Friday saw us filming in a cafe, Saturday at a university and Sunday in a suite of offices in Kemp Town.

We met up on Friday evening at the Rotunda Cafe in Preston Park. The scenes themselves weren’t overly complex, although one required a manager to address a small crowd. With around eight supporting artists to assist and some clever cinematography courtesy of Morgan Andrews, I think we pulled this off. The scene must have worked because all the extras clapped at exactly the right moment, without anyone having to remind them to applaud in unison.

Saturday morning we were at Brighton University for 8am. Just three scenes to shoot, but these were the very first for four of the five principal actors, who’d had little chance to settle into their roles. Fortunately, they were excellent from the outset – much of the credit due to Angela Elise Munnoch, who managed most of the casting. The scenes weren’t particularly complicated, but with five people in a room, it takes time to get the scene to flow and ensure that every angle is covered.

I’d hired the university room for its corporate feel, but the real surprise was the exterior of the building, which plays extremely accurately into the whole theme of the film. When someone suggested adding a scene outside, I said yes. It worked beautifully, although it threw the schedule into a bit of disarray. By the time we reached the final scene, I was getting quite frantic to keep things moving. In the end, we rattled through it and I think we got everything we needed.

One of the things I’ve learnt on this project is that the first set-up of the day always takes longer than expected. Once everyone’s in the flow, scenes move faster, but then we’re often running very close to the deadline and rushing to finish. I suspect the lack of crew is the main cause because, more often than not, it’s just the DOP, his assistant, the sound recordist, me, and Angela plugging the gaps.

Sunday felt a bit more relaxed. We were back on location at the Kemp Town offices by 8am. Just two actors and two short scenes in the morning, then B-roll in the afternoon. Best of all, I had my main tech support, Andrew, on hand, which took a load off my shoulders.

However, I did manage to forget some props and had to dash home. Then the sound guy needed another mic, so home I went again. Inevitably, we started later than planned but managed to wrap the main scenes by around 1pm. After a quick lunch, the afternoon was spent capturing B-roll with supporting artists improvising short office scenes. A successful day that rounded off a successful week.

By 5pm I was home, managed a quick snooze, and by 7pm was sitting in a local Indian restaurant with a Lamb Madras and a couple of glasses of red.

Very many thanks to everyone involved. The actors Martin Portlock, Mike Freeman, Kat de Leiros, Mark Beauchamp, Oliver Sebastian, Lamb Bennett, Keaton Makki, Gillian Fischer, Stewart James Barnham, Simon Willshire; our DOP Morgan Andrews and his assistants, Cameron Ryan and James Will Day; our sound guys Alistair Lock and Adam Price; my AD and crucial support throughout the whole project Angela Elise Munnoch; Andrew Cawdery our unflappable and ever competent Technical Support; Mark Tournoff who organised the offices and coordinated the supporting artists including Diana Mikhaylova, Daren Callow, Cameron Dean and Dev Renj who gave stellar performances as office workers. Also thanks to Mark for the shirts!

That’s fifteen days filming in the bag with four or five still to go. The next shoot days involve some pretty emotional scenes so will be fairly challenging – although they involve fewer actors in more accessible locations. At last, it feels as though we’ve broken the back of the filming.