Saturday 8th November 2003

Today did and didn't go to plan. Firstly, just as I was falling asleep at midnight Kev called to tell me that there were no batteries with the camera which left for an interesting predicament as our first shot was to be in a field in the middle of nowhere (as seen in the first Web Doc), but with only being able to shoot with a mains adaptor rendered this impossible. Kev quickly phoned SFX Make-up artist Dan Anderson to cancel the 5:30am pick up call, and I called the ever bright Mark Allen to cancel the collection so early, I then let Darren know and with some effort got a reasonable nights sleep.

Morning comes and at 8:15 Mark arrives to collect Darren and I and take us to the meeting place. From there we traveled on to the hospital and began to set up. Dan couldn't make it for the 9am start, so without being able to utilize Darren straight off we shot some of the 'incidental' shots and set up the other locations that we would be shooting, so that when we came to shooting they were prepped. Darren was finally ready just after 12 noon (two hours behind schedule) and we set about capturing the necessary shots for the day.

It was Darren's Day, so we shot all the stuff we could that didn't require any other actors. We started simply with the first shots we see of 'Jack' as he wakes up in the hospital. We got a multitude of shots from many angles so that we can create a montage to introduce 'Jack' and also shot a tracking reveal shot. This took us up to lunch time when Kathryn Waters and I took a quick trip into town to collect some stuff and also pick up a couple of batteries for the camera. When we returned at 2:00 we carried on with the shoot. Next up was the a scene in a kitchen which features a long tracking shot and a reveal.

It took a while to get the timing and pacing of the shot perfect but it worked out in the end and looks fantastic. From the kitchen we moved to an office sequence, which structurally is similar to the kitchen, but we've shot it very differently. Whereas the kitchen is a long tracking shot, almost an inevitability to where it is going, the office was much more paced, with frenetic movements from Darren and less structure photography. The scene should cut together interestingly and have a different feel to the scene in the kitchen. Something very disgusting also happens in this scene, but it's too good to write here. Following this we moved onto one of the two ultra-complex shots of the film, again I don't want to talk too much about it as it's part of the surprise and interest of the film, but from a production stand point I think it's our crowning achievement of the day (other than Dan's work!). Kev and I spoke about not wishing to start this scene (which has to have a locked camera) with Darren walking into the frame as this isn't particularly exciting visually, so with a small movement of the camera we set up the shot beautifully. The final shot may come to a minute of screen time or less, but was one continuous four minute take for Darren, who was pretty tired at the end of it as he had to really pile on the energy. I wasn't sure what he was going to do (I had something quite slapstick in my head when I thought about it), but Darren brought something truly frightening to the scene that it needed and I am REALLY looking forward to editing it together.

From here we shot a series of reaction shots of 'Jack' over a number of small room locations. Darren is reacting to stuff that we are shooting tomorrow, which is always a challenge, but always up to the mark Darren performed like a champ. We finished at 6pm, an hour ahead of schedule and we had shot all that we had intended to! I later met with Hester Kent who had arrived from Leeds, I didn't feel it would be right to bring her all the way to Stoke and just leave her at the hotel on her own for the evening, so we met up and went for a drink. Eventually the desire to get some sleep took over and we said good night and I came home (cheers again for the lift, Elk!). So, tomorrow brings our trip to the fields of Barlaston to film Darren! I hope.

Maybe I shouldn't have written that! I could have just jinxed us. . .