Director's Daily Shooting Blog

6.04am

Driving around Seven Sisters at the moment picking up Rhys, my 1st AD. Of course it is an ungodly hour. It always is when you have to get up not having had enough sleep. My assistant , Marina Jankovic, is at the wheel, trying to find the right place to stop. Today we shoot all the scenes that take place in or around the park. The problem will be we only have until 2pm actually inside the park. So it will be a race against time to get the first two longer scenes before this time.

The first scene we will shot is the first scene that Callum meets Malika. For me it is always important to have a good introduction to a character. Malika’s introduction, I feel, will be one of the best I’ve ever conceived for a character. It was one of the few scenes I changed with Jonnie in the script development process. I wanted something a bit more special. A bit more suggestive and imaginative. Callum lies back on a roundabout to smoke a cigarrettte. As he is smoking, he hears a voice. It is Malika on the opposite side of the roundabout. He hadn’t noticed her before. The roundabout spins as they talk.

Of course smoking and spinning might have weird consequences if Jonnie gets ill again. Let’s hope not.

The good thing today is that the scenes we shoot today and indeed over the whole of this week will fill in the first third of the film in relation to the story between Callum and Malika. Of course we all missing out all the office scenes which we do when we come back from France. The first scene today comes directly before the second scene we shot yesterday and the second scene today comes directly before the third scene we shot yesterday.

My only other headache ahead today is to try and sort out the flow of communication between the set and the production office which doesn’t seem to be deal yet. I shall try to arrange a production meeting maybe at lunch time to try and ameliorate the situation!

3.02pm

First scene of the day was a complete success. Wonderful shots. All ten were perfect. It’s a star scene that will be hard to top. I’ll try though! The overhead shots from a ladder pod were absolutely sublime. Hal Hartley eat your heart out! I can’t wait to see the rushes.

Jonnie smoking cigarette was no problem as he’s got used to the poison now! Everything is going perfectly…

Of course we are a little late. We’re just back from lunch and now have about 20 minutes to shoot a complete scene until we chucked out of the park. Hopefully, though, they will be a bit lenient here. It’s almost deserted and the park attendant seems more than a bit chilled. Rather than having to work today and marshal kids he is just sitting and relaxing on a bench watching all the action. ‘It’s fascinating!” he said earlier.

Now we’re setting up for a Roger Bonnici special – a day for night scene. He has a brand new filter that should give us the desired effect.

8.57pm

I’m home. The end was quite a race to beat the dying light but we got it. Two days and haven’t dropped a shot yet. Even gained some. The last two scenes after lunch were wonderful also. The Bonnici day for night filter I hope has done the trick. We had a quick rain burst near the end of it but still managed to cope thanks to Cristina’s willingness to change makeup in the middle of playground in torrential rain under an umbrella. The performances were outstanding. I can’t wait to get into a cutting room on that one.

The star of the day for me on the crew was Rhys. Every little challenge I gave him he overcame brilliantly and quickly and was always thinking ahead. Even ahead of me at times! Like the end of yesterday we had crowd problems when trying to shoot a scene in a location which is meant to be deserted. There were loads of them! Luckily, unlike last night, they were really good natured and enjoyed watching the shoot. I took some pictures of them smiling at us.

Ian, the dressing props, came good this afternoon. Unfortunately he is an insomniac I found out today and has been having a few problems with his girlfriend. On day one he was just off the pace and I was probably a little too harsh to him. Today I had him wrangling leaves again as well as other things – the film is leaf city – autumnal colours etc. I rushed in when we needed them urgently done for a shot and sprinkled some to camera. He said “Are you trying to show me up?” I assured him not and later explained to him a principal. There are two speeds on a film set. Stop (waiting to do something) and damn bloody quick (something needs to be done). By the end of this afternoon he got it and really stepped up to the plate delivering perfectly on planted sunflowers as well as leaves and car drying! I’m glad because secretly I was worried.

So overall a fantastic day. Long may that keep on being so!!!

Tomorrow we have a later call. 9.30am in central London. It will be crowd control big time. Real cinema verite shooting with real people crossing in frame and probably interfering with shot! It will be short sharp and intense I imagine.