I’ve absolutely loved (almost!) every minute spent producing our charity Appeal film for The Muscle Help Foundation.  Doing something creative with an authentic purpose, and knowing that my efforts will make a difference  to the charity is truely rewarding.

I am extremely grateful to everyone who’s helped me each step of the way;  namely Michal Porecki and John Pullen – without your support and guidance this project would be shaping up very differently….

Our film crew James, Bentley and Rishi, from Squashed Fox have been fabulous.. thank you! and Richard Winter, I know you haven’t done anything yet!…. but thanks for the wonderful job you’re going to do in the edit… no pressure….;-)

Jon Carter and Carey Williamson from Civnom… thanks so much for letting me use your swish office in the city!.. It’s  been essential

Michael, we’ll you are the Chief Muscle Warrior, no need to say any more…. and Sue… it’s all your fault!… you put me forward for this Vodafone thing, so without you this film making malarkey would not be happening.

 The Muscle Help Foundation’s tag-line  is ‘Stronger Together’… We certainly are.

To all the other Vodafone WOD winners, I hope you’ve had equally fab experiences and if you’re continuing to work with your chosen charities for a bit longer like me….. then good luck!  Hayley x

If you caught a glimpse of my blog at the beginning of my ‘Vodafone Crash-Course to Film Making’, you may remember me talking about sandwiches… no, I’m not talking about jam and peanut butter, or even a good old fashioned cheese and pickle… Our film structure  is based on what’s known as a ‘celeb’ sandwich’, which includes the likes of Sir Richard Branston….erm…. I mean Branson  and Kenneth Branagh…

There’ nothing like living life on the edge…. and the one ‘little’ thing we didn’t have confirmed until a week ago was the dream filling - AKA a real muscle dream actually happening on film!….. So many things seemed to be holding us back from getting this in the can… namely diary management….Over the past 2 month’s we’ve had up to almost 10 different Muscle Dreams lined up for  filming, with all of our cards on the table for our Westlife Muscle Dream to form the epicentre of our film.  Alas that was not meant to be….although we will be including some wonderful photographic footage of Ben meeting Westlife in the film…

“So… what’s the  dream filling Felton?”…. I hear you say… Well it’s fast…..it’s  furious….and lots of FUN!…..On the 9th 10th or 11th May, we’ve arranged for two to three ‘petrol-heads’ to live life in the fast lane and experience a VIP track-day at Porsche’s experience centre in Silverstone…So it’s back to work for me as usual next week.. and on the celebrity chase once more….this time bagging a Formula 1 driver or two to get involved at our VIP track day which will make our Porsche Muscle Dream even more memorable for our deserving recipients…  If ANYONE has any links to the F1 world PLEASE get in touch…. x

Whoever invented autocue  or ‘the rolley thing’ as it has been referred to before by Chief Muscle Warrior……is a saviour!  Yesterday, after various last minute script changes and amendments there was no way our most glamorous shoot to date in Hanbury Manor (based in the pictureque Hertfod countryside)…would have gone quite so smoothly!…many thanks to you Zak.. from autocue!

The course of true filming never did run smooth….we were one crew member down due to a last minute emergency…. however John Pullen, saved the day – tending to sound as well as Direction, not to mention script supervision… Thank John! and thanks to James from Squashed Fox!

Today is officially all of the vodafone winners last day! however my work producing this film is far from over as it is unlikely that our film will be complete before the end of May…. Luckily I am able to contunue working on this project with The Muscle Help Foundation until the end of May (on a part-time basis) to ensure our Charity Appeal Film is ready for the launch party on the 29th June!.. exciting stuff…

I’m confident our film will be a huge success and will be a vehicle to drive funds and support, so more and more amazing ‘Muscle Dreams’ can become a reality….

12th April 2011! Ben’s Birthday…. Ben is one of the Muscle Help Foundation’s  Muscle Dream recipients.. he received the muscle dream surpriseof his life on the 27th March when the charity arranged for him to meet his Westlife heroes!

Well…… we thought we would surprise Ben for a second time on his birthday!….  Ben thought that he was simply watching a Watford V Norwich football match, but we arranged for Ben’s favourite Norwich FC player Adam Drury to wish Ben happy brthday pitch-side and he was presented  with a CD filled with all the photos of his Westlife Muscle Dream day at Wembley.  We managed to capture all of this on film with the intention of including some snippets in our charity appeal film…Special thanks go to Watford FC for allowing us to film a meet and greet with the enemy! and of course to Squashed Fox film crew and John Pullen, our fab Director.

Almost half way through my Vodafone placement and filming has only just begun! For those not in the biz… you would never imagine the amount of preparation and planning involved in a 7 minute film! But I’m loving  (almost) every minute of it.

With a little bit of ingenious diary management and a nice conversation with the universe! (Sue…yes the power was with us on Wed 6th April… especially as The Ultimate Muscle Warrior was almost all yours ;-O) we managed to shoot all the pieces to camera for Jodie Williams, Richard Callender and Chief Muscle Warrior, Michael McGrath… plus we also shot the Youtube interviews and the Voxpops… Not bad in a day’s work….

I am forever grateful to my wonderful camera crew… Bentley Perkins and James Bloomfield from Squashed Fox Ltd

who offered their professional services for free.  We will definitely be working with them for other shoots for this film and maybe some projects in the future…….. And not forgetting  Michal Porecki, who’s skilled direction really made all the difference…. oh and our runner!.. thanks for the photos Sue!

Thanks guys!! you are all officially on my christmas card list

Shoot day 1 ended with some well deserved white-wine spritzers in the  early evening Algarve sunshine…. erm, almost….. that’s Welwyn garden City….between me and you

So…. what next?…… Planning part two of a special Muscle Dream, plus working on pulling off 3 other Muscle Dreams…. which one will make the Muscle dream filling shortlist or will it be all three?… tune in to my next blog post to get the low-down.

Ben Meets Westlife: 

 ”If I could make a moment last forever, this would be the one that I choose…27/03/2011, Wembley Arena.”

Ben – Muscle Dream Recipient, Norwich

Producing our Charity Appeal Film has been a roller-coaster ride, let me tell you… however when you get to be part of making a ‘Muscle Dream’ come true then it makes it all of the hard work worth it and also reminds us of the impact this film will have on the The Muscle Help Foundation when it’s released this coming June. Now I’m not one to name-drop!!!…..yeah ok, we’ve also just confirmed that Keneth Brannagh will be part of the film! ;-D….. But, on sunday 27th March we managed to pull off the Westlife Muscle Dream of a lifetime for Ben, who is Westlife’s biggest fan… when I say biggest…. I completely mean this…. he has been to see them in concert over 15 times  – he lives and breathes Westlife, so when we (the Muscle Help Foundation) surprised Ben with a VIP meet and -greet and photo-shoot with the Westlife boys before their concert, he was blown away… this was Ben’s ‘Muscle dream’ come true! We’re going to include some of the professional photographs taken of Ben meeting his Westlife heroes in our charity Appeal Film…. 

In Ben’s own words:

 “If I could make a moment last forever, this would be the one that I choose…27/03/2011, Wembley Arena.”

and…”Can’t stop smiling…yesterday has to have been the best day in my whole life”

And the best bit…. “Just as I was getting over meeting Westlife, Mark only went and dedicated I will reach you to me…What a night”

HOME-VIDEO OF MARK DEDICATING ‘I WILL REACH YOU’ TO BEN:

Sometimes Dreams do come true…

Week four of our exciting Muscle Dreams Film project and I have been struck down with a throat infection so am surviving on soup and ice-lollies!…. I’m writing from the executive  branch of MHF HQ….. AKA from my bed with lap-top!…..I am actually wearing my World of Difference T-shirt…. I would take a photo to prove it but I’ve got no make-up on and don’t intend to shock any young children! lol

Well we were supposed to hear back RE filming permissions for a very special high-profile Muscle Dream today which we are aiming to film on Sunday but it now looks like we won’t know until tomorrow morning whether filming can take place!..  finger’s crossed they get back when they have said and it is a big fat yes to filming, otherwise it’s literally onto plan D for out film!

It’s a waiting game.. waiting on filming permissions, camera crew expense costs, camera crew availability, dates and confirmations… at least I’ve got the photographer booked in for Sunday!!!…thanks Steve… Check out Steve Butler’s website here

Sue from MHF said to me today… “what is it that they say?… Hope for the best and plan for the worst” Well that’s our philosphy at the moment, trying to sort out back-ups but we are all really hoping that our 1st choice Muscle Dream can be part of our Muscle Help Foundation film!

Wish me luck… again…

Click on the text below to read a little article about my film project with The Muscle Help Foundation

The East London Enquirer

GiGi London-MA

‘Eat, drink, think, breathe.  Deeply.  Smile  frown, up, down, in, out, scream, shout, dance the night away.  Laughter, tears, hopes, fears, sing.  Swim with dolphins.  Travel, unravel, run, walk, talk, listen.  Silence.  Noise, boys, girls, toys, mother daughter, sister, lover.  Passion.  Work, play, night, day, climb higher, aspire.  Dream.  Always dream…….Your body gives alot, it’s good to give back.’

Yesterday I’d finished  work for the day and went to meet my friend Sujata Naik who runs a beauty therapy business GiGi London M-A in Islington and the words above were written on a huge clear perspex sign in Sujata’s salon….

 These words struck such a cord with me as the Muscle Help Foundation exist to deliver unforgettable experiences known as Muscle Dreams, to children who suffer with the cruel muscle wasting disease, Muscular Dystrophy… to these children their dreams are truely prescious and the charity does everything in it’s power to make the dreams of those nominated children become a reality.

Sujata has already supported the Muscle Help Foundation by donating some beauty treatments at a previous fundraising event and I know that she will help support the charity as she grows her business.

Small words, big inspiration…..

Film/Video project is going so, so well, we’ve achieved loads in the last couple of weeks, however one TINY little element is still not confirmed… who is going to film it? and for free?!!!!!

We have  three professional TV production companies in the pipe-line at the moment, who have been approached from the angle of doing this for absolutely nothing, so it’s a big, big, blag!  Come on…. it’s for Cherideey!!!

Aiming to have crew/s confirmed by the end of this week!!!… or at least by mid next week! It’s a waiting game, but someone’s got to do it! lol… in the mean-time, scripts are being perfected, press-releases written, Project Plan’s updated and shoot dates being penciled in the diary….

Will be back with an update tomorrow…..

Wow! working on our ‘Muscle Dreams’ film/video project with the Muscle Help Foundation is an experience!… there have been many moments from well deserved ‘Molton Brown’ moments to ’Can you believe he said yes’ moments and ‘I blagged it’ moments,  but one thing’s for sure there has never been a dull moment!….and the cameras haven’t even rolled…..

 It’s the beginning of week three and our cast-list is almost complete.. Lorraine Kelly, Jon Snow, Richard Callender, Jodie Williams and even Sir Richard Branson (Can you believe it!) have all agreed to feature in our charity video, which we are all incredibly excited about…  It has taken us a while to get to this point, as there has been lots of preparation and planning, including brainstoriming meetings in February, ahead of the Vodafone start-date…. but I know all of our hard work will be worth it…

Ok, so before I tell you more about the film, it’s best you understand exactly what the Muscle Help Foundation do, why they do it and how this film project will make a difference….

The Muscle Help Foundation exists to deliver incredible, unforgettable experience to young sufferers of the cruel, debilitating, muscle wasting disease, Muscular Dystrophy.   All of the dream recipients have the severest, terminal form of MD, called Duchenne, so the dreams really are incredibly important.   Our aim is to essentially produce a broadcast standard film  (6-8 minutes) which will act as a high-quality showreel; facilitating greater awareness and fund generation, meaning more and more muscle dreams can be realised.

My project would not be taking such great shape if it wasn’t for some fantastic support and guidance from industry experts who are  fully committed to ensuring this project is a success….namely Series TV Producer, Michal Porecki and Writer/Producer, John Pullen….needless to say I am incredibly grateful to them for their invaluable input, advice and support.

A special thank you also needs to go to Jon Carter and Carey Williamson from Civnom as they are generously letting me work from their London office for free, over the next couple of months.  

This video is really special because one or two high-profile Muscle Deams will form the epicentre of our film and it will be the first time a muscle dream has been captured on camera.  This is no small feat, as we have a tight dead-line and are reliant on filming permissions, however with lots of determination, tenacity and a positive mental attitude….it will be all right on the night!

There are still a zillion things to do but progress is being made every day…

So far….the Running Order is taking shape,  professional crew are being contacted… and our cast-list is almost complete, (I believe it’s what is known as a ‘celebrity sandwich’….we just need the ‘Muscle Dream filling’…

Wish me luck….