Mum and Dad Shoot - Day Ten

The end of the week and we’re pretty much bang on schedule (apart from the lost day….) which is a near-miracle after the state we were in midweek. Today was mostly corridors and staircases – those shots which are just about people opening doors, going in, coming out and walking up and down which are really simple and necessary, but take an age to get done because you’re constantly moving location. The other thing that was difficult was trying to structure the sequence (basically Lena moving through the house) so that it made sense in terms of visual grammar – she goes out here so she should come in here, that kind of thing – especially because the floor plan of the location we’re shooting in bears no relation to the one in the script, requiring constant cheats and finesses to actually try and make it make sense. I eventually got it all figured out in my head, but then confused everybody when I tried to explain it – basically it meant cutting down the number of shots but increasing the action of them – or, as I put I to Andrew (First A.D.) complicating in order to simplify.

At the end of today we got to do a whole bunch of shots which I’d been hoping to fit in, but which we had to wait to do because we realised they needed a macro lens. It was a good chance for some catharsis – I got to do some stabbing (bloodying one of my favourite shirts in the process) and some injecting. Actually, I volunteered Simon (FX) to do the injecting but then pulled rank and did it myself because I thought he was being a bit too gentle about it. What was good was the reaction of the crew to what they were seeing on the monitor (disgusted moans) – it makes me feel that we’re going in the right direction in terms of getting something out of an audience.

What's also been good this week has been having friends come down to the set and have a look round - Jeanie has been down a few times with Betsy (although Betsy, being three, has not been subjected to the full tour around the house and I have to shield her eyes every time we go through the living-room because of a particularly gruesome bit of set decoration in there) and so have my friends Mark, Chris and Gareth. Everybody seems really impressed by the Production Design, which I'm really pleased with because Jess and her team have been working so hard to get everything done on a budget which was pretty much halved about two weeks before we started filming. Having people come round and tell you how good things are looking is a real boost, especially when you're so knackered and you've been looking at it for days on end.

Back in the same house on Monday morning – when it’s going to be Christmas...