This was our third ‘Intermission Feature’ and was part of our second big, Norwich Playhouse show: The Coalition Empire Of The Pun, on the 11th and 12th of January 2008.

*This film won the Special Effects award in the 2009 FX Home Awards! *

“I refuse to wear a skirt ever again until the next Coalition film.” – Tom

November 2007 – After receiving a lot of positive feedback for the intermission feature parody, Get Lost, the AoE boys realised that they were on to a good thing with the TV Spoof idea, so long as they chose the right thing to spoof. The fabulous new series Heroes was a massive TV phenomenon at the time, with seemingly a similar fan base to Lost (although better regarded in that there seemed to be a point to it all). But with cheerleaders, cheesy voice over and a moody, mono-browed bad guy – plus an even greater opportunity to parody some of the special effects – it was the perfect new target for a Coalition spoof.

Time pressures on this project were intense, as rehearsal and production pressure from the stage show impacted heavily and meant that filming was crammed into any available hour of the day – eagle eyed observers may spot the difference in hair lengths of Tom, Andy and the Yank at the end of the scene in Norwich Town Centre.

After several weeks of filming what we could when we could, the real ‘Hero’s’ of this film were once again our post-production chums, who all worked up to the wire (even by our standards).

Probably the biggest improvement of this film compared to Get Lost was the sound quality, thanks to Bennet Maples and 2 stoic days of sound recording and mixing (every vocal in this film was recorded and put on after shooting, something not done by AoE before or since!) which give the film some much needed polish. Simon ‘Tarn’ Jones of FX Home pushed the visuals boat out ever further to create the all important (Award Winning! – T) effects, which turned out to be the strongest punch lines of the piece.

The real hero though was Mike Stiff once again, who shot most of the footage and somehow edited it into a coherent film under ridiculous time pressure. Mike was living with Andy and Tom at the time (which was of course helpful) who can both attest that Mike barely left his room for 2 days while editing this piece and put his life on hold to get it done on time.

Big thanks to our friend of a friend, Tae Horie for the Japanese translations (and apologies to all Japanese speakers for making a mess of your language in this film!) Thanks also Amy,  Jo ‘Slowbear’ O’Callaghan and Chris Butcher for their cameos and to Abi Williams for the Cheerleader costume.

AoE  – 23/06/09

Our second big ‘Intermission Feature’ Part of our live show: The Coalition: Almost a Sitcom at Norwich Playhouse in 2006

Get Lost

“What I wanted to do was create a funny homage that really pushed the boundaries of what we thought we were capable of with our filming. Most of all thought I wanted it to be enjoyable for lovers and haters of Lost alike – a good piss take has to be done with a bit of love.” – Tom.

In early 2006, after having put together the mammoth massive cast and crew for Coalition of the Ring, the AoE boys realised that they had a lot of talented friends with all sorts of film related expertise. On top of that, Tom had just completed his first ‘proper’ job in the TV industry (getting paid £100 a week to do Art Department on the Secret Of Eel Island 2) 2 things came of this: One was that Tom now had the addled notion that he knew how to write and direct stuff for film, and the other, far more important element was his friendship with Mike Stiff, then in his second year of Filmmaking Studies at Stafford Uni. and stunt coordinator on Eel Island.

Tom helped Mike put together his ambitious short film, Blue, and in return Mike agreed to shoot and edit the next Coalition half-time show. While Tom wrote this piece and gave some rather woolly camera directions, most of the quality you see in terms of shots and editing was due to Mike’s sharp instinct and rapidly increasing technical skill.

With access to better cameras, the assistance of long-time friend and makeup expert Lucy Harvey (nee Burton) and another Eel Island mate, soundman and filmmaker Liam Davies, AoE took their first big leap in production values and shot this quality homage to the fabulous TV series Lost. The production quality was pushed on every level. This film features the fantastic ‘Hatch’ set piece – so realistic looking people have since asked where they can find it on Mousehold Heath, where the film was shot – built by prop-maker extraordinaire Nigel Clegg. Simon ‘Tarn’ Jones, who did the lovley FX tweaks on Coalition of The Ring, pulled out every stop for AoE to create quality grades and affects for this film, special mention going to the famous ‘Smoke Monster’ which, if we say so ourselves, looks almost as good as the original.

Finally big thanks must go to Jenny Kirk (BBC Look East presenter), friend of AoE and splendidly baffling plot twist!

AoE – 09/06/09