Propper PSB's

So, finished my latest block of episodes on Hollyoaks and showed them to the big chief yesterday, I was amazed that he watched all 5 but didnt really comment on anything, other than - not enough extras - too many extras and he didnt like the music.

But on the whole all good, it would have been nice if the big chief had said 'oooh thats a nice shot' at least once, but then I don't think he's looking at that, I'll have to wait until I get out of the world of soap (ooops - 'ongoing-drama') until I get that sort of comment I think.

Obviously as predicted, I now have post shoot blues, so went into town (liverpool) today to potter about, and ended up in the cinema watchin The new Indiana Jones movie, which is pretty good, though it has a lot of unrelated sequences which I dont really see the point of, that is not to say they arn't good, just not needed.

Good film, but still no Raiders.

Tomorrow Max and OBs leaving do Piss up, which I hope will be fun...

Post shoot blues

so, another shoot complete. I know amazvingly finished shooting yesterday. I actually hate the end of the shoot, cause you, the director don't want it to end, cause this is your calling, what you were put on earth to do, and now its finishing.

But the crew. 90% of them just want to be in the pub watching the footy.

so its kind of a battle to get crew top work to a high standard until the very last minute before the final WRAP.

And I should know cause I was crew on 200TV programs and 13 Features, I onlt realised it was so many when I was trying to update my CV, I must have been bored!

Back in the edit, which is like coming down the mountain once it has been scaled.

what next?

Maybe shoot some of my own stuff again, and finish of a short or two.

and then probably get booked for three things at once and choose the wrong one, later on in the year.

Noise noise noise

so, in the words of The Damned, noise, noise, noise. yes lots of Noise's Off today. I can even remember the amount of times I had to re-take stuff cause of noise on the other sets. We had four film units working within hearing noise of each other, if we farted the other crew would pick it up, so we had great difficulty getting out stuff clean,especially with one unit shooting the death of *** outside our window, with crane and steady-cam.

Whilst we had intimate chat scenes inside.

Good days work though. and then upon wrap I drove to stockport south Manchester to see `my editor, who is working on my latest short - The Lift - all about 4 people who get stuk, unsurprisingly - in a lift.

Im happy with it, it should be finished v. soon. then wot?

Dunno guv.

I'm probably not even really allowed to talk about this but I will any-way safe in the knowledge that no one is actually reading any of this rubbish.

So. A few days one of our actresses was diagnosed with ring-worm which isn't acxtually anything to do with worms, its a fungal infection that leave strange ring shapes on the skin and itches. She got it from her pet cats.

and as actors are always MWHA MWHA'ing each other all the time - it quickly spread to one of the other actreses and now another, and I can't look at them with out itching...

We were suposed to have an intimate scene between a new mother and her new born baby, but we couldnt have the newborn on set due to the risk of infection of ring-worm.

so I had to shoot the baby scene without the baby. We even had the producer down on set to make a descision, but all she did was say get on with it...

Well, I supose that is a decision really... well done her!

The other Units are referring to my unit as the 'fellowship of the ring-worm'.

Of all the things that I ever thought would hamper my shooting, I never thought that fungal infection would be one of them...

Cannes film festival starts this week, but I won't be there as I have a decent enuf excuse that I am Directing for money, so Im happy with that.

confused of chalk farm

why wont my post post?

sultry evenings...

So back in Liverpool after a brief sojourn to Gooch HQ HQ. (AKA Mum n Dads).

Last few weeks solid Hollyoaks shooting. It's been good, lots of nice scenes, with some of the er, ahem, more better actors... (no names mentioned). I'm only glad I'm not working with **** who seems a right ***, they even **** to the ***, *** times!!

I know, shocking.

The plot line has a lot of stuff in hospital so its been a lot like filming ER for the last 3 days, only with a lot smaller budget, and set. and less steady-cam.

Actually I did use a bit of steady cam. but only cause I know the operators get paid more, and I felt he could do with a few quid.

This week we film the death of a major character, so that's all quite exciting, especially as we have already filmed the aftermath and everything is a bit back to front! Filming can be a tad confusing at times...

Noticed one of my lovely actresses on the cover of NUTS magazine at the petrol station, I now see her in a new light.

Funny writing this blog, I mean I know NO ONE reads it, so its a bit diary I suppose... Thought I might try to films some comedy sketches in early June, but have encountered a massive level of apathy from my so called creative chums, who tell me they are full of ideas... maybe I'll just stick to the A plan and shoot my feature in the summer.

Now that does sound like a plan.