Day One

The first day of shooting. Only a small day with just a few things to film but exciting nonetheless. It was a good chance for the crew to get together and get to know each other.

The crew consisted of myself as director, Alun D Pughe as the Director Of Photograpy (DOP), Greg Perkins as lighting assistant/sound, David 'Bambi' Drane on boom and finally Rachel Newton on make up duty. Also present were my producers Rhiannon (my wife) and James Drane. They mucked in whenever they were needed. Finally my brother Ian was around to shoot some behind the scenes stuff.

A few days before the person I had agreed to hire to become camera operator was forced to drop out. That was my biggest head ache going into production. The guy was offered five weeks paid work on a film. I don't blame him one bit for taking that over what I was offering him (Hmm, money or no money? What shall I do?). It is his job. I'm just disappointed. He would've been an asset. Alun stepped into the breach doubling his duties and did a fine job. I dare say he'll be shooting it this week too Although Alun is well capable of performing the job I want him to focus on his own job as DOP. Our first scene was quite easy. It's a small scene set in a day centre. Our protagonist is searching for the villain of the film. He goes into various place asking the question and eventually finds himself here, in the Pontypridd Day centre in Ynysangharad park.

Two actors needed for this scene. The first is Dorien Thomas. I've asked Dorien to play the lead role of Don Williams. We met Dorien during the audition's at the Muni in Ponty. Oh, he didn't audition. I had arranged for him to pop in so we can have a chat. Our initial chat was encouraging. We gave him the script and he left promising to be back in touch. Within an hour he was back. He was very complimentary of the script, which meant a lot to me. I see myself as a writer who directs rather than the other way around. So yeah, he enjoyed the script and believed he could bring a lot to the character. I believed he could too. He was hired there and then. In the scene that we shot he had no dialogue but the way he shows the internal workings of the character in his face and mannerisms is almost a masterclass. What's more, he's a really nice and helpful bloke.

Liz Gardiner came down from Chepstow to play the role of Mary. She was a joy. Strangely we lived in the same street in Trallwn for 20 years yet we'd never met or seen each other before the auditions. Well, she nailed the part in the auditions and she was even better on the day. It was a pleasure and she's lovely. Mary is a loveable Grandmother who likes to talk about her grandkids much to the annoyance of Don.

Shooting went okay. A few minor hiccups with equipment. A dodgy tripod. A few problems with light too didn't help. We shot internally using the natural light from the windows. This worked great for the first shot but because of the way the stupid sun works the light moved for the second set up. We managed to match it up quite nice though. Just took bit of time. We'll learn from that. Because of that though we are gonna have to pick some shots up next week. No biggie smalls.

So I guess today was my first official day as a director and as a filmmaker. I enjoyed it. I had a look at the dailies and they look pretty damn good. We got something in the can at least.

Crew wise everyone is really mucking in and doing their bit and then a bit more. With small films there's a real sense of camaraderie, everybody enjoys what they are doing. They are there for love of the craft rather than money. It shows and it helps.

Next day we have (Tuesday 28th) is a biggie. All dayer. From early morning to late evening. This is what film making is like. We'll sleep when the film is shot. It's a really important day and important that we get everything we need done on that day as there are no second chances.