BAFTA winners seek extras for film shoot in Birmingham

Jul 16 2010 by Graeme Brown, Birmingham Post

The BAFTA-winning makers of a new film being shot in Birmingham are looking for up to 200 extras for scenes being shot at a pub in Kings Heath next week.

Turbulence, currently being made around Kings Heath and Moseley, is an indie musical comedy being made by producer/director team Natasha Carlish and Michael B Clifford.

They are looking for 150-200 extras for scenes being shot on July 20 from 7pm in the Hare & Hounds pub, on Kings Heath High Street.

Willing participants will star in scenes in the movie and be able watch the band The Scholars play live on stage.

All that’s asked from volunteers is to come down from 7pm-11pm and enjoy the music.

Turbulence was born out of Natasha and Michael’s desire to explore the world of social media networking and the exciting opportunities it presents filmmakers.

The characters, script and interest in Turbulence, which is also the title of The Scholars‘ single, have been developed using online media.

All the characters were developed using Facebook and a big part of the ethos of the film is to get as many people involved and following the project as possible so that everyone can “own” a part of it.

The film is a collaborative project with a number of Birmingham-based people and companies.

The actors - David Alwyn, Adrian Banks, Emma Devereaux, Connor Mills, Shay O’Driscoll and Sophie Waller - who are all recent graduates of Birmingham School of Acting, alongside Adam Regan of the Hare & Hounds and Nat and Julia Higginbottom of multiplatform production company Aquila.

It also involves director of photography Ed Moore, new media producer Mars Elkins and PR support from Katy Parry and Caroline Ashton, all of whom are giving their time and expertise voluntarily to make the film a success.

Michael said: “My biggest resource is actors. So we started with them instead of a script, the usual place to start.

“Starting with the actors has given two distinct advantages - one, we can try out ideas in ‘real time’, playing out scenes and storylines through improvisation.

“The other advantage is that I can talk to the writer about characters and actors in way more detail than is normally possible.

“That makes the script so much richer and built around a world and characters that already exist.”

* Michael B Clifford writes a blog for the Birmingham Post here