When filmmaker Alex Jacob’s arrived in Jersey for the Vauxhal Branchage 48hr Film Challenge he was unlucky enough to draw the genre Fantasy and the unwieldy title Dashes Of Yellow. I thought we had our work cut out with a war movie but if there was genre/title coupling I’d rather not have had this is it…

However Alex and his team rose to the challenge, click on the picture to see their response…

Chris and I came up with idea for the Branchage 48hr Challenge because we wanted to do something with our new camera, the Canon 5d Mk II (that’s right, our film was shot on a souped stills camera). Xanthe agreed that it was just the sort of thing Branchage would enjoy but Phil was worried as to the quality of filmmakers, especially those who could be convinced to come out to Jersey. So it fell to us to invite the directors and most of the actors who would make these films.

A lot of people wimped out, many hesitated until it was impossible, but the first person to get straight back to me with an unwavering “Yes!” was Alex Jacob. This was appropriate because I’d first met Alex at the first Branchage festival the year previously. His first short film “Ruby”, later a Shooting People Film Of The Month, was showing at the festival and he and his lead actress Ellie had come along to see the reaction. More of this here.

We ended up stuck in Jersey airport together and he impressed me as a man who’d taken a considered and clever approach to his career but who was ready for something more (something I’m pleased to say he’s now getting as he starts to direct for proper actual tv). As a result he was one of the first people I asked to take part, so it was nice he was first to say yes.

At the start his team was just him and his friend and camera operator Sean Mackay. However before the competition had even officially kicked off he’d secured the assistance of actresses Nathalie Pownall and Rachel Kirkland and the team was finally complimented by Jersey native, student Patrick Casey.

Alex, Nathalie, Rachel, Sean and Patrick

Realising that our guest directors were unlikely to be able to guarantee their own casts, we’d taken steps to invite a wide and diverse group of actors to take part in the competition too. For directors the challenge is daunting, but at least it feels like your destiny is in your own hands. For actors, asked to fly to an island and work on a film with someone they’ve never met when they don’t know what it is or what role they’ll be playing… it’s bravery on the borderline of insanity. This fact alone though does not quite explain why, out of the 30 or so actors and actresses we invited, it was only women who said yes.

Both Nat and Rachel were from mine and Chris’ guest list and had never met Alex before. Rachel’s main focus is comedy and I’d seen her earlier in the year when she was in the Edinburgh show that my girlfriend directed. There, amongst other things, she was taking the piss out of the role of Puck – a part not dissimilar to her role in “Dashes Of Yellow” as she leads Nat on a magical journey of self discovery.

I first met Nat when I turned out to be too expensive to cut her showreel together. However this did at least give me the chance to watch everything she’d done and I’ve been keen to work with her ever since. She has a great physicality and a natural pixie-ness that suits Alex’s film tremendously. Alex will admit that the process of making “Dashes Of Yellow” was tougher than he’d expected and, as is often the case, the more they filmed the more the story began to slip from their grasp. In the end though I think Nat’s performance holds the piece together and gives it a surprisingly emotional resolution.

All of which shows what can happen when actors trust their director. Thrown together by fate and Blaines, Alex, Nat and Rachel could have been cautious or tentative with each other. Instead by the end of the first day the girls were naked and in the sea. This could have been a disaster on many levels but I think it comes together simply because of the whole hearted approach; the director and his cast throw themselves into this film with an abandon that heartening to watch.

At least that’s my opinion – why don’t you give Alex six minutes of your day to find out what you think by clicking on the link below?

When I first heard that both Nat and Rachel had been running naked into the waves I worried because festival organiser Carla MacKinnon had stipulated that all the films had to be “suitable for a family audience”. However in the end it was Rob Morgan’s film “Overtaken” that she had to ban… and that’s what I’ll be looking at tomorrow…

Vote for Dashes Of Yellow here…
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