Wednesday 12 August 2009

Day 2: A Night of Heroes

Arrived at the location (pub) to be told we couldn't film there tonight, no way no how. Turns out the manager had got the wrong day. We could film there tomorrow though!

Arse.

So, five minutes of gut-wrenching panic later, we decided to shoot the chase scene that we had slated for the day after, and essentially switch days 2 and 3 around. It was one of those classic moments in guerilla filmmaking; shock, acceptance, quick solution! And that's when the magic started happening...

First of all, a lovely lady called Gill Douglas, a local artist who lives by the road we wanted to film on, let us use her house as a power source for our lights. So, one smooth jib shot and some running extras later, we'd got our first shot of the night as the CrimeFighters shoot off towards the Minster followed by thugs.

At that point, the godlike genius that is Mr. Peter Marshall arrived in his pickup truck with some of our kit, having helped bring it to the location, and then let us use his truck to get a couple of shots of the CFs rocketing past the Minster, with us all huddled in the back:



I love moments like this, it's just pure indie filmmaking joy. Look at Tony, he's in his element.

Once that was in the bag, we decided to improvise some shots using the lamps and lights around Minster Square; not ideal, but best we could do, and then moved on to Bootham Bar to film the end of the chase and a small fight scene. The final heroes of the night were the staff of the Lamb and Lion Inn, a genuinely wonderful pub on any day of the week, but extra wonderful now since they let us use their pub as a power source for the rest of the night.



After that, we got on with getting some brilliant shots! The cast and crew were on top form and worked together to get the scene done quickly and with grand style, and the whole thing was total fun from start to finish.



I know we'll encounter more challenges and it's still early days, but the help and support of the people of York has been overwhelming, and I'm impressed by the cast and crew's ability to work professionally and solve problems as a team. I feel that even after 2 days, we're really making this film and it's going to be quite something.

Also, Zomblog are on the SFX website! Woo!

2 comments:

jennie said...

I think it was probably the biscuits that made it all go so well...

Miles said...

It was! ;-)