Okay, I’m officially fed up of making this film.

I got a DoP on board, Stein Stie, but after a few phone conversations with him I realised I had grossly underestimated the amount of light required to shoot on 16mm at 150fps. I could see the budget spiralling out of control. I had visions of three huge Arri artics parked down the road from the set with hordes of sparks wheeling out equipment and getting handed a ludicrous bill. No, not going to happen, even if I did receive my Gold Card this morning.

So it’s DV for the miniatures… Yes, it’s a train. I guess I can say that now there’s a dirty great picture of it on the site. The Raven, the express train to Hell. I still plan to shoot the explosions on film, which won’t require so much light since they make quite a lot of it themselves.

Organising the miniatures shoot seems as stressful as organising prinicpal photography was, but I’m sure it can’t be really.

I made a massive cock-up with the brewery vats miniature, as I discovered today. Somehow I overlooked the need for a discussion with Jacqueline Regan, the modelmaker, about what scale it should be. Only when the pyrotechnicians went to Dartford today to see it did I find out that it was much smaller than I imagined, which will probably necessitate a swift rebuild. I’m a menace to society.

Take a deep breath. Place your head between your knees. Repeat after me: “It. Will. All. Be. Over. Soon.”

Extra: 6.12pm – I’ve just seen some photos of Andrew Biddle’s stop motion Ezekiel puppet, complete with wings. Now I’m in a MUCH better mood. Fly, my pretties, fly….