Alfie 40 years on. The making of.

This short film reflects humorously on the later life of the iconic film character played by Michael Caine. We find Alfie forty years after the end of the film and he is just as sexist as ever and a chain smoker.

I enjoyed the film again recently on DVD and made note of Caine's expressions and use of language. His constant usage of the term 'birds' for women (his alleged conquests) and the expressions 'mumsy but in good condition' for an older woman with whom he had a sexual liaison or two. Also I decided to call the little dog he befriends 'It' after the fact that he refers to all his girlfriends as 'it' - this has got to be one of the most demeaning put downs against womankind ever. There is also his constant belief that women still find him irresistible despite his obvious lack of tact, manners and down at heel looks. Note egg deliberately spread on t shirt.

I don't smoke but watched the way that Alfie lit up during various parts of the film (hand guarding against a draft.)

The piece was filmed at my home on the stairs with the front door open to let in a goodly amount of light for filming and the ciggy smell out! It was done in one take after a practise run.

Into the woods with Michael Caine

I recently grew a beard with the idea of doing a parody of Educating Rita (Frank the English lecturer has a beard) but then I changed my mind and took myself off to some local woods to do a short film about Michael Caine being (fictionally) involved in the making of the new Hobbit film as a giant.

The woods are part of a local parkland area and so I had to deal with not being bothered by dog walkers and I finally settled on a ladybird walk to film. The most convenient thing was there were some wooden ladybird shaped stools to put my lap top on.

 



I do not have video camera so all the Michael Caine Brief Encounters  films get made by pointing my webcam creatively in my direction. This particular project took two takes. The rejected take showed some of my rucksack and other camera equipment in the background as well as the stool shown above. I had not noticed these distractions, so intent was I in getting the filming right.

 

Previous to going into the park I had put together some rough ideas of what I wanted to do and say as the pretend giant. This helped me to concentrate on what I was doing and keep the amount of takes to a minimum.

 

 





 I wanted some movement in the film so I moved subtly around to given the impression of circular tracking.

 



Keeping the eye of the camera at eye level seemed to have the desired effect. Whilst I was filming a goat was bleating in the far distance so I improvised with the loose script including the noise as a live animal being slaughtered by the catering staff.

 

 



 

Coming away from the video filming I took a couple of appropriate still shots for fun. And I even stumbled across at Hobbit Cottage in the village of Ruddington on the way home!

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

Michael Caine's screentest for Hitchcock.

This is one of my short films on Youtube featuring my impersonations of Michael Caine in various fictional situations. This particular one came about because I had purchased the silly shower cap with the intent of doing another video of me as Colm Wilkinson singing 'Bring him Home' in the bath. I thought this would be funny and practised the song (it ain't easy) yet when I came to film the piece in he actual bath - minus water - I found I simply wasn't up to the job I had given myself.

 

 

So I reluctantly abandoned that project and set thinking what I do to add another fun video to my Michael Caine's Brief Encounters collection. I came up with a fictional premise that Michael Caine and Terence Stamp 'potentially' could have auditioned for Hitchcock in the 1950s when Psycho was made. The joke is that they didn't screen test for the male role but for the girl in the shower (played by Janet Leigh). I played with a few script ideas and practised my filming with the camera in my laptop. I had to remove all the mirrors in the bathroom as I could see that more of me was being exposed than I would have liked!!!

 





The film started with me holding the laptop up high and slowly coming to a holt at a head and showers shot. On playback the sound was a bit wobbly in places but I was pleased with the result.

Michael Caine's brief encounters

This is the first of a series of funny videos that I am filming for Youtube. Although I do a passable M Caine impersonation the idea is to create some funny moments through improvisation. This video took five goes until I was satisfied with it... and not a lot of people know that.