Ellen Perry comes to visit!

So today we had the delight of meeting Ellen Perry, creator of the new release 'Will (you'll never walk alone)'. The film focuses on a young boy who falls in love with Liverpool Football Club and decides to run away to watch them play half way across the world. Famous faces of the club such as Kenny Dalglish appear in the film, which looks to be a wonderful feature!

Ellen allowed us to ask questions about the film, her job, the making of films and much more in this lecture. After watching the trailer for the film, many questions arose and were answered delightfully by the American. She also spoke about Liverpool as if we come from a mystical land, she said 'its like your not even English! Can I say that? What I mean is, Liverpool has something magic about it'. Being from Liverpool I found this a fantastic comment and was then sitting proud for the rest of the lecture!


I found her visit extremely beneficial because having someone from the industry come in and talk about their experience in the field (much like the BBC visit) allowed me to have more of an insight into the world behind the camera.
Things Ellen spoke about that interested me (facts and figures):

• The industry usually ask for 2.30minute trailers for the big screen, but they also expect a shorter version (about 1 minute long). They are always trying to cut trailer time.
• UK child film hours is only 4 a day! Which means shooting such a film like 'Will' is difficult, having the lead as a child. Ellen shot the film in 42 days in 3 different countries!
• CGI was only used for the stadium scenes, for the crowd. This was because organising 2000 extras is trouble, never mind 80,000!
• Detailed research into the area that the film is covering is essential. Ellen researched constantly throughout the process working alongside LFC to acquire as much information as possible. She even went to as many Liverpool games as she could whilst she was in the city!
• They had about 200/250 crew members for the film, but when they shot in different countries they could only take a limited about along because of the cost, so each executive of department had to choose wisely.
• 600 children were tested for the lead of Will, but Ellen went with her gut in the end and chose Perry Eggleton, who had very little experience. She said going with her gut is what she always does and to never listen to those around you, listen to yourself.
• The casting director was Daniel Hubbard who has cast for films such as King King (2005) and the Bourne series. Ellen stated 'casting is 90% of the production, without it you would have nothing'.
• It took her and her partners 3 months to storyboard the film and also do the technical reccying of the locations, etc.

Here is the trailer for the film, the one that we watched today, have a look!

Speak soon!

Image Credits: www.IMDB.com