It's been a while since I was last at a shoot for Nothing Travels Faster Than Bad News, and I admit that I had somewhat forgotten what it is that draws me to the whole film making business. It's easy to forget – day to day life can make things like film shoots fade into the background a bit too much.
Yesterday we were shooting in Leeds at Vince's flat. He'd managed to pull together the required cast and and more crew than before. He'd even managed to find a photographer, Nicola, to take stills of the day.
Preparation was minimal, as usual: no one really knew their lines, storyboards were done first thing that morning and I had to duck out to get vital props before we'd even had lunch. Although, technically, we didn't actually have lunch until about 7pm.
Despite the general lack of advanced planning, though, we had a really good day. We got the shots we needed, (including a few that Vince thought up on the spur of the moment), I got to play with the camera lots and, even better than that, I got to concoct some SFX make-up.
In the absence of real fake blood I made some fake fake blood – cochineal, glycerine and flour. Actually looked really good, although it stained something horrible. (Tip: if you ever need to fake a port wine stain, then cochineal is just perfect for it, although be prepared to grow it out rather than wash it out.)
Still, a thin film of vaseline first neatly stops the fake fake blood from coming into contact with the skin. Works rather well too. My only complaint now is that there just wasn't enough blood in the film. I want more blood! And squibs! And headshots!
We have a shoot in London next weekend, during which I have to redo my part. The colour balance was shot last time and the footage was unusable. The quality of my acting I shan't comment on. Then there's one last shoot in Derby, and then it's all down to Vince's editing skills. With any luck, we should get a version to put online before Christmas.
Anyway, thanks to Seb, Carl, Rich, Adam and Nicola. If you're curious, there are more photos on Flickr.
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