Production Notes

Producer/Director Richard Janes had been looking for a script suitable for his first Feature film for over a year. “Everyone has an idea for a great film but there are few people that can sit down and put it on paper”, says Richard. As no money was on the table for buying a script the traditional agency route was ruled out. That’s when Richard turned to the Internet. After placing an advert on a ‘scripts wanted’ web page, stories began to flood in “Suddenly every writer’s message board had a posting saying I was looking for scripts” Richard recalls.

When a new writer, Paul Gerstenberger, sent a one-page treatment of Fakers to him, Richard immediately knew it was the movie he wanted to make. The treatment was fun, light hearted and it really conformed to the type of film Richard wanted to be making as a director. If the script conformed to the type of film Richard wanted to make as a director it ticked very few boxes when he looked at it from a producer’s point of view. “I knew that we weren’t going to have much budget so as a producer you’re looking for a limited number of locations out of a major city, a small cast and no elaborate stunt work; the problem was that Fakers had all of these.”

With a modest budget coming from private investors utilising the British tax break scheme EIS (Enterprise Investment Scheme), Richard brought in two fellow film school graduates. Claire Bee and Todd Kleparski had been making documentaries that were shown at International film festivals such as Sundance, Venice and London.

With Claire and Todd now co producing, the team set about assembling the highly skilled crew. While the crew were being assembled, Richard also had the daunting task of assembling the 40 strong cast members with Casting Director’s Elaine Fallon and Tania Polentarutti.

Shooting took place over thirty-two winter days in London with three days at the end of production to shoot the opening sequence, which took place in a remote Spanish village that doubled as Italy. Shot all over London, Richard was keen to capture the fun side of the city without pushing the tourist sights in an attempt at garnering foreign sales. “We timed shooting the more difficult locations, such as the centre of Mayfair, Borough Market and the pedestrian walkways by the River Thames to coincide with the Christmas Holidays. This enabled us to get away with a lot more than we would be able to normally”, says Richard.

The producers were initially worried that the Italian Job inspired Smart Car sequence, which sees the characters, Eve and Nick, racing between galleries and through a market, might not be granted permission. “Driving at high speeds throughout London and working on a limited schedule and budget are usually be a recipe for disaster. Luckily we had expert drivers on the team and everything went ahead without a hitch”, says producer Claire Bee.

Shortly after shooting, the production ground to a halt when a bogus investor turned out not to have any money. “We were in the horrible situation of having no money to finish the film. A film about a “con” that had suffered at the hands of a con man- luckily he did not get any of our money !!”, Richard recalls. Editor Adam Green and Richard Janes managed to broker a deal with an off-line editing facility at Shepperton Studios, Shepperton Post, and were able to continue cutting the film whilst money was sought. The completion date was put back indefinitely and Richard, Claire and Todd jumped on a plane to the Cannes film festival armed with segments of the film on DVD in an attempt to garner more funds. But it was not to be and the team faced the prospect of returning to London without sales or investment in place.

Richard called the post production facilities in the UK to tell them to stop work as they had no funds with which to complete the film. Thankfully the sound facility, VideoSonics, said they believed in the film and would start work regardless. A phone call to the title design and digital transfer facility, Lipsync Post, went much the same. Just before leaving for London, Richard met and signed a deal with The Mezzanine Film Fund, operated by The Future Film Group on a sale and lease back basis, giving the producers enough money to finish the film. Mezzanine also supplied the production with 35mm prints and a long list of items needed to make international sales.