Pre-Production
Without being able to tell which idea came first, It Always Comes As A Surprise was to become the flagship project for Daniel and Hugo’s newly-formed company, Jackson and Hill Productions Community Interest Company (C.I.C). As well as organise and administrate setting up the new business, Daniel and Hugo also had to drum up interest from the local community to gather actors and actresses to audition for the film. After a breakthrough article in the Chichester Observer which gained them a lot of publicity, around seventy auditionees attended the session at the New Park Centre on February 19th. The next day, the cast had been picked and the scripts were sent out.
One week later, the cast and some of the crew gathered together for a readthrough; the first and only instance where they would all be in the same place at the same time. It was met with many laughs, which filled the two directors with optimism. However, at that point the more ominous prospect was the filming itself- twenty select days spanning from March 6th to May 12th. Organising the rehearsal schedule was a nightmare, and required several re-shuffles when various actors couldn’t get time off work or were on holiday. With this being an unpaid, community-based production and those participating being there voluntarily, it had to be conducted accordingly depending on when everyone was free, and trying to get everyone in any one scene to be free at roughly the same time.
Two evenings of rehearsals were all that could be squeezed in before principal photography- one solely with the main characters Jack and Sarah (played by Mike Slader and Ellie Price); and another involving the Knight family (characters Robbie, Dad, Sarah- Eddie Porter, Peter Pine and Ellie Price), the four friends (Jack, Alex, Tony and Faith- Mike Slader, Anna Watson, James Price and Ami Stidolph) and the teachers (Miss Jones and Ms Blöt- Lucy Betts and Liz McNally). These initial sessions enabled Dan and Hugo to help the cast interpret the script and work out some initial, very rough blocking to some of the more complicated scenes, such as the car chase and the crazy golf range.
While all this was happening, Hugo and Dan had been frantically phoning round various locations to ask if it would be permissible to film there:- Chichester College, Shoreham Airport, the Cineworld Cinema in Chichester and Chichester Golf Club became some of the key areas, and without their generosity and co-operation none of the scenes involved would have been possible.
The majority of the indoor scenes, those set inside Sarah’s house, ended up being filmed in almost every possible room in Hugo’s own house; conveniently also Jackson and Hill Productions’ base of operations. At various points the sitting room, dining room, kitchen, hallway, office, garden, driveway and several bedrooms all became live sets.
A new, complete set of video and sound equipment was required to make the film a professional quality. While Stand By Me had been filmed on a tiny digital camcorder suited to home videos, Jackson and Hill invested in a much heavier, bigger and better video camera that would give the resolution required for decent broadcast and screening quality. The intention was always that those involved would be able to see their efforts displayed on a cinema screen as if they were part of a high-budget professional production. While the budget was never exactly high, Jackson and Hill endeavoured to make the entire experience as rewarding as possible for everyone, and that ethic continues even now, while there is still filming to take place.
