I’m depressed. It’s all over (for now) apart from a few hours’ filming this evening at Rowden Mill. Most of the actors have gone home, the crew is dispersing and I’ve got to go to work at 9 in the morning. Once again the suckiness of freelance work hits home. We’ve all made a lot of friends on this shoot and it’s going to be weird not having them around for the next month or so.

Since my last entry, we filmed at Westons on Thursday night, which proved to be the coldest night of the shoot so far. It really was fecking nasty. Lara, Chris and Ray had spent the day terrorising staff and customers at Tesco, with Ray still in his scar make-up from the sunrise scene. After Westons we had a couple of scenes to do in town outside Doodies. It was one of those nights where we had a lot to get through and there was no time to really stop and think about it, but I was pleased with the results nonetheless.

Friday night’s shooting was on the rooftop of the Courtyard Arts Centre. I had expected this to be the most unpleasant night of the shoot, exposed to arctic winds and freezing rain. Fortunately it was a relatively mild, calm and dry night. We hauled all the gear up there, including a massive HOTEL sign, and starting turning over, only to discover that my Canon XL1S’ intermittent fault had become a constant one and it was now unable to record anything. We switched to the XM1 and shot the first scene, a dialogue one.

There were two other short scenes to do, one of which was a bit of an A-Team homage involving welding, which the multi-talented Ray was able to do himself. We used the jib to get some very cool shots revealing the city skyline. I swear if you look carefully you can see the Hudson.

It was Jonny’s last night so we spent half an hour outside my flat getting some publicity photos before bidding him farewell. Then it was inside to reshoot Ray’s air guitar scene, which had originally formed part of that horrible long night at Rotherwas/Rick’s house. At this point the XM1 started playing up, and there was a terrifying moment when we played back the night’s footage and the tape appeared to be blank. There was nothing we could do, so we pressed on and shot the scene, then I rescued my TV and deck from under all the junk that had been moved to dress the set and played back the tape again. Fortunately everything from the whole night was fully in tact.

Yesterday’s schedule involved a scene in which our heroes tool up with weapons from the boot of Luca’s car, and a sequence at Hereford Railway Station. Frustratingly, we couldn’t do either of these scenes due to unfinished props and an unsorted location. So that only left publicity photos and a piss-up. John Galloway and I burned several films shooting the leads out on the golf course at the back of the new actors’ house.

We all said a few words to the behind-the-scenes camera about how the shoot had gone. Certain names were cursed more than once. I had brought along some loaded BB guns and a blown-up photograph of a certain someone. The certain someone’s photograph did not survive very long. As blood alcohol levels increased the BB guns were brought back out and Edd, Ray and AJ started employing them against one another. Edd took to lifting up his shirt and inviting the guys to take pot shots at his belly button. He still has the scars. AJ then grabbed one of the guns and shot himself in the forehead at point blank range. Frankly guys, you’re a bunch of nobs. And that bastard Edd shot me in the arse.