Mica Films - 'My Favourite Time of the Day'

17 June 2010

My Favourite Time of the Day screens at the Candid Projection Room.

10 February 2010

My Favourite Time of the Day can be viewed at Propeller4Film.

21 June 2009

Among the Apes, with music by Maurice Ashkenazi-Bakes, begins on Channel Five.

31 March 2009
My Favourite Time of the Day released for online sale at IndieFlix.

16 March 2009

Mica Films extends its broadcast agreement with Propeller TV for Favourite Time.

10 March 2009

Favourite Time screens on UK's Propeller TV (Sky 195) at 22:00.

4 March 2009
Favourite Time has an IMDb page, courtesy of Withoutabox.

27 February 2009

My Favourite Time of the Day screens at CineKink in New York.

14 February 2009
Favourite Time has its own page on B-Side Entertainment's film festival site.

8 February 2009

This Much I Remember, a short with a score by Favourite Time composer Maurice Ashkenazi-Bakes, screens at the BAFTAs.

4 January 2009

My Favourite Time of the Day to be distributed by Shorts Space.

30 November 2008

My Favourite Time of the Day screens at Takes at the North London Tavern, Kilburn.

28 September 2008

My Favourite Time of the Day screens in the Life Trials segment of the Branchage Film Festival in Jersey, Channel Islands.

31 August 2008
My Favourite Time screens at the Inn on the Green, Notting Hill, at the London Filmmakers Meetup.

14 August 2008
Favourite Time nominated for the Channel Islanders Film Award.

11 August 2008
Stuart Packer (the teddy bear's voice in Favourite Time) plays DI Wright in Hitwave Productions' feature Vehemence.

20 June 2008

Clips from the audition for My Favourite Time of the Day are now online.

29 April 2008
Release party for My Favourite Time of the Day at All Bar One.

29 April 2008
Cast and crew screening of My Favourite Time of the Day at De Lane Lea in Soho.

8 April 2008
Grade A Media delivers the DVDs of My Favourite Time of the Day.

31 March 2008

Voice-over maestro Stuart Packer has a new website.

21 March 2008

Mike Hallett completes assembly of My Favourite Time of the Day.

7 February 2008

Hallelujah! Steve Crittall and Maurice Ashkenazi-Bakes deliver the soundtrack for My Favourite Time of the Day.

3 January 2008
Spider Griffin delivers the artwork for My Favourite Time of the Day.

News archive

Year: 2008
Length: 12 mins
Format: High-Definition Video
Country: United Kingdom

Writer/director: Mike Hallett
Producers: Mike Hallett, Rachel Vidal
DoP: Warren Chung
Editor: Daniel Habedank

Cast: Victoria Daniels, Rebecca Steele, Mike Henley,
Stuart Packer (voice)

© 2007 Mica Films Full Cast & Crew

I blame Warren Chung for this one. We met up in the early summer of 2006 to get The Corpse Wore White off the ground,
and he bought me a large coffee around 5 PM — way too late in the day for me. I spent the night with my head buzzing
and some weird scenes playing in my head. As a writer I've learned that the 3 AM stuff is often the best, so I got up and
wrote down the fragments of what appeared to be an incomplete jigsaw. The next day I assembled them into sequence
and discovered a beautiful but somewhat provocative story — which I immediately shelved as too risqué.

Some time later I swapped scripts with young Kiwi filmmaker Anoushka Klaus. When she gave it the thumbs up, My
Favourite Time of the Day became the follow-on project to Corpse. The story's 1969 setting posed some artistic
challenges which Rachel Vidal (the production designer from Corpse) accepted when she joined as co-producer.

The script went out to the London acting community. Although not to everyone's taste, Favourite Time
elicited some very enthusiastic replies: "Fantastic — really original, well-written, funny and poignant"...
"A very brave piece!"... "Brilliant! I love its audaciousness"... "I was sad, amused and felt like I was
peeling an onion".

In 2008 My Favourite Time of the Day was nominated for the Channel Islanders Film Award at the
Branchage Jersey International Film Festival →

Find My Favourite Time of the Day on the Internet Movie Database.

My Favourite Time of the Day is distributed (non-exclusively) by Shorts Space.

My Favourite Time of the Day can be purchased online at IndieFlix.

My Favourite Time of the Day can be viewed online at Propeller4Film.

Auditions were followed by a recall for the last half-dozen prospective mothers and daughters. The daughters tackled the
challenging material (shades of Meg Ryan and "I'll have what she's having") with huge bravado and everyone came away
with a smile on their face. Here's some clips from the auditions:

Roles of Manon & Patricia

Roles of Manon, Patricia & the priest

Roles of Manon & the priest

Roles of Patricia & the priest

From over three hundred actors who initially expressed interest in the two roles, Rebecca Steele and Victoria Daniels were
ultimately cast as the loving but feuding mother and daughter. The scary moment came when I took down Rebecca and
Victoria's contact details. Their 11-digit mobile phone numbers only have one different digit between them. I knew I'd got
my casting right!

After the complexities of The Corpse Wore White – which required an entire crematorium to be recreated – Favourite Time
was a relatively straightforward affair, with a church confessional being the only significant prop. Prop-maker Fred Costa's
igneniously simple solution was highly effective:

Favourite Time wrapped a successful – and highly entertaining – four-day shoot on April Fool's Day with a party at The
Wheatsheaf in Bow Brickhill, Buckinghamshire. Here's a few stills of the mayhem:

Additional dialogue recording for Favourite Time was completed at Steve Crittall's
studio in Soho, where Stuart Packer gave a voice to Gary
Gatwick the teddy bear. Steve Crittall and his cohort Maurice Ashkenazi-Bakes were
also responsible for the film's playful original score.

Being the politically correct filmmakers that we are, the cover art for My Favourite
Time of the Day will not place unnecessary emphasis upon the story element of a
teenage girl being handcuffed to a bed for her masturbatory habits! The artwork is
courtesy of Spider Griffin →

A cast and crew screening at De Lane Lea in Soho was followed by an after-match
function at All Bar One.

In February 2009 My Favourite Time of the Day screened at the CineKink film festival in New York City. A truly alternative festival, CineKink is devoted to positive depictions of sexuality and kink in film and TV. Favourite Time, a dark comedy about a teenage girl who is a compulsive masturbator and her highly religious mother, found its true home. Appropriately enough, it screened in the Wanton Female Desire segment. Film-maker Mike Hallett was unable to attend, but festival director Lisa Vandever kindly supplied some pictures.

Volunteer Elizabeth Sheehan, festival director Lisa Vandever and juror Steven Speliotis. Photo © Stacie Joy	Some of the interesting raffle prizes at CineKink! Photo © Stacie Joy

Lisa Vandever and Elizabeth Sheehan at the CineKink awards ceremony. Photo © Stacie Joy

After CineKink, I was invited to submit Favourite Time to the 2009 Berlin Porn Film Festival. I never heard back from the organisers; I guess the film just didn't show enough flesh!

	2008 Branchage Jersey International Film Festival, Jersey, Channel Islands Screened in the Life Trials segment. Nominated for the Channel Islanders Film Award.

	2009 CineKink, New York An annual festival that "recognizes and encourages the positive depiction of sexuality and kink in film and television". Screened in the Wanton Female Desire segment.

	2008 London Filmmakers Meetup Group, Notting Hill, London A regular film screening night at the Inn on the Green.

	2008 Takes, Kilburn, London A New Zealand-flavoured screening night organised by Last Night Productions.

	2009 Propeller TV, United Kingdom Repeated screenings.

	2010 Candid Projection Room, Islington, London A regular film screening night.

Screenplay

Shot-by-shot