I have become increasingly aware of an issue with one of the external scenes we shot back in July and have started planning some external B-roll to fix it. One obvious but hard-learnt lesson from making this film has been the importance of getting external scenes wrapped before the seasons change. In an effort to fix a problem I want to shoot some B-Roll consisting of a moving point-of-view (POV) shot at the same location as before. The trees look a little different now, but I think I’ll get away with it. The shot doesn’t need any actors but will involve a gimbal.

For those unfamiliar, a gimbal is a stabilisation device that lets you shoot handheld footage without the camera shaking. A better description might be: three absurd L-shaped chunks of metal, about a foot long, attached with hinges that, at the slightest touch, start to whirl around like an epileptic robot. I’ve rarely used mine since buying it a few years ago, and just working out how the various “plates” attach to the camera was tricky enough. Then there’s the problem of figuring out what all the bloody settings mean. So, Monday found me downloading the manual.

My other task, after a relatively quiet couple of weeks, was prepping for a shoot on Saturday back in the EC offices in Kemptown. It’s becoming a bit of a running joke that I tell people that the day should be simpler because of this, that and the other – but shooting days never seem to be simple.

One major responsibility on office shoot days is preparing the space, then restoring it to its previous condition for the office workers on Monday morning. I’ve been lucky to have Andrew’s help with this; he takes photos of the offices when we arrive, quietly and calmly moves stuff out of shot, then puts it all back again later.

Saturday’s scenes were in four different locations. In discussion with Angela, we decided to be more disciplined about timing, so I laid out a detailed plan, including the cast and crew moving through the various scenes, while Andrew prepped the offices in advance and then reset them as we shot.

We had four main scenes, one of which marked Christina Dembenezi‘s debut. I’d also added a short extra scene for her, which required another actor, and I wanted to capture various B-roll shots to help with scene transitions. By Thursday, one of the actors had told me they couldn’t make the shoot on Saturday, so by midweek I was sending out requests for replacements. We were lucky enough to get Meghan Adara, who stars in The Cellar by Jamie Langlands, as well as Hazel Stock.

All the cast delivered excellent performances, which was especially impressive since it was Christina, Meghan and Hazel’s first scenes for the film. We had a lot of fun and finished shooting on time. Once again, many thanks to Mark Tournoff and Gosia Stewart of EC Brighton.