(Photo by Chris Harris)

It's the Screen East Digital Shorts season again, and this one was another short-notice job. "Things We Leave Behind" is Andrew Brand's film this year. It's a nice, slow-build atmospheric story. I'm doing half the location sound, some ADR and the mix at the end.

I've had to split this job with a friend, as it was so short notice that I already had work on a couple of the days. The last day, I worked 8am-4pm in Cambridge on a corporate, then drove to the wilds of Norfolk and shot until 2am with Andy and the gang. Felt a bit run-down the next day; I think I'm too old to hold down two jobs now :)


Anyway, I couldn't have hoped for a nicer bunch of people than this crew. Being a Screen East funded film, it turns out I already knew several of the crew from elsewhere, but the new faces were very friendly an down-to-earth, and it was lovely to arrive on the first day and effortlessly get shooting in the first hour. Doesn't often happen, especially on low budget!

The actor playing the lead impressed us all enormously on the last day. I won't blow the ending of the film, but he wakes up to find himself in a certain amount of trouble, and we turned over for a one minute shot and were still frozen five minutes later, so much had he drawn everyone in. Very uncomfortable and psychologically horrible. You know, in a good way.

Sounds commonplace, but the practicalities of shooting scenes like this (as with horror films, too) usually mean everyone's concentrating on not wobbling a crap prop, or squirting the fake blood in time, or whatever. And everyone can see that the scary thing isn't real, and in fact looks exceptionally pony other than the little bit the camera sees. This was no different - the "set" was propped up in a kitchen, and had art dept people balancing on it etc. So an actor managing to psychologically disturb a knackered crew despite all that has done well...

And by contrast, there were some top-notch kittens in the barn next to one location.

Not knowing anyone rich who's likely to get married soon, I'm unlikely to get invited to an event at the top of the Gherkin in London in the near future.

Consequently it was very interesting to be recording a lunch meeting in which luminaries of the property world discussed the economic recovery (and how one might go about getting such a thing) in a private dining room at the top of the Gherkin today. What a view. It does give you pause to see a thunderstorm coming, though, as you think, however irrationally, "I'm at roughly the same height as those lightning-filled clouds, and I'm in a big metal thing."