Hotel Caledonia (The Movie): Screen Test

Wednesday, 7 March 2007

Screen Test

Today Yaw, myself, and the UK Casting Director, Darren Moore, conducted the first of our screen tests for the character of Mags. A sublimely funny ordeal, primarily because the script dialogue had the actors in fits of giggles, we managed to capture some great footage, even on a Mini DV camera unit.

A long days travel by coach to London from Manchester resulted in a 20 hour day - and people think we don't suffer for our art!

Film Synopsis

Hotel Caledonia focuses on the inoffensive, and downtrodden characters of Norman Tickle, and his ‘street-wise’, female-obsessed friend, Arty Harris. Together they take to the road ‘Jack Kerouac’ style and are soon be-friended by a tightly knit group of backpackers, heading north to Scotland for the thrills, and spills, of adventure. Beginning in the Midlands, the story follows Norman and Arty to the lowlands of Glasgow before finally reaching New Braemar, in the desolate, and sometimes-uninviting, landscape of the Scottish Highlands. The movie humorously traces the interwoven relationships that develop between all the travellers as their quest for fresh air, and the isolation of the wild outdoors, finally leads them to a working guesthouse known as ‘HOTEL CALEDONIA’. Here, at their final destination, the black, comedic thread of the movie transcends into the macabre, with scares-a-plenty, and where the ‘surrealness of the bizarre’ takes on a face of abject horror. Far removed from the groups’, and the audience’s expectations, HOTEL CALEDONIA is in a state of dilapidation. To describe it as a hotel, let alone a guesthouse, is somewhat of an over-exaggeration of its potential. HOTEL CALEDONIA reveals its ‘true’identity in the meeting of the travellers and the weirdly frightening, dysfunctional, horrific and unhealthily eating Pertwee family; owners, occupiers, and caterers extraordinaire. From the adventurers’ first encounter with the ‘sinister’ garage owner, Sheena McDonald, to the appearance of ‘old man’ William with his wooden leg, the inhospitality of the environment, and the people who inhabit it, slowly proves itself in the shadows, nooks, crannies, and things that go THUMP in the night. The discovery of strange, and macabre activities, far removed from those of a humane society, and the sudden disappearance of one of their group, leads the adventurers into greater and greater conflict with the Pertwees. Finally, learning the truth about their ‘employer’s’ vile deeds, perversions and culinary habits, the travellers decide to make good their escape. From that moment on, the thrill-seekers embark on a roller-coaster ride to hell and back, as their worst fears are realised and they are left, literally fighting for their lives. But who survives, and how, is where the story unfolds in the most unexpected of ways, as Norman, with his ‘meek and mild’ nature, allows his personality to reveal that of ‘rescuer’ and ‘hero’. The movie reaches its clever, and untelegraphed climax, with a ‘twist ending’ that will leave the misdirected audience to ponder upon the question of “so what happens next?” HOTEL CALEDONIA is comparable in its widespread appeal to any number of recent ‘box-office’ successful films, from within the Horror genre, but it is within the Comedy-Horror genre that it serves to, and succeeds in, setting itself apart.