"One for the Road"

(ane tale of twa vampyres)

In conjunction with the Edinburgh Mediabase '48 hours' scheme.

diary of a film production virgin

Friday 18th October 2002
It's close to midnight and I'm still standing stirring a gigantic pot of fake blood (cunningly concocted from my own recipe, bwah hah hah. . . ) while simultaneously stirring a huge pot of pasta sauce and doing a load of dishes.

 Brian's had a bad day since his family dog isn't well and he hasn't been able to do the shot lists for tomorrow. Dave has got a football match in the morning so won't be on set until about 1pm and has to work for a while on Saturday night. And Duncan has to go to his Gran's 80th birthday party so will be leaving the set at 3.30pm. All of which leaves us with 2 hours to shoot all of their scenes together!!

 And the location's fallen through so we're having to rethink the premise of the story (originally something along the lines of 'two vampires go into a pub . . . '). But it turns out the joke's on us.

 Maybe we should cancel. . . . ?

 Well no, that would be giving up, and time pressure is part of the whole 48hrs set-up. So Ben cracks on with a shot list while Brian & Dan discuss the visual feel of the film, and I keep on stirring. . . Jamie offers us his flat as a location – a change of scene from pub to party is agreed, and finally the blood reaches the right consistency. It might just be all right on the night after all.

 We head up to Mediabase and wait for ages until all the kit comes in from various other productions, load up the car again, and traipse round a couple of other places looking for longer cables and long leather coats. We finally arrive at Jamie's at about 12.30, by which time the gruesome threesome have pretty much set up the lighting rig and camera.

 Callay found the place too (despite being Canadian and having been given the wrong address), so we got down to business pretty quickly. Did Duncan's close ups and cut-aways first while waiting for Dave, then once he arrived got down to doing the shots of them together.

 With half an hour to go, we manage to decide that the original external location was too far away, so choose another closer lane at short notice. It's freezing outside, I mean absolutely freezing. And Gideon's having to lie on the ground as a victim – I'm surpised he doesn't end up ill. We're shooting day-for-night too (clever Dan), so I can't wait to see how it looks on film.

 We finish outside with seconds to spare before Duncan has to run off to Glenrothes – so head back inside and thaw out. Lunch is served and gives us a much needed half hour break before we crack on with Dave's close-ups and cut-aways. He manages to swap his ghost tour for a later one, so we can have him around for longer (thank Gods). All in all we wrap at 10.30 and are cleared up by 11, get the car loaded and home by midnight.

 We have decided on an early start tomorrow so that Dan can shoot the dawn scenes before heading back to London on the 9.30 train.

 Total shooting time for today: 10 hours

 3.30am: Back to bed. Trying to convince myself that she will be OK. Can't sleep.

 6.30am: Alarm goes off. Nooooooooooooooooo. Brian's not happy about doing the morning shoot since we've not had any sleep (the cat, by the way, belongs to Gideon, and wandered out of her own accord as if nothing had ever happened, at about 4am).

 Dan convinces him to go ahead, since it will only be for an hour, and we can go back to bed afterwards. So we decide to shoot outside our own house rather than spending time moving the gear to a different location. So we have an extra half hour in bed.

 8am: Oh Bloody hell (II). It's freezing outside. And I mean freezing as in January style breath in the air and a million layers of clothes freezing. Just as well we're not going far as the car has a flat anyway.

 We get a few strange looks from people's windows (don't think we woke anyone) but all in all get the dawn scenes done just as sun comes up over the roofs of the tenament flats in Leith Walk (about 9am). Then we run out of DAT tape, so have to switch to on-board sound – which hopefully won't be a problem. Dave gives Dan & Duncan a lift home and we head back inside for some lovely hot mugs of tea / coffee. Then we crash out for a couple of hours (after doing breakfast dishes).

 12 noon: Have woken up but still need more sleep. Much more sleep. Coffee all round helps a bit. Have arranged for Ali to come round and be killed in true 'Witch' style later today (NB 'The Witch' was a film that Brian, Ali, and some of his mates made at school, and involves some of the most ridiculous on-screen comedy deaths and mutilations I've ever seen – except, maybe, in 'Bad Taste').

 Ben has lots of ideas for shooting the blood and gore cut-aways, some of which are truly disturbing. I worry about these guys sometimes, but at least they're only doing it on film! We get the lighting rig set up in the lounge, and bring on the blood!

 I can't really say much about the hours that ensued, other than that I felt simultaneously sick, entertained, and scared. Which is, after all, the general idea of the film. I nearly threw Duncan out of the house for looking like such an effective on-screen psycho too (I'm sure he's a perfectly nice bloke normally) – you'll have to see for yourself why.

 We wrap at 9pm, tired, but happy.

 Total shooting time for today: 10 hours.

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