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Prairie Rascals - the Shoot

I’ve been spending the summer in the Wild West, which Sarah Reeve and I have very convincingly recreated in a field near our house. Unfortunately it hasn't been very Wild West weather, but occasionally the sun shines, and we've made the most of it.
Prairie Rascals, our new Bonehill Films production, is a Western, in which Dartmoor gets to stand in for the prairies and pinewoods of Arkansas while a cast of top Devonian and Cornish actors put on their best American accents. When her no-good homesteader husband is murdered by outlaws hunting for the the gold he stole during the Civil War, Annie Harper sets off to find the treasure for herself. Annie's played by Rosanna Lambert, a local actress who appeared briefly in our film Gwenevere as a mystical maiden. She’s great, and it’s been good to give her more to do in this one.
Also returning is our Gwenevere title star, actress and artist Laura Frances Martin. Gwenevere was rather a serious role, but Laura’s a tremendously funny person, so we’ve tried to use a bit more of her range in Prairie Rascals, where she plays ruthless desperado Cat Hannigan, thoroughly enjoying her life of crime.
 

Arran Hawkins, our Lancelot in Gwenevere, is very funny as the cowardly sheriff Annie turns to for help before deciding to go it alone.

Amanda Lindseth (below, left) is another local, but also an actual American. She played a stunning villain in our local panto last year, so we’ve roped her in as Cat’s even more dangerous sister Belle. (She’s also been helping us find horses, costumes, and locations.)

Mylo Sermon plays an earnest young New Englander who is busy exploring the natural wonders of the West when his holiday is rudely interrupted by a run-in with the Hannigan sisters...
...and Nicholas de Jasay is his untrustworthy guide, Muldoon (so untrustworthy that he's nicked his master's clothes by the point in the film that these stills come from.)
By happy coincidence Nick is also a carpenter, and put together the homestead set in the first picture in about a day. (It’s built around an old field shelter, and would have been way beyond my DIY skills.)

Torquay-based actor Louis John Brzozka plays Annie’s shifty husband Frank. As soon as I saw his photo online I knew he was the man for the part, and he works wonders with it.

In a sort of epilogue, Annie finds herself back east, as the guest of a fancy New England couple. Her hostess, Kitty van Leuwen, is played by Xanthe Baylis, who’s starting a drama degree next month and likely to do very well at it, judging by the performance she gave us.

Last but very much not least is writer and musician Nick Riddle, an old friend from my college days who has moved to the area recently. Nick has been invaluable as a sound recordist, and I asked him to step in as Kitty’s husband for the epilogue - a good move, since I’d been planning to play that part myself and he was much better than I could have been.

And, of course, none of it would have been possible without our endlessly patient and helpful crew, including Isabel and Marika Keen, Lucy Treacher, Sam Reeve, and Sarah McIntyre. We have a couple of scenes left to shoot, then a few B-roll shots of landscapes, sunsets etc, and then we’ll be editing, editing, editing.


Photo by Nick Riddle (I think...)


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