So we had shoot dates scheduled for the 11th, 12th and 14th March for the 3rd year film Playtime, which i have been planning since the end of November. Bit of background info since i havnt been keeping a diary on here about it....we held two sets of auditions, one before christmas, one after and cast the characters of Rachel, Emily and Emily's friends from http://www.starnow.com/, a site which i had previously used, and cast a northumbria performance student in the role of Martin. Aswell as cast i had to obviously find locations, a place to have the picnic, a place for the well, general wooded areas, and a house. Myself and Max (director) went location scouting early on and found ideal leafy areas, and i secured a house in Gosforth. I emailed around and tried to find a well, however my search was proving futile, and so the decision to have a well built was made and i approached my daddy to do so. The well was made with ply wood and was built in a way in which it could be dissembled to make it easy to transport. However to make it look realistic and lifesize, the a main parts proved a little to large to fit into a car. I therefor had to arrange it to be moved my a hired driven van.

So...it rained quite alot on the Thursday which was a bit of a pain to say the least, as Francesca, the girl we cast as Emily had travelled up from York. We used the time to rehearse key scenes with all of the actors, and then in order to get at least some footage captured, shot some of the interior car scenes with the three. We filmed some of the picnic scenes on the Saturday however i was unaware that there was an event going to be taking place near our location and this would effect the sound. However we got some good shots, once the camera decided to work! We also filmed the house scenes, quite a large part of the first half of the film that weekend, which ran smoothly. Francesca was then due to return home and so production dates were set for March 24th and 25th. It is essential i prepare for this thoroughly as we have roughly half the film to shoot within two days. The well has also been sent back to Blyth for painting and so arragements to bring it back in time for the next shoot will have to be made.

So, sm@shed.......... this is a safety video commissioned by Northumbria Police, higlighting the relationship between alcohol consumption by 18-25 year olds and car accidents. I was asked by Max if i would be interested in coming onboard on the 20th Feb when the producer dropped out of the production. In between working on Playtime, i organised rehersals with the already formed cast. I also had to find a new club location as the agreed club also dropped out. We have set shooting dates for 21st-24th. Iv also been to a meeting with Chris Chapman from Dene films, the company acting as executive producers, and have been dealing with Andrew Poole, creating a budget.