Mum and Dad Shoot - Day Two

Today was a hell of a day. Serves me right for being so smug about being ahead yesterday. We had five scenes to get through today, including a big dinner table scene in the kitchen, which again was tough for blocking (one of the reasons I wanted to set the film where it is is because I don’t like it when films have to have people living in unrealistically large houses just because they’re more ‘interesting’ than normal houses. However, having to try and block 5 actors and at least five (if not more) crew round a dining table in a small kitchen in a semi-detached house, and ending up stuck in a corner behind the focus puller with a tiny monitor totally out of sight of the actors while your trying to direct isn’t the best way of doing things and probably explains why people try and avoid it.) We also had a fight to choregraph inlcuding stabbings and a clunking with an iron, as well as a chase through the garden and a leap over a fence. Sight of the day was Perry Benson in drag stumbling through the washing lines covered in blood. It’s moments like those that actually make the whole thing seem quite surreal – like I can’t quite believe that things that I’ve written are being acted out in full. It’s like having some weird God-complex.

Anyway, we wrapped about 10 minutes over, after knocking off two scenes in an hour. Not the best way of working, because it’s easy to forget things, and anything forgotten now is going to be difficult to pick up on our schedule. But our schedule also demands that we keep moving, so it’s just a case of having to readjust my brain quickly and hope that either my innate knowledgeof the script or, more likely, someone else paying more attention will pick up the things that I’m missing.