10 years ago today this baby was published, meaning I’ve been a published author for 10 years which is a bit of a pinch me moment… Yeah, amazing. I want to thank Jon Wright who asked me to co-write the film, but for the book I really want to thank Gillian Redfearn the editor at Gollancz who held my hand through the whole publishing process and editorial process, Lisa Rogers the amazing copy editor who I still beg to be my copy editor today because she’s just the best in the business, and also Genn McMenemy in marketing who uh still has lots of embarrassing outtakes of me floundering and trying to sell the book on on camera, and everyone who read it and said nice things about it. Thank you, everyone. Like I say I am really proud of it. The Authorized Podcast did a 10th anniversary special where they talked about the book and then I talk about how it was made and everything in a lot more detail… But there are things in here, you know, there’s uh there’s the short story in the back, The Mediator Prototype, I also have my shoot diaries about the making of the film and also put the name of every member of the cast and crew in the hope that they would all buy a copy which I’m sure they did. 10 years today, still in print, which probably says something… I don’t know what, but if you want a signed copy you can get one from my store, if not I think it’s ridiculously cheap on eBook as well the audiobook… Rupert Degas reads the audio! Terrific. Anyway 10 years. Wow. Gotta get a cup of tea.
Long time readers of this blog will know that I’ve been a guest on the Authorized podcast quite a few times. I love Andrew, Hannah and the gang and have nothing but respect for the passion and literary rigour they bring to the podcast with their love of film novelisations. So to have an entire episode dedicated to the Robot Overlords novelisation was a real honour, especially as the film celebrates ten years since its premiere at the London Film Festival.
What’s unusual about this episode is that I’m not in it for the first couple of hours (yes, it’s nearly three hours long!). Understandably, they wanted to discuss the book without the author simpering in the corner, but they also brought on my old chum Paddy Eason, the VFX supervisor on the film to give an insider’s view to the making of the film. They say lots of very nice things about the book, which is going to make me completely unbearable for a few days at least, and they reveal connections to Psycho, Mad Max, Planet of the Apes and Pixar’s Cars. Do please enjoy…
And if you fancy reading the book, you can get signed copies of the paperback from me here…
Long time readers of this blog will know that I’ve been looking back at my diaries from ten years ago, during the making of Robot Overlords. Some of the diary entries you’ll see are the ones featured in the back of the film’s novelisation (and if you want a signed and dedicated copy of the paperback, then please step this way and click here).
This was a magical day. to fully appreciate what I’m going on about here, I urge you to see the 1999 Frank Oz, Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy movie Bowfinger. Not only is it a wonderfully funny film about making movies, but it captures that magical moment when you see that thing you wrote up on a big screen with an audience for the first time…
Wednesday 25th June – BFI Southbank, London
Had my CHUBBY RAIN moment tonight.
At the end of the movie BOWFINGER, Steve Martin’s character — a deluded and naive filmmaker (can’t imagine why I relate to him?) — gets to see his finished film CHUBBY RAIN with an audience. And it’s a magical moment as he hears the laughter and applause. Yeah, we’ve had test screenings, but never with a completed film, and always with an audience primed to give us notes. These guys were here just to enjoy themselves.
The preparation for this night has made me a nervous wreck. The plan was to invite as many distributors as possible, then surround them with children and hope that the good buzz heightens the film and gets us a distribution deal. But it’s NFT1 at the BFI on the South Bank… 450 seats to fill!
So we invited everyone we knew. I had about 60 people coming, including family and folk from Orion. But Harry had been inviting coachloads of kids and suddenly we were massively oversubscribed. So most of my guys were cut… then they weren’t (after some cancellations)… then they were again (more kids!).
I’ve been told that there will be more screenings for those who were cut soon.
I bumped into Jon as I came down the steps from Waterloo Bridge. I chatted with him, his dad (who’s in the film!), Piers and Jon’s agent Marc.
Inside, Tim and Hugo were handing out bags of sweets to the kids as they came into the foyer. I stepped inside to find the place pretty crammed already. I managed to find a few familiar faces (or they found me), and then Emily arrived with her Film Media Academy class from school. After a brief introduction from Jon, Ella and Milo the lights went down, there were some excited whoops and then the only noise as the lights went down was the hissing rustle of about three hundred bags of sweets being rummaged in.
90 minutes later…
The dug it. Lots of laughs and gasps, a big cheer when Smythe gets vaporised, a very big ‘Eww!’ as Alex moved in to kiss Sean, and a massive round of applause at the end.
Chubby Rain.
There was a mum with her two kids behind me who both declared it to be ‘Well sick!” and said they would definitely recommend it to their friends.
Ella was mobbed by the FMA girls in the foyer (Milo, who had come with his class from school, managed to get away!), and everyone was effusive in their praise. Piers reported that all the distributors that he managed to nab on the way out made positive comments, so it’s looking good.
Now it’s a waiting game. Will any of them bite?
Hung around afterwards with Jon talking sequel ideas.
A few days later…
Friday 27th June, 2014
Been getting some lovely comments from friends and colleagues and everyone genuinely seems to have enjoyed the film. Then Jon sent me a paragraph from Damon Wise of Empire Magazine. He’d had a private screening a few weeks backs for the article he’s writing on the film. He said…
“Rooted in Hollywood’s joyously anarchic young-adult adventure films of the ’80s, Robot Overlords combines intense cutting-edge VFX spectacle with warm, fuzzy British humour to create a unique futuristic throwback that fuses the digital fantasy of Transformers-era mayhem with the heartfelt analogue pleasures of The Railway Children. It is the stuff of daydreams and nightmares, tears and laughter, hopes and fears – an intimate blockbuster with a keen sense of home.”
Well, you can stick a fork in me. I’m done.
And of all the films I thought we’d be compared to, THE RAILWAY CHILDREN would never have even made the top hundred, but a quote like this certainly can’t hurt any talks with potential distributors.
That’s the last entry from the novelisation of Robot Overlords. We’ve caught up! In the days following this, we apparently had distribution interest from some big names, but in the end no one bit. A big problem is that we’d made a film for 11-year-old boys, which is one of the toughest demographics to market to, especially back then. It would have meant spending millions on TV ads, transport ads etc, and no one was willing to risk that kind of money. I also learned that an influential industry person I thought was a friend stood outside the BFI screening and told anyone who would listen that the film didn’t make sense (gee, thanks, REDACTED!)…
Sadly, the film never really got the release it deserved. We did well on DVD (remember them!?), topping a few charts, but it never really made any impact and any talk of a sequel withered away. There was some serious talk of a TV series, but that came to nothing. I look back on Robot Overlords with a lot of pride and I still get nice comments at comic cons and the like from people who enjoyed it. Jon and I talk about what we might have done differently, and we did look into getting the TV rights back a few years ago, but it’s so tangled now that we couldn’t get them back. A shame, but I learned so much from the experience, not least to never give up. Onwards, upwards, keep writing!
Long time readers of this blog will know that I’ve been looking back at my diaries from ten years ago, during the making of Robot Overlords. Some of the diary entries you’ll see are the ones featured in the back of the film’s novelisation (and if you want a signed and dedicated copy of the paperback, then please step this way and click here).
There were many magical moments during the making of Robot Overlords, but the recording of the score at AIR studios is one that still lingers ten years on. For a start… AIR studios! George Martin’s palace of sound. Hallowed ground and a genuine thrill just to be there. And the day there came hot on the heels of another screening at Pinewood the night before. There was a moment when Jon (Wright, director) and Matt (Platts-Mills, editor) were strolling through Pinewood, and it was quiet and dark and it felt like we owned the place, and I had one of those little out-of-body moments where it felt like I was in a dream. The screening had been to see the latest edit, with the pick-ups from the previous Pinewood shoot and some almost-finished VFX etc. It’s hard to describe just how floaty I felt in that short walk. All I can say to anyone lucky enough to have a moment like this is to just soak it in. Take a mental Polaroid and treasure it forever.
Anyway, back to AIR studios…
Wednesday 16th April – AIR Studios
An incredible day, watching and listening to the recording of the score for Robots at AIR Studios in Hampstead. Situated in Lyndhurst Hall, an old mission house designed by Alfred Waterhouse (who also designed the Natural History Museum), the studios aren’t as big or as famous as Abbey Road perhaps, but the sound in that hall is incredible.
When I arrived at 9.30 most of the musicians were assembling and getting ready. I found Paddy in the studio cafe and we made our way to the sound-proofed control room room. Christian Henson (composer) and his team were raring to go. He gave a short introduction, explaining that we only had the budget for one day of recording, and there was lots to do, and then they were off.
That was when my jaw dropped.
The score is amazing.
I’d had a taste of it last night at the Pinewood screening, but it was Christian’s demo, recorded with synths and samples. It was great and it gave the film a whole new feel. But nothing beats the English Session Orchestra going at full pelt.
As they rattled through cue after cue, we watched the scenes on the monitors, each one of them elevated to another level by the soaring music.
Jon arrived about 10.30ish and him, me, Paddy and Piers sat looking on with silly grins on our faces.
We discovered that the musicians hadn’t had any rehearsals. They were all sight-reading the music and often nailing it on the first take, all playing in time to a click track synchronised with a timecode on the screen. It certainly put my amateur fumblings on the guitar into perspective.
The main orchestra played from 10 till 1, then after lunch it was reduced to a smaller group of strings who played overdubs that made the orchestra sound even bigger than it was. The afternoon ended with a quartet playing a Haydn piece that will be heard on Monique’s gramophone player during a scene set in her room.
Just as we thought it couldn’t get any better, the choir arrived. Just eighteen voices (including, we were told, the deepest bass in Britain), but in that hall they sounded legion. One of my favourite parts of the score is a ‘Day in the life’ style crescendo of strings and horns (Christian’s tribute to AIR studios’ founder and Beatles producer George Martin). But then they added eerie, Kubrickian-2001 voices to it and it was transformed into something spine-tingling. By now Tim Haslam, Chris Clark and Steve Milne had joined us and we were all agog.
The day ended just before 10pm. A crammed session, but the score is not yet complete: guitars and flutes will be recorded at Christian’s studio tomorrow. Sadly, I can’t make it, but I can’t wait to hear the results.
You can listen to the Robot Overlords score on Spotify and Apple Music…
Long time readers of this blog will know that I’ve been looking back at my diaries from ten years ago, during the making of Robot Overlords. Some of the diary entries you’ll see are the ones featured in the back of the film’s novelisation (and if you want a signed and dedicated copy of the paperback, then please step this way and click here).
Cyber-Lords, Robo Warrior, iDrone, and, my favourite, Alien Scrapers (really!?)
We finally went for…
… drum roll…
… can you bear the tension…?
… ROBOT OVERLORDS.
Phew. That was close.
So after many test screenings, we identified the points in the film that needed pick-ups. Not re-shoots, but little scenes that help glue the film together. Some were very small – a finger tracing a line on a map – others were a little more involved, such as bluescreen shots for the finale, and new scenes to help clarify the story. We had always expected to shoot these and there was enough in the budget for one day at Pinewood.
I also saw this as an opportunity to ask the actors to read an extract from the book on film. The plan was to record them saying individual lines as they moved around the studio. I had originally envisioned maybe doing this with my cheap old camcorder, or even my phone, but an old schoolfriend – Jeremy Mason – who now makes documentaries and has done more reality TV than any one person should endure, came to the rescue and offered to film everything! The clip is below…
Sunday 2nd March – Pinewood
Really tired, but if I don’t write this now…
Friday night was a rehearsal and reunion with Callan, James and Ella (Milo had only one line and it seemed unfair to drag him across town to rehearse that). Jon and I had written two scenes for the following days’ pick-ups and we had a couple of hours booked in the Millennium Hotel in Sloane Street.
Any fears we had that we couldn’t recapture the gang’s camaraderie instantly evaporated. They clicked back together like they’d never been away.
On Saturday morning I picked up Gillian Redfearn (the book’s editor), and Jennifer McMenemy (Gollancz marketing manager) from Slough Station and we made our way to Pinewood Studios, up Goldfinger Avenue and into stages N&P. Shooting was already underway: the finger on the map.
Not long after, Jeremy and his sound guy Matt Johns turned-up with some serious-looking kit… and to think I was going to do this with my poxy little camera.
I had explained the book reading idea to the kids last night, and that I didn’t want to get under their feet, and that I knew it was a long day etc. Well, once again, I needn’t have worried. We had everything we needed by 2pm. They threw themselves into it and we shot all over Pinewood. Just fantastic. I couldn’t have asked for more. A particular highlight was Milo learning a gory bit for the dinner table, and all the others walking away in disgust.
In the afternoon, Jenn interrogated me for author interviews, and thank God she was there to coach me, otherwise the message from me would have been ‘All teachers are weirdos like Smythe,’ and ‘This book will give you nightmares’.
Jeremy and Matt were just brilliant. Quick to react to an actor’s sudden availability, they were professional, discreet, fleet of foot, and the few clips I saw at the end of the day looked extraordinary.
And then Louise Mason turned up and did the impossible: took some photos of me where I don’t look like a gurning idiot!
Jon and his crew worked tirelessly through the schedule. The scene we wrote at the wall overlooking the school (shot against bluescreen) worked really well.
Then we all decamped to the container park on the edge of the studio. It was dark now. Clear skies and bitterly cold. We arrived just after 8pm and we had to release Ella and Milo at 9.15 (there are strict rules about how long child actors can work for). The crew sprung into action. A crane rose in the distance with a powerful light beaming down on us, a smoke machine added atmosphere and fresh sandwiches, cookies and tea helped keep us warm(ish).
The kids must have been chilled to the bone in their costumes, but there wasn’t a word of complaint, just singing and fart jokes (we could hear all this via our headphones picking up their radio mics).
We got what we needed in time and everyone hurried back to the relative warmth of their cars. I gave Jon a lift to Gerrard’s Cross train station. He was tired but happy with the day’s work. Mission accomplished.
Milo Parker looking adorable on the set of Robot Overlords. Photo by http://www.mpsv.co.ukWe only had one day at Pinewood so we worked like the clappers… like… the clappers… Oh, suit yourself. Photo by http://www.mpsv.co.ukMe being interviewed at Pinewood and marketing guru Jenn McMenemy and editor Gillian Redfearn ready to step in just in case I say something stupid (spoiler: they did… many times). Photo by http://www.mpsv.co.ukCallan McAuliffe taking a break at Pinewood on the Robot Overlords set. Photo by http://www.mpsv.co.ukRobot Overlords star Milo Parker and writer Mark Stay being mature on the Pinewood set of Robot Overlords. Photo by http://www.mpsv.co.ukElla Hunt on the set of Robot Overlords at Pinewood Studios. Photo by http://www.mpsv.co.ukJames Tarpey on the set of Robot Overlords at Pinewood Studios. Photo by http://www.mpsv.co.ukMark Stay on the Pinewood set of Robot Overlords. Photo by http://www.mpsv.co.ukDirector Jon Wright on the set of Robot Overlords at Pinewood Studios. Behind him is co-writer Mark Stay touching his headphones like he’s recording a charity single… Photo by http://www.mpsv.co.ukElla Hunt on the set of Robot Overlords. Photo by http://www.mpsv.co.ukCraig Garner on the set of Robot Overlords at Pinewood Studios. Photo by http://www.mpsv.co.ukJames Tarpey on the set of Robot Overlords, Pinewood Studios. Photo by http://www.mpsv.co.ukCallan McAuliffe getting some intimate direction from Jon Wright at Pinewood while filming Robot Overlords. Photo by http://www.mpsv.co.uk
Long time readers of this blog will know that I’ve been looking back at my diaries from ten years ago, during the making of Robot Overlords. Some of the diary entries you’ll see are the ones featured in the back of the film’s novelisation (and if you want a signed and dedicated copy of the paperback, then please step this way and click here).
It’s been a while since the last update, and a few key events occurred, not least that I returned to work at Orion. It was kind of inevitable and it made me a little sad to have to rely on the day job, but this is a fact of life for most professional writers (it’s nigh on impossible to pay the bills on a writers’ income) and I kept writing on my commute which kept me sane for the next few years till I was made redundant.
We’d also had a screening for financiers which was incident-free, Mick Audsley (legendary editor who had worked with the likes of Terry Gilliam and Stephen Frears) came on board as a fresh pair of eyes to oversee the edit leading to lots of tinkering with the opening. And I was getting meetings with the likes of Aardman for a writing gig on a movie called Germs (still unmade at the time of writing), I had a terrible toothache over Christmas, my son broke his ankle (though he’s broken more bones than Jackie Chan), and Jon and I started tinkering with ideas for a Robot Overlords sequel. But one of my favourite memories of the post-production period of the film was this screening at Pinewood Studios with a bunch of kids. Abdi, if you’re out there somewhere do please get in touch. You made my evening that night!
Wednesday 22nd January 2014 – PinewoodStudio
Quite a packed day. Here are the highlights:
Got a positive rejection from Aardman. They felt my take on Germs was too young. I feel that any story featuring germs as the main characters is going to appeal to a young audience, so I’m not sure they’re on the right track. They said they were looking for The Dirty Dozen via Star Wars… I told them if he wants that we should write that! And I’m the man to do it. We’ll see…
Another test screening, but this time in screen 7 at Pinewood studios. More kids this time, maybe 60+.
Matt and I were sat behind an 11-year-old boy called Abdi… Well, I wish we could clone him. He was hooked from minute one. I know because he talked all the way through the film, but it was handy barometer of when he was engaged and when not. My favourite moment was when Nathan points the shotgun at Mr Smythe and this kid shouts, ‘SHOOT HIM!’. Matt and I punched the air at that point. At the end Abdi turned to his teacher sitting behind him, ‘That was awesome!’ He told Jon that he was the best director ever and we signed autographs for him and his friends. Great to see that more girls seemed to like it this time, too.
Afterwards there was a focus group of about 20 kids. By and large the 11-14 year olds loved it, but the title got a thumbs-down. Hugo perked up like a meerkat when he heard this… I fear a title change is on the cards. The word that gave them a problem was ‘robot’. The older kids felt it was too childish and off-putting. One 16-year-old said he thought the film was much better than he thought it would be because he was down on the title. We’ll wait to see what the other cards say, but there’s a feeling of inevitability about this.
Jon and I felt the younger kids’ answers were being influenced by the attitude of the older ones, who were very down on it overall. There was fun moment when they realised that Jon was sitting behind them, hearing all their comments. They were mortified, apologetic, and bugging him for advice on how to make it in the movies.
But, overall, a very positive screening, The new edit is good – rattles along – and everyone feels good about the progress Jon and Matt have made since the last screening. Onwards and upwards!
Friday 24th January, 2014
Got the forms back from the screening. Very positive. Lots of “awesome”, though one of my favourite comments was a complaint, “If you’re going to blow people up, use blood!”
The number-crunching analysis should be with us on Monday.
As you can see there were some doubts about the title. Not noted in my diary for some reason is that the producers had been having doubts about the title for some time. In particular the word “Our”. They were worried that people either wouldn’t get the reference, or the word “Our” would create pronunciation issues at the box office. Yes. Really.
Monday 27th January, 2014
After a long weekend of panicky emails between producers about a new title for Our Robot Overlords (including Cyber-Lords, Robo Warrior, iDrone, and, my favourite, Alien Scrapers*) we finally went for…
… drum roll…
… can you bear the tension…?
… ROBOT OVERLORDS.
In the next thrilling instalment… we discuss whether or not we need reshoots or pickups for the movie! Subscribe and don’t miss out.
Long time readers of this blog will know that I’ve been looking back at my diaries from ten years ago, during the filming of Robot Overlords. Some of the diary entries you’ll see are the ones featured in the back of the film’s novelisation (and if you want a signed and dedicated copy of the paperback, then please step this way and click here).
You can’t be a film fan and screenwriter and not have heard a few horror stories about test screenings, so I was naturally nervous when it came to popping my test screening cherry. If you don’t know, test screenings are where films are shown to unwitting members of the public. They often have no clue what they’re about to see, the film is usually lacking finished visual effects and score, and the audience is asked to complete a survey scoring various aspects of the film with room to leave comments. Careers have been launched/destroyed by these things…
Monday 25th November – First test screening
This evening saw a screening of Robots for children. There were about 30+ of then and alarm bells began ringing when we saw how young some of them were. Jon asked who was youngest during his introduction: 8 years old. A bit too young, maybe.
So it wasn’t a complete surprise when one poor traumatised girl asked to leave during the Morse Code Martin deep scan scene (referred to by many afterwards as ‘the torture scene’).
But, that aside, it was a hit. Considering how few completed VFX we have, and the temp score, dialogue and sound effects, it scored very highly, with boys between 9-14 really liking it. Not a massive surprise, but that’s exactly who we designed it for (though Jon said he was impressed by a couple of 8-year-old girls who loved it and asked some very intelligent questions in his Q&A).
We split them into age groups for the Q&A. Chris Clarke and I got the +12s. The 12 year-old boys loved it. The older girls thought their younger brothers would love it too. The older boys – 16,17 – liked it with reservations. A bit too young for them, clearly.
Apparently, Natascha Wharton (one of the BFI producers) got an earful from one of the teachers who was angry that some of the kids were too young for the material. Not Natascha’s fault at all, but I guess they needed to vent at someone. Hopefully there won’t be any bad fallout from that.
Reading the cards afterwards was great fun. Lots of effusive praise, apart from the girl who walked out who WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THE FILM TO ANYONE! But then she listed her favourite film as Babe, so she’s not our target market. From the comments made by the adults it was clear that dads like it, but some mums don’t. Some of the younger boys noted that they liked it, but their parents probably wouldn’t take them to see it. Poor kids.
This kind of testing is always a blunt instrument, and I’m uncomfortable with lumping genders and age groups together – as if we’re all alike and the same – but it does give you some kind of steer, and so far it’s working in our favour. I’ll surely complain when we get negative feedback!
Looking back it’s not difficult to see signs of some of the things that helped/stymied the film’s release and marketing. The fact that so many kids loved it, but instinctively knew that their mums would not approve of it was a bit of a red flag. Kids might know what they want, but it’s the parents who have the purse strings. Ultimately, if you want to generate the kind of ‘pester power’ that gets children to convince their parents to go and see a movie then you’ll need to spend millions to reach what is a very competitive market: the minds of children between ten and fourteen.
However, all that is to come. In the meantime, we had to collate our notes and see how we might tweak the film in the edit suite. Stay tuned for the next instalment coming soon…
Long time readers of this blog will know that I’ve been looking back at my diaries from ten years ago, during the filming of Robot Overlords. Some of the diary entries you’ll see are the ones featured in the back of the film’s novelisation (and if you want a signed and dedicated copy of the paperback, then please step this way and click here).
Such a pivotal day for the film, and looking back it’s strange that we didn’t do better with it in the end. I guess the lesson to learn is to be wary of excitement and hype, but my memories of that day were that we bloody loved it and it was going to be a smash…
Thursday 26th September – Molinare, London – Financiers’ screening
Today saw the financiers’ screening of Our Robot Overlords. Jon warned me that these can be brutal affairs, where the money people wonder why they bothered to invest in the first place, and who the hell hired these clowns and I don’t understand the ending, so let’s go straight to DVD and cut our losses.
I didn’t need to be there, but it was being shown on the big screen in (post-production facility) Molinare’s in Soho and I wanted to take notes for the book.
Jon and Matt were both outwardly calm, but nervous. Piers arrived with an infectious energy about him, which definitely helped the mood. The financiers started arriving soon after. People from NI Film, Pinewood, Steve Milne from Molinare, Natascha Wharton and Jamie Wolpert from the BFI, and our sales team and producers Tim Haslam and Hugo Grumbar.
What I saw was a much slicker cut of the film with a few VFX and pre-viz sequences. It’s far from finished or perfect, but it’s really feeling like a movie. There were cheers at SBK’s death scene and effusive applause at the end, and I blubbed a bit.
The lights came up and Tim gave Jon a bearhug and congratulated him on a job well done.
There were one or two notes, but nothing unfixable and that we hadn’t considered ourselves already. It could not have gone better and we were all buzzing afterwards. Already people were talking about sequels, TV shows, games and even theme park rides! If all goes to plan I could end up writing nothing but robots for the next ten years, but I don’t think I have a problem with that… yet.
As an added bonus the new issue of Total Film arrived. SBK was interviewed and mentioned Robots as one of a number of ‘wonderful scripts’ he’s worked on. I am currently floating on air.
Oh, and I spotted dad and Lou McGhie in the film. Claire, Emily and I are still in it. No sign of George*.
*He’s in it, behind Tamer Hassan when he’s just fired the shotgun. We just weren’t looking hard enough.
Just a few days before I was chatting to Tom Fickling about doing a comic strip adaptation with The Phoenix comic (which is a terrific comic if you’ve not encountered it before) and the talk of theme park rides wasn’t just a flippant remark. Our financiers knew people who could make these things happen. A few weeks after this my agent said one of the financiers was ready to pay for a sequel script (that money never arrived) and everyone thought that Sky would be interested in a TV series. All we needed was for the film to get wide distribution backed with proper marketing and it would be a smash! Hmm…
One big note that we did get from this screening that plagued us over the coming months was to add an expository voiceover from The Mediator character at the beginning. Looking back, I regret caving to this request. It has the poor viewer doing sums in their head as they try and figure out how long the robots have been here and how long it is before they go etc… None of it’s important and the mystery would have made them all the more enigmatic. Hey ho, you live and learn! But despite all that’s happened since, this was an amazing day and I really was floating on air and anything seemed possible. I guess another lesson is to enjoy those moments when they come along, because there haven’t been that many since!
Long time readers of this blog will know that I’ve been looking back at my diaries from ten years ago, during the filming of Robot Overlords. Some of the diary entries you’ll see are the ones featured in the back of the film’s novelisation (and if you want a signed and dedicated copy of the paperback, then please step this way and click here).But this one is exclusive to this blog and has never been seen before…
I had never known anyone in the film industry when I was a kid. Growing up first on a housing estate in Hornsey, then in a caretaker’s house in Leatherhead, the very idea that I might get into the film industry was up there with being an astronaut. Or Batman. Both of which are still options, I guess, but fairly unlikely. My uncle Desmond told me once that he owed money to a man called Nosher Powell, who appeared in all kinds of films and TV shows as a heavy or a stuntman and the rumour was that he had been a Stormtrooper in Star Wars, which blew my tiny mind (it’s not listed on his IMDb, so who knows?). A girl was at my school for a short while who turned out to be the daughter of actor and stuntman Terry Plummer, which was exciting but she didn’t stay long. Then a couple of my best friends at secondary school had parents who worked in TV. My friend Tim’s dad worked for ITN and showed around the news studio one day, and my friend Jeremy’s mum got us tickets for the recording of a show called The Secret Cabaret where I met Ricky Jay after the show and he did some astonishing close-up card tricks for us. So that, and a screening of The Sooty Show when I was about six, was it as far as my childhood brushes with film and TV go. But they were memorable days and made me think that maybe working in TV or film wasn’t so unlikely. With that in mind, when Robot Overlords came along, I wanted my kids to get a taste of the industry in a way that I never really had. I’d already got them parts as extras in one scene (see this diary entry for the longest school run ever), but Emily, then 13, was showing a real talent for animation and editing. I had already banged on about how my favourite films were edited by women (Jaws by Verna Fields, Star Wars by Marcia Lucas, and Goodfellas by Thelma Schoonmaker) and I thought there would never be a better opportunity to inspire her than to take her to see an actual film being edited and get a sneak peek at CG animation, and so…
Friday 30th August, 2013
I decreed that it would be ‘Take your daughter to work’ day today, and so Emily and I hopped on the train up to London. Matt Platts-Mills (editor) kindly showed Emily how he cut together the scene between Gillian Anderson and the Steven Mayhew character based on Jon’s notes. He also added temp sound fx to the scene where the kids run from the Sentry.
We popped next door to chat with the assistant editor Vicky Webbley. who was very encouraging. She started out like Em: editing movies and putting them on YouTube.
After that we popped round to Nvizible (VFX company) where we got the VIP tour from Paddy Eason (VFX Supervisor) and Simon-Pierre Puech (compositor). We saw 3D models for the Spitfire, Sentry, Sniper and Skyship and they all looked incredible. Then it was fish n chips with Paddy, some shopping at Forbidden Planet, then home.
Emily is now 23 and an animator and storyboard artist working with her fella Kai for some very cool clients on Youtube. She still edits and I asked her what she remembered of the day and she recalled that Matt had discovered that the sandwich that Gillian Anderson holds in the scene moved from hand to hand and he was struggling to find shots that matched. And that Vicky told her that to be a good editor it helped to be good at Tetris with good organisational skills. She still remembers the day fondly and I’ll always be grateful to Matt, Vicky, Paddy and Simon for taking the time to show her around.
Long time readers of this blog will know that I’ve been looking back at my diaries from ten years ago, during the filming of Robot Overlords. Some of the diary entries you’ll see are the ones featured in the back of the film’s novelisation (and if you want a signed and dedicated copy of the paperback, then please step this way and click here).But this one is exclusive to this blog and has never been seen before…
I had just returned from a family holiday in Spain and, having seen a rough cut of the film and finished the first draft of the novelisation, I was raring to get back and see what I’d missed. And it all started with a meeting at Orion House…
Wednesday 29th August, 2013
Great meeting today with Piers (Tempest, producer), Gillian Redfearn (my editor at Gollancz) and Jen McMenemy (Gollancz marketing manager). Lots of exciting stuff we can do for the book and the film. Piers showed us the Toronto (Film Festival) sales trailer — very exciting — and let slip that thanks to SBK (Sir Ben Kingsley) we might have a Prince’s Trust Premiere! That would be an incredible launch.
Stayed behind with Gillian to run through her edit notes. I’ve got a good idea of what to attack next. She’s very good. It’s like having a co-writer. Great objectivity.
To say that Gillian Redfearn is ‘very good’ is like saying Pele was quite handy with a football. I knew that Gillian had edited some of my favourite authors at Gollancz, and they were fulsome in their praise of her, but this was my first time being edited and I had no idea I was getting the Rolls Royce treatment. There were 4440 comments and changes (I still have the Word doc… let me know if you’d be interested in seeing it!). A perfect blend of suggestions, encouragement, compliments and Joyce Grenfell-like moments of, ‘No, Mark, don’t do that.’ And she was always the eye of the reader, not only pointing out moments of potential confusion, but demanding more of me and making me a better writer. Gillian basically taught me how to write a novel with her edit and I shall always be grateful for that incredible experience.
We didn’t get a Prince’s Trust premiere in the end, and more excited hyperbole was to come, but more of that later…
Mark Stay Writes 