The next category in this year’s BOB Awards is… Beyond the Call of Duty!
Our first 3 nominations in this category are all for people involved in the BCT Shorts Volume 2 production of Abu.
Our first nominee is Justin Lucas. Having been cast as the voice and puppeteer of the bear, Abu, Justin also brought all his film equipment, and props and even created daily edits of rough cuts of the short during production. Seriously beyond the call of duty for a bear!
Our second nominee is Jacob Nyenhuis who wrote the semi-autobiographical film Abu and he was also the lead, the director, the composer, production manager, camera operator, DOP, lighting, sound, location manager….It’s a lot.
Our third nominee from Abu is Lakhdeep Babra – a newcomer to BCT, it was his first time as a producer and first day on set. Lakhdeep was very excited to embrace his new and important role as Producer but his ego took a major hit when the director, Jacob, gave him his first task: To make the bed which incidentally was Jacob’s own and reportedly did not have the freshest of sheets. Ah, the glamourous life!
Our next nominee is Prashanti Subramaniam – Prash now lives in Africa and remains connected to BCT through the online play readings and BCT Shorts productions, but her last live onstage appearance with BCT was in March 2020 at the final dress rehearsal of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged!) The show was about to be shut down due to the pandemic so the cast had invited friends to the final dress and were videoing the run as well. Prash was in the zone delivering the renowned Act 1 Othello rap, when she twisted her knee and went down for the count. The play was full of pratfalls, and Prash was in shock so she wasn’t screaming as she really should have been, so the audience continued to enjoy the moment thinking it was all part of the play – until the production team charged the stage and asked everyone to leave the theatre a few minutes later. Prash was rushed to the hospital and had major knee surgery shortly after. Just to be clear: that’s not what we mean when we say break a leg!!
Lynsey Collis is nominated for her role as Diana Vance, the newscaster, in BCT Shorts Volume 3: The News Broadcast. The script required Lynsey’s character to soothe her irritable nerves at 4:30am with a bloody mary – no judgements please! Lynsey Collis was terrific in communicating the character’s tension and irritability but there was a problem: she despises tomato juice. However, Lynsey did not pretend to sip her tomato juice when filming – No! When Diana drank, she drank! Lynsey stayed in character and held her composure every time until the director called cut. Then she gagged and sometimes even retched a little. Never complained, never even asked for a Ramos Fizz. We bow to Lynsey’s dedication.
Final nominations go to Hannah Davis and Dan Nuss, who have relocated to Europe and Africa respectively in the summer of 2021. Hannah and Dan were long-standing BCT committee members and continued to log into meetings, write documents, edit BCT shorts films and generally help BCT keep going months after they moved. Come back! All is forgiven! We miss them and were lucky to have them.
The winner will announced over our email and private member Facebook group. Good luck!