PRE-PRODUCTION & PLANS

The Script was just the fountainhead of a year long journey - filmmaking requires sacrifices, and Jake spent a good time on his knees at the altar. Jake worked for three years as an off-line editor before embarking on the shoot for Razor Blade Smile, his friends have mixed memories of his hand-to-mouth existence during this time, as Jake never bought a round!

Help, as well as free beer, came in many forms - especially via the excitement the script generated by Robert Mercer at Beatnik Films, the first to get bitten. "Rob was the first person I gave the script to, to gauge his opinion... I delivered him the script on a rainy bleak Wednesday in Camden Town." Rob picks up the story, "After Jake gave me the script, I had little time to read it that day and guessed I would just let it sit around for a while. Later, I went to my Local for a quiet drink and decided to dip into the first few pages. A Guinness and two hours later, I finished the whole thing. Completely riveted and excited, I immediately left a frenzied message on Jake's answer phone. Here was something genuinely original."

Jake reflects, "Having a great script can really open doors - if you can get it to the right people. Philip Cooper and Hamish at Arri Media Film Service donated all the camera equipment and were willing to take a risk on an emerging filmmaker. Also these guys are genuine movie fans, which is quite a rare thing. Plus the equipment they lent us was absolutely fantastic - without them this movie wouldn't have happened."

From that point on other miraculous deals started dropping into place - Kodak supplied them with half the stock for free and the rest at half price. Several production companies donated free left-over stock. The costumes, some of the most outrageous on celluloid, were supplied by fetish designers Murray and Vern, Velda Lauder and Ectomorph and jewelry from the Kensington Market based Black Rose. Also, Will Jeffery at a Covent Garden based production company, Maverick Media, not only wanted to invest, but let us shoot a sequence in his office, "and we're still great friends despite nearly burning down the place when a desk lamp with a 500watt practical bulb ignited! We almost had the towering inferno there for a moment!"