'OTTfilms are a collaboration of individuals working together to help one another make films. We come together through our online forum (www.ottfilms.co.uk) and in monthly meetings and share time talent and equipment to help one another make films. Many of us are active Shooters, just Shooters who know each other well and work together regularly. It works on a ‘reap what you sow’ basis and it works well. We all give back to the group as much as we take out.'

Leilani Holmes
- Director, Death of the Dinosaurs

Shooter Leilani Holmes started out as an actor, but when a fabulous comedy script starring dinosaurs was offered to her, marked "probably imposssible to produce" by the writer she knew it simply begged to be made - with a cast of toys and her own bonsai maple tree for a prehistoric set.
The film was then short-listed for a Nokia Award and then for the British Independent Film Awards. Leilani's talent has blossomed further and she now writes, directs and produces films as well as acting in them....

You started out on a thespian trail what made you want to go behind the camera?It was the Death of the Dinosaurs script. I read it and laughed for about ten minutes. John (Condon, the writer) had written at the top Probably impossible but.. and it wasnt impossible! People had suggested that the dinosaurs would have to look real for the joke to work but I just knew it would work perfectly with toys. Toys are so expressive. John agreed and before I knew it I found myself directing. You became very active in a filmmaker group called Over The Top what can you tell us about them?OTTfilms are a collaboration of individuals working together to help one another make films. We come together through our online forum (www.ottfilms.co.uk) and in monthly meetings and share time talent and equipment to help one another make films. Many of us are active Shooters, just Shooters who know each other well and work together regularly. It works on a reap what you sow basis and it works well. We all give back to the group as much as we take out. We organise social occasions and gatherings where members get to know one another and bond. Over time we have become a close-knit community of filmmakers and friends. The OTT does stand for Over The Top but it refers to WW1 when soldiers would go bravely together over the top of the trenches. John Condon founded the group in August 2005 as a way for filmmakers to help one another out of the trenches of independent filmmaking. So they could follow their filmmaking dreams together instead of struggling alone or relying on strangers. Over time its blossomed and expanded but is still headed up by John who continues to inspire people while writing and directing his own work. I joined the group as an actor and emerging writer and soon found myself producing and directing too. As an actor you are grounded in performance, yet the film you chose for your directorial debut is an animation what pulled you in that direction?Yes, that surprises people. I think though, that as an actor, I have learned how best to serve the written material and make it work. I read and loved the script and knew how to breathe the necessary life into it. In this case using animation. Other scripts will suit other mediums. You use whats best for the work.What was the appeal of the script?Man it was funny! So well written and just really, really funny! Im usually cynical about jokes but this really made me laugh. I could see how it would lift of the page into a great little film. I suppose we should reveal what your story is about to some extent, or people who havent seen it might get confused so what is it about? Can we say something about that without giving the whole game away?Its an epic dinosaur adventure in 15 seconds! A small dinosaur chews grass when he is stumbled upon by a fierce Gigantasaurus. But the dinosaurs are more than they appear to be.

Did you find the script before the Nokia competition or did the Nokia competition spur you to find a script or adapt one?Nokia inspired us. The script was one of a number of ideas for Nokia Shorts on the OTTfilms forum and prepared well in advance of the 2006 competition being announced. Micro shorts are a great way into filmmaking and are intricate and precise to make as well as being a lot of fun. How short precisely was the film going to have to be and what sort of strictures did that put on the story?The film had to be 15 seconds long and we were allowed another 8 seconds of credits. John tweaked the script to make it more concise and I timed it carefully before we began to shoot. We concentrated on the elements that would reinforce and enrich the written material and minimised the amount of cuts.Stop go animation can be very tricky to do well so how did you find a good creative team to help you put it all together?The entire Dinosaur team were OTTfilms members who volunteered to help me when the project was Green Lit on the forum. Im extremely enthusiastic about my work, whatever I do, and I had the good fortune to find other passionate people who wanted to be involved. I like people who are whole hearted. We talked dinosaurs and discussed all the various options. Id wanted to use toy dinosaurs and when I found some moveable toys with very expressive faces, I chose to go for stop motion with some VFX morphing to add more life and movement to their faces for the end scene. Charlie Pite, the DoP, had experience of Stop Motion and that sealed my decision.

It must have taken an enormous budget to get this right how much did you blow on it?Hardly anything! I fed people at the shoot of course. Bought a bit of green felt and blue paper. The toys were the biggest expense but even they werent much. I didnt keep track of money but it was extremely small. And thats the point of OTTfilms. Because we know one another and trust that people will give back to the group as much as they take out, people are willing to share time, talent and equipment. I was able to borrow a professional lighting kit and people worked for free and gave advice. We were not held back by financial limitations.Your characters look pretty well fresh from the Jurassic - where did you manage to find such good dinosaurs?Luck! I went dinosaur shopping on the internet with a view to seeing the kind of toy available before actually going to the shops. Pretty much the first ones I looked at were perfect so I ordered them. The little one had a very funny deadpan face and, although the script said a T-Rex, I found a much fiercer looking Gigantasaurus so went for that. What about neck and jaw movements and so on? Were they bendy toys?They were jointed and fairly solid though the tails were slightly bendy. They had moveable jaws and legs and heads that could be positioned. The Gigantasaurus jaw opened very wide which looked great. They were ever so slightly unstable so we had to spend several hours playing with them to get the hang of standing them up. All in the name of professional dedication of course!! Was it to be sound then pictures, or pictures first and sound to follow?Both. I wanted lots of sound because in 15 seconds you want to make the most and transfer as much information as possible to the audience to enhance their experience of the story. I knew we had an extra 8 seconds of credits so wanted to fill those with sound too. The VFX morphing was something Id planned but Gus Martinez (VFX and Editor) made some tests beforehand to check how it worked. I had some clear ideas before we shot. I wanted a clean but nicely lit set. I owned a beautiful bonsai tree (a 30 year old maple) which I wanted to include. Instead of storyboarding I prepared a table breakdown with picture sound voiceover and VFX so I knew what would happen in every second. Then I got input from the team to ensure it would all work and made improvements. Where did you find all your sounds and who voiced the dinos for you?Fabrice Pougnard came on board. Hes a freelance sound designer and hes passionate about sound. He made selections based on what I wanted and added more touches of his own. Actor Anthony Keetch volunteered to do the voiceover and again I was lucky in finding someone very experienced and willing.

Where did you go to shoot the film?KC Thiruchelvam, the Producer, arranged for me to use his home near Wimbledon. We took all the bits and bobs and equipment there and fixed up a table top set for our dinosaurs. The sound is very imaginative in this film, I mean it sets the scene over the titles did you feel sound had a larger than life part to play in your film I mean it was planned for phone downloads rather than the multiplex!Nah! I planned it for a multiplex. Im full of hope! We shot in 16:9 HDV and made the sound design balanced enough so that it would sound good on any grade of computer or phone as well as a large auditorium. OTTfilms has its own screening events and I knew if we made the shortlist the likelihood would be that the film would be screened in a cinema. The background sound sets the scene over the opening credits to subliminally set the scene before the picture comes up. Slavering chewing noises and dinosaur footsteps build tension before the huge dinosaur roar. Fabrice came up with some great sounds. The background is a hot savannah and the Gigantasaurus roar is a mixture of animal noises including deer and bears. He added his own touches too, like the sound mans beep at the end. Photographing miniatures always creates a creative challenge pin sharp focus, the light has to be right, then you have to stop-go as well maybe you had better describe for us just what went on in the shoot. How did you do it?Well my initial idea had been to keep the dinosaurs very still and put the movement in the camera, panning around the animals like a wildlife documentary. That went out the window with the stop motion. We had a dedolight kit with which we lit the set. It was fiddly as we had a couple of different lighting set ups but they are a great tool. Charlie had a new Sony A1 and we shot in HDV. The depth of field was great. We didnt go for 24frames per second. Frankly I dont have the patience. We filmed a few seconds and then moved the toys and filmed some more. Gus used clever editing and distortion to bridge the gaps and put the whole thing together and then added VFX and Grading. How did you do that lovely little sequence with the microphone boom in shot? That was a real little gemYes I like that bit too. Gus rotod in the boom in post and fabrice added a growl from the Gigantasaurus.What went pear-shaped? Theres usually something that you end up changin...Well, I would like to have liked to have tried to make the camera panning work. If the film had been longer I would have given it a go, but it wasnt really practical with the stop motion and we didnt have the room. We were given some dinosaur spit, which looked great in the stills but didnt show up that well on the filmed footage. Its there though. Also, I didnt plan for a longer edit and I wish I had done now. I didnt feel any loss though. I was really happy with what we achieved.What pleased you most, about the shooting?We captured on the day. Gus came down and captured and did fx tests as we were filming the next shots. To see it coming together as we were shooting it was magic. And to see how close it was to the vision in my head when Id first read the script was very satisfying.Then it was time to stitch it all together. How did you tackle the edit?Gus and I sat in front of computers in our separate homes and did it online. He emailed me several versions and I emailed him back comments and decisions until we were both happy. There were two versions of the ending and it was borderline which one I chose. I made my decision and Im happy with it. Finally, it was finished and it was showtime. How long had your fifteen seconds taken in real time?Eight hours for the shoot including the set up time. A day for the edit. About a month before the VFX was fully complete as Gus was fitting it in with other work and that gave us time for the sound design. Voice recording took around an hour. We had plenty of time. Did you enjoy your directorial debut as a process or were you in the end pleased but relieved when it was over?I loved it! It was a really great experience and Im so proud of the film and everyone who worked on it.

Ive got this great idea for a stop go animation what advice can you give me based on your own experience?Find people who are as enthusiastic and committed to the project as you are. Listen to their input and filter it through your own intentions for the film. Have lots of fun. Do you recommend stop go as a good first timer technique or are there others that might be easier to accomplish?I totally recommend it. It was recommended to me as a first timer because even if its quite amateur, it is charming. Its also something that can be done simply or including other techniques like I did with VFX. I would bear in mind the written material. If it is better served by some other technique then use that and find the expertise you need to get it done. Work in the medium thats right for the script.What is your next directorial offering going to be?Its a 2D hand drawn animation called Edna and the Dark matter. Its a script I wrote myself this time and its quite dark and quirky. Its about a housewife who is kidnapped through a dimensional hole that opens in her best rug. Its in pre-production at present and so is still developing as the animator adds his own magic.

Films finished and off it goes for your competition entry to Nokia and suddenly, success! What result did the Death of the Dinosaurs get?First we heard it had been shortlisted down to the last 25 which was very exciting and rewarding. Then I got home late one evening and checked my email to find confirmation that the film had been selected as a finalist and was now nominated for the British Independent Film Awards! I had a grin like a Gigantasaurus. But then didnt your film group OTT have other surprises to come?Yes! Out of five films submitted to Nokia Shorts three OTTfilms were short-listed. Tarot, directed by John Condon. The Long Kiss Goodbye, directed by our colleague Peter Wallington, plus Death of the Dinosaurs which I directed and made the finals. The process of collaboration means that the films produced by OTTfilms members receive feedback at all stages of the production from script through pre-production, shooting and post. It raises the bar on the films that we make to have that input from members. We still count ourselves lucky though. Festivals are bound to want to screen this one where has it has been cueing up so far?It screens at the WT Os International Film Festival in Norway on 11th November. Were really delighted as it was selected out of some 1800 entries. Weve entered about 8 other festivals so far which the film is still in consideration for. The icing on the cake will be the screening at the British Independent Film Awards. Im looking forward to that! I believe it is on line, too. Where can people see it?http://www.nokiashorts.com/finalists/2006_11.phpWe hope you like it!!

Death of the Dinosaurs has been selected for its first film festival. The WT Os International Film Festival in Norway which takes place in November.Hello James, Just a little follow up note to say that Death of the Dinosaurs didn't win the BIFA but it was lots of fun to attend the awards! Plus as a finalist Nokia gave me a shiny N73 mobile video phone which is very nice indeed! We've just had some more good news that the film has been accepted for the birds eye view festival next march. Who would have thought 15 seconds of dinosaurs could be so much fun! Thanks again for the support. Leilani