IMDb Credits

For my next job I'm going to be the Set Dresser for a little indie feature film set in deepest darkest Hereforshire/The Forest of Dean. I am completely over the moon about it, it has such a lovely script and working on indie films is great fun. It also means that I get to spend some quality time with my family and hopefully get to see some of my old mates who are still knocking around in that part of the world (I grew up down there and they always moan that I don't go back to see them often enough).

I have worked on two other feature films in the past and one of the main things I was looking forward to was being credited on IMDb. Once you're on IMDb you feel like you're well on your way to making it this industry and your name will forever be carved on the world wide web on this most hallowed and respected website. The first feature film I worked on was called Rebels Without a Clue and that was back in 2008. When the director submitted everyone's details to IMDb somehow they linked my credit to a different Fiona McLean, a Fiona McLean who incidentally had been the Production Manager for the Visual Effects on films like Harry Potter and X Men! At the time I thought the mix up was rather cool and even though I had only just come out of uni and had the highly glamorous job as a clapper loader on a little indie film shot in the middle of winter on the Yorkshire moors, I was quite happy pretending that I also worked with the VFX team on a few Potter films on the side!

Two years later, my second indie feature cropped up, a dark comedy called In Me (which is not a porno just in case you were wondering). Again this was shot in the middle of winter, and this time I actually had quite large responsibilities in the form of Production Co-ordinator which basically meant I was the only person in the production office whilst everybody else was on set. I was doing everything from creating call sheets and keeping everyone up to date with the shooting schedule to organising extras and locations. Again my IMDb credit got tagged onto the other Fiona McLean's page and this time I wasn't so happy about it. It didn't really seem fair that this other person who just happens to share the same name as me was taking all the glory for my work so I decided to sort it out.

Because it all has to be verified by the IMDb staff, it's not just a simple case of creating an account and making your own profile on there. I had to write a long pleading message on the IMDb help desk explaining that the Fiona McLean they are adding my credits to is actually a completely different person and could they please set up a different page and transfer my two credits over. Then I waited for over two months before I realised that they only transferred one of my credits over, it looked very sad and lonely just sat there all on its own. I sent them another message asking if they could transfer my other credit onto my brand spanking new page and they got back to me asking if I could wait another month before asking them to do it again because it takes time for these things to happen so it's probably in the process of being transferred over as per my original request. So after patiently waiting for a whole month expecting to magically have two credits up on my page waiting for me one day and it not happening, I got onto them for the third time asking very nicely if they could transfer my last credit over. Eventually it happened and even though this had been going on for four months (plus the three years they were up on the other Fiona McLean's profile) I was quite excited to have a little section of IMDb that I could call my own.

So now that little hiccup is all sorted and I finally have my very own IMDb page (I'm Fiona McLean II which I like to think makes me sound quite regal and important...ha!) hopefully everything will go smoothly when this latest film gets added. However I have a sneaky suspicion that the same thing will happen again and I'm going to have to wait another two months before IMDb sorts it out. We shall see...

Interviews, Coffee and Networking

I promised myself some time off when I got back from the Championsheeps and despite my temping agency trying desperately to get me to work odd weeks here and there I've stuck to my word and turned down the irrelevant job offers. Now before you start thinking this is a really stupid idea (I am still in two minds about agreeing with you) I should add that I have had a flurry of interviews and networking things to attend.

Last week I had an interview to work in the art department on a very exciting sounding feature film. That was  on the Tuesday and seeing as I am very new to working in the art department and have only worked on the Hollyoaks promo before as a set dresser I suddenly had to dash around Manchester trying to put together a portfolio the day before the interview with only two decent photos to add to it. Plus it was the first portfolio I've constructed since I did A Level Art so the man who was interviewing me probably was thinking "what a bloody joke"...I know I certainly was! So that was last Tuesday and I still haven't had an answer about that job despite a few texts and phone calls trying to chase up an answer. 

On Thursday there was a networking doo at one of the buildings in MediaCity. It's called the Greenhouse and it's where a nice assortment of small indie production companies and other small businesses live. On my way there I went via the Blue Peter Garden and was delighted to discover that someone has erected a little cage type dome thing that goes over the pond and there are real live fish happily swimming around in there now. Getting back to the reason I was there (well apart from all the cupcakes, ice cream and macaroons I was promised) the networking event was very well put together. They had the advantage of all their tenants being in their own offices so it was easy to navigate and target the companies that you actually wanted to introduce yourself to. I came away from it feeling that I made some very useful contacts.

Last Saturday there was a cider festival happening in the centre of Manchester. This had been in my diary for months as I have been moaning rather regularly about the lack of decent cider that's been missing from my life whilst going out and about since I moved here. I come from a little village in the depths of Gloucestershire and down there they feed it to us before we progress onto solids so cider is something that is very dear to my heart. Originally it was going to be just my flatmate and I attending but two days before this most wondrous and hallowed event I tweeted about it and then all of a sudden somehow it became a mini networking afternoon/evening for people who I've worked with in the industry and people who I'd like to work with in the future...the power of Twitter hey!

On Monday I had a big scary but mega exciting interview at the BBC for a job in the indie acquisitions team in the Children's department and for the first time ever at a BBC interview my brain didn't turn to mush and I was giving coherent answers to questions that in the past I have just fallen flat on my face with before I've even had a chance to get any words out of my mouth. Obviously my plan that I came up with in November actually worked, which was to move as close to MediaCity as possible so that I could change my perception of the BBC from the mystical fantasy palace where all my dreams and wishes would magically come true yet when invited to an interview would not feel I am worthy of working in such an awesome place - to - a nice company that I'd quite like to work for. I'm not sure if I have the job yet or not but the interviewers said as we were wrapping up that I gave a very strong interview (I was waiting for the but...) so I guess that's a result in itself. They promised to let me know by the end of the week so they have roughly a day and an hour and half to keep that promise. 

I had a coffee date on Tuesday with a little chum of mine who I work with on Dickinson's Real Deal and then yesterday morning I went for an interview at an indie company who specialise in commercials who are looking for freelance art department people, production assistants and runners (I took my newly made portfolio and flashed my two photos from the Hollyoaks promo at them) and then another coffee date in the afternoon with a relatively newly formed indie company that I've built up a nice little relationship up with on Twitter. It was a way of introducing ourselves to each other and putting a face to the tweets but we ended up have a good natter for about an hour! Next week I'm off to Sheffield to volunteer at the Children's Media Conference and then I get back on Friday and volunteer over the weekend down at the BBC for Give an Hour. 

So my plan to take some time off hasn't really been any less manic than if I had been working, and much more so than if I had agreed to sit on a reception with no way of furthering my career or stimulating my brain cells. 

Hollyoaks Enchanted Forest Promo

At the start of this month I somehow managed to get myself working on the latest Hollyoaks promo and not just as a runner but as a set dresser, you know like a proper person's role where you get more exciting tasks to do than fetching tea for people who are too lazy/busy to do it themselves. I'm not quite sure how it all came about to be honest, I think a bit of shamelessly plugging myself on Twitter and Linkedin helped but to cut a long story short I was head hunted by a lovely lady called Emma Carroll who owns her own prop house in Manchester. She got in contact with me and asked if I wanted to be a set dresser on a Hollyoaks promo and obviously I said yes.

We were filming in a wood in Formby (just north of Liverpool) and it was the craziest and most exciting two days of my life. I have never worked on such a large production. As we pulled up at Unit Base on the first morning, there was a rather large car park packed full with vans and lorries and then at the location base we took up a whole field with other vehicles. There was a carousel and catering vans and huge marquees to eat in and coffee vans that made real coffee and golf buggies with trailers to lug all our gear on to set. The call sheet went on for nine pages and it was just a never ending list of names and contact numbers. This is how I always imagined what working in Hollywood must be like, not a one minute trailer for Hollyoaks!

If you haven't seen it yet watch it now and then I shall carry on with my tale...


So I was a key player in dressing the first scene with the tents and the bluebells, the smashed up living room scene, the lit up tent scene and I spent a good three hours or more in a field planting all of those poppies, buttercups and wild parsnips on my own. I had people walking their dogs commenting on the fact that they got very confused as they had never noticed poppies in that field before, that is until they spotted me hiding behind a clump of grass forcing them into the ground. I thought that if I could fool the locals into thinking they were real then surely that can only be a good thing...some of them even suggested I should leave them in after we had finished because the field looked much prettier than it did before.

There were about eight people in the art department alone and I loved working with every single one of them. We made a nice little happy family and they were all highly professional with so much vision yet so down to earth and they accepted me straight away and just let me get on with the things I was doing. The food from the catering van was possibly some of the nicest meals I've ever eaten and although we were on set for over 17 hours on the day we were shooting (we also had a day to prep the sets and a day to take it all down again) we always had enough food in our bellies to keep us going.

I can't begin to put into words just how much of an amazing experience the whole thing was. Not just being on the set of something as huge and visually stunning as this but to actually be dressing the sets for it as well was something that was just one big pipe dream for me up until very recently. The day after we wrapped I think I was awake for a total of six hours. I woke up at around 2pm to find that I physically couldn't move as all the muscles in my body had seized up, I went into the living room to say hello to my flatmate, had some breakfast, had a long hot soak in the bath and then fell asleep on my bed again with my towel still wrapped around me. It was a gorgeous day and I managed to miss all of it! Personally I'm not into running or going to the gym (you really don't need to be if you work in this industry) but I can only compare it to how it must feel to finish a marathon. You're physically and mentally exhausted, your body feels like it will never work again but you really can't beat that rush of pride and achievement.

For more news on this promo and to see a behind the scenes video (that features more of my poppy field and other exciting things) go to the Hollyoaks Blog. I also fully intend to put up some photos either this evening or sometime tomorrow so be sure to check back soon!