Given that not all of you will be entirely familiar with It’s A Trap! or those involved with the Arms Race short film, we thought it best to do a quick round of introductions to a few of the main players.

Please do note that this isn’t an exhaustive list of everybody involved (for that you can pop over to the Cast & Crew list).

It’s A Trap!

The It’s A Trap team formed many years ago, initially to organise and run LARP events around the UK (if you don’t know what LARPing is, prepare for an entertaining Google session). Around 2006 the focus shifted towards making short films and, later, audio dramas. In the latter medium It’s A Trap found online success with the Squadron Leader Jack Steel And The Starblade pulp adventure series which spanned the limits of time and space and ran for two series. After producing the monster b-movie NfN (Normal For Norfolk), It’s A Trap member Nigel Clegg decided to step up to director duties for the team’s next project.

The director – Nigel Clegg

Arms Race is Nigel’s first film as director. A lifelong interest in constructing unlikely contraptions led him to creating numerous props and devices for local short films, with Arms Race being the culmination of his efforts to date. Initially conceived as a test shoot for a couple of new props, the short soon ballooned out into a proper short film, complete with a volunteer team drawn from theatre and commercial filmmaking. Working both as creative lead and lead prop and miniature designer as well as director, Nigel used the film as an opportunity to explore an underused genre and period, working directly with regular It’s A Trap writer Chris Burdett.

The writer – Chris Burdett

Brought aboard the project to turn a simple prop test into a genuine story, Chris brought his own experience from penning both series of Jack Steel as well as being lead writer on the forthcoming Ravenskil Chronicles audio drama. Arms Race proved a different challenge altogether, working within the restrictions of the subject matter imposed by the props, although the production design went hand-in-hand with the script, soon requiring additional items, costumes and a convincing war trench to be brought to life. As the story came together the production team began to assemble.

The cameraman and post guy – Simon Jones

Simon was originally brought on as the visual effects supervisor, having cut his teeth and on various super-low budget projects, as the trickier aspects of the script became increasingly apparent. At some point during pre-production and largely without him realising, Simon was upgraded to director of photography (he insists that ‘main cameraman’ is a more accurate term in this case), such that on the day of the shoot he was the man in charge of lensing all the action. Once Arms Race entered post-production Simon took on multiple roles, first editing the film, then creating the visual effects, editing the sound and, finally, grading the finished product. A source close to the production states that Simon was last seen throwing a computer out of a second storey window while shouting “keyframe this!”

We’ll be taking a look at some more of Arms Race’s crew next time. Being a volunteer production the film could not have been made without the support and hard work of all involved. In future blog posts we’ll also be shining a light on the shoot itself as well as the lengthy post-production period.