Our movie Lawrence: After Arabia is a great story; it explores the positives of heroism, strength of character, purpose, goodness and the darker side of conspiracy, treachery and brutality. In essence a moving picture that is also a moving picture something that will touch the audience in some way. The role of the screenwriter to write and director to translate onto the image.
Behind filming the story of course is what I would call the “logistics” of choosing locations, gathering props, building scenery, employing crew and cast, organising accommodation and travel and all the periphery of making sure everything is in the right place at the right time. The role of the producer.
At the moment I play all three roles though I’m going to directed myself by the Director of Photography and the rest of the crew – hopefully a democratic process or process of consensus – to bring the best of the whole team onto the screen.
In effect we are trying to “square a circle”. We have a limited budget and limited time and we think we can shoot a good movie on that budget in that time. Of course the more we can raise in sponsorship the better the movie we can make.
One of our highest mountains to climb is casting our professional actors and that process has begun. While we have a contingency for our professional actors inevitably we are going to have to make some tough choices on actor and role.
So as writer, producer and director square that circle tends to mean you can weigh the decision with three hats and make the right decision with the crew to make the best film we can. Hopefully the choices we make will mean that the movie we make will still move.
