Production Diary Winter 1

If you have yet to see them, there are some production images on the blog below...but below below is an account of the day. - Roanoke: The Lost Colony

this is an account from the bits I was able to see...

7am
Wake up! It's time for the Winter shoots to begin. Dan and Jenna have stayed the night at my house in Fleet ready for preperation of the day. There is a long list to be getting on with, so we begin by going over the shots for the day. Jenna will be in charge of making sure all the extras turn up and are there along with directing them into position on set, Dan to be GlideCam operator and 1st A.D while I act as on set producer and director. The rest of crew is set to arrive at around 9 - 10am so we begin a few other jobs. The camera and other nessesities have been charging over the night so while we all go to sort that out I bring out my list and decide to assign people to jobs....in the end however we all work on the same areas for the most part. Jenna goes off to check up on extras, Dan and I put on our aprons and begin to make lunch for everyone. Today on the menu is buscuits, chicken, ham or cheese rolls and crisps. We manage to make 40 rolls in under 20 minutes....we are thinking of taking up a job in catering. A number of other jobs including the assembly of the props, costumes and equipment take place over the next hour or so.

some of the valient extras and cast keeping warm later in the evening

9am
Sam and Angela arrive having picked up a quick breakfast on there way here, I realise i'm still in my pyjamas and need to sprouse up a little if Angela is going to be taking pictures throughout the day...i mean if I need to look presentable for everyone. We all help pack the cars up and begin our trip down to camp. While, Dan, Sam, Jenna and Angela begin their creation of the unit base I escape off to the high street for some casual shopping, for equipment ofcourse...I manage to to buy 20 pounds worth of batteries for the evening from Woolworths, walk away, realise there the wrong type, get a refund and then go and buy them for alot cheaper at Robert Dyer. I also pick up plates, water and a few other bits and bobs for the day.

Dan prepares and tests the GlideCam for operation

11am
Gary and Goerge have arrived after some terrible delays on the trains due to a de-railment at Waterloo. We're all worried that some extras won't turn up due to this (and the terrible weather forecast) but Jenna reasures our worries and sure enough the first set of extras arrive nearly 45 mins earlier than call time! We continue to set up the set and unit base with the help of our runner for the day Stephanie. Many trips back and forth to the house to pick up equipment. I think George and a few others may have sensibly mentioned that the amount of trips we are making will be a similar event at night on our way home; I ignore this suggestions saying we are camping the night, well.. If I don't learn from mistakes how can I learn.

Jenna directs the many fabulous extras into place for the first shot

1pm
All extras have arrived and Gary has been hard at work with George and number of other crew members to set up the set for the first shot. Fleet Pond have introduced some lovelly new green plastic benches over the weekend to our beach area, unfortunatly these benches wouldn't have been present when the colonists landed, so a few logs, cloths and sheets are used to cover them up, by now all extras have arrived and been dressed by Jenna and Angela, Dan is all set up and testing the equipment, I have given my small brief, and Sam has been driving around collecting some valuable equipment for the day) such as lighter fluid :-D. We say that the first shot will be happening at 2pm as per the schedule, I hear a quiet remark from somewhere that this will never happen, fantastic stuff, I love competition! So far although it has been very stressfull all the crew has done a fantastic job. Unlike the summer where we introduced a Porta-loo for our extras we have decided for the extras to go back and forth from the set to my house down the road, Steph has the lovelly job of doing the toilet runs to start with.

Ready to clap and go, the first shot is all lined up!

3pm
By now I realise I am pretty much still in my PJ's with a fleece over the top and flurecent jacket just incase any cars come racing through the natrue reserve. Dan was succesfully able to label all our equipment, inlcuding our 12 umbrellas with BSDS logos. We have just finished shooting the first shot of the day and the extras have done a fantastic job with it and have really got into the spirit, Jenna did a great job getting everyone into position, we can see Angela snapping away with her new camera, and Sam arrives back to help out on set which is great. Roanoke: The Lost Colony's first shot with the GlideCam seems to have pulled off and everyone crowds round the moniter to take a look at the shot, it seems everyone likes it alot more if they can see exactly what has just been filmed. We continue with a few more shots and then wait for it to get dark. It also begins to rain so everyone crowds under the tents erected on set! A big thank you to our lead actor and the Marsh family for providing the gazibos for cover today.

let's look, let's look, what did we shoot!

5pm
It's begining to get dark so we move onto the dusk shots, Rebecca our make-up artist for the day has just finished an incredible job on the burns of actor Ivor Potter. Dan's dad arrives, he is going to be helping us today with the saftey of any fires and the generator which we will soon need to light up the area as it begins to get dark. The dusk shots go well and now its all waiting for the dark to creep in so we can film the ending fires.

Due to the weather we had a bit of trouble with the tents, but on camera they looked great

and then came the fires! They were spectacular, and more shall be written about the later stage from 6pm onwards soon! watch this space!