Major Project - Pre Production - Name Change

As I said in one of the earlier blogs about this project I was not satisfied with the title of the film remaining 'Love in War' due to this being a popular hit when googled. Therefore when the writers told me that they had come up with a new name for the film I was intrigued. When they told me what they had changed it to and why I was very happy indeed. ‘Love Always’ not only pulled the focus away from war and back toward the romance element of the film but it connected far better to the narrative of the script with Arthurs character repeatedly ending his love letters ‘Love Always’.

Major Project - Pre Production - Meet the Characters - Frank

The Male Admirer (Frank)

One of a few men of his age that remained home from the war, Frank lives a safe, simple life, something that many young men his age now desire serving during wartime. Due to his profession of a postman Frank knows nearly everyone in the village. Frank is a healthy and fairly strong man in his mid twenties; he seems to be a respectable, reliable and resourceful man. On the outside he appears attractive and stylish even in his postman’s uniform. However there remains something slightly mysterious about Frank that it’s hard to pin point. He has many qualities that make him appealing to Mary during the lonely periods. His squeaky clean image and charming demeanour is questionable however as he has an uncanny ability to acquire many items that he presents as gifts to Mary, items that are hard to come by during war time, items only obtainable on the black market

Major Project - Pre Production - Meet the Characters 'Alice'

The Female Friend (Alice)

Despite having once being a fairly innocent young girl Alice has grown into a worldly and knowledgeable housewife moving into her thirties. With a small community in the village now made up of a majority of elderly residence since the youth went off to fight in the war. She has become the person that a number of people turn to for help. She has learnt to do the things she had once relied on her husband to do. Her list of abilities extends long past a bit of DIY, she is always happy to be the shoulder to cry on and a person to air their worries to. Alice is never more helpful than when she is listening to Mary’s problems and concerns and she is happy to hand out the best advice she can even if that advice does come across as matter of fact and abrupt. Even during the hardship of war Alice is able to remain a voice of reason and a panicle of patients and understanding.

Major Project - Pre Production - Meet the Characters 'Arthur'

The RAF lover at war (Arthur)

At the breakout of war Arthur decides to leave the newly blossoming relationship with Mary and along with other local young men, volunteer and are enlisted into the RAF, proud knowing that he leaves to do his duty for King and country. Inside however Arthur is slowly being torn apart not knowing if he can live with the consequences of killing. Now overseas he has to focus on flying planes and shooting down the enemy. As time goes on Arthur is able to focus on his mission only because of the soothing strength he gains through reading the letters of love that he receives from Mary. Keeping his head down and his eye on the target Arthur continues fighting his way through the war, waiting patiently for his time to return home and to the loving arms of Mary.

Major Project - Pre Production - Meet the Characters

The Female Protagonist (Mary)

 

Brought up in a small English countryside village, Mary is forced quickly into becoming self reliant and resilient in her daily life. Never really getting to know her father because of him being distant and uncaring during her infancy, he suffered from his memories of the First World War. Dying before Mary reached her teens, his death left Mary and her pregnant mother to fend for themselves. The death of her father left her mother a fragile shell of her former self meaning that the responsibility fell to Mary to work, be a carer for her mother and raise her sibling. Her mother passed away shortly before the outbreak of war leaving only her and her younger brother John in the family home. Now in her early twenties she spends her time working in a factory, to then come home to take care of John. The thing that keeps her going during the trials of war, is reading the letters from her soul mate, Arthur who sends them from the war. She wants nothing more than to believe in a beautiful love filled future but she can’t help but worry.

Major Project - Pre Production - Update from the writers

It has been a little while since I commissioned Dean and Maddie to begin the script and from what they have told me everything is progressing nicely. They have developed the first half of the script and along with that have developed the characters. Some elements of the characters have changed from the characters within the original pitching document so to has the name of the film more information about both to come soon.

Major Project - Pre Production - War and Peace atmosphere research.

Friday was a very enjoyable day for me as I have spent it looking round the War and Peace show at Folkestone. Unfortunately as the main military influence for the film is the RAF there was only a limited amount of research I could gather to aid the film as the bulk of vehicles were army. What I was able to do was get a great feeling of atmosphere something that I will endeavour to include when directing the film.

Major Project - Pre Production - Photographic research

Along with the letters that Arthur saved were a range of photographs. During the early stages of thinking through some of the elements that would later be worked into the narrative of Love Always these photos give a snapshot insight into what life looked like during war time. These photographs would later be presented to the writers of the short before the writing process began in order to provide a realistic and reliable source of reference.

Major Project -Pre Production - The Love Letters

I knew when I as the producer of this film commissioned our writers to write the script that the love letters of Lena and Arthur were the inspiration for the short, however, I also knew from reading just a selection of the many letters sent from Lena to Arthur during the war years that there was not enough of a clear narrative to use them as a direct bases for the short. Instead I gave a selection of the letters to the writers as reference to gauge the writing style of the time. The real love letters would go on to be used as the scale that we would judge who’s hand writing would be used when constructing the letters seen in the film.

Major Project - Pre Production - The Story Behind the Story

The Second World War aka World War Two in Europe began on 3rd September 1939, when Neville Chamberlain the Prime Minister of Britain declared war on Germany. This declaration of war came as a result of Germany’s unprovoked attack on Poland. When Hitler refused to abort his invasion Britain and France went to war against Germany. The war quickly escalated into a global war that lasted from this date in 1939 to 1945. Over the duration of the war there were an estimated 383,800 military deaths of British servicemen alone. When the War ended in the summer of 1945 there was an estimated 50 million people who had lost their lives. It was a period in history that brought more destruction, death and all round disaster than it is possible to imagine.

The vast scale of what the Second World War became means that a large number of Britain’s living population today has a connection to someone that fought in the war. The man and story that was the inspiration for ‘Love in War’ is Arthur Tuff the Great, Great Uncle of Daniel Baugh the Producer/ Director of the short film. Arthur was a serving member of the RAF based in Africa during WWII.

During the devastation of the Second World War it became typical for service men to regularly write back to a wife, girlfriend or simply a lady friend left at home waiting for the ‘big brave boys’ to come back from the war. In Arthur’s case this woman was named Lena who lived in Australia. As Arthur didn’t have any children of his own and now four generations down the family tree and the relationship between Arthur and Lena is shrouded in mystery and rumour including suspicion of war time espionage. It is unknown how the pair met and to a fairly large degree how their relationship developed from one of friendship, to a married couple and unfortunately resulting quickly as a divorced couple. However the

source that holds the most detail and information about the couple and what ultimately was the inspiration for the idea of the film is a mass of letters sent from Lena to Arthur during the war.

Saved for over 50 years by Arthur these letters create a picture of love and genuine care from Lena for Arthur. Among the letters there is even a letter in which Lena replies to Arthur’s proposal of marriage. The couple were indeed married unfortunately from other paperwork contained within the collection is a letter that Arthur sent to The Staff Superintendent which tells the story of the quick failure of their marriage:
‘I was married in June 1945 whilst I was still in the Royal Air Force, but my wife left me in the August of that year, three months after we were married, I was still in the Forces...’
This divorce came while Arthur was still a serving member of the military with the reason unknown by living relatives. With Arthur passing away in the 1990s and no knowledge of Lena outside of what is contained within the letters the true story is likely to be lost forever. However from the disappointing reality that this story will never be known the fictional story of Love Always has been developed. The love letters left behind, painting a picture of hope, love and excitement of the prospects of the future create the foundation for this intimate film of two people in love, trapped within the unforgiving nature of war.

Pre Production - The Pitching Document

Major Project - Pre Production - Finding the 'backbone crew'

The pitching of 'Love in War' proved highly successful for me. On a gloriously sunny day I met with Dean Ross, Maddie Ireland and Hennie Clough in a very relaxed environment. There I presented the idea for 'Love in War' as well as pitching my film idea so to did Maddie with what is at present an unnamed project and Dean with a tv pilot idea called 'If I was King'. Going around the table pitching our separate project ideas it was clear that each of us were passionate about our ideas. Upon everyone have said there pitch we discussed the options which resulted in the following for 'Love in War' as intended from the start I will be directing and producing the film. Hennie will be my Co Producer with an equal say in all producing matters on the film. Maddie and Dean will be writing the script together which I hope will result in better early drafts as they will have one another to edit and bounce ideas about during the writing stage. I therefore came out of this first pitching session with what I refer to as the backbone crew. The script and therefore the script writers and the producers of a film create the backbone of what the film will later become and I am happy to say I think I have found myself a strong backbone.

For the results of Deans and Maddie's pitches please refer to their personal blogs.

Major Project - Pre Production - The Idea

When thinking over my options for what to progress with for my final major project I came up with a number of ideas. One idea however proved more interesting to me than the others. This idea is an independent short film of between 15 to 25 minutes in length. Set somewhere during the period of 1939 and 1945 a period of history that will always be known as the Second World War. The short will introduce a subject that I have had little chance to explore through my work before romance, commitment and love.

The working title for the project is “Love In War” however after typing this into google there are a number of results under that title so this is likely to change. The short and revolves around a woman in England longing for her soul mate serving overseas.

Tomorrow I will be pitching my idea to a small group of my peers that I have work with on previous occasions with the hope that I can enthuse them enough to come on board. If the outcome of this meeting proves successful I will reveal more information of what inspired this idea, some of the basic research I have conducted and some more information on the story and characters as they stand at this very early stage.