NB: The Art and SFX work has now been completed on Chapter One, watch this space for news on the completion of the rest of the film!
‘Agnes falls from the sky, landing at the feet of a friendly juggler who tells her the story of ‘The Fallen Circus’. She tells him that she has lost her mum who was blown away by a big gust of wind, so he promises to help and they set off on a journey together to find her mum’.
In 2013 Shelly was invited to become artist in residence at the National Centre for Circus Arts the premier centre for circus arts in London. During her residency she worked with second year circus students to devise and direct a work for the screen. Shelly also collaborated with other professional actors, mime artists and physical performers who all feature within the film. The resulting work is an hour long musical style fiction called ‘The Fallen Circus’.
The Circus performers are: Angeliki Nikolakaki, Catriona Johnston, Hauk Pattison, Kipat Kahumbu, Chiara Zubiani, Eva Casotto, Alison Stanger, Tom Gaskin, Jess O’connor, Joana Dias, Christopher Thomas, Louis Magee, Dan Edwards, Mike Corr and Remi Archer. (You will see much more of them in Chapter Two!).
Starring along side this very talented cast of Circus Performers are: Agnes Rabbitt Dove who plays Agnes, Tom Gaskin who plays Cirrus, Gerard Bell (a regular in Shelly’s films) who plays Cumulonimbus the cantankerous Ringmaster, Malik Ibheis and Le Pustra who play The Ringmasters evil servants and Jamie Mcdermott of The Irrepressibles who plays the part of Cumulus the Clown.
Following on from previous successful collaborations Jamie Mcdermott and The Irrepressibles once again compose and perform the music in the film.
The entire film was shot against green screen, so to bring the world to life Shelly worked with Dan and Neil from Zeroh who created all the wonderful art work and the sfx for Chapter One.
The Fallen Circus was commissioned by the National Centre for Circus Arts (previously known as Circus Space) and funded by Arts Council England.
NB: A very very special thanks to Lawrence Diamond and Stuart Pearson Wright and all those who supported us through our crowd funding campaign!
Click here to see photos from the making of The Fallen Circus
