Since then Tristan has completed two other shorts, I Love You (2008) and Questions (2009), the former of which I was able to work on as well. If there’s one thing in common with all of these, it’s Tristan’s preferred flavour of gruesome prosthetics effects, unsurprising considering his career as a prosthetics designer on the likes of Hot Fuzz (2007), Sweeney Todd (2007) and Prince Caspian (2008). He’s earned himself the affectionate nickname “Doctor Versluis” amongst friends and actors because of his gentle, methodical ‘bedside manner’ working with actors during the long and tiring process of applying the prosthetics, and he brings the same calming focus to the directorial chair, making it a pleasure to work with him.
For his first feature (self-written, like his shorts) he’s teamed up with Andy Thompson from Dead On Arrival Digital in the producing chair, the writer and director behind The Scar Crow. He’s also made sure to bring along practically all the key crew from his shorts, including Stuart White as Director of Photography, Melanie Light as Production Designer, Tiernan Hanby as 1st AD and Trevor Speed pulling focus, so it felt more like a reunion than a weekend of work.
The movie is called Not Alone and while you can get the full sell on their official website, the story basically follows a troubled young woman (Lucy Benjamin) in 1958 America seeking an escape from haunting memories of a gruesome massacre, and finding completely the opposite at an old cabin out by the coast. Needless to say, it doesn’t go at all well and there’s a lot of blood.
Reading the script I had to wonder if Tristan was deliberately making his life difficult shooting in the UK to recreate 1950’s West Coast USA but on arriving at the location (left) I was extremely impressed with the set. They’ve managed to find and secure an absolutely perfect existing cabin on the Norfolk coast, eerily isolated among windswept fields just yards from a ragged coastline, as well as a pair of beautiful genuine 1950s American vehicles, a Dodge and a Chevrolet, which absolutely sell the setting. Mel Light told me that in just the first few days it was already one of the best-looking productions she’d worked on and peeking at the monitor during takes I’m very excited about seeing the finished film.
Hiram Bleetman
left to right: Hiram Bleetman, Ryan Haysom, Hannah Douglas
It’s been pretty sunny in London recently, although not so much the last few days. Yesterday, however, the sun was threatening to come out from lunchtime and at around 3pm it finally did. I was sitting around indoors finding all sorts of ways to do not very much at all and finally realised going outside and maybe taking some photos would actually be pretty cool instead.
(UPDATE: February 2012; after I posted this I realised that some of the latter shots were a bit dark; the effect of the Softbox is visible but needed a bit more power, and it was underexposed overall. For many, many months, years in fact, I always meant to dig out the shots and lift them a bit in Photoshop but never got around to it.
It’s been a pretty crazy few weeks for me and the only reason I managed to keep posting new shots on 