Today we shoot daylight exterior scenes in the courtyard of Margam Castle, which the art department have transformed into a 17th century village square. There are carts and barrels and braziers and market stalls selling pots, cheese, bread, pheasants, vegetables and fabrics. Sound familiar?
We shoot some very cool handheld shots moving amongst the extras and the stalls, following and leading our main character. One take is a POV, and I’m pushed and pulled around by a supporting artist. Camera operating at its most immersive!
We have a short lunch because we still have a lot to do before the light goes. By 3:45pm, even on a shutter angle of almost 360 degrees (a creative choice because we’re shooting flashbacks) the light is gone. We move inside to a couple of pick-up shots in the nun cell, then wrap at 5pm. We have to vacate the castle by 5:30 because some kind of ghost-hunting tour is going on. No-one complains about an early wrap on a Saturday!
Before we leave, I go with Paul, Ben and some of the art team to look at the chapel set, which we will be shooting for the first time on Monday. There is a lot of rigging to do. I have Sunday to mull over how best to light it.

We go into the nun cell (where we shot yesterday) and turn on the lights. We are ready to shoot. This takes everyone by surprise because they’re used to waiting ages for lighting to rig in the morning. We do some more Evil Dead, 18mm lens, banking steadicam shots, with Max and Mikey waving dingles in front of our lamps again.
Just after lunch we do my favourite shot so far. It is just a profile CU of Hannah washing her face. She is silhouetted against a shaft of light from the window, and I give her a very slight edge from an LED panel on the floor as she bends over the basin. It is simple and beautiful. Much as I dislike the CRI of LED panels, the two we have in our kit have proven very useful, particularly when running distro would have been prohibitively time-consuming.
We shoot a prison cell scene. Everyone is expecting a shaft of light, including me. After all, I’ve done loads of shafts of light on this film, and a prison cell is the classic excuse for one. Unfortunately the window position is not conducive. Ben has pre-rigged a kino toplight. Everyone looking at the monitor likes how it looks. Except me. I go out into the hall to look at the ‘checks’ monitor. (We have four monitors: a large ‘checks’ monitor – usually a room or two away from the set – where art department, costume, make-up and the script supervisor can watch; a small director’s monitor which is close to the action; a tiny focus puller’s monitor which is usually clamped to the director’s monitor, or occasionally rigged on the camera; and a monitor specifically for Dave, the sound mixer.) As the actors run a rehearsal, I realise what the shot needs. I have the two Bens (gaffer and standby carpenter) screw a Dedo into the wall above the prisoner, giving a hard streak of light down onto her. This punches up the shot somehow, and I’m happy to shoot.
We move upstairs into a low-contrast set: light-coloured walls with lots of hanging white sheets. I find myself doing some of the flattest (but perhaps most flattering) lighting of my career. The sheets give lots of bounce which looks great on the ladies. It’s a happy flashback scene, so the mood fits.
After wrapping I discuss the scenes coming up on Monday with Paul and Hattie, the standby art director, because gaffer Ben will need to do some pre-rigging for them tomorrow. On a production this big it’s important to think ahead in the schedule and be prepared, because if you’re not then people will want to know the reason why.

 

I discover that the catering van offers porridge for breakfast. Sounds like a good idea, but eating a sausage bap while reading the day’s scenes is slow, and the porridge is cold by the time I get to it.
We are in the nun cell and the corridor outside it all day. We send back some of our HMIs and the rental house gives us more tungsten units in return. We rig 650W fresnels above all of the candles in the corridor. Dimmed down to 50% and black-wrapped to prevent spill, they shine nice shafts of orange light down the walls. Sadly we don’t have time to wire the distro so they can all be flickered, but it works ok. It’s very handy to have a standby chippy who can put up the battens we need to rig lights like this.
The most exhausting thing about this shoot is all the questions. I have eight people under me (1st AC, 2nd AC, camera trainee, grip, gaffer, best boy and two sparks) and at least two of these have questions after most rehearsals, plus queries and discussions with the art department and of course with Paul, the director. Frequently two or more people ask me a question at the same time. What lens do you want on? Are we on the steadicam? Can we do the next scene in one single developing shot? Do you want these candles lit? Where do you want the 4K pre-rigged for the next scene? Where is it safe to put the monitor?
After eating lunch I decide to find a quiet corner to lie down for the remainder of the break. Immediately the production manager comes over and asks me to go with Paul and Tom, the locations manager, to reccie a tree just up the road for a scene next week. I grab a second helping of dessert (Treacle Sponge Bastard) as consolation and try to juggle it with my mug of tea as I follow the others to this tree.
At night, when we get back to the cottage, we watch Javi’s 40 minute edit of the film so far. It looks and sounds awesome.

As we walk up to the castle from the car park, deer are silhouetted against a beautiful sunrise. Today we’re shooting scenes with Michael Ironside. He’s been in a whole bunch of stuff, but is perhaps best known for his roles in Scanners and Total Recall. Despite severe jetlag, he’s a lovely guy and great fun to work with. For each set-up he asks what lens length we’re on and is very aware of how wide or tight his eyeline should be for each length.
Most of the day is spent shooting one scene – the longest scene in the film, about five minutes. At the end of the handheld takes, when my guys take the Alexa off me, I feel like my spine is growing six inches.
The scene is in an impressive set which we light with a bank of four HMIs punching through fretwork. The sidelight casts annoying shadows on the actors’ faces in the close-ups, which takes some manicuring. I kind of wish we’d just cheated the sources round.
While the lights are being rigged, I pop out to the courtyard we’re shooting the village scenes in on Saturday with Paul, producer Mike and production designer Julian. We discuss green-screens for set extensions.
Rupert pulls off some more awesome steadicam moves for the day’s last scene. We use a Jem Ball for the first time, up in a corner, punching up the candlelight. I’m reminded why I don’t normally use Jem Balls or China Balls: even at 500W it’s hopelessly dim. With it just a few feet from the actor, I’m well under my T2.8 stop. Fortunately it works for the scene.

Our first day in Margam. It’s so nice to be indoors again. I wear only 4 layers of clothing instead of the 7 I’ve been accustomed to. Ben and his crew are relieved not to be moving 6Ks and 4Ks around all day. It takes them some time to distro and rig the new sets, but at least things can stay rigged then, for the next time we come back to each room.
Most of the day’s scenes are in a windowless corridor. The lighting gets very dark and moody by necessity. We screw baby plates to the ceiling and rig 650W tungsten fresnels to them to beef up the candles underneath. Keeping them out of the top of frame becomes a bit of an issue, but you’re always going to have this problem with corridors and backlight. Whichever way I’m looking along the corridor, I turn off the lamps behind me and turn on the ones shining at me. Paul loves this backlight-only look. Meanwhile, 2.5K HMIs simulate the daylight coming in from adjoining rooms.
At lunchtime I watch the latest edits. The exterior Tretower stuff with the horrendous weather doesn’t look too bad.
Here in Margam, the art department have built an awesome set which will be redressed several times to serve as the bedrooms of several different characters. There is a fretwork grill in the ceiling which Ben rigs a 575W HMI above. It throws nice patterns onto the back wall, but for a nighttime scene we decide that just a shaft of light from the window (a 2.5K HMI, wrapped gently onto the actor’s face with a silver bounce board) does the job nicely. Sometimes less is more.
We return to our cottage, stopping for a pub dinner on the way, and light the open log fire. Today was a good day.

I spent Sunday watching TV and listening to the wind howling around the cottage. Today the weather is just as bad, if not worse. We are outside again all day. We shoot the film’s final scene, and a walk-and-talk, which gets ridiculous whenever the cast round a corner to the exposed rear of the building and their hair and costumes immediately start flapping about wildly. I have never shot in such appalling weather before, not even that day of endless rain in Epping Forest on Ren.
Our night exteriors begin out the front of Tretower Court and move into the courtyard. We rake the 6K across the front of the building and place two 4Ks on the walkways and battlements to light the courtyard.
When we wrap it is the end of our time at Tretower. The lighting and camera kit are packed into the two vans and a truck, and the drivers arrive to take them to Margam Castle. I watch the gennies and the water bowser being driven off, and an artic cab pulling in to hook up the costume trailer. It is a huge operation.
I’m in Rupert’s van for the journey to our new holiday cottage, somewhere in the Brigend area. We stop at Maccy D’s and Tesco for food and supplies. It is about midnight when we arrive at the cottage. It’s almost as isolated as the previous one, but at least there’s wifi here. And an aga. And a Christmas tree.

By the time we finish breakfast, the rain has set in for the day. All of today’s scenes are in the priory grounds, in a cemetery and vegetable plot which the art department have constructed. We are all wondering how the grey, wet, windy weather is going to cut with the “sunlit” interiors we’ve been shooting all week. I crank the white balance up to 7,000 Kelvin, which helps a surprising amount.
Everything takes twice as long in the rain. Steadicam shots are particularly difficult, without proper rain covers for the rig, monitor or camera. Everything is taped up with polythene and it’s hard to access the controls. Théo has to follow Rupert around with a windbreak, and the lens has to be constantly checked for raindrops. At one point a lens fogs again.
The weather is deeply, deeply unpleasant. Marcia, one of the producers, has gifted me some waterproof trousers, but my supposedly Goretex boots are letting in plenty of water and I think I might get Trench Foot. The only way things could get worse is if it was dark.
So of course we do a night scene.
Paul and I have previously established the main angles we’ll be shooting this from, and the electrical department break early for lunch so they can rig the distro and lighting while the rest of us eat. We are using our 6K as backlight, and two 4Ks through a diffusion frame as a soft sidelight. Unfortunately the high winds immediately tear down the frame, so we have to diff the heads instead, which makes the sidelight a little harder. A third 4K rakes the back of the priory, while three tungsten 2Ks and a couple of LED panels inside the building put orange glows in the windows. The FX guys, Warwick and Aaron, run two Artem smoke guns for atmos.
Despite the continuing rain, we are all set up and ready to start shooting in good time… when suddenly the 4Ks cut out. Then a huge gust of wind barrels through the location and the 6K starts to sway a little. Ben quite rightly calls a halt on safety grounds.
We repair indoors and discuss rescheduling options. It seems like we’re pretty screwed and we’re going to be heading home tonight without having shot what was looking like a really cool set-up. We only have one more day at Tretower and it’s already packed with scenes.
Then the wind and rain drop and we’re given the OK to resume work. We’re short on time now, but the scene has been well rehearsed and choreographed by the stunt team, and we get some great material. Snatched from the jaws of defeat!
I go back to the cottage and take a long, hot bath.

By now my morning routine is established. Before leaving the cottage I spend 5 or 10 minutes reading some of the DOP Documents, a collection of inspirational PDFs elegantly presenting frame grabs from the work of some great cinematographers alongside informative quotes from them. Today I’m reading the Jordan Cronenweth one. Above some frames from Blade Runner a quote reads: “Naturally to create shafts of light one must have some medium. Smoke is wonderful photographically but it’s not without its problems. The only practical way to judge smoke density is by eye. I find that a good density is achieved just before I lose consciousness.” A man after my own heart.
When we get to the unit base I sit and read the day’s scenes over breakfast, reminding myself of what I highlighted and scribbled in the margins during prep. Javi, the DIT and assistant editor, arrives with some cut scenes on a tablet. Watching these without the baggage of being on set shooting them, I can see what’s working and what isn’t, from a photographic standpoint. I’ve used a lot of bounce light from underneath, and I can see that it looks fantastic on Hannah, our heroine, if it’s poly bounce, whereas the villainess looks most suitably scary with matt silver (Celotex) bounce.
Then it’s down to set to figure out the first scene’s shots with Paul. We start once more in the infirmary, and then move for one last time to the great hall. It’s incredibly windy. The sparks are outside wrestling with gels, trying to get them to stay on the lamps as the wind howls down the valley and across the back of our location. In the end we have to give up. Even with a plethora of croc clips, the wind simply rips the gels in half. I ask the script supervisor to make a note that tonight’s material will need to be graded to match the gelled scenes we shot on previous nights.
The nasty weather does not bode well for our first exterior scenes tomorrow.

We start in the infirmary again. More opportunities to shoot through the muslin drapes over the beds.
Then it’s a daylight scene in the great hall, and I get to use what I call a Window Wrap for the first time on this shoot. It’s a kino indoors that compliments a hard HMI firing in through the window by appearing to wrap the window light softly around the down-side of the actors’ faces. Ben favours a second HMI bounced off poly, but I insist on a kino and I love how it looks. Neither one of us is right or wrong; it’s just a personal taste thing. We use negative fill to block the natural light coming in from the other side of the hall and take down the actors’ up-sides.
After dark we set up for the heroine’s first entry to the priory. Paul wants to do it all in one ambitious steadicam shot, and I suggest seeing out of the open doors to the courtyard, making it even more ambitious! He and Rupert work on the camera path, trying to find something that makes sense and feels natural. We record some rehearsals and analyse the playback to see where we might have issues with equipment in shot, camera shadows, unwanted lens flares, etc, etc. Just as my brain is threatening to fail with the complexity of it all, Ben has some great suggestions on how to tweak the HMIs, proving once again that you are only as good as the team around you.
We have four 4K HMIs burning, plus a 6K HMI, a 2K tungsten fresnel, two 1×1 LED panels and two 4×4 kinoflos – certainly the biggest lighting set-up I’ve ever done, in terms of wattage. Ben cunningly positions a matte silver bounce board (Celotex) to “borrow” some wasted light from the 6K and throw it back onto the exterior courtyard walls seen when the doors are opened. Smoke and the ropey old glass in the location’s windows help to soften everything out and fill things in. When the art department have lit the many candles, the shot looks like a million dollars.
When we wrap I stand outside and look at the clouds scudding across the moon, above the battlements. All is right with the world.

Today Ben will take a trip to reccie Margam Castle, our location for the second half of the shoot. Over breakfast I run him through the floor-plan of the rooms we’ll be using and the kind of units we’ll need in each.
I have a temporary gaffer in Ben’s absence, Mark. He copes admirably with being thrown in at the deep end. For almost the first time on the shoot so far, the sun tries to get in on the action. Mark and co put up a floppy to kill it, edging it round as the sun moves across the sky. A kitchen scene requires two of the cast to come in through the door. I have Rupert and Max rig the iris motor to the lens, and they give me a remote for it. (This is part of the Preston multi-channel system we’re using, which gives us wireless control of the focus, iris, zoom when applicable, and stop/start.) I pull a couple of stops as Rupert pans the steadicam from the ladies entering to the girls already inside.
We shoot in the laundry room for the third time. I’ve tried to light it differently each time, even though I know the first thing the colourist will do when they see a new laundry scene is split-screen it with the previous laundry scene and try to make it match. Hopefully I’ll be there to stop them! Anyway, this time I really want to separate the foreground laundry from the kitchen in the background. I have the guys rig a kino to backlight the girls in the laundry room, then I make sure we straw-gel the 4K HMI lighting the foreground, while letting the 6K and the other two 4Ks lighting the background go a little cool.
We move to the foyer and get a cool slo-mo shot tracking out of the room with the crucifix window, leading Hannah. The burnt-in window creates a crucifix-shaped lens flare which I love. Today I seem to be getting more chance to soften off the lighting in the close-ups and get the cast looking great. A good recipe seems to be bouncing one of the HMIs coming in through the windows off a poly or Celotex for a Rembrandt 3/4 key, then poly on the other side for fill.
Back in the great hall, we’re not allowed to light a fire in the hearth, so Ben fires a couple of 650s into there. They bounce off the stonework inside the fireplace and come out as a lovely soft, orange backlight for the girls sitting in front of it. Mikey crams into the fireplace too and twiddles in-line dimmers to give the light some dynamics. The lighting and camera teams do a particularly great job on this scene, one of my favourites so far, even though it’s the end of the day and they’re all exhausted.