Wow. A guy from off of Eastenders sent his CV in. How weird is that?

I took a wander yesterday and shot a little recce footage of the station, Rotherwas Industrial Estate and the area around the Leisure Centre. As a result, I now know exactly where I want to film all those scenes in the script which just say “Ext. Street.Night.” Walking around Rotherwas on a Saturday afternoon was much like walking around a ghost town. I saw no-one save for a woman locking up a factory, and a couple of guys who pulled up in their car and asked if I’d seen a black and white sheepdog. I told them I’d seen a black and white cat, but that he belonged to some postman or other. (Did you, Neil? No, I said “I’m sorry, I haven’t.”)

Today I’ve been doing more storyboarding. This film actually has more dialogue in it that any film I’ve ever directed. (Since my dialogue’s always crap, I tend to use as little of it as possible.) This makes it a bit of a challenge from a camera point of view – ie. how to make the shots interesting and varied over the course of a five minute dialogue scene, without distracting the viewer from the performances. I’d like to do some really long shots in this movie, just letting the actors carry it.

So I’ve got five more days in the country. They will consist of almost constant Soul Searchering – auditioning by day, meeting crew or recceing by night. Sleep? Pah! I can sleep on the plane.