Marshall Polishes Scenes in "Struggles Within"
“Struggles Within” was the original concept of IME Films, who brought m & s Marshall Productions on in association with IME Films to make the film. When the production was shown to the test audience and met with misunderstanding in what the message was, IME Films asked m & s Marshall Productions and its co-owner, Matthew Marshall, to come up with a solution that would help the film be understood by the general viewing audience.
Marshall who was a co-producer of the film as well as holding several key positions on the creative side of the Struggles Within’s Production Team, mapped out a plan for how the vision of the film would be achieved. Marshall pulled on creative resources from the iFilmGroup and brought them on board with the film to be in association with the production. Making iFilmGroup a support service to the second production team opened the door to bringing a fresh perspective and resources to the table for the production to enhance the film. With iFilmGroup helping the second Production Team I’m reminded of *Isadora Duncan’s philosophy of dance…preferring simple scenery and costumes over-elaborate ones. She maintained that the dancer should be the focus of attention.
I’m very delighted to see mixed ages with the actor/dancers in this production. This production was screened in southwestern Ontario which had the production team wanting to improve on the impact of the interpretation through dance. It was coming up to two years since the film was originally filmed. Through iFilmGroup’s Support Services, interviews were conducted with knowledgeable people in the medical industry. Studies were done by the iFilmGroup Support Services and during a workshop by iFilmGroup, medical students associated with the University of Western Ontario had a discussion with Marshall and Hickey and offered their advice. Through further discussion, Marshall brought forward some of his ideas and the medical students offered medical insight on depression and mental illness. Out of that discussion, the visual design for dramatic images to enhance the production was laid out and a timeline to implement them was created.
iFilmGroup in association with m & s Marshall Productions cast additional actors to fill the new dramatic roles. The iFilmGroup team brought in their acting coach Helena Rose to work with some of those new actors to enhance their performance to bring out the best in them. iFilmGroup brought in a new crew and also used this opportunity to hold a very successful workshop during the process. Volunteers from the local colleges and universities were helpful in this work. These volunteers went away with new skills from a working movie set that specialized in reviewing the original artistic vision and enhancing it through the new dramatic images. The collective visions were awesome. The message of this film was an important one that is relevant to what people are dealing with in their lives. It was important to ensure the film was finished and that the message was understood.
All the people working on this film knew very well the delay in getting this finished. Especially with so many youth dancing and having their careers to look forward to, we were really concerned about these young people.
We’ve had positive comments come our way since it has been reviewed after the second Production Team got involved.
To the youth that worked on “Struggles Within” as actors and dancers and crew… thank you for your patience. You all did a great performance.
Don Hickey
Co-Founder; iFilmGroup.org
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