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Quote of the day: “I know you hate really long shots, but…”

Not the greatest of days to tell you the truth. A late start resulted in a somewhat rushed shoot and it certainly wasn’t helped by the fact that today was probably the sunniest fecking day of the year. Seriously, why is it that whenever we shoot outside scenes that big glowing ball of crap decides to stay out for the entire day? The only time it went behind any clouds was when we were on lunch! My fecking dust allergy also raised it’s ugly head so I had to sit outside for an entire scene. I left DoP duties in Ashling’s more than capable hands and she made a great job of it. I also got a toothache while shooting the car-park scene, so overall it wasn’t a great day for my health!

Grumbling aside, both the cast and the crew were brilliant today. We shot the first scene featuring all three members of the Lowry family and it was great. I thought they played off each other very well. We also shot the rival love interest/information giver scene in the car-park, which was a lot of fun. Actually, that gives me the chance to discuss two more characters – Michael Grant (Andy Blaikie) and Aoife Collins (Vivienne Connolly). Colleagues for many years, these two doctors may or may not have gotten together in the past, which makes for an interesting love triangle in the film. Michael is the hero of Shackled, a childhood friend of Sarah and Brian McDonald’s, who accompanies Sarah in her search for the truth.

You know, I’m also going to talk about our amazing crew in these blogs. Heading the sound department is Ciara Scott, who also did audio for our last film, The Hollow Girl. Very easy to get along with, Ciara has a great ear for sound and is always a pleasure to work with. She is handling more or less all of the production audio on this shoot and we are very lucky to have her with us. I’ll discuss more crew in the next few blogs. We’re shooting on a beach at 8am tomorrow morning, so I’m going to dig out some nice warm clothes. I hope to God it’ll be a cloudy day…

Quote of the day: “Jim McDonald?” (x 10)

We bid farewell to Brian Fortune and the Valley today, as we finished all the scenes featuring Jim McDonald and the McDonald house. I think everyone enjoyed the house shoots as they provided a nice base for a few days. The next five days of shooting will mean lots of traveling around different locations, so I don’t think we’ll feel quite at home again somewhere until we hit the mansion next week.

I suppose I should talk a bit about the characters of Shackled in these blogs. Today’s group of characters will be the McDonald Family. Sarah (Donna Bradley) and Brian (Simon Fogarty) are the adopted children of Jim McDonald (Brian Fortune), who lost his wife Mary a couple of years ago. Brian’s murder and Sarah’s subsequent investigation start the strange series or events that will have drastic consequences for a lot of people.

Shooting went well today. We met Brian’s murderer and also witnessed the final heart breaking conversation between two characters. To mention any names at this stage would give the game away, but rest assured the scenes were masterfully acted. The crew have been continuously impressed with the beautiful meals supplied by Conlons Deli and you know what they say – a well fed crew is a happy crew! Shooting the Lowry family scenes tomorrow, can’t wait!

Quote of the day: “They’ll call me Princess Two-Boots!”

We were shooting in the Valley all day today. The morning was fairly eventful even before the actual shooting started! Experiences ranged from an unfortunate case of car trouble to ‘a few extra sausages’. The set was less intense today as there were less actors and no extras at all (apart from a cameo by my Uncle Tom as a police detective). Most of the post funeral and pre-journal scenes were shot today and I even got to become a paparazzo for a few minutes, photographing Michael and Sarah on the street for the news report (which we shot on Saturday with Dave as the news reporter!).

Today was also probably the first day Dave has ever shouted “Action” and really got what he asked for – we shot the confrontation on the stairs and the two actors really went at it. ‘Intense’ is a word that really comes to mind! The rushes from the action scenes looked great and I think it’s going to be an amazingly tense, shocking scene when edited together.

I think everyone has settled into a nice rhythm by now. The cast are really getting into their roles and the crew are just flawless. Sun-face only made one quick appearance, but I was over the other side of the house, so he wasn’t the subject of much cursing. Last day of shooting in the Valley tomorrow – I’m gonna miss the place.

Quote of the day: “So, did you kill him?”

We started shooting our first feature film Shackled today. The day started well with the last of the production preparation being taken care of. Dave and myself posted Hollow Girl DVDs to our two most important critics – they know who they are! After clearing up a few loose ends, the entire crew met up in ‘The Happy Valley’ (as it’s known locally). Old friends reminisced and new acquaintances were made. There was a good vibe and it continued throughout the day.

The first scene was in Dowdallshill Graveyard, where we met up with our core group of actors. The extras arrived and we shot the second scene of the movie (Brian’s Funeral). The fear had set on me earlier that day that we would be visited by the cinematographer’s arch-nemesis. You may know him as the Sun. I like to call him “That glowing ball of crap”. I don’t like the Sun. He comes out thinking he’s all that, making perfectly glum, gloomy scenes bright and happy. Eugh! I hope to God he doesn’t dare show his big yellow face for the rest of the shoot. I will not be a happy bunny if he does.

Back to the Happy Valley and after a nice break of soup and sandwiches courtesy of Conlon’s Deli, we started shooting the post-funeral scenes. A curious cat made a cameo in the backdoor shots, much to everyone’s amusement. Actors were great, crew were great, rushes looked great. In other words a great start to a very promising shoot.