Meeting #1 - 04/02/13

Now that I had another make-up artist on board it was time for a formal meeting with Charlie to discuss the details of the film. We scheduled to meet on on Monday 4th February, accompanied by Walter Mirks, an actor playing one of the principal characters.

Charlie outlined the ideas of the film; a sequel to 'The Hobbit' and a prequel to 'Lord of the Rings'. It obviously could not be a feature film made for any profit or the legal issues would be monumental, instead Charlie aimed to market it as a fan film. He suggested that we take a look at two other fan films that had been released called 'The Hunt for Gollum' (over 96 thousand views on youtube) and 'Born of Hope' (18.6 million views on youtube), the latter of which has also received a number of awards. Charlie felt confident that although these films had proven very popular with online fans, the make-up let both of them down a little and we could definitely aim to do better.

The costume department had already been arranged and was to be lead by Kim Pickering, Grace Noble and Yolanda Collins; level 6 costume students. We would be liaising with them to ensure costume and make-up worked appropriately together.

In terms of cast there would be seven principle actors, a number of additional supporting actors and potentially a larger group of extras for a crowd shot. Six of the principle actors would be playing human characters; inspired by the style of Aragorn in the 'Lord of the Rings' films. They would all be asked to grow their hair and facial hair in the lead up to filming, however, some of them may still require some pieces of postiche and potentially wigs. The strongest image that Charlie had for these characters in his head was that they needed to be "dark but detailed" and a little "grubby". The seventh actor would be playing the character of the 'Hunter Orc' and would require a lot of make-up and prosthetic work. A large percentage of the supporting actors would also require orc make-up, although not to the extent of the 'Hunter Orc'.

Charlie explained that the film was being funded by a production company formed especially for this film called Seven Stones Productions. The budget as it stood at the moment was £5,000 and was ever growing. He estimated that the budget for make-up would be about £800 but, should we need more than this, this could be requested.

Contracts were discussed from both sides. Charlie explained that a contract would be drawn up for all members of the cast, crew and production company, saying that if the film was a success with the online audiences and a second film was made, that we would be on board to continue our make-up work for this. In return, we explained that in order to ensure that we would be properly credited for out work on the film, we would draw up a contract of our own, which Charlie said he would be happy to sign.