Case Study – The Carolers
Background and Brief
The Carolers was a short narrative film, based around the real-life childhood experiences of LA-based writer, producer and Nuneaton native Phil Coates (who also happens to be brother to Director of Cande Group, Ben), that follows the misadventures of three young bandmates at Christmas time. However, the project was more than just about surface reflections of childhood; beyond the magic felt at Christmas time, Phil wanted to portray what can also be a time of stress and financial strain behind the tinsel.
Cande Group partnered with USA-based production company Sargasso Media to co-produce this, their first foray into narrative film, which many of the team has experience in and therefore the appetite was there to demonstrate this within a project they had creative control over.
Approach
Sargosso Media, based in Los Angeles, took the lead for the writing, direction and art design of the project, while logistical and on-the-ground production leadership belonged to Cande Group for this collaborative film. Key ingredients to this included lining up crew, scouting locations, licensing with local authorities and logistics, although the project was led by US-based team Regina Pigsly (director) and creative producer Phil Coates. Cande Group provided a lot of the physical kit, vehicles and other material needs.
The script is about celebrating and giving back to the local community and in order to bring it to life plus also feature local talent both in front of and behind the camera, Phil hoped to mobilise the help of residents in the Nuneaton area where filming was taking place. So, during pre-production, the Sargasso and Cande teams went pounding the streets and knocking on doors to gauge interest.
The crew’s aspiration was for local residents to put their Christmas decorations up a couple of weeks early to help create a festive back-drop for the scene. To enhance this and ensure a consistent, stylised look, Sargasso flew in an art team who raided the local value shops to stack up on hundreds of metres of additional lights. This enabled us to dress the communal areas as per the direction of the script for an appropriately festive look everywhere the characters went.
The team was incredibly fortunate to encounter great enthusiasm and buy-in from local residents which made the ‘Christmasification’ of the set much easier and gave a really authentic and genuine effect to the filming.
Execution
The Cande Group team was heavily involved in the leadership of the three-day shoot that took place in late November. Cande director Ben Coates was an executive producer with creative and logistical oversight across the entire production, making sure everything went smoothly. Cande senior producer Mike Chapman had the role of first assistant director, a role he has done previously in high-end film and TV, with camera operator Toby Jones on the project’s camera team, working with director of photography Lou Murrall. Cande junior producer Olivia Walklett was third assistant director, supporting Mike in making sure cast and crew were where they needed to be, when they needed to be. Cande’s editor Kath was looking after digital imaging as ‘DIT’, the role that backs up all the footage and cuts dailies, short sequences from the day’s footage.
Cande Group made an agreement with a local pub to take over their back room in order to set up a production base where the crew would congregate, co-ordinate logistics, charge radios and batteries, register cast and arrange food to keep everyone going. The busy production schedule had several interior and exterior set ups over the three days filming, therefore it was vital we kept to schedule, as well as making sure all the risk controls were adhered to.
Reaction from the collaborators
Ben Coates, Founder/Creative Director at Cande summed up: “This was an ambitious project, but one that we were very keen to deliver with Sargasso Media, as a lot of the team here have a background in and passion for narrative film making. The script really caught our eye and we know the area well. Working with Sargasso was fantastic and the expertise and crew they flew over from Hollywood really elevated the production. We’re excited to see how the short film performs in the upcoming festival season.”
Regina Pigsley, Director of the film and co-founder of Sargasso Media gave her thoughts: “The Carolers is a coming-of-age Christmas story that touches on the extremes of emotion that occur around Christmas time, both good and bad. I’m so pleased with the performances from the cast, who did the script a fantastic service, and incredibly excited to see this come to life in the edit.”
Client Testimonial
“We’re so proud of what we have achieved working with Cande to bring The Carolers to life. It was an ambitious script but the cast and crew combined to bring it to life perfectly. Cande were the UK-based production partner and delivered on crew, kit and production support and we couldn’t have asked for a better production partner.”
Sargasso Media
