A new (old) character emerges

After a day to recover from the Curzon screening we re-grouped and looked through the feedback forms. One clear problem was the tone of the drama scenes with the kids in the future. Even though what the kids were saying and feeling - hatred and anger at our generation - was entirely understandable, it didn't a great movie make.

So the kids are out and an Old Man is in. He is about 80 then, so about 35 now, so the tone will shift from one of blame to one of regret. And as he represents our generation, we will hopefully empathise with him more easily. Plus he will embody the question: how we are going to feel in 50 years about our climate change actions and inactions?

Franny rewrote the script and we then filmed her dad playing the old man in the front room of our office/flat, with a greenscreen curtain hung up on the wall. He did a damn good job and immediately the tonal shift sounded better. Then tonight Bruce (Drama Director), David (Editor), Chris (Composer) and Martyn (Animation Director) all came over to Franny's house and we watched the new cut projected on her wall.  Unanimous agreement that the Old Man is going to work.

Five beers later we all got onto: who should play Old Man? John Hurt? Morgan Freeman? Ian McKellan, Ian Holm? Anything we can do to make the film more palatable  to the poor viewers seems very sensible, as the central premise is a little tough to take. Next step - cast Ian McKellan??