Luke McGibney, an east-midlands based actor and film maker, travelled up last Monday, and leapt straight into filming what are probably the most important scenes in the film.
I was lucky to work with most of the same crew as on the Grand Hotel shoot, so there was a ready-made working relationship between the camera crew and the set builders, which saved an awful lot of time.
We welcomed James Morris to the set and props department; he, like other undergraduates, gave up his spare time between taught-sessions at college, to help me design and make props and to lift and carry heavy pieces of set dressing from one college building to another.
Another stroke of luck was the availability of Stuart Hanrahan, who plays Billy Hawksmoor. A proposed 'remote' scene was reimagined to take place in Lord P's office, and both actors did a fine job.
A last-minute change of venue on the Wednesday cost us half an hour at the start of the night but ultimately saved us an hour or more overall, as the shoot ran over but we didn't need to break down and reset the set between shoots.
Jay Hayes stepped in as Luke's body-double again, to allow us to film over-the-shoulder shots after Luke had headed home.
All in, it was another fantastic shoot, everyone dug in hard to make every scene and every take look and sound the best it possibly could, and the onus really is on me to make the most of their work in the edit.
I was nervous this time last week; I had begun to edit but could only go so far without Luke's half of the scene. Now I have all the ingredients, I can make up around 80% of the final film... Time for 'Phase III' - John Foster's countryside training scenes..!
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Luke and the 'fox Buster'
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From left: Luke, Chris, Rhiannon, Andy and Jay
