The Beacon: July 23th

Oh dear. I remember when it was all going so well, back in the first week. Now we’re lucky if we shoot 5 minutes of rushes in a day, let alone 5 minutes of screen time. After cancelling the SAS command post and related scenes last week due to the rain, I spent a frustrating couple of hours trying to find a time this week when everyone was available to shoot it. I managed to arrange one of the scenes for this afternoon, but it relied on us having an army landrover. But the guy that had said we could use his had rendered himself in communicado at some point over the weekend. Never mind, I thought, we’ll just use Mark’s (not the right colour or style, but a landrover nonetheless) and shoot it so I can replaced it with a military one in post if I can be arsed. On the way to location I got a phone call from Mark. He’d broken down on the way. This put me in one of those situations I hate, because my mind and body simply fail to operate in them – Thinking On The Spot. I got everyone set up at a clearing by the rendez-vous car park, but after trying to write a landrover-less replacement scene, and realising that it was going to be crap, I changed my mind and had us all go to the other side of town to shoot the landrover scenes in another car park… without the landrover. We successfully knocked off all the shots that we could without actually needing to see the elusive vehicle, and there was still no word from Mark. So we went back to the North Quarry Car Park, met up with the rest of the SAS actors and remounted the quarry climb shots we lost the other week. My next film is going to be about the drugs scene in Malvern Hills car parks, where all the motorbiking deadbeats go to skin up.

The Beacon: July 23th