Pre-production: Producer questions Rob Fletcher

To help with my Producer research I asked questions to the Producer of "Alfred and Jakobine" Rob Fletcher. "Alfred and Jakobine" is story of Alfred and Jakobine who were crazy for adventure and each other. They married as impetuously as they decided to drive around the world in a beat up London taxicab. Their love, like their trip, was defined by passion, brushes with death and even stardom. Jakobine was certain they’d last forever—but without warning, Alfred left, breaking her heart. Forty years later, their son Niels takes up their story when, at 84, Alfred decides to restore that old wreck of a car and head across America to see Jakobine one more time. A trove of beautiful archival footage and emotional recollections guide Niels’ tender but pressing need to reconcile the man he never really knew and the love his mother never forgot. Thoroughly engaging, Alfred and Jakobine is a beautifully crafted love letter to four decades of heartache, two unforgettable characters and one extraordinary past. - Alfred and Jakobine website

Scheduling

How did you format the schedule to accommodate everyone?

The film is a documentary so it’s the other way round - I needed to find crew that could work with the timings we had locked in and the vagaries that come with the territory

How long was, the pre-production period, shooting period and post?
Pre Prod - not long enough!
Shoot - not long enough from a filming perspective and too long from a budget perspective Post - +/- 16 weeks, probably a bit too long from a budget point of view

How soon after filming did you plan reshoots if needed?
Fairly long, can’t remember the actual time but we had to raise money to get into the Post process before it was clear that we needed to fill in parts of the story

Budgetting

How did you find funding for the filming?
Shoot - personal credit cards / friends & family money
Post - 20% Via an advance from a Distributor & 80% via Film Agency Wales after a successful initial meeting with the Director at Sheffield Doc Fest Meet Market.

How did you stay within budget? - How did you ‘compromise’ if there were things that would go over budget?
Shoot - this was pretty much just an exercise in spending as little money as possible with no upper or lower limits
Post - I’m set the costs and stuck to them, as any Producer should!

Do you have any advice for gaining funding?
It’s a long game - network yourself silly so everyone who’s anyone knows who you are and what you’re doing. Then keep going... It took us over two years to get to the money to finish the film.

Researching

What inspired you to make the doc?
Rollo, the DoP, who I worked with a lot mentioned that Jonathan, the Director had an interesting project that I should look at. It came into my life at the exact point I was looking for a “hobby”... No regrets!

What interaction did you have with the Director?
Watched him sleep talk/walk during the shoot - sharing motel rooms saves money! Tried to be as light touch as possible during the shoot/edit process

What interaction did you have with the Cinematographer?
Ditto.

Scripting

How detailed was your original script? - How detailed was your final script?
Before the shoot I think we built a rough “shot list/script” of how we thought things may pan out on the journey, not very detailed and not really with any intention of sticking to it!

How much did you stick to it?
Probably not at all, as is the nature of things with a Doc.

Contributors

Do you have any advice for building trust with a contributor?
Don’t force it.

How did you gain access (to locations, interviewees)?
As the shoot was basically a road trip we tried to have an “advance party” of a Production Manager a bit up the road from us spotting interesting places that we may or may not hit. Then we just asked and were never declined, as far as I can remember.

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From this I learnt five things:

• That the crew need to work around fixed dates such as locations date contributors are available.
• The importance of having a close working relationship with crew and the need to step back during things such as the edit.
• Plan enough time (which may be more than you think it is) when creating the schedule.
• Although having a script is important it isn't always stuck to depending on where the filming takes itself.
• Not forcing trust with a contributor makes it more natural and more likely to have them trust you.

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I will use this during production when taking consideration into scheduling as our location of a theatre could be time sensitive. I'll write a script alongside Jemma and keep in mind that questions could lead off on tangents and mean the conversation goes in a different direction.