To Shoot or Not to Shoot

Prep
Originally uploaded by Alizod

Started the day by having breakfast with our two actors and then driving to the location, where the crew had already arrived and been prepping things up. A few minutes before 9.30, we began rolling!

The plan was to initially shoot the film over two days but due to restrictions of the use of location, we tried to shoot the whole thing on the one day (yesterday). It started off well, and everyone was in good spirits. I've never co-directed anything before, but I thrived on the role. I loved it, and I think I did an okay job for a first timer. My previous experince was being involved as a co-producer, so being in control over the creative aspect this time was quite different.

We tried to simplify the shoot and nto try anything fancy, afterall, this is a kind of a non-budget production! But we were keen on creating something to get us into gear for bigger things. It's been a relativaly pleasant experince so far, there are still certain things that I would've liked done better, preperation wise, but we had to go with what we have.

We shot for about four hours and took a break and then restarted for another three hours. But we couldn't complete the whole shoot on the day. People started getting weary and we made a decision to call it a day, to complete the remaining scenes the following Saturday. (Not much to go though, we've shot about 70 percent of it).

It was fun, the hardest bit was when I volunteered to stand on a chair and lift the camera vertically to try and get an overhead shot as high as I could. Somehow I didn't drop the camera, crisis averted! The other bit was trying to keep the crew and actors motivated all the time. There are high and low points and as a director you'd have to constantly be on a high note.

Visit my flickr to see some production images from the day.

Catch The Big Train

I love offbeat, silly British comedies (Human Remains, Marion & Geoof, The Office, Extras, Father Ted, Mike Bassette, Max & Paddy), and Big Train, which I've not seen at all before, has not disappointed yet. I've picked the complete seasons 1 and 2 and finding it to be quite a hilarious treat, atfer all it has Simon Pegg in it!

Tomorrow is my first day as a Blacksheepian!

And I just sneezed! (Bless me!)

The novel in progress is passed the 43k mark. It's slowed down a lot and I've only written a few hundred words over the past couple of days, very lame I know. Oh, and the test shoot has been moved to Sunday now, instead of, well, it was meant to be today.

I had to take my Canon G7 to the agent's workshop a couple of days ago because it all of a sudden died on me. Apparently there was a problem with the power, as it wouldn't connect to be turned on! I'm told it must've been shaken, or stirred! Heh, careful now. Anyways, it's all fixed now, but I was camera-less for a few days.