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.