Location, Location, Location

My latest foray into amateur filmmaking wrapped on Wednesday evening. I'm keeping the details of this one under my hat for now, except to say that it's a collaboration with another blogger, and will use a hybrid of vlog and mini-documentary styles. It should be edited in a couple of weeks and will eventually go up on YouTube. More details plus production stills coming soon.

Today's Lesson Learnt The Hard Way is: always clear your locations in advance - and by "in advance" I mean 1997. Our plan to shoot in a local building with striking architectural features was set up during the past week, but almost fell through on the day when (it seemed) nobody could be found anywhere in the region who held either the key or the passcodes for the building. Cue an afternoon of anxious phone calls.

Happily everything was resolved by evening with minutes to spare, and once again I'm amazed at just how helpful people can be sometimes. After a shoot you end up feeling grateful to everyone - the library and council staff who never gave up trying to find a way in, my brother who helped me to operate three cameras simultaneously, or the narrator's travelling companion who proved to be a kick-ass clapperboard operator. Even though it meant waking him from his nap 14 times....