Callsheet Lottery

The call sheet lottery is a thing where you look at your filming location and judge how far it is away from your home. Often it's a 40 minute drive but recently I've been able to walk to work since it's been in central Bristol - a real win if you'd ask anyone. But today takes the cake. My bed is a 30 second walk away from set, in fact our cottage can be seen in many of the shots we did today. Never again will I be able to boast that and I'm not taking it for granted.

Nor am I abusing my past-life as production in this job to crash a Production dinner out at a very fine restaurant. Wine and fish was consumed as we laughed and I had good chats about the past, and also the future with some old chums.

Quiz Spooner

 More 2nd Unit shenanigans for me, luckily quite a fun one. Turns out, when you have your Block's director present it eliminates a lot of the usual guessing games we have to play. Plus it was just one scene that we had the whole day to shoot so we got a lot of solid coverage, and then just called it a day. I drove down to my next accomodation area, a little Cornish village that the whole crew have basically taken over. In the evening we were basically stumbling over each other as we headed into the only 3 pubs in town. I locked myself into a pub quiz and did shockingly bad at - a disgrace to my parents I am.

Pelted by Rain

At first there was rain. Then there was more rain. And then there was a bit more...

This was entire day, stood outside in the wet as the sideways rain pelted us from all angles. Everyone hit max saturation point at about lunchtime but we kept on smiling. Perhaps the best part was when I got into the minibus at the end of the day and realized I hadn't sat down for 9 hours. The weather is overall looking a bit nasty for the rest of the week, but my optimism tells me we've seen the worst of it. Stay tuned for when I learn I was wrong about that tomorrow.

Cat Vom

Been dreaming of having a nice long Sunday snooze all week, but those hopes were dashed when Rebecca and I were woken up by the sound of a gagging cat. She isn't sick very often so we didn't mind, but at 5am your patience can be stretched somewhat. The cat continued to feel a bit sorry for herself while we met up with Mum, Louis and Rachel for a walk around the Bristol harbor for coffee before showing Mum our favourite hand pulled noodle place which was a hit. I had to pack up the car shortly afterwards because I was due back in Cornwall to pack down my cottage and ready myself for another week of work... The weekends always tick by so quickly.

Totterdown Arts Trail 2024

Mum was visiting in Bristol for our annual trip along the Totterdown Arts Trail. We're talking ceramics, textiles, jewelry and of course, art. While the standard was overall much higher this year across the board, for the first time I didn't find myself buying anything. That's not to say I didn't enjoy seeing the sights and barging into people's front rooms to crib their interior design choices. Always a treat to go around with my family though.

Lord's Prayer

Back on set for one last Friday push. The video team were especially jovial, all hugging at the start of the day and uttering the Lord's prayer - in hindsight that was a good call for them because the afternoon quickly ran off the rails for us. We were all up and down, around and about, getting shots here, there and everywhere while literally all of us were trying to catch up. With a thoroughly cooked brain, I hopped in the car to return home to Bristol. I greeted Rebecca, surprising her with my 2 week beard (she didn't approve) and caught a glimpse of the cat before she dashed outside into the cold. It's good to be home.

Beach Comber

Things started off rather normally, we did a scene that was all indoors with plenty of dialogue - a far cry from our action heavy stuff recently. But then it all went funny once they split off the cameras and we had 3 shooting spots. It all culminated in a footprints in the sand style shot which we didn't have super long to shoot on a rinky-dinkn2nd unit. Plus, we didn't have Art Dept with us so the sand resets fell to me. I turned the charm in and asked a nearby surfboard instructor place if they had any brooms, I then took them and acted as standby props, resetting the beach when we needed it to. All that going above and beyond has seriously tuckered me out though.