James is up against it with the book. He has to have it finished by Tuesday. And now he’s put his back out. By contrast, I’m pretty much twiddling my thumbs, having run out of directorly things to do, except for storyboarding and lighting planning, which of course I can’t do until the locations are locked. At the moment, James is too busy to even e-mail me a list of things he’s too busy to do, so I can’t help him out. I’ve got some equipment to sort out – a wind machine, some lighting gels, odd bits and pieces like that, but mostly I’m sitting around worrying about whether everyone else is getting their stuff done. Which I’m sure you all are.
I met with John Galloway, Colin Smith and James Swindells yesterday – my crew of lighting-camera assistants, who will also be doubling as behind-the-scenes cameramen. They all applied after seeing postings on the net, but by coincidence I’ve worked with all of them before: John on Traction, my first professional-ish short film, back in 1999; Colin on Integr8, a video course run by James Clarke, also in 99, and James Swindells on Ledbury Lives, Hereford’s Day In The Dome film, shot by me and produced by Clarkey boy. What’s that you say? Hereford, small? I don’t know what you mean. At one point during our meeting, a randy old lady came up to us and said how much she liked my hair. John said that would end up in the director’s journal. He wasn’t wrong.
Today I met with Vic Perry and Ally Ball, though plans for my second consecutive afternoon in the Courtyard were scuppered when it turned out to be closed. So we went to Ascari’s. (Explanation: Doodies is closed on Sundays.) Vic and Ally will be helping out with locations prior to the shoot, then will be our production assistant and script supervisor respectively on set.
There’s a small chance that Luca’s car might wind up being a DeLorean. Which I would find highly amusing.