Wednesday the 26th of August, London. Our actor Gabriel playing the Chairman doodles his way through nineteen setups.

We're back in the UK.  Flew via Japan where we popped into Narita village for a coffee at 7:45AM.  Arrived at Heathrow on Friday afternoon.

Last time we were shooting here (and I wrote something) was waaay back in June.  Well, we're back, shooting some pick-ups, but mainly capturing one location that's been a long time in the works and covers about 10 script pages, so no small cut-away!

On the road most of Monday (my birthday) while we did a recce at the location and talked to various lovely and generous people, who were extremely helpful as we finalised our plans.  On the drive down we saw a Big Ben in the middle of the field, made entirely out of hay.  Then yesterday we shot at the location for one day, and we'll be back Thursday and Friday.  Most of this stuff is indoors, so no weather-scores this time round.

On today's list is a technical pick-up, a few shots featuring revolving doors, and an early scene in the film featuring a good friend of mine who is a wonderful actor.  And coffee... I'll be needing some coffee.

Caught in the glamour headlights of movie making it's easy to forget the relentlessness of a shooting schedule, but we're not complaining.  It's exhausting, but very rewarding.

The calm after the storm?  Today we spent a mere half day shooting after a long Monday, then packed up and headed north.  Having faced the prospect of nothing but rain all weekend long -- this following a three-day heatwave on arrival -- we were more than relieved to have dodged almost all the weather these last few days!

As per usual, the cast and crew came through in spades and I have nothing but respect for them.  They keep me on my toes.  Also, a rough estimate: I'm guessing we shot upwards of a hundred set-ups, in some ten different locations.  

The last two days centred on some longer scenes, including the final scene of the film, but also some shots which I'd been dead set on filming since writing the script.  I remember Terry Gilliam speaking about The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.  He mentioned that the incident where Munchausen's horse is split in two, when the front half wants to go into a different direction to the back half, was one of the reasons he wanted to make the picture, yet it was cut from the film.  I count myself very lucky, therefore!

A lot of work ahead still.  I tell myself I'll take a few days off but knowing how things go I'll be cutting footage the minute we get home.  It's just too damned exciting.