2 weeks to go

2 weeks to production and everybody keeps asking me if I'm ready. I have to reply "No, not really." Production-wise we seem to be doing okay - we've got a cast, a crew, most of the main locations, and, finally, a locked-off script, but the amount of time it's taken to get all of those things together - coming down to London for auditions, going round Nottingham for locations, rewriting the script on the train in between - means that I feel really behind in terms of actually knowing how the hell we're going to shoot the film. I have kind of got it in my head, but am acutely aware that I need to find a way to get it out of my head and onto paper in some form so that we can do things like, you know, schedule the film. It's very stressful.

Had a meeting with the main cast today - Perry Benson (Dad), Dido Miles (Mum), Ainsley Howard(Birdie), Toby Cooper (Elbie) and Olga Fedori (Lena). We had a good chat about the script and the production, and then did a full read-through which seemed to go well - managed to disgust them at some points (which is good considering they've all read the script before (unless they've only been reading their own parts and so are unaware of the context of anything (which I can't imagine any of our fine, professional conscientious cast doing))), and found out that none of them had actually twigged what the frozen sausages in the script were for (and had to explain, leading to some very peculiar (and slightly repulsed) looks (and if anyone reading this wants to know you're going to have to watch the film - it's not suitable for publication in a family-oriented blog such as this)). I also had individual chats with all of the cast to make sure that they are all prepared for what they have to do. All of them seem up for it and really into being in the film, which is great. I just hope I can make sure that we really get the most out of the script.