Godspell Movie

Godspell is a feature film being created in New Zealand and Australia about Clarke Duke, a frustrated insurance agent who is becoming a self-proclaimed messiah . . He’s launched an online religion called Virtology, and he’s gathering followers aplenty. His mission is to travel and find followers in the real world . .

The first act (20mins) is now screening to the public, details below . .

There’s a press release here and a video teaser here

or check out some detailed information on the project via the links to the right . . .

We are stoked to screen the first act to the public ::

Happy Bar 3 September 8pm. It’s a fundraising event with performance poetry and live music. Featuring Shane Hollands, Andy Coombs, Craig Ireson, Glenn Ashworth with musicians Michaela Manley, Ben Wood.

In October there will also be a screening at MIC’s Short Fuse in Auckland.

October - December will see a hive of activity in New Zealand as we shoot the second act. If someone has a HDV camera we can use, please make contact !

The first act has screened very well in NZ and Australia to cast / crew and interested parties, giving us confidence to continue to the next step . . It is now in the capable hands of Editor Al Cossar for finetuning while the director has gone shooting Elephants in Vietnam . .
Public screenings and further filming are planned for Sept/Oct in NZ . .

If you’re a talented actor or performance artist, we want you to be in our film - - make contact for details.

After months in the editing room, the first act is complete - or at least complete enough for cast / crew screenings. We still haven’t filmed the important house burning down scene so have used footage from other movies as stand in . . If you want to burn your house down for our film, please get in touch !

Here’s a pic of our wonderful production manager - also a talented photographer, Melissa Pronk. Thanks Mel for all the help and resources and sense of family.

note there’s a facebook group up here if you’d like to join that :

Here’s a pic of the crew during filming in Auckland. From right to left : Strobe, Giulia (sitting), Martino Frongia, Dominic Fryer, Darcy

We’ve been blessed to have the people who’ve helped already . . here’s hoping we can get some money and finish this film !

Unfortunately we left a case of character clothing in New Zealand. No worries, we’ll get it couriered. We did, but the wrong case got sent! We’ll shoot something back in New Zealand that will take care of the continuity issues…aah the joys of multi-island shooting . . .

The day’s shoot went well with Gil Tucker, Chloe Gavin and Marco Maglaic in acting roles. It just so happened that James Solomon from New Zealand was in Australia and he signed on as DOP, we gave him the extra challenge of shooting with one small light only. He rigged some nice bounceboards and did a stellar job. Also thanks to Erin McDonald who helped in so many ways . .

Funniest part of the day was the production van - usually used as a Fruit and Veg delivery vehicle, the rear is a refrigerated unit with no windows thus complete darkness, the insulation nicely cutting sound as well. So the crew rode around Melbourne in this ’sens dep’ chamber, luckily they were good humoured about it - hey there was a bean bag in there . .

So all progressing well, just a few more shots to put in the can back in NZ, to tidy things up . .

Here’s a few pics from the filming in Auckland.
Thanks to Martino, Giulietta, Mel, Dom, Jarad, Dean, Preston, Jim, Surrey Cres people, SUBSCRIBE to this blog and get updates

sermon

We’ve just completed most of the first act shoot ! A team comprised of Directors assistant, DOP, cameraman, art director and assistant, sound recordist. Four days of long hours, intense concentration and heavy labour - well, we did have some fun too. ha.
There’s some great footage in the can.
We ended up shooting on a Sony HDV camera - which, while not ideal, produces decent images, especially when the lighting is controlled.
The wild Auckland weather threatened us constantly with squally bursts of intense rain, then brilliant sunshine.
The ‘rushes’ are now on the hard drives, and some serious editing awaits. . .
not to mention setting up the Melbourne component of the shoot, scheduled for 8th, 9th december . .
stay tuned . .

well, it’s shoot time already ! Are we prepared ? We’ve got a camera crew, production manager and support people. Locations are locked - got some amazing situations to work with.
What’s busying us now is actors auditions. around 16 have repolied to the callout and we’re working through those in the next couple days.
A good time to get fresh input and have that inform the script.
Busy rewriting and all is looking well.
We’re to be shooting on a SONYZ1, while not being ideal, is better than standard Def and is free for us which is nice so we can spend more on food!

Well, i’ve been racing around Auckland city calling in on film and creative friends and associates - pulling a crew together.
We’re pleased to announce Melissa Pronk has joined as assistant director. Already she has provided lots of knowledge of props , locations and other resources.
I’ve also been developing the script and Shane and I have been having some excellent sessions.
The video blog sermons are about to be filmed on handycam and there’s a website to build . .
In the meantime, i’m living on the sickness benefit, my credit card is maxed out and future income is looking scant . .
What I’m finding in visiting people and talking about the project is that we (society) is very much determined by face-to-face contact. As much as we elicited a response to the Godspell website a couple months ago. The real ideas and contributions are flowing over cups of coffee and beer. As great as the internet is ,, land-based communications rule anyday . .
We’ve set shoot dates of 12,13,14 October, which is just over two short weeks away.
I’m staying at my Dad’s house which is fine but as production office not ideal .. no internet — neighbour has a printer. Currently housesitting an old school friend’s house not far from my Dad’s which has internet, but no printer . .
An associate of mine named Mika suggested I approach camera distributors and ask for a loan model - this sounds excellent idea which I will do.
Sony is just now releasing a high def. camera (PMWEX1)) which looks ideal !
Fallback positions is to go Std. Def (proliferation of camera’s) or bite the bullet and rent a P2 Panasonic — $400 / day
oh well, better get back out there . .

currently scouring op-shops and garage sales for props. Things middle-aged men collect - cb radios, hats, models of tanks, cars etc . . also elephant paraphrenalia.
very important.
Refining First act and contacting actors and crew . .

the house burned down because of an electrical fault during an electrical storm. Clark sees this as a sign…to move on…forget the material world…the god spell is with him . .

Well, enroute to Wellington Shane and I played two electro punk shows in the provinces. For that show, it’s all about attitude versus attitude, and we did ok. . refer Cure Motel.
More importantly, we had some quality time to discuss character, direction and lots of concepts. The religion has been finally crowned - VIRTOLOGY . . allusions to virtual (online) culture, and virtuousness.
Now in Wellington we met with Rosie, the (unconfirmed) composer and had stimulating discussions, resulting in a shopping spree of sorts.
We’ve got some lovely robes for Clark to dress in as he makes his videoblogs for the religion website - not sure whether to construct this in myspace or facebook, or maybe some better option - second life ?
We’ll be filming the video blog installations in the next two weeks while on tour . .

Well I’m in New Zealand and have been developing the story / character with Shane and friends. A non-profit organisation is being established in Australia and we’re looking for crew and equipment.
I’m very keen on the Panasonic P2 format but the cost of equipment is around 10k of which we don’t have . .
In Wellington , I met with composer wunderkind Rosie Langabeer, who has expressed an interest in the project and her style is very suited to what we’re doing.
Right now, Shane and I are embarking on a nationwide tour of New Zealand, performing music. On the way, we’re going to be making in-character pieces to video - you see Clark has to create content for his religion website. So much development will come out of that process . .
In the meantime, we still haven’t settled on a name for the religion, more research . ..
darcy

Clark discovers he is gay, ends up in Berlin at the Mardi Gras, having found that he’s not a true guru at heart. He burned the boat as a symbolic act of moving on.

Yep, it’s an office. CLARK has seen enough of this type of lifestyle.

That’s an Elephant skeleton, just in case you haven’t seen one . . .

CLARK in a box, so to speak.

Ok, where did that come from !? An organism in stasis.

visual idea of CLARK’s den.

The last Elephant in New Zealand Circus production, Waikato NZ.

. . . suggest a situation to arise where the “Creator” experiences a massive something and is confronted by a realisation of his own mortality - and turns to his own church for guidance/redemption/whatever. Results in . . ..

Have a friend investigating the NPO ramifications. Chris at GiantRobot (one of our sponsors) has suggested we set up blog as forum for participation. This sounds great and will be implementing that in the short future. So delays in launch of website, but, we will get there !

Domain is now active, and has pre-release website up.
Have to check all other links, then it is complete.
In looking at getting a ‘donation’ link from paypal - apparently you have to be registered as an NPO . . so i’ll look into setting one up . .
Have a meeting soon with a typographer i met which will hopefully result in some tasty title sequences . .
Feedback has been generally very positive and constructive with quite a lot of changes resulting.

Shane’s been off the ‘net so collaboration is not that rapid at the moment. Recently found a location which makes me think of Clark and his old boat

put a big “S” on the hero’s outfit

– got myspace page up and running
www.myspace.com/godspellmovie

and started a blog there, but my friend advised me to not use the blog and set this one up instead . .

so, i have >>

now i can update the website
http://www.blueamp.net.nz/godspell

which i’ll continue till it’s ready to upload to it’s own domain,, hopefully soon
http://www.godspell-movie.com

so, i’ll attempt to update this blog once a week.
current stuff to do is
complete website (get paypal attachment)
feed this blog to the website
release to friends and associates
release to film networks
press release

hope you enjoy the many stories will tell during this project . .

ok, better get into it . .

darcy