Things took a bad turn.

The problems started, me thinks, when I began ignoring the producer’s advice. Oh dear. I can hear you thinking…and you’re right.

It’s like a moment from a film where you see someone do something really stupid, predictably stupid, avoidably irrationally stupid – yet they still do it. And if you’re me you shout at the screen (some not so charitable remark) about their mantel capacity.

That was me, with the slow mo. cameras. I couldn’t let go. In my head I was seeing wonderful slow motion like they had on Sky a few years back for the Cricket. Where you actually see the bat bend and wobble as they batsman struck the ball. But, I was that stupid character and I couldn’t let it go – so a week later I was in spreadsheet budget hell from all directions.

 

The hits came thick and fast about the cameras and other things…

 

1) The prices didn’t include VAT.

2) The prices didn’t include delivery.

3) The prices didn’t include insurance for the kit.

4) The DoP was bringing 2 or 3 extra crew who’d need expenses and were going to drive but they couldn’t car share.

5) I wanted a MUA they wanted a kit cost and expenses paying.

6) The public liability insurance quote hadn’t include the brokers fee…

7) Arghhhhhh….

 

The list went on and it was just too much.

I had got this far and everything was just turning negative and wrong. I couldn’t see a way to balance it all… and I felt defeated. I started writing an email to JH saying I was giving up. I came up with some feeble not really real excuse for it, but I’d had enough and I just wanted to walk away. I wrote the message without JH’s email in the ‘To’ box. I sat staring at it for long time. I could press send. It would all just go away.

Just then my phone trilled its text message alert.

Ah ha – reeeeeeally?!

Well no – not quite so dramatic sadly! That particular text didn’t stop me sending it… but it turned out the person who sent it, would. I saved the ‘I quit’ email, and went to meet MM – who was looking to help with the film doing continuity.

We sat on the benches outside my work, with some house wine from the pub across the courtyard. We talked about Lucky Charm , or I moaned. MM listened and sympathised and then hit me a whole bunch of questions – from what lights would I be using, to had I thought of crowd funding to raise money to get a colourist, to what B camera was I using, to how were you backing it all up, to – are you going to watch the days footage when you get home in the evening to, how will you watch what’s being shot, to do you know what the weathers like, to have you done a mood book, a call sheet or a shooting script?

I was becoming an expert rabbit in headlights impersonator, fairly quickly. But you know what. All MM said to all of my no’s was… ‘Don’t worry. I can help with that.’

Some people are rare gems. You really realise afterwards – things would have been completely different had they not been there. For example – MM thoughts on the slow mo camera issues?

“You’re not Sky….”

I went home that night and deleted that unsent ‘I quit’ email.

Family life goes on outside film life. So… We ended up going on holiday the week before filming. While we were away, in the midst of a long string of emails about camera spec, the DoP suddenly queried the number of days of filming. I am not sure why he chose to ignore it until then, or maybe I didn’t remind him of it enough. He’d originally wanted 5-6 days, but after discussing the budget we agreed it needed to be shorter. Everything had been organised around a two-day shoot. Anyway – The long and the short if it, after a few more emails on shooting days and times, the DoP quit. He wasn’t prepared to shoot everything in two days. He was done.

 

And breathe…

 

I emailed JH & MM telling them the news.

JH came back very quickly – he must have been up late. He was calm and focused. It’s fine we can find another one, he said. MM was the same – she’d worked on multi million pound projects where she’d seen this happened – the message was clear – we’d survive.

I realised at that point, I felt a sense of relief. The stress and trouble that had had me nearly quitting the week before, was suddenly gone. We had bigger issues, in that we needed a new DoP, but we were back to not being Sky… And I for one was relieved.

Another email string in play while on holiday was that of a cast meet and greet. JH organised it to be at a pub, just down the road from my work. Mostly everyone was going to be there, including BA and his Mum and Dad, which was lovely The evening turned out to be a blast… We even had a new DoP in place by then – DG, as well as a production manager SF. There were 8 of us there, and we all seemed to get on really well – considering we were all strangers. A few beers and a number of glasses of wine were consumed… and everything started feeling very real. We were actually going to be making a film here!

 

And then I started losing my voice.

 

Next time: Filming Day 1 – Part 1: Do things normally go this slooooowly on set then?