Day Two

Time tick tick ticked as we headed for the early hours of the morning. Eventually we got into the club room where guitarist Ceri Collins played us a lovely pretty acoustic number. Really good song. It's been consistently in my head since I heard it. Even before this project got going I knew that somewhere I was going to fit in a Ceri Collins song. I met him in my old job and we got on. He is just a really nice guy. I wanted to involve him because I think he's really talented as a guitarist and singer. Hopefully this will spread a bit of buzz for him. Hope so.

Time has beaten us. It's really late but I still have another scene to do. After talking to the Prophets boys I can get five of the six back for a few hours tomorrow. Lee has other arrangements and has to be in London. That's fair enough. I'll think of something to explain his absence. I feel really lucky about this. There you go then. There are second chances. Finished filming at about one thirty in the morning. I think I got to bed around two thirty. Knackered. Haven't eaten.

Tuesday saw the arrival of the Lostprophets guys to play the roles of the Taffia. I am absolutely thrilled that they could all do it. I think a few people were sceptical over whether I could get them, well I could. In your face doubters! I decided not to tell too many people about their involvement though. I thought it would prove detrimental for a few reasons. The most obvious is the fans. If the fans knew they were in Ponty they might turn up and shout 'I love you Ian' or something. That would just be confusing for my brother if nothing else. I also didn't want people committing to the project just because they might meet the band. I wanted people who wanted to work on the film because of the script or the idea or just because they wanted to work on a film. It worked out well.

I know Mike Lewis and Ian Watkins from way back, pretty much all my life. I asked them in November 06 if they’d appear in the film. They agreed. I thought I would use them in a cameo but as time went by the script changed and so did their roles. I upped them considerably. Watkins was given the role of Jonesy, the major villain in the film. The Darth Vader of the piece. Ian said early on that he “was in whatever” which was a great relief. I knew I could rely on Mike and Ian but I felt bad about getting them to rope the other guys in the band to appear too for me. I know Lee a bit but Jamie, Stuart and Ilan didn’'t know me from a guy on the street. I decided to jump on a plane to meet up with them all at a warm up gig in Glasgow before they did T in The Park. I took the opportunity to spend the afternoon and early evening with them so I could explain the film and their involvement in it. Also so they could get to know me. Everybody seemed really happy to get involved so I left Glasgow with a big smile on my face. Until I got to the airport to see my plane delayed.

Emotion kicked in late. My Gransh died six days before we started filming. His funeral was the day before. His name was Don Williams. Needless to say that I wasn't coping too well. None of my family were. The last time I spoke to him I'd asked and he'd agreed to come down for this scene and play a Taffia member. He was really looking forward to it apparantly it just wasn't to be. In the chair he was to sit in I placed his hat and his walking stick. Seeing that set my mother off a bit and that set me off a bit too. A few things that night did. I know that my Aunt was overwhelmed by the crew wearing 'Don Williams Is A Legend' shirts. He would have loved to be involved. All through the shoot I’ve been wearing his watch so he can be involved.

The first scene of the day was scheduled for 0900 on the pitch n putt in Ponty park. I had originally asked them to come down for 0800 but I put it back a bit. They all arrived on time, which was a great start. We set up base in the day centre and had a little chat. While I spoke to the guys from the band I sent four members of the crew up to the Globetrotters bar to lug in a piano. Unlucky! I had to talk to the cast.

One of the first things to change was the inclusion of swearing. I had written the script with very mild language but I was soon convinced to change that. I agreed to allow the boys to swear however much they want. It does make sense. They’re the Taffia, they wouldn't give a fuck about censoring themselves. Only they would swear consistently. It was nice that guys, Ian in particular, to offer advice based on his own experiences in making records and relate it to where I am now. It helped a lot and I'm happy that they did that for me.

It was clear that they were all into the film. They were full of ideas. They went through the script and adjusted it to the way they would say it normally. The words in the scripts are always open to interpretation. As long as we get from A to B with the message being the same they can say whatever the hell they want. This ties into my directing style. I discovered my directing style during my time on the MA course. I'm very open. I'm not a dictator. I don't like to tell people what to do unless I have to. I like to let them find the character themselves. When they come up with something themselves it’s usually more believable. I feel as if I give them the characters and it’s now up to them to find them in themselves.

The pitch n putt scene went well and the boys were awesome. Seriously. I'm not saying this to be nice or because they are mates but they really were good. Ian was pretty damn nasty. Bodes well for their other scenes. Off then to set up in Globetrotters. Dan from Globes was an absolute gem to the production. He gave us access to the bar and just made everything easy for us. I don't think there was a time that he said no to me. Awesome bloke. Coulpa hours later and a new scene. Relatively simple. Don clocks the band in the bar. It took about five minutes for Ilan to stop laughing though. Star of the scene was Mike Lewis who added something to a simple scene. Classic. Very funny.

As we were finishing off the scene my 'Seren' arrived. I know Andrea from school. Great actress. Hadn't seen her for a while as she had moved up to Manchester. She's been up there for ten years or so. When I wrote the story I always had Andrea in mind for the role of Seren. Just hoped she'd kept her accent. Andrea was the first person cast. It was also nice to see Ian and Andrea meet up again. They used to get on well in school and from what I recall she used to sing a bit in Fleshbind, one of Ian (and Lee's) first bands. These scene in Globes went fine but we were behind schedule.

Like Dan in Globes, Dewi in Clwb Y Bont has been brilliant. We took over both rooms of the club stopping the practice of 'Wonder Brass'. In the one room we set it up as a Taffia room the other as a small gig venue. Loads of extras. I needed about twenty for the Taffia room and about sixty for the club room. Big thanks to the family, friends, friends of friends that came down to fill the rooms. It was cool. It was also really funny to see a few of the lostprophets on the same table as my dad. My dad, Jeff, is a funny bloke. Terrible with names but okay with faces. He was fine with Mike and Ian because he remembered them from when they used to come to the house when we were kids but the others, not a chance. Stu became 'The boy from Ferndale', Jamie 'The one in the hat', Ilan 'The American on the piano' and Lee was 'Him from Rhyd'.

The idea with this night was to get loads of people from school to come down and catch up. Didn't happen. It was good that most of my best friends were all present and correct. Means a lot that they wanted to get involved. Except Mikey Pocock who was on ‘honeymoon’. Yeah, whatever. A lot of family came down too. I saw Mike's Mum and sister there. Christ, I saw Fenton Gibbs too. I haven't seen Fenton since school. Although we were never close we got on well. It was nice to see him.