Trick of the Dark - Update 30/04

Over the past week we have made slight progress with Trick of the Dark. I'm getting increasingly worried about the production as we approach the deadline on May 14th. At the beginning of this week we were approximately 10% shot. The remaining 90% of the film is to be shot over the next two weeks before deadline day. The previous shoots have involved using the studio space to create the pitch black appearance of a cave, where we were able to get closeups of the subjects. As co-producer I have a very hands off approach to the creative process of the film. I let the director and the cinematographer get on with their jobs and they seemed to use the space to great effect. The close ups did end up looking like they belonged in a dark cavernous space. However the issue with this shoot was that one of the actors didn't turn up, so our shots were limited in quantity. The quality didn't seem to suffer however, as the director seemed happy. Any progress at this point is positive. 

After that, we shot the hospital scene today. This was a strange journey from concept to creation. Last week we went on a recce/permission trip to a hospital in Hartlepool. We had no success with speaking to anyone about filming in there, so we decided it would be easier to make our own hospital set. This was based on the fact that a BBC programme dropped all of their production design department off at our sound stages, all of which belonged to a show based in a hospital. We decided we could use some of the props and furniture from the things that they dumped. That way we could use one of the lecture rooms in the uni to dress as a hospital. This was a perfect empty shell to do so, as the rooms are all extremely white and drawn out and have the sanitary appearance of a hospital ward. We used a table to put a mattress on, and then we put the headboard of an actual hospital bed behind it. We decorated the 'hospital bed' by placing things around it to up the idea of it being a real hospital. E.g. flowers, posters, get well soon cards etc. Below is an image of what we ended up with. 

We sorted this set out last Friday in time for todays shoot. The actors arrived and we went ahead with the shoot as planned which all went well. It was great to see Roger again, an actor who I worked with on my first ever film in first year, Nemesis. The actors seemed happy to get on with it, as it was a small scene which was well prepared and well organised throughout. I did the production logs for the scene as my role requires me to so we can pass the footage over to the editor. Despite it only being small progress on Trick of the dark, it is progress nonetheless. We will hopefully make greater progress within the next week leading to the films completion.