Its a wrap

L to R: sound operator, actor's arm, director, camera operator, stills photographer

Its in the can! We finished shooting at 2.20am Saturday night with about 74 minutes of film. Very long day but a lot of fun. We didn't start filming until about 2pm as there was a lot of work converting D's house into a film set first. I hadn't realised how much waiting around one does on a film set. I've worked backstage on musicals (at university) and once they start, they stop for nothing whereas in a film there's lots of stopping and reassessing.

I worked as props, set dresser, continuity girl and recorder all wrapped up into one. As continuity girl/set dresser I refilled a bottle of wine a huge number of times. It felt like hundreds but I'm sure it wasn't.

Working on this short film has changed my attitude towards actors (and actresses). I've always thought that they were arrogant and difficult to work with but I discovered over the course of the day that professionals are just that. Professional. Easy to work with and they can turn their characters on and off pretty much on demand. So I've learnt another big lesson - professionals are always professional and are worth it.

The director (brother D.) had put a huge amount of preparation into it. He knew what he wanted and was able to express it clearly to the rest of us. We were all amateurs at film making so shot setups were slow to start with but as the day wore on, we definitely got slicker. There was only one time constraint. We HAD to do the outside shots between 6-7pm so that no matter what else happened, we had to stop what we were shooting at 5.30pm and get ready for the outside work.

Completely exhausted by the time I got home of course. We'd all spent most of the day on our feet and its very tiring. I didn't achieve much yesterday and because I was over tired, I didn't get to bed in good time and feel shattered today as well. Off to a meeting tonight as well but it won't be a long one, particularly as I've organised it!