making of the film

Mags Scholes believed that with a script written by BAFTA winner Adrian Mead, BAFTA winning Cinematographer Simon Dennis attached, and 17 years of industry experience herself, she had good reason to direct “Call Me”.

Based in Cumbria, and wanting to keep the crew as locally based as possible, Mags attended one of the Cumbria Film Network’s monthly short film screenings. There she got chatting to Jo Hutton who runs the network, who it transpired, has produced several documentaries. Further discussion lead to Jo getting on board as the Producer.

Whilst Mags was working on a series of TV commercials, bouncing around the set dressed up as a kangaroo, occasionally whipping off his headpiece to take in air, was Chris Wilcox. Taken with his professionalism and presence, Mags felt this was the man for the job. Chris read the script, loved it and so he too was on board.

They went immediately into pre production and three weeks later had a two day shoot based around the availability of Simon Dennis the Cinematographer, who Mags has known for 10 years.

The crew were fantastic, totally dedicated, and the production was very fortunate with the equipment deals they were kindly given.

On the first morning of the shoot, the radio station where we were shooting changed their plans, allocating the crew the smaller of their two radio studios. It was a tight squeeze only just managing to get the track in, let alone the dolly and crew! 

Once shot there was a pause whilst an editor was found, and through Mags contacts the editor Geraint Huw Reynolds, assistant on The Hours, Cold Mountain and Goya’s Ghosts came on board. With him and Mags based 300 miles apart, they communicated by phone and viewed various cuts via the internet. They finally sat down together with the film in the same room to view the final cut.