Captain Jack Sparrow’s Guide to London
Posted in: Portfolio, Previous, Projects Tagged: comedy, history
Producer | Co-Director | Writer | Researcher
Captain Jack Sparrow, the protagonist of Pirates of the Caribbean 4 – On Stranger Tides takes us along the Thames to all of his favourite London locations from back in his day. Jack has a lot of history in London – from being caught in a relentless game of cat and mouse with the pirate loathing, execution loving and extremely alcoholic Judge Jeffries on the streets of Wapping to being chased from London to the Caribbean by Captain Kidd!
I’m incredibly pleased with this project for a number of reasons. Overall the finished piece came out just as I hoped when putting together the initial concept and the production went according to plan without exception, so it was a relatively hassle-free endeavour.
The stand out element for me is the script – I wanted to write a funny script that would capture the character of Captain Jack Sparrow as well as deliver all the information my research unearthed to justify it as an information piece. I feel the script achieved these objectives fully and the sheer authenticity of the script is why I’m so happy with it – even down to the fuchsia story, everything is completely genuine with no padding or fictitious elements beyond the injection of Captain Jack Sparrow into actual historical events.
Unfortunately the audio isn’t fantastic and is for sure the let-down element of the piece. Equipment packing up half an hour into an eight hour day meant we were unable to hear the audio we were recording and as a result the ambient noises are hugely inconsistent and intrusive. Despite taking sound samples from each location to combat this we were unable to reduce them to a level we were happy with in post-production.
Despite the audio issues I’m still hugely proud of ‘Captain Jack Sparrow’s Guide to London’. As the product of a two-man team with a budget of £40 I think we got the most we were going to get from the project.
Thanks to:
- Martin Oliver (Co-Director, Camera)
- Darren Potter (Captain Jack Sparrow)
- The Grapes
- The Prospect of Whitby
- The Town of Ramsgate
- The Captain Kidd
- Katie Giles