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Director's Daily Shooting Blog

DAY 5 Friday, September 28th ...

7.37am

In the car on way to set. I got a full nights sleep last night from the moment I hit the pillow through to the alarm clock I was utterly zonko!

Cristina Corazza
Costume Designer

Before I went to sleep I had the obligatory call from Williams. In addition to the normal and the imminent arrival of some rushes, it seems that there was a slight contretemps in the Production office last night between Williams and Jonnie. The exact nature of which I am not so sure yet but I will find out soon. As the only other Producer it is my job to sort out the problem. Hopefully I can do that before we are due to turn over!

I met Jonnie about 4 years ago through a bright faced young Producer called Steve Dimarco who wanted to wage a single handed crusade to change the British Film Industry. The three if us have been collaborating on developing a project every since. The nature of script development is that it goes on for ages and ages. That reality is one of the precipitating reasons for us shooting this film low budget with private investment rather than waiting interminably for proper funding.

Of course this isn’t the first time I have made this decision. It’s actually the third feature film that I have shot “Guerrilla style” and out of the four of them I haven’t yet pre-sold one film in the UK. Even though I have subsequently sold my films to Channel 4 etc and all of them have subsequently come out in the cinema’s at some point, none have ever been supported before the shoot by any UK funding body! Do I feel bitter about this? How can you when probably for the next one you will be knocking on the same doors yet again.

The day before yesterday I got a text from Neil Peplow, a Producer whom I collaborated with a few years back, who had read the blog. He texted me “Don’t forget to enjoy it!” It’s sound advice. I certainly am enjoying it in a heightened ecstatic way. When I do a wonderful shot, get a beautiful performance etc. I get a buzz, a sense of achievement. Shooting outside, though, is always a bit of a race. Today we are shooting a whole day of interiors so I hope that the pressure will be off a bit and I might savor the moments and enjoy it more.

In any event it will be two days at the same location and thus a bit of stability before the weekend. Jonnie has arranged for me, him and Julie to do a radio interview on Saturday night.

Nearly there now. Marina is chatting beside me about the crack whores on her street while Rhys behind is fielding calls from crew members who are having trouble finding the location. Problem is they say things like “I can see a bus stop” or “there is a white building in front of me”. Rhys is replying “I need a street name to give you directions!”

Here now!!!

Seanne with Daniel Nussbaumer Kate Higgs checking focus Paul, Seanne & Iain
Art Director Marina with Rhys (pre bump)

12.31pm

Shot first scene in the bath with Jonnie naked. His first of many naked scenes. Of course we started late. I think I have solved the problem from last night thankfully. Let’s see what happens.

Cristina Corazza was a little upset this morning. She had serious problems getting to set here in Hendon. It is quite a nightmare to find with one way systems, dual carriageways etc. I got lost in the car coming here on the technical recce and ended up on the road to Mill Hill!

Unfortunately also, Rhys couldn’t give her proper directions over the phone either as she couldn’t find a street sign. I hope I managed to cheer her up a bit. She’s so dedicated to the film and cares so much. She’s really a great collaborator, having done perfect drawings for each character in each scene well ahead of the shoot. Probably the most detailed preparation I have ever had with a Make-up Designer on a feature film.

1.16pm

Second scene shot now. I was going to have a static frame of Callum sitting in the bath reading a la Ozu again but decided to incorporate a zoom out a la Rosselini. Matt King, the Clapper/loader started humming during the rehearsal. I knew instantly the reference. It’s the zoom out from Malcolm McDowell in Clockwork Orange. It’s nice to have a cine-literate crew.

The good thing about shooting inside is I can blog between scenes!

3.31pm

Back from Lunch waiting for a magic stone to arrive! The crew are talking about sleeping arrangements in France and who is going to be sharing with who. I asked Kate who she’d like to share with. She replied that she is in love with someone who she hasn’t yet told and who isn’t on the crew – so better nobody!

Funnily enough the French part of the shoot is less than a week away and has kind of crept up on us. Just three more shooting days in London before we go. We will be filming all the way, on the ferry, on the roads and all the way to the mystical forest of Broceliande.

The scene we are about to shoot is the first one in the apartment. Just after he comes back from Tai Chi with the stone from Emma.

4.27pm

We have just had the most bizarre accident on a film set imaginable while filming the fourth short scene of the day.
Camera action is Callum walks into his flat, turns on lights, walks into the living room and places the stone he
got from Emma on top of an action man who has his arms outstretched to receive it. Jonnie does the action
but after he has cleared frame the action man starts to keel over. The stone falls out of frame and bang on
top of Rhys’ head who was lyng beneath the table holding it steady. Roger could barely continue operating
as he started to crack up. There’s a huge bump on Rhys’ forehead now!

5.59pm

Just completed another little scene. Number five of the day so far. Callum ironing in the flat. Loads of little
scenes today. Then once it gets night we do the big one. Callum has Malika at his house for the first night.
They drink wine, get drunk start snogging, almost get it on before she pulls back and tells him it has to be
somewhere special i.e. a forest!

I’m worried about Rhys. It really has grown into a big lump.

12.50am

Just about to go to bed. We wrapped at 10.40pm. The final scene I shot was of Callum and Malika starting to have sex in his living room before she stops him to tell him she wants their first time to be special and that it should take place in a forest.

In true Paul Hills style (!) I decided to shoot it with real red wine being drunk and spilled into each others mouths as well as on the carpet. It’s similar to how I shot the boys getting drunk upstairs at Steve’s party in Boston Kickout and the joints in the car scene later on in the film.

As a director the challenge when doing something like this is having the schizophrenia to be able to manage the intoxication levels enough to be able to get the scene done and get the most from the performances. Before I shot a take on Jonnie he was on his third glass of vintage red. As Julie doesn’t normally drink I started her on a half glass. They were more than up for the scene and although two and half minutes long I managed to get something really special.

I covered the scene in a wide tracking shot into a double close up then on to Callum and a reverse angle on Malika. Afterwards I shot some inserts to give me cutaways to get out of continuity problems – every take was different. Even though quite pissed by the end Julie gave me amazing stuff, jumping up to give a half page speech at one point – how she remembered it while so inebriated was amazing.

Afterwards she told me how much she trusted me, we hugged and she cried. Moving stuff. Very powerful. It was the second woman who cried in front of me today. Quite a day. I hope she’ll be Ok as she’s not used to drinking. I feel a bit guilty even, But that’s the problem with being a director. Creating reality to show it on screen.