KIRK' 2009 PG.

The Scottish Premiere will be on                                                                                                                                            Saturday September 11 at 7pm in Callander.                                                                                                                    Trossachs Film Festival: Kirk (2009) Scottish Premiere | General
This 88 minute feature film was a community venture funded by grants and donations of (£7,350)to Strathendrick Film Society.
Hundreds of people helped to make this possible through freely giving their crafts, skills, time, premises or support. The trailer may be viewed on youtube here is the link:

'Strathendrick Film Society's feature 'Kirk' Wins Top Award'
Congratulations to cast and crew of 'Kirk' for winning Best Feature at the Fantastic Film Festival in Manchester, on Sunday 18th October 2009.
According to Gil Lane, Chair of Fantastic Film Festival, 'The direction was exciting showing touches of quality that would be missed by much older directors, the acting was of a quality that compliments any senior production and arguably is much better than most. The production values, story and camerawork are those that would, I really believe, put many senior and accomplished artists to shame. These youngsters give you an amount of pride in the youth of today that makes one think that potentially we have seen several future stars in the making. Kirk is a fantasy movie with roots in real Scottish life of the 17th century and for the first time in years I saw a bunch of real men wiping a tear from their eyes.'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfpnLXkAsiE&feature=related

FESTIVAL OF FANTASTIC FILMS 2009 REVIEW

NOW IN ITS 20TH YEAR!
Reviewed by GNH

Venue: MANCHESTER CONFERENCE CENTRE - Sackville Street, MANCHESTER
Date: 16th - 18th October 2009

As for the Independent films on show...
The best: KIRK - this beat the rest by a country mile, directed by Michael Ferns and produced by the very enthusiastic Joan MacPherson who turned up with most of the cast to publicise their, quite frankly mesmerising little film. Also, M J Simpson does a review of it here.

Independent Feature: KIRK

The Start.
In summer 2008 Joan Macpherson the secretary, asked the SFS committee to support the idea of making a film about the Reverend Robert Kirk of Aberfoyle. It was agreed to do so with some enthusiasm as Danny Owens, the then chair, said he had though about the same thing in the past and had even started a script.
Danny had film making experience and had already made a short film for the society called 'How Long is a Piece of String' that film was also funded by the Co-operative community Fund.
To take the idea forward Danny filmed the members of the Third Age Group Strathendrick on their day trip to visit Doon Hill Aberfoyle. June Symmons, a 'Reverend Robert Kirk' expert, spent the day with the group telling them the local history of this historical figure and acted as guide on the climb to the minister's tree. Joan had arranged the day out without knowing that she had chosen June Symmons Birthday, and that it was also the best day to see Fairies:' Beltane' the night of the Faerie 'Rade' or ride to us mortals. June introduced us to Doon Hill and the legends surrounding Kirk's book:
'The secret Commonwealth of Elves Fauns and fairies'.
 
In the Autumn 2008 the local young film maker 'Michael Ferns', a pupil at Balfron High School, asked us to show his film 'When I Grow Up' using our facilities in Balfron High School. Joan had already seen Michael's film 'Blind Man's Bluff' which we had allowed to be put on using our facilities earlier that year and was impressed by the young director's technique. Joan asked Michael if he would make the 'KIRK' film for us, and he agreed to do so if we managed to get the funding.
Michael, Joan and Matthew Marwick (Michael's best friend and the producer of When I grow up')  got together to figure out how much was needed and Joan applied to the Co-operative Community Fund for £4,032.
Fortunately the funding was available and granted.!!! but unfortunately Danny Owens could go no further with the film as he had changed job and would be away at sea for the foreseeable future, nor did he have time to write the script for us.
Not to be stopped, Michael asked Mairin McLeod, another pupil at Balfron High School, to write a script loosely based on the Reverend 'KIRK'. Mairin who was happy to write for us as she had an assignment for her English exam and this would full fill the need perfectly. Photo of Mairin with the script she wrote.

Michael Ferns was only 17 when we made this film. Multi skilled in film making there is no doubt the end product would not have been as good as it is if he had not been the director and editor. Michael is at RSAMD
A director is the most important of all the creative members participating in the film making process. His unique vision is followed by the rest of the team and it is he who takes the key decisions that form the final result we see on screen. Even though film making is the most collaborative art of all, it inevitably follows the ideas and creativity of the director.
A producer is the only person who is involved in the making of a film from the very start (idea) to the very end (delivery). He or she is the person that 'makes' things happen and organises, protects, supervises and consults the rest of the production crew. The producer is responsible for overseeing every mechanical detail of the film: sets, costumes, locations. The producer sets up the budget, pays the bills, and in short, does everything necessary for the director to walk on stage and say "Action."

Discussions of hiring the film equipment took place, it was obvious that having unlimited use was better than day hire so Third Age Group Strathendrick, (who had been involved with the Kirk story already,) applied and received funding for Film equipment from Awards from all. The funding that had been received for the hire of equipment was given to T.A.G.S. but all the hire fee was returned to the production team to 1/pay for more equipment that Michael and Matthew had ordered over and about the items initially planned for, and 2/ towards the cost of the production.
Joan had to find more money and made applications to Stirling Council, Balfron Community Council, The Stirling Arts Forum and
The Son's of the Rock Society. All of which were granted. (Several others were not fruitful.) A lovely person from Glasgow gave us three donations to help the production. These amounted to £1,300.

Because of the extra equipment there was still a funding gap and Fund raisers were initiated.
The Film Society put on 'Slumdog Millionaire as a fund raiser, sold Ribbons for the audience to write wishes on for the minister's tree in the film and Jim Thomson provided a signed photograph from Slumdog Cast as a raffle prize.

Preparation.

To her surprise Michael asked Joan to get involved in making the film, not something she had expected nor done before, but found that it was really enjoyable and using all her contacts, friends and the internet got really involved. Not even realising she was doing the work of producer. Research into the history and props of the time became all consuming. Finding the correct paper for the books (rag paper from India) to... which fingers wedding rings were worn in the 17th Century?
The most difficult item to get was a pregnancy bump that was affordable. In the end it was a blow up beer belly/hump we used with a pregnancy support band to hold it in place.
The Sword was another difficult to get item. If you own a sword you don't like sharing it, so we found a props company in Glasgow who hired them out. Legal waivers and passport ID had to be provided to get this blunt 'dangerous' item.
Months of trawling the web for locations, props and costumes, asking all sorts of people for help, turned up magical and wondrous results. Some of the things that happened were quite scary.

Many locals helped with things like publicity photography, providing really useful items for the cast and publicity materials that boosted the moral of the cast and crew.(Jim Thomson especially). Rosemary McLeod created the dance scene which is superb. The art work from Carol Angel is magical. The commitment from all the cast and crew was formidable, AND IT WAS ALL FUN. During the hunt for all of the above, auditions had to be held and then rehearsals had to take place.
Pam Campbell of Stirling Council was such a help in getting audition premises in Broad Street Stirling from the community there.(Pam helped in red tape issues and she also was in the crew.) Adelaide's in Glasgow were extremely helpful in giving us charitable rates.
Balfron Church and its Lunch Club gave us low cost hire and lunch rates throughout the rehearsals. Every Saturday for months!!
Tracy Macdonald of Peaches donated her skills and expertise to produce a Lady of the Loch Gown that would have cost about £900.
Filming.
Matthew Marwick produced the call sheet (That's the logistical nightmare of getting the shots done to suit the locations, costumes people are wearing, making sure the right people are at the right place at the right time and which scenes will be shot which day.)

Joan had the logistical nightmare of providing transport to locations (Aberfoyle coaches) at the right times to fit in with the location restrictions getting all the legal red tape, risk assessments, permissions, insurance and contracts for the locations completed. Informing all the emergency services of what you were doing and where each day arranging all meals, packed lunches and accommodation with the right transport. Accommodation was superbly solved when Moira Brown offered her home as a base for the cast and crew. The numbers for dinner grew eachday.

Third Age Group members helped with cooking for the 18 days and nights of the shoot, provided a swimming pool for rehearsals, behind the scenes emergency help, runs for props and extra film.  Michael's family provided locations transport and hospitality.
Unexpected Problems.
We were expecting some of the congregation from Culross Abbey to be on site for the filming on 13 June but no one turned up! So fortunately we had brought an emergency bag up to the Abbey that contained costumes that we had been loaned by Liz Candy, and the crew had to just get dressed up and sit in the pews.
The site chosen by Loch Lomond side for the lady of the Loch Scene was lovely, but on the day of filming a rather large boat had anchored right in the area we needed had marked for the filming.


 
Post Production.

As the editing was being worked through by Michael Ferns, the excitement grew. The first trailer was astonishingly good and quite 'blew our minds away'. The taster scenes made everyone think that the film could win a prize.
We had been so lucky to have been promised music for the film by Bill Chandler of the Glasgow String Quartet, and Fiona Kennedy said she would sing for us, but, getting all these very busy people together was proving difficult so Raymond Ferns, decided to do all the music himself, allowing the film to be finished in plenty of time before Michael had to start his studies at RSAMD.
Joan researched the procedure for entering film festivals and earmarked the Festival of Fantastic Films as a good one for 'KIRK'. Through 'WITHOUTABOX' we entered the Glasgow International Film Festival, we were not selected, but that application allowed us to get an IMDB page for 'Kirk'.
 
To try and take Kirk forward Joan asked Palm Tree Studios for help, they offered to take the film to sell at Cannes if we could find the funding for a screening there.  They gave us tickets for the Daisy Ball in Glasgow.
Gillian Fourd a young friend of Joan's living is Paris, volunteered to write the French subtitles which we have ready to add. (Jean Lamy a French volunteer made sure it was correct and easy for French readers to understand.)

In December Joan received a mailing from Workshop Productions about one of their products and found out they specialised in working with young people.
Joan contacted them about their films and discussed 'KIRK'. A very positive phone call later things started to happen. Even though they had not seen the movie of 'Kirk', Workshop Productions were so impressed by the reviews that they wanted to meet up with Joan and Michael to talk about taking 'Kirk' forward to distribution perhaps getting completion funding and with enhancing the film where necessary to bring it up to distribution standard. After they saw the film, they decided this was not appropriate, but offered to make another film about Kirk with Michael as director and their company producing it. It would be with a new storyline and different actors........

Film Credits:

A special thanks to our Funders:

Co-operative Community Fund £4,032 

Anonymous £1,000.

Stirling Council £600

Balfron Community council £500

Stirling Arts Forum £350

Sons of the Rock Society £255

Moira and Clark Brown  donation.

Post production

CFSLA £203

Anonymous £300

Joan Macpherson various unfunded costs.

And thanks to the faeries for all the weird and wonderful things that happened.

Cast

Mark Harvey       ...       Reverend Robert Kirk 

                Amiera Darwish   ...             Abigail Kirk         

               Rachel Gibson      ...    Mary Macpherson             

 Callum Fuller        ...             Reverend Young 

 James Watterson   ...          The Clerk    

MICHAEL FERNS                ...         Director

MAIRIN MCLEOD              ...        Writer

JOAN MCPHERSON              ...     Producer

MATTHEW MARWICK        ...      Assistant director

 MELANIE HENDRICK                  ...      Cast/hospitality

ANNA FERNS    ...      Cast

TOM CHANDLER        ...               Cast

JONATHON ECKERSLEY    ...      Cast

BEN YOUENS    ...      BABY Cast

JAN STEWART ...      Cast/cook

MARGARET MCINTYRE     ...      Cast/cook

LOUISE FERNS ...      Cast/script supervisor

CHRISTABEL SHAW  ... Cast/make-up

SIAN SMITH       ...      Cast/crew

RYAN BASTON ...      BEST BOY

IRENE TREMBLE        ...      make-up

JOANNA DURHAM     ...      make-up

RAYMOND FERNS     ...      Music

CAROL ANGEL            ...      Artwork

HUGH CAMERON       ...      Crew

BILL BLACK                 ...      Photographer

ANDREW DOUGLAS  ...      Photographer

DRESS CIRCLE OF YORK   ...      Costume hire

ALLAN ARMSTRONG - behind the scenes camera

BLUESKY MARKETING - smoke machines

LIZ CANDY - acting coach

BARBARA MCLEOD - choreography

JUNE SYMMONS - research

LOUIS STOTT - research

FAY MACLUSKIE - hospitality

DAVID GOSS - Cashel farm

AILSA PORTER - cast/facilities

CULROSS PALACE - set

MARY ANN McKELVIE - cast/crew

BILL MACPHERSON   ...      transport /hospitality

National Trust for Scotland - Culross (Film Location)

Fife Council          ...      Location

The Forest for a Thousand Years at Cashel (Film location)

 Third Age Group Strathendrick       ...      Film Equipment .

Flawless Images   ...      Makeup  

Tracy Macdonald ...      (Dress designer Peaches)

Pam Campbell      ...      (Rural Development Worker (South West Stirling) ... Administration and crew.

Bluesky marketing Glasgow    ...      Special effects smoke machines. 

Church of Scotland        ...      (Rehearsal venue)

Moira Brown       ...(Local B&B owner Fairwinds Accommodation )                                              

Jim Thomson author     ...      support /  sundries.

Danny Owens      ...      for research filming.

Culross Abbey     ...      location

Dress Circle of York      ...      Costume hire.

Liz Candy   ...      stage and film producer Coaching and costumes.

Dr Lizanne Henderson Lecturer  The University of Glasgow ...       research 

Louis Stott (Author)      ...      research

June Symmons (Folklore Expert Aberfoyle)

Liz Arthur (Free-lance Textile Expert and author)   

Colin Mendham (Sales Manager MITCORP)

Helen Vincent (Senior Curator - Rare Book Collections National Library of Scotland)          ...          research

Adelaide's (Glasgow auditions venue)

Broad Street Community Partnership (Stirling auditions venue)

Period Pieces Blairgowrie for cradle.

Robert Wight       ... Interviewer

Barbara McLeod  ...      Choreography.

Allan Armstrong behind the scenes editor

Aberfoyle Coaches Transport.

Anne Pullon Costumier.

Jan Stewart  extra / cook.

Skyeforest crafts.

Bill Macpherson props/ transport.

Strathendrick Film Society Fundraisers

Balfron Library

The Forest for a Thousand Years at Cashel (Film location)

Third Age Group Strathendrick. Betty Carey

Church of Scotland (Rehearsal venue)

Moira Brown (Local B&B owner Fairwinds - Accommodation for the cast)

Balfron Church Lunch Club    ...      catering .

Culross Abbey     ...      location.

June Symmons (Folklore Expert Aberfoyle)        ...      research

Liz Arthur (Free-lance Textile Expert and author)         ...      research   

Colin Mendham (Sales Manager MITCORP)       ... technical advice

Helen Vincent (Senior Curator - Rare Book Collections National Library of Scotland)          ...           research

Adelaide's (Glasgow auditions venue)

Broad Street Community Partnership (Stirling auditions venue)

Period Pieces Blairgowrie for cradle.

Mr & Mrs Youens         ...        transport

Aberfoyle Coaches                  ...  transport

Anne Pullon Costumier ...      design.

Skyeforest  ... crafts wooden items cast memorabilia.

Balfron High Photograph        ...      location.

Gillian Fourd        ...      French Translation /subtitles

Jean Lamy ...      French Translations.

Stirling Council    ...      film Rating

MacRobert Centre                   ...      film Rating.

Balfron Library    ...      Support

Strathendrick Film Society Members         ...      fundraising support.