Stupidly obvious as this may sound, after looking at various models of the set for months, the real thing seems really big. Fortunately the construction crew (which includes within its ranks the inestimable Soul Searcher stalwart Colin Smith) is doing a much better job of cutting the holes out of the real girders than I did with my cardboard counterparts when I was making the storyboard model.
I’m pleased to officially announce the casting of Kate Burdette as Isabelle, and having met several DOPs today I can also reveal that Oliver Downey will be the man behind the lens on the Dark Side pilot. I love it when a plan comes together.

The first day of set building and all went well… apart from getting a bit lost on the way and Colin’s car almost overheating. Already several big flats are taking shape in the workshop under the watchful eye of construction manager Gus Wookey.

A very stressful week which I’m glad is over. But we now have several new crew members, including costume maker Eve Collins and costumer Jerry Bland, and all is ready to begin building the set tomorrow.

The auditions on Friday didn’t quite go as I had planned, but nevertheless were very successful. I can’t say more than that at this stage.
Yesterday Katie and I interviewed costumers and dress-makers. We need someone to turn her quarter scale Isabelle dress into the real thing, not to mention sourcing shoes, accessories and what-nots [technical term]. Again, things went well and decisions should be made very soon.
And a fresh batch of Morning Glory has just been planted. The originals all died at the end of summer. We hope the new lot will at least serve to bulk out the inevitable artificial flora.

Things are happening thick and fast now. To begin with, I finally finished draft six of the screenplay. Amazingly, looking back at last year’s journal, I notice it’s exactly a year since I announced that I had started draft six. There have been some major changes and, though some of the new sequences are necessarily not quite as polished as the long-standing material, I believe the whole story has been lifted and strengthened.
Ian is now working full time on the production design, visiting prop houses, liasing with painters and sculptors and so on. The mysterious R.A.C.T.A.B.E. insignia and Swordsman spare parts are amongst the items currently taking shape. As for set dressing, Ian can barely get into his room without falling over all the stuff he’s gathered.
Yesterday morning the two of us plus a van driver and his son moved all the scrounged wood into a lock-up on the other side of the Pinewood lot, where it will await its calling on November 10th, the day set construction begins. And today we visited the workshop at FBFX, where Grant and his team have assembled the basic elements of Max’s bio-suit (podcast coming soon). So far the suit consists of two layers, between which compressed air is inserted. Many straps, mechanisms and pouches are then worn on top, only a few of which have been made yet. Kev, who modelled the suit for us, told us it’s nice and cool inside thanks to the escaping air.
Last but definitely not least, we’re running auditions at the end of this week for the parts of Isabelle (formerly Kara) and Max. We have some very talented people lined up and we can’t wait to put them through their paces.

Today is the fifth anniversary of the start of principal photography on Soul Searcher. (Thanks to Colin for reminding me.) That shoot seems so long ago now. I never thought it would be this long before I would be lensing another film of my own.
At Pinewood Studios Ian has been collecting wood from Prince of Persia’s set strikes. He’s been working very, very hard getting all the nails and screws out of it, not to mention doing his day job and finishing the set design.

A meeting at the Model Unit today was very fruitful. We finally sorted out how the ceiling mechanism which supposedly controls the Swordsman is going to be achieved. The solution, or in fact solutions plural, are actually quite simple, and in all fairness Ian has been suggesting one of them since day one. They’re difficult to describe, but they don’t require a walkway and they don’t pose a problem of connecting ropes in a live action plate to post production elements. The bulk of the mechanism will be achieved with a miniature element of some kind, but the section immediately above the Swordman will be in-camera.

Ian is starting to build up a crew for the set build. Meanwhile I’m trying to sort out a few things that just don’t want to be sorted, so it seems. It’s frustrating but it’s very familiar. As my previous features have taught me, pre-production is all about chasing people up.

This week I viewed another studio, lacking the convenient walkway of 3 Mills, but better in certain other respects. Cost is likely to be the deciding factor.
I’ve been looking through agents’ suggestions for a voice actor to portray the Wooden Swordsman. Among them were a Young One, a Doctor Who, several recognisably-voiced advert narrators, a son of a knight who I once witnessed singing an impromptu duet of “The Longest Time” in a kitchen with Davros’ father, and an actor I tried to attach to Dark Side as Julius Gale a couple of years ago.
This evening I met up with a stop motion animator and compositor, Susie Jones, and we discussed the practicalities of a Dynamation ceiling mechanism.