A way of light

Last night was the last day of Principle Photography, we went back to Putney to re shoot the very last shot of the film as last week we didn't have a cat. Upon wrap, I started to hug and thank everyone. Upon wrap, we were over the hill we had been climbing for 5 weeks straight. Upon wrap, I felt suddenly emotional. I had tears in my eyes. I suddenly felt a wave of relief and happiness that with our limitations and resources we all worked really hard to make this film to the best of our abilities and now, it was 'in the can' as it were. When Stefan, the director thanked me saying he couldn't have done it without me, i couldn't say anything back as i had a lump in my throat. It's hard to describe the emotion of finishing a film with such tough challenges. I was suddenly so grateful to everyone who put their two cents of time to carry a case, make cofffee, drive equipment and ideas to this project. I have done 6 features prior to this and this has been the hardest and most rewarding. I felt i had been holding my professionalism for 5 weeks and along with that, my emotional state, my personal self. I felt, we did it, we made this film with last minute locations and last minute crew- WE made it happen and are all proud of what we had achieved.

For most of the 5 weeks, it was intense. The first 2 were really intense.

Against odds we made the wedding scene with 100 extras where 3 days prior we had only 20 extras. We made the fireworks happens in the only take we could do. We did an exterior night shoot walk and talk for 2 half minutes no cut walking around the streets of highbury. One day, we did about 25 slates, which averages about 75 takes. The end slate number was over 425 in 26 days.

Everyday the AC's would put done a different directors and DP's name on the board for fun but on the last day, on the last slate, the director and I put our real names down.

Sure I have been annoyed at the lack of time to set up and light and the amount of coverage I was eventually asked to do and the lack of prep but we worked with it.

But Stefan was great to work with despite his lapses in phone calls and singing to the crew, he was serious and stern and directed actors well. He is a director to watch and I can absolutely seeing him directing some films of both decent budget and worth. He just needs to learn some dicipline in shooting ratio and angles and trust in himself that he got the takes in less less coverage than we need.

I loved shooting this film, but I glad it's done. We do have pick ups to do, the first being on the 14th Nov for fireworks.

- J