Monday, 28 July 2003

Let me talk about Saturday.

Saturday was really good. I had a terrible sleep the night before because I was going through all the shots we had to do in my head. It was extremely frustrating. I think I got to sleep around 2 am.

I got up at 6am and had a shower. I think I showered for too long. I had a breakfast and Rob and I packed the car.

I made plans to pick both Ryan and Lesley up at 7:15. This I think was a bad idea because it is physically impossible to be in two places at once. So we were either going to be, at best early for one, or late for another. In the end we were late for both.

Ryan was the boom operator and Lesley was the Assistant Director. They were both very good. We had a very good crew.

We arrived in St Leonards about the same time as everyone else. We unloaded the car and caught the lift up to the 3rd floor where we were filming. I gave instructions to cast and crew alike and people started setting up and getting changed. We rehearsed the first scene for about half an hour and then moved into the boardroom to say “Hello” and to pray.

At this stage we were running 20 minutes late.

We had a big day of filming ahead. I had 38 set ups planned and 13 pages of script to get through. We shot two scenes before lunch and were running about an hour and a quater late. We cut fifteen minutes out of lunch and a 45 minute rehearsal time and came within 15 minutes of our plan again after lunch.

After lunch we were shooting the first scene which involved a long continuous walking shot following two conversations. It was the most complicated thing we had to shoot all day. It was at this stage that we discovered the boom had a habit of “popping” every now and again and cutting out lines of dialogue. That made it all the more difficult to get right.

In the end due to all the different issues we encountered shooting the scene we had Helen, Lesley, Ryan and Jo as extras making the offices look full, Matt, Louise, Dave and Jill walking in front of the camera, Rob filming and walking backwards, Me tiptoeing with the boom trying to float as not to make the boom pop, Sal guiding Rob so he didn’t walking into any walls, and Sal, Rob and I all with our shoes off and pants rolled up, looking like we were about to go wading, so we wouldn’t make a noise on film. It was good fun and it turned out alright in the end. I would have liked to have spent more time on the shot but we didn’t have it. Anyway it works.

At one stage filming that scene a woman turned up and found us filming. She didn’t look too pleased. We had positioned people in her office. Arnand (who was accompanying us at the office) and I went and said “Hello” and Arnand told her what was going on. She was much more friendly after that.

Following that we finished shooting the scene in the boardroom and moved on to the last two. With the light fading outside it was important to get all the scenes with windows in them done quickly. There is a big difference between the stuff shot in the morning and the stuff shot in the afternoon. We film the middle two scenes together so that we could use the same set ups. In the end we managed to pick up time and finished shooting right on time.

It was a really good shoot as I have said. I think I'll have to put it done to prayer and the God-influence. We have never had such an nice set. I think Christians should make more films because they may not make good ones but at least they'll have a pleasent time doing it.

Once we were done we packed up, put everything away and all crowded into the lift for a group bonding experience. We packed our car then stood around like it was the last day of camp and no-one knew how to say “Good-bye”, at least that’s how it felt for me. In the end someone broke and said “I’m off” and we all took our perspective cars.

We pulled up at the lights next to Helen’s car and my car all picked their nose. Just for a laugh. They laughed and said we were disgusting.

We overtook Jill and Sal’s car and all picked our nose but they didn’t look so we all just felt silly.

That night Rob and I went to Kaia’s party. That was good. I managed to only talk to people I know. I wasn’t in the mood for meeting new people. It was nice and we played a silly M n M game. I promised Kaia that I would take her out to dinner and a movie because we have never done that before. I have never taken anyone to dinner and a movie. I hope her boyfriend doesn’t punch me in the head.

I don’t think he will because I’ve heard he’s a very nice guy.

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