The Straad Players

Inspector Bell has expressed an interest in involvement in the film. Apart from the police leaving their Tardis around my (ST) 8 year old granddaughter noticed something else. They arrested Arthur Vador the chief villain but not his two henchmen the White Lightning Troupers. Perhaps these two could sneak into the Tardis just before Tommy and Barry set it off thus causing some problems for T & B in the past as well as the present thus causing a rescue mission from Insp Carlie Bell. Other ideas, T & B could seek out Arthur Vadors  great Grand Father Sid Vador and seek to put the kybosh on his assignation with a local lass that leads to the descendants who in turn begat the villain Arthur.

Following on from “The Force is With You”, Tommy and Barry inadvertently fire up Inspector Charlie Bells Tardis and head back to the East Cleveland past. Lots of scope here for the schoolchildren, Skinningrove History Group, Cleveland Ironstone Mining Museum etc etc.

Then after these opening shots;

TOMMY AND BARRY STAND IN FRONT OF TIMMS COFFEE HOUSE

BARRY: HEY TOMMY, THEY’VE GONE OFF AND LEFT THAT TARDIS STANDING THERE.

TOMMY: SO THEY HAVE BARRY, ANY COUPLE OF IDIOTS COULD JUST WALK IN AND START IT UP.

BARRY: AND IF I REMEMBER RIGHTLY, THAT THING CAN TRAVEL THROUGH TIME AND SPACE.

TOMMY: WE’D BEST LEAVE IT ALONE THEN BARRY.

long pause …………

BARRY: WELL PERHAPS JUST A QUICK LOOK

THEY GO INSIDE

TOMMY: HEY BARRY IT’S QUIT ROOMY IN HERE

BARRY: HMM, A BIT CLAMMY ALL THE SAME

TOMMY: I’LL JUST SWITCH ON THIS AIR CONDITIONING THEN. (PULLS SWITCH)

BARRY: NO TOMMY, NO !!!!!!

TOMMY: OH ‘ECK BARRY I THINK WE’RE GOING BACK

BARRY: AND NOT TO THE FUTURE TOMMY, WE’RE GOING BACK TO THE PAST

TOMMY: OH NO, OUR LASS WILL KILL ME WE’RE SUPPOSED TO GO SHOPPING ON WEDNESDAY

The community animation event in Saltburn on Thursday was a tremendous successes with a full house for the matinee (in which we hooked up with children and police in Latvia) and around 80 people for the evening event. We even made it onto Latvian National TV !

You can relive the event on the blog at www.saltburn.org.uk or if you really want to re-run the event in the order it happened click here ( it builds slow but quickly gets media rich) – just read each page, scrolling down and then click “older entries” at the bottom.
The event saw the world premier of “The Force is With You” which you can enjoy below.

With the assistance of Northern Film and Media and the UK Film Council there will be a Fringe Animex event in Saltburn featuring community produced animations. This will take place at 7.30pm on February 11^th at Saltburn Community Theatre, Albion Terrace, Saltburn, TS12 1JW.

Featured this year will be World Première of “The Force is With You” which has been produced in partnership with the Institute of Digital Innovation, the Skinningrove Community, Whitecliffe Primary School and Redcar & Cleveland Community Safety Partnership. The school children will get their own matinee screening at 1.30 on the same date.

During a recent International workshop in Vienna one of scenes in “The Force is With You” was “voiced” using the services of some of the workshop attendees. The film clip below is a sneak preview of one of the scenes and a behind the scenes look at how it was put together.

Trouper 1 is played by Markus Petz from Finland, Trouper 2 by Thomas Chepaitis the Minister of foreign affairs of Uzhupis Republic (Lithuania) Arthur Vador is played by Steve Thompson and Barry Hunt the Mayor of Loftus is camera operator.

In the background is Laura Pakalne, Senior Officer in the Public Relations Department in the Ministry of Justice, Latvia who is most interested in our working with the British police and the movie production team on more collaborative projects. Markus has delayed his return to Finland to travel to Saltburn to assist with a hook-up with Latvia during the event on the 11^th. It’s quite possible that people all over the world will be able to participate in the event. More information on this will be released closer to the event.

https://www.xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&Free

All the locations have been scouted for the new production. I visited today with a lady called Samantha Glume who has built a great Space Station Sim. She gave us the green light to shoot there and when I explained one of the shots she gave me permissions to pilot the space shuttle. Only then I realised that I could not fly the shuttle as I would be shooting the scene. She agreed to give one of my troupe the perms. So, who should it be? Well why not a VIP pilot? so I summoned up Ashok Kumar MP and he was given his “wings” (see pic). On reflection I wondered if it should be Cllr Mike Findley as he is the “Flying Mayor” but perhaps he could have a cameo shot.

Shooting starts this week with a full day of sessions on 8th and more on 11th. We still need more avatar drivers (actors). If you’d like to be involved please go to http://www.doodle.com/bghz9pxwcbmwuzrpand tick all the dates you could do.

Posted via email from The Straad Players

I’ve been making some more progress with the movie. I’ve been buying up some props and I have a sleek spaceship to fly Inspector Bell out of Skinnimngrove . I also have a couple of suspended animation chambers for Mk 1 and Mk 2.

Arthur Vadors two sidekicks are now on board. It was kinda funny having to give each of them some money to go buy their outfits (see pics) The lads are bald in the first shot as I had not yet supplied their rugs.

The Skinningrove Village square set is coming along nicely except for the fact that I accidentally turned Paul Li’s beautiful backdrop into concrete! Still, I had a great visit and chat this morning (inworld) with a guy called Markus. I was shopping around for a Holodeck or a scene for our existing Holodeck to shoot the star-ship scene in. Markus offered to build us a huge Holodeck surrounding the set onto which we would past the Skinningrove real world backdrop. Markus sells these things but he said he’d loan us one for the movie shoot. He also pointed out the significance of 2010 – A Space Odyssey – wonder if we could incorporate a nod and a wink to that? We’re going to need some panoramic pics of the Skinningrove backdrop. Any of the photographers among us up for that? I need couple of voice characterisations. I’ve decided to voice Arthur myself as I’ve already provided his resisting of arrest outbursts in Loftus Police station (that’s another story). I need a couple of mean sounding voices with demonic laughter for Arthurs White Lightning Troupers.. Any volunteers? I’d prefer to record it all on Teesside in one go.

That’s all for now. Happy New Year everyone.