On Saturday, we had access to some offices in Brighton and we planned to shoot several scenes over a few “film days”. Angela was busy sorting out the wardrobe stuff, while I made sure all the props were ready.

Scheduling’s been a bit of a headache – there are so many actors involved, and most have other commitments. Then on Thursday, Jonathan Hansler, who was set to play Morgan, told us he wouldn’t be able to make the shoot when we needed him. This is a great shame, especially since he was perfect for the part in rehearsals. We were supposed to start filming his scenes on Saturday, so at least he let us know in advance. But that meant I had to scramble around to find someone else at short notice. Thankfully, loads of people got in touch – huge thanks to everyone. If I haven’t replied yet, I’ll get back to you next week and start scheduling auditions.

On Thursday night, I thought about bringing in a replacement for Saturday but after sleeping on it, I realised this was unrealistic and I’d have to rejig the schedule. Luckily, Oliver Sebastian was free and agreed to cover a couple of scenes at short notice.

By Friday afternoon, after the dust settled, I drove over to Worthing to pick up some kit and felt a bit down about losing Jonathan. When I originally wrote the part, Morgan was just a character in my head, but after working with Jonathan, I started to picture Morgan as him – or maybe the other way round. It’s strange, now that Jonathan’s gone, Morgan feels a bit blurred again, but I’m sure this will change once we cast someone new. I’ll just press on anyway, because one thing I’ve learned from making films is that things rarely go to plan: flexibility is key. 

I sent out updated call sheets on Friday, and on Saturday morning, we all met up at the Brighton offices to start shooting. We kicked off with scenes featuring Stewart James Barham and Gillian Fischer, both giving such spookily realistic performances that I felt that I really was back in the corporate world. Then we moved on to scenes with Stewart and Keaton, with Morgan doing some fantastic camera work, Jimmy King pulling focus, and me doing a splendid job of tapping Jimmy’s shoulder to signal focus pulls ….. a simple routine that seemed to work well.

By 5pm, we were ready for the last two scenes with Keaton and Oliver. These were the ones they hadn’t fully prepared for, and the dialogue was dense and technical. They’d spent Friday “smashing their lines”, which apparently means repeating them over and over again till they stick. They both did a fine job, drying only occasionally. Considering the complexity of the text, this was brilliant work, which became even better as we progressed. We kept the camera and sound rolling, prompting the lines, or going back a line or two, then carrying on. The scenes had a lot of back-and-forth, so with plenty of takes and good coverage, I’m confident we’ll piece it all together.

Huge thanks to everyone for a fantastic day and especially Mark Tournoff for providing access to the offices and Andrew Cawdery, who did a sterling job on “digital props”, IT support and setting up and restoring the rooms after we finished.

Our next shoot is scheduled for 27th July, though I’m still trying to fit in more scenes. Next week’s big task? Finding a new Morgan.