Director's Daily Shooting Blog

3.16pm

Sitting in Seanne's kitchen. Things seem to have potentially panned out favourably. Alex has offered the Omani guy cheaper rent. All the locks are being changed. Alex is a star. Although, he wants to tell us we only can shoot until midnight. That is impossible. I need to shoot until at least 3am.

Seanne has just reminded me that Daniel destroyed the kite at the end of yesterdays shoot. It is needed for today. It is a terrible oversight. His first mistake on the film. Not that I blame him. He was outstanding in the forest. We have all made mistakes on this shoot. I did on Day 18. Alessa and Jade are remaking it now. Daniel is buying them champagne as a thank you. Seanne is touched by that because she didn't ask them too. Of course, I was just about to ask her to get Daniel to do that anyway!

Never enough shoes...

7.00pm

I just discovered poor Alex, in addition to the enormous problem with his keys, had to get all the office computers and hard drives re-formatted and reconfigured. By mistake yesterday, Emily pulled the power on them.

Alex is so helpful, such a wonderful person. Last night he was angry but after I got dropped off by Jonnie his amazing humour had returned. I am shocked today by his good spirit. I thanked him from the bottom of my heart and gave him a bottle of whisky from my favourite distillery, Edradour.

It was hard to find as it is obscure. Seanne took me to a shop in Portobello. Outside was a film set. People thought I was part of it because of my attire. Inside they had just two left. One for Alex and one for the architect.

Day 28 Monday October 29th ...

7.54pm

Setting up now. We are here thank God. Sonrisa, the assistant editor, just arrived. She almost blanked me despite the fact I have not seen her since day 1 of the shoot and had no reply to up to fifty texts I have sent her and the numerous messages. No apology either for the fact I still don't have any sync rushes yet. 28 days shooting. Not one rush sync up. No-one can really explain why also. Amazing really!

Katie today is Fuji girl. She is decked up in full Fuji gear thanks to their set visit on Saturday. I am funnily enough decked out most days in Fuji gear. The green "leprechaun" fleece that I got on Boston Kickout. The waistcoat I got on The Poet.

Alex the hero Remaking the kite

11.52pm

Just about to shoot Marc's final scripted scene. In the earlier one he improvised to such a degree I have more coverage than any other scene I have shot so far. He still wasn't happy though. The first scene he isn't totally happy with. Although I do not have any perfect takes I have it combined from all different takes from all the shots. At the end he grabbed a globe, span it and said "I going wherever it lands... Fuck, I'll need a boat!" Perfect for the water symbolism in the film.

Now we are doing a scene where he revolves into and out of shot on a swivel chair while Sark, behind, tries to ring Callum. Very cinematic. Reminds me a little of Mike Hodges scene in "Get Carter" where Carter is on the phone in his lodgings and the landlady is listening!

Sonrisa's disappeared again. She vanished as quickly as she arrived. No goodbye. Nothing about her actual job on the film. The next time I see her I think I will sack her. I wouldn't be surprised if that is at the wrap party though! Joke!

Ian Martin's car was broken into last night during all the confusion about the key, is making coffees. He is a very happy and upbeat character who I have not seen flag or be downbeat yet on the film. I also am very calm now. Earlier, I chatted with Seanne's mum, a spiritual guru, on the phone while on the way to set. Seanne had passed her to me. She gave me a little calming routine to do to help focus. It works well in a meditative way. I immediately felt the effect.

Seanne is much happier and relieved now. She told me earlier that her blood froze three times on the shoot yesterday. When a prop wasn't there as needed, when the key dissapeared at the end and also when she walked into the back of a shot by mistake and I shouted "Seanne Grasso!" at the top of my voice.

Sark's mushroom scene kite flight Grace and Paul Sark gets tough

3.37am

Just completing the zoom shot of Callum on the balcony. It is the shot I was most desperate to shoot in this location. It has taken ages and burnt loads of stock. This came about because it has been discovered that the zoom lens is actually not properly calibrated! That's a by product of not using the best camera hire company available! In fact far from it! Lack of calibration has turned an easy 12mm to 120mm zoom into a double focus pull nightmare! Damn!!

Alex is snoring now as he sleeps in a corner. The poor guy is dead dead tired. We do not want to wake him in case he complains about how long it is taking to shoot. We should have finished at 3.30am. Seanne just took me outside just now to question me about it. I said to her "Last night I did everything perfectly. I got it all before 12.30am as planned and requested. But then you fucked up. Maybe tonight it's my turn to fuck up!" She understood the point. Everyone is dead tired, me included. I just have a couple of smaller scenes to complete now.

4.19am

Doing the penultimate shot. A track in on Grace as she peruses the websites Callum has been looking at. At the end of the track I call a different phone ring tone that she has to answer. On the final one I will call two phones straight after another to see her confused reaction!

5.37am

Home now. We got it all the scheduled scenes plus the extra shots of Marrlen and Sark for the mushrooms scene and also Scene 14 that was scheduled for tomorrow but was better to do tonight.

Matt King, who from day 1 to now, has really grown into a fully competent and professional Clapper/Loader, diligently checking what needs to be checked, loading at the right time, doing his sheets at any opportunity, told me on wrap that we are down to one and a half rolls of film. There is one at the office but that will still not be enough. I thought we would have enough but thanks to the inferior nature of the camera equipment, the lack or rushes at the beginning of shoot and recently Marc's improvisations (I can't complain really) we are almost out. I think we have less than 4 minutes of the film still to shoot over the next two days.

I have to be up in a few hours to go see our bank and then do recce for a bit of wood that we will need to shoot in on Thursday. That will be our last day of shooting.

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