Synopsis

A girl blows an ill-fated kiss to her departing boyfriend...

Director's Notes

Pete Wallington wrote, produced, edited and directed The Long Kiss Goodbye specifically for the 2006 Nokia Shorts film competition.

A cameraman by trade, he was adamant from the start that the 15 second movie should be filmed as a single steadicam shot, so as to capture as much excitement and movement as possible and add an extra dimension to the production of the film. How this would be achieved, however, was unclear until Pete completed the manufacture of his DIY steadicam device “Pete-cam”. It was then down to Chris Towndrow to wield the device, as camera operator and DoP for the shoot. To his immense credit he didn’t complain once during the 27 takes of the shoot, despite having to hold a 6 kilo camera and steadicam rig at arms-length and run 35 yards at speed down the road while attempting to maintain the correct framing!

Not wanting to make his job any easier, Pete decided that for his first film he should break one of the cardinal rules, and work with animals! Heather Manson agreed to fill in as an extra and brought her fantastic dog Chessie with her, who turned out to be an absolute star, stealing the whole movie! Lucky, then, that KC Thiruchelvam came onboard as 1st AD to help choreograph the shoot.

The rest of the cast and crew was assembled at the eleventh hour, but extras Paul Skelton and Harry Clegg and lead actors Millie Heywood and Geoff Cockwill all did fantastic jobs and brought the production in on schedule.

Post-production, however, was decidedly trickier than planned. Thom Clarke and Hugh Macdonald worked tirelessly as animator and compositor respectively, despite having only the “most un-trackable clip ever seen” to work with!

Knowing that it was vital to have the correct sound to make the film he wanted to make, Pete enlisted the help of Jo Robinson and Jos Newbolt at an even later stage of the production to tackle the score and the sound design. With the competition deadline looming there was no time for revisions, so it was damn lucky that each member of the crew nailed their respective duty first time!

Thanks to the dedication of the small, but committed and consummately professional, cast and crew, the finished film was finally pieced together and hand-delivered to the competition office with a whole day to spare.
Further details of what went on during all stages of production can be found on the film’s microsite through the link at the top of the page.