a pub since the George and Dragon opened in Shoreditch!