We are thrilled to announce that the new website design is now completed and live on the web!  In between editing the new teaser (which will be available online soon) and helping to organize the recent exclusive donor and supporter event (which happened on the weekend – more on that in the next post), we have managed to redesign the site, featuring our striking new logo created for us by Tim Hoffman (see last post for more).

Let us know what you think! http://www.alifeunexpected.com

See you next update …

A Life Unexpected Production Team

And so … it’s time to officially unveil our new logo for the project.

As you will have seen from our earlier post – the documentary has a new working title “A Life Unexpected: The Franz Stampfl Story” and to go with the new title, we have a fantastic new logo designed by graphic artist extraordinaire, Tim Hoffman.

After a casual lunchtime meeting with Tim (and his lovely wife Radyn, who is one of my oldest friends) where we ended up discussing ideas on how to represent Franz and his life in graphic form, I had a bit of an initial play with the conclusions we came up with, working from a photo of Franz from the 1950’s and creating a couple of images to begin the re-branding process – and while the result was … okay … it wasn’t nearly of a good enough standard (in my opinion) to be used.  I emailed my efforts over to Tim for his feedback and he got really enthusiastic and asked if he could take the ideas further.  “Absolutely!”  was my unhesitating response.

To cut a semi-long story short – not long after his offer and with only a few email exchanges for tweaking purposes, Tim presented me with the following image:

I love it.  My fellow Producers, Melanie and Jeff also love it and we all agree that Tim has done a pretty amazing and rather brilliant job of realising on “canvas” what we were after.  The “images within an image” concept has really worked and we think encapsulated Franz and his story – a man of many interests and experiences who always looked forward, never back.

So we’d like to say THANK YOU TIM!!  We’re really excited with this new direction and this new logo for the film is, we think, perfect

The website has been updated with the new image, but the design of the site is now being completely redone in line with the new branding for the project.  That should launch in the next week or so.

In the meantime, I am in an edit suite, cutting a teaser from the footage we shot in November in the UK, Ireland and Austria.  And here is where the other Tim comes into the story – our intrepid Cinematographer, Tim Egan.  Tim, recently returned from shooting in LA, has very kindly given me access to his edit suite to begin synching and cutting segments of the film together under his guidance.  I am so very grateful to him for doing this, as without his offer of help, this aspect would not be able to be completed.

So, again, I’d like to say THANK YOU TIM (EGAN)!!  And I’ll see you tomorrow in the studio.

Now you can see why I titled this post the way I did.

These two Tim’s ROCK!  And their help and generous support of the project is very much appreciated by all of us.

‘Till next time …

Sally McLean
Director/Producer (and I’ve been told to add “Writer”, because I’m doing that too …)

And so, it is finally over.  The first stage of filming for “Franz Stampfl: The Man Behind The Miracle Mile” is completed and “in the can” – or rather, on hard drives stored in my hand luggage with a back up copy in our Gaffer, Saraj Alkemade’s checked in luggage.  Saraj and I have just flown home from Vienna via Dubai while our DOP, Tim Egan takes a short break in Prague before following us back in just over a week’s time.

And we’ve done it.  Saraj and I had a moment at Dubai airport where we looked at each other and shared a high five in celebration of actually getting through the shoot in one piece and with all the interviews we intended to shoot captured on film – or rather, hard drive.  Shooting overseas is never easy, things always go wrong, mobile phone cards don’t work (that was a saga we went through twice – a story for another time), people get injured (turns out that was only me and it wasn’t debilitating, just painful!), equipment that had been pre-booked isn’t available when you get there, people who were supposed to be doing certain things for you while you are in the country don’t carry through, etc, etc.

Despite all that, we managed to get through it all without too much scarring or any long term dramas, but I have to say I’m glad to be home!

Putting aside any challenges we might have experienced over the last five days, Vienna was a lovely city to visit and I do intend to go back for a holiday so I can truly appreciate the beauty and grandeur of the surrounds and the lovely nature of the Viennese people.

Impressions of the city from my short encounter with it?  Impressive architecture that displayed proudly it’s previous standing as a city of emperors.  Warm people who laugh a lot.  A huge array of food – from Italian to fish & chips to traditional Austro-Hungarian fare.  I even found somewhere that did gluten free Wiener Schnitzel – which made me a very happy girl indeed!

Beautiful churches.  St Stephen’s Cathedral is stunning, but St Peter’s church was breathtaking.  History.  Everywhere, history!  Finding unexpected treasures – walking through Stadtpark on our last night and coming across Johan Strauss’ statue that I hadn’t yet seen – all lit up and framed perfectly against the dark sky.

Our fabulous penthouse apartment in the 5th District that looked over Vienna towards the centre of town that was covered in the owner’s own artwork.  The walks to Pigrimstrasse U-Bahn in the increasingly colder evenings.  The Bankomats.  Learning to automatically say “Dankeschon” and “Enschulegung” (the cabin crew thought I was German, because I couldn’t stop myself from saying it on the plane!).

And the interviewees in Vienna were lovely.  All Stampfl family members and all delightful.  Franz’s brother Otto was a joy – and I even found myself understanding some of the answers given in German – asking the next question before the interpreter could finish translating!

I would very much like to thank the following people who made the Vienna filming possible:

Firstly, Ernst Vogl from Location Austria at the Film Commission of Austria who deserves a big THANK YOU for all his help.  Nothing was too much trouble – he lined up all our equipment hire (and even drove us out to collect the lighting gear, then returned it for us) as well as securing the interview location itself: a suite at The Hotel Imperial - who, in turn, need to be thanked for their support and help with filming the interviews and for taking such good care of us while we were there.  Thank you Ernst for everything you did for us – I truly appreciate it and am forever grateful.

Arno Rupp very kindly agreed to translate from German to English for me for the first two interviews of the day – thank you Arno, you were great!  Gregor Stampfl translated for the third interview and Hedy Cech translated for the fourth and final interview.  I truly appreciate all their help and thank them all from the bottom of my German-language challenged heart.

And so we are now home.  Seven interviews in three different countries over ten days and we’re done for the first leg of filming.

It was a crazy, mad, thrilling time and a great start to the production of the documentary.  Once again I would like to thank Daniel Salter in England for acting as our Production Coordinator for London and Dublin and Ernst Vogl for the same in Vienna.  Also thank you to Daniel for being our stills photographer in the UK and Ireland and Ingo Folie for being our stills photographer in Vienna – both of them took beautiful shots of our interview subjects and behind the scenes stills of the production and I am truly grateful again to both.  We are slowly collating all the photographs and will post them on our Facebook page as they become available.

I would also like to thank Gear Head Ltd, who provided the Sony F3 camera and Zeiss lenses for the production and Video Craft for the use of the PL Mount for the 102.  Without their support we wouldn’t have been able to capture any of this on film and I highly recommend both companies if you are looking to hire (or in Video Craft’s case, also buy) equipment in Melbourne.  Gear Head are also based in Sydney and LA, so get in touch with them if you are looking to hire in any of those cities and tell them we sent you!

Finally – a big thank you to all our interviewees and to the production team back here in Oz who kept the home fires burning while we were away and all those who donated to the project to make this trip possible – we truly couldn’t have done it without your support!

And now, it’s onto the planning and pre-production phase for the first lot of Australian interviews.

After flying into Melbourne yesterday morning, I attended the 100th Anniversary of the Victorian Olympic Council Dinner at the Sofitel last night, then the official Governor’s Reception at Government House this afternoon with my mother, Marg Woodlock-McLean, and had the chance to catch up with some of the interviewees we will be speaking to on camera come January in Melbourne including John Landy, among others.  Our line up of Melbourne-based athletes as well as prominent figures from the Arts, Politics and Literature is shaping up to be an impressive one and I am truly looking forward to speaking to this next lot of interviewees on camera early in the New Year.

To find out more about how you can further assist this project and help us to continue filming, feel free to visit our donations page here.

Thank you to everyone for their support – onward and upwards we go!

Sally McLean
Director/Producer

The sky is so clear tonight over London that I can see the almost full moon and some stars in between the street lamps and buildings in our little lane in Soho.  It was somehow a comforting sight and a lovely one to experience at the end of a rather crazy day.

I’m able to personally blog about this mad UK/Ireland/Austrian filming trip for the first time tonight after a week of highs and lows – what a week it’s been!

After a long, but relatively comfortable flight from Melbourne to London via Emirates (who I can’t praise enough – all their staff, from the team in their Melbourne office to their staff at Tullamarine to their cabin crews on the flights, were so lovely and efficient and helpful – if you’re going to fly long haul, you should fly with Emirates), we landed at Heathrow almost a week ago – but it seems somehow much longer!  The flat here in Soho (just off Tottenham Court Road) feels like home now – I’ll be sad to leave it on Saturday.  Roberto from London Life Apartments has been fantastic – going out of his way to make our stay comfortable and stress-free and I truly thank him for everything he has done for us during our time in London.

It doesn’t seem real that we only have a day left in London before heading off to Vienna for the last leg of this trip – but we will be, so it seems a good time to take a quick look back at what has happened so far …

Where to begin? Firstly, I must say a HUGE public thank you to Daniel Salter – our dedicated, unflappable, highly capable Production Coordinator (UK).  Daniel has worked for us tirelessly over the past week – from collecting us from the airport on our arrival to driving us back and forth to Oxford for two days, as well as to Gatwick today – and then in Dublin – which alone should win him a gold medal for stamina and good humour!  But he has also been a brilliant addition to the team, working as a third crew member assisting Tim and Saraj on set, carrying gear back and forth, as well as being our behind-the-scenes videographer and stills photographer while we are in the UK and Ireland.

THANK YOU DANIEL!  I couldn’t have managed this leg of the filming without your invaluable help and expertise and I will be forever grateful for all you’ve done for us while we’ve been here!  If anyone needs a reliable, talented and genuinely lovely Production person with a healthy sense of humour (who has also been a locations manager for a couple of other gigs), get in touch with me and I’ll put you in touch with Daniel.  I can’t recommend him highly enough.

Sunday saw me sorting out equipment collection and confirming our following two filming days as well as catching up with my old BBC boss and friend Roly Keating for a quick cup of tea (thank you again Roly for your advice and support!).  Other people I have to thank for Sunday are Sarah and Lee from KitHire.com who got all our lighting to us that evening, as well as Sound Operator, Steve Goldsmith for providing us with the sound equipment.  Steve and his fabulous wife came into Soho to meet us and we all went out for dinner that night at a local Thai place around the corner from the flat.  It was a lovely way to start our stay in London and I thank them both for making us feel so welcome.  If anyone is looking for a Sound Operator in London – get in touch and I’ll put you in touch with Steve, he’s a brilliant addition to any crew.  Video Europe had already given Daniel the grip equipment for us on the Friday before we arrived – and by the time Sunday night arrived we could hardly move in the lounge room of the flat for all the film gear!  I’m still not sure how Daniel packed all of it, plus us, into the medium sized people carrier he had procured, but somehow he did!

Our first day of filming was in Oxford with Sir Roger Bannister.  I have already mentioned the staff from Oxford University Sport Department, published in the previous blog – Shaun and Matt were a joy to work with and took such great care of us – affording us every bit of help they could, including letting us move furniture around and borrow pictures of Sir Roger from their front reception to hang on the walls of a meeting room as set dressing, to sourcing umbrellas and extra power cables – they were just brilliant and I am very grateful.

Sir Roger was lovely – eloquent and entertaining, funny and genuine.  It was a pleasure to meet and interview him and I am so grateful for the opportunity to do both.  Sir Christopher Chataway on the Tuesday was delightful – making the effort to come down from London to Oxford to talk to us and was polished and professional as well as passionate in recounting his memories of his time working with Roger and Franz as an athlete.  I loved being able to finally meet him and his charming wife after months of email and phone calls and again was truly thrilled to spend time with him and hear his stories.  It was a fantastic way to spend two days in Oxford and I am so pleased that we could bring two old friends together again and capture it all on camera.

Wednesday was a rest day which saw me catching up with some old friends, as well as preparing for the following day’s filming in Dublin.  That night I saw Alistair Barrie (one of my best mates) comedy panel show “No Pressure To Be Funny” at the Leicester Square Theatre.  If you want a night of topical discussion that can at times be sidesplittingly funny due to a panel of four comedians and host James O’Brien (LBC Radio) – then I highly recommend you go see it.  There’s only one more show for this season (featuring Rich Hall!) – next Wednesday night, but they are also doing a Christmas special in December.  More information on their Facebook group page, or you can listen to the edited podcast of last night’s show here.

Then today dawned.  Well, more accurately, today dawned as we were making our way to Gatwick Airport – as we were up well before the dawn!  We were out of London by 6.30am and off to Dublin for the day to interview Ulick O’Connor – one of Ireland’s great writers and biographers.  Also a playwright and poet and one of Franz’s original Irish athletes, I was very much looking forward to meeting him.

First stop was a local pub for lunch, then onto CameraKit in Dublin to collect all the gear we had booked for Ulick’s interview.  And here I must stop for another thank you.  Jim and the team at Camerakit are brilliant.  Truly.  Not only excellent at what they do and their knowledge of film gear, they are also masters of the craic.  I don’t think I’ve laughed so much during a film equipment hire pick up in my life!  A massive thank you to Jim, David and the boys over there – if you need to hire any equipment in Dublin, then I highly recommend them: http://www.camerakit.ie/ (and I even got a hug when we returned the equipment at the end of the day – as well as a group farewell in the carpark – thanks guys!  I told you that I’d let the world know how great you all are!).

Once all the equipment was – again miraculously – packed into the car by Daniel, Tim and Saraj while I worked out the paper work in the office – we were off to interview Ulick.

What can I say about Ulick?  Erudite, sharp, funny, opinionated, eloquent, a beautiful writer and a true gentleman.  Also a poet and playwright, I found myself (while waiting for Tim, Saraj and Daniel to set up in another room), sitting in Ulick’s office while he read for me his poem “Requiem for a Nanny” – a beautiful work he had written about one of the major influencers of his life.  It was a truly surreal moment for me – sitting in a room piled high with books and papers, listening to the man who had written the plays “A Trinity of Two” (about Oscar Wilde) and “Brendan” (about Brendan Behan), amongst many others, read to me one of his evocative and absolutely sublime poems.  It was a moment to treasure and I know I will remember it for a very long time to come.

Ulick’s Assistant, Anna, was also there – and looked after us very well.  It was such a joy to interview Ulick and I know we were all delighted to spend those few hours with him – I wish we could have stayed longer, but sadly it was not to be this time.  After cups of tea and sherry in Ulick’s front room (and a present from him to me of two of his books – signed at my request, of course!), it was back to CameraKit to return the gear and then off to find a true Irish pub so that I could at least give my small, but hardy crew a chance to down a real Guinness.

I must stop here again for another thank you – Tim Egan and Saraj Alkemade, my dedicated and hardworking crew … THANK YOU!  You have got some beautifully lit and framed shots and clear, crisp audio, and it has been a joy to discover that we already have a short hand operating between us when conducting these interviews and that I do not need to do anything more than raise an eyebrow in question or give a look to have you understand what I’m thinking and showing me that you’re already doing it – no words required.  You have made this process so much easier with your expertise and experience and I am so grateful to have you on this journey with me.

Three Guinness’ (one each for the crew) and a Coke (for me) later and we were racing our way back to Dublin Airport, and in turn back to Gatwick, then home to London.

It was a crazy, mad day, but just brilliant and now, at 2am, I am winding down and just about ready for bed.  Tomorrow brings a few more quick catch ups with friends here and final checks for the next leg of travel and then it’s off to Vienna for the last stage of filming.

Forgive my lack of wittiness in this update – to be honest I am feeling very tired, but also feeling very privileged to have had the chance to spend time with such interesting and eminent individuals and interview them on camera.  It has been a brilliant way to begin filming for this project and I’m looking forward to the adventure of Vienna to come.

Until the next update … thanks for reading.

Sally McLean
Director/Producer

We’ve just uploaded our “Meet the Creative Team” video – featuring interviews with the Creative Team behind the upcoming documentary “Franz Stampfl: The Man Behind The Miracle Mile”:

We’re currently seeking donations for the first leg of filming – interviewing Sir Roger Bannister and Sir Christopher Chataway in November in the UK about their time training with Franz.  This documentary is time-critical – we HAVE to start filming in November, otherwise we may miss out on getting these important people on camera.

And you can help – with donations, with spreading the word about the project, with letting people know the project is happening.  The more people who know about this project, the more likely it is we’ll get it made!

If you’d like to know more about the film and how you can help, please visit the official website: http://www.franzthemovie.com/donate

We hope you enjoy the video and look forward to your support!

Cheers,

Sally McLean
Director/Producer