Do

Actors check their lines Art Director looks for leaves 1stAD watches the set Gaffer misses his lights Sound Designer needs quiet

In the night scene I shot three days ago where Callum had been awoken in the dead of night by voices, I had fallen into the tent deliberately to great effect doubling as a drunken Breton hunter to Callum and Jonnie's (genuine) surprise. The shot was absolutely hilarious. Fantastic.

The ruse today, starting a scene where someone is woken up abruptly, way before they think it is going to happen, so that they are genuinely surprised, worked even better. Callum was absolutely shocked when he was woken up. The scene was wonderful. Jonnie came up to me afterwards and said "Good". He was impressed.

For reasons of coverage I decided to do a second take. The problem was how do I get the same effect when he is expecting it? I decided to ask Cristina and Marina to start talking audibly in Italian. Again I started a silent turn over. Jean-Baptiste kicked his boot, shouted and the girls talking stopped as planned. He was even more surprised than before. Especially when the gun was put right to his throat up against the tree.

I am using every trick in the book these days to illicit good performances from my cast. I feel fully articulate and confident as a director. I just wish I could shoot a film every year like Winterbottom does. Just think how sharp I would be then!!

In the later part of the scene where Callum and the soldier talk there was real warmth in it. I saw something in Jonnie I'd not seen before except maybe in the final scene with Emma. He did real good. By shooting on longer lenses for extended takes and reducing the crew I achieved an amazing naturalness. Afterwards Jonnie said "I just felt like I was having a chat. When you called cut I had forgotten we were filming!"

Jonnie up a tree Marina Pete Axle P carved in a tree

6.23pm

We have humped all the gear into the forest and up to the final lake to film the Soldier's final scene. Jose, the strongest of us has humped the most. Axle, still being rested, brought the dog and her backpack. I brought two camera batteries and the prop gun (I am defacto Armourer!).

One problem I have had today is that we are running out of film stock. For some reason 9 rolls have gone astray. 10 extra rolls are due to arrive tomorrow but in the mean time I am running really low. I now have 290 feet of the right stock for a scene of one third of a page.

6.40pm

That was close. With the last frame of stock we got the scene. It run out just before I was going to call cut. I might need an insert but I got it. Even the dog performed.

In an earlier scene Jean-Baptiste had walked past a cornfield. I had told him when we had shot before that this walk around the village and forest was his daily ritual, where he thought about his past and more importantly his future.

Before we shot the final scene I told him "When you walked past the cornfield this morning. The corn had been cut." He looked at me. I continued "You have the feeling today that something will soon change in your life."

He replied "I agree. From now on I want to be called Francesca!"

Parfait.

The most amazing thing is when we did the final take of the wide shot. Bubbles appeared in the lake as if on cue. JB looked to the lake as if by magic. Bizarrely I was planning on creating bubbles artificially for a insert done later.

I didn't need to thanks to the magic of Broceliande.

9.19pm

Sitting in the restaurant now. Earlier I had an impromptu meeting with Rhys to discuss our exit strategy. I think we will leave France on the 24th. As tomorrow is a day off, we only have 4 days shooting left.

Jean-Baptiste has left now. I had been quite harsh with him as an actor. I thought it would instill a more military air . I hope it worked. I feel it has. He did really well. I wish I could have spent some more time with him after the shoot but he had to get back to Paris. I met him through a recommendation from Steven Cree who is playing Jode. Of course I haven't shot a frame on Steven yet. His agent is making my life difficult thanks to a theatre gig he has got. In any event we will have to find a solution soon.

10.42pm

Still in the restaurant. Earlier we were discussing something Jean-Baptiste had said. Apparently Williams had called him up two days ago and asked if he could put some stock in the toilet of the Eurostar from London to Paris and if JB could collect from the toilet! If this is true or not I have no idea but it's certainly a good story. It certainly sounds a creative idea!

Paul Gernon is also here now. Apart from being a mean poker player, he is here to help us out with production things. Along with Julia Main, we are now back up to two people full time in production out of 16. That's the minimum we need, I feel.

That is lucky as Williams is unable to come back on Saturday now. I assume he has to concentrate on our cash flow and prepping the second London part of the shoot. But I'm not sure and many times people have asked me where he is. Myself, I communicate with him almost exclusively through text messages. That suits me fine as while shooting and sleeping (90% of my existence these days) my phone is on silent.

Anyway, he managed to get me the stock I need to continue shooting. So that is a relief.