Filming begun

Last Wednesday we began filming, getting the majority of scene 2 in the bag (I suppose I should really either say "in the can" or "in the... cassette case..."). Yet again, I took over the isolation room and moved all the jolly paintings out. Hopefully the graffiti from previous occupants won't show up. We learnt a lot, including that Sean gets a bit of a Hitler moustache in some lights and that the room we're filming in gets REALLY hot. That's impressive, since the rest of our school is virtually unheated. Now we know where it all goes.

We also did some filming on Thursday, actually during school. It turns out that this isn't exactly the best time, and a lot of really good takes - acting-wise - are completely useless because over Sean being all serious and sinister, you can hear S4s signing out after their french prelim. What a mood-killer. The worst was a very loud man with a deep monotone. Urgh. We did get one really good take though and the planimetric shot works really well.

Alongside all this serious filmy stuff, we're planning the DVD extras and I think they're gonna be FUN. We have a range of impressions, out-takes and a whole sequence of Sean's interaction with my mic ferret. Very odd. I think we'll probably do a commentary as well, but that'll have to wait until much later.

Over the weekend I did a rough cut-up of the first five minutes; it still needs a great deal of finessing, but I think it's looking great. There are several elements missing (the sound of Holly being dragged, shots of her previous interviews and an overall deeper sound design; I also just put the name "Betty Bettyson" in as a placeholder because we haven't held auditions for the part of Darya yet).

On that subject, I decided to cast someone else as Darya after a long and detailed consultation... OK, so the three of us were on the bus to PYT and we had a chat. Basically, it's a film and we can have someone else and it makes sense to. I'm going to talk to the Highers tomorrow and gauge their responses. With any luck I'll audition on Wednesday and have reached a decision by Thursday.

One thing's for sure - if I want this filmed by Christmas, we'll need to step on it.