Forbidden Knowledge

A few months back I tried to get someone onto the job who was also interested in getting into Script Supervising. I got my big break because of shadowing so I wanted to repay that kindness to the universe by getting someone new interested in the role. My attempts were kiboshed at every turn (an odd thing for a production that's so eager to put trainees first). Thankfully, that person got a small placement as a locations marshall for our current filming place so when they weren't too busy I passed on my iPad and showed them the ropes. They were arguably better than I was when I first started out, in fairness they were fresh off a training course on the subject so they really seemed to know what they were doing right from the get go. Some under the radar learning though made me feel like a renegade, passing on forbidden knowledge.

I did the final push of prop buying for my upcoming short film. I don't think I've ever spent so long scrutinizing buttons in my entire life but it'll be worth it. Mum is coming down this weekend to create our hero sock puppet and I already can't wait to meet him.

Dialing in Favours

Called in a few favours to get some bits and pieces done for my upcoming short film. Mum is doing some material buying for the main character and some old camera chums have a slider I can pick up for gratis. Is this what being a Producer is like? Calling on favours from your favourite people to get something made... Perhaps this is telling that I still don't know what a producer does. Kinda sucks that we finished quite late tonight with clawbacks for the rest of the week. I want to do more prep work but I also need to prioritize my sleep.

Cafe Camera

There was a ray of hope that we might wrap early again today but those hopes were dashed on the rocks. The whole crew seemingly forgot we were shooting outside for the last couple of hours and we've been spoilt recently with filming interiors so we were ill-equiped for the exposure. For the most of my day I was treated like the support hotline for the second unit who had dozens of queries about the show and continuity. It's nice to be needed, but I'd prefer to be needed under less ASAP conditions.

I unpacked the old Cafe Studios camera once I got back to do some quick camera tests. It's amazing how quickly all the old buttons and switches came back to me, the whirr of the auto focus and the snap of the battery lock. One more rodeo with that bad boy is coming up and I'm already getting jazzed about using it properly.

One Second

Before I knew it, the work day was over. Wrapping two hours early is rarely a reality but I used my time wisely back at home to catch up on my film watchlist with One Second, a Chinese movie about an man who has recently broken out of a labour camp for one humble reason: to see a movie with his daughter in... And she's not really in the movie, rather she's in the newsreel portion of it and is in screen for meer moments. Such a charming premise, it's an Asian Cinema Paradisio in a lot of ways since it features a handful of loving shots of audiences being brought together by the power of the screen. It has incredible restraint not to go in for big, saccharine moments though... Even when the film deserves an emotional close up it holds back. It's muted tone is somehow the film's best feature and biggest flaw though as we don't have quite enough space to truly connect with the characters, but there's more than enough charming and inspired images that make the film worthwhile.

One More Burns

To continue our Burns weekend, we did the traditional meetup with Louis and Rachel for a plate full of haggis and glasses full of red wine. My favourite part of the meal is watching the guys finish up cooking as Rachel puts on a YouTube video of 3 hours of bagpipe music, often to Louis' chagrin. We had the food as a long lunch, befitting of a quiet, rainy Sunday. Once home, Rebecca and I said we're both feeling like or respective social batteries were drained so we took a bit of time apart to do our own separate things. Rebecca read books and watched true crime documentaries, while I finished up some video games, basically doing our best 'brain off' activities. I feel rested and ready for the week ahead now, only a few more weeks on this shoot now, I'm honestly struggling to remember life before this job, I'm beginning to crave a change of pace.

Cèilidh

 I'm holding back my eyelids before I drift off, but I keep cycling the day over and over in the meantime. We all agreed as a friendship group recently not to buy each other Christmas or birthday gifts anymore, rather we should funnel that money into regular meetups. So, Rebecca, Mark, Lucy, Dan and I all met up to hang out in Surrey for a round of Topgolf. Before you ask, it's a bowling type of sport where you take it in turns at a driving range and hope to sink goofballs into large targets on a green in front of you. I started off dreadfully, all straight knees and rigid wrists. Once I watched Dan a bit (a seasoned golf chap), I got a handle on the posture and got much better.

The main event though was a Burns night extravaganza at a taproom. Haggis and all the trimmings were consumed alongside a dram of whiskey and a cèilidh chaser. We only stuck around for a handful of dances but we had smiles plasted onto our faces. Burns night will continue tomorrow with Louis and Rachel, hopefully I can sleep off the merriment til then.

The Brutalist

My boss had to step off towards the end of the day because she needed to attend a house viewing. It could the 'the one' for her so I didn't want to deprive her of that, so I opted to step up for the last few hours. While I was a bit sweaty, I actually ended up doing a decent job. I answered every question about continuity swiftly and pointed something out to the director who later came up and thanked me for the spot. I left Friday in a great little mood, so I thought I'd treat myself. With Rebecca away tonight, I took myself to the movies to check out The Brutalist... Here's my LetterBoxd write up.

During the film's epilogue a character sheds some light on the philosophy of Brutalism, revealing that the work isn't intended to make a statement, rather it's reflective of nothingness and how humans need to accept the lack of meaning in the world.

The Brutalist is a story told in two halves, kept alive by a refreshing dedication to sustained shots that permit performance to do the heavy lifting - the on-screen results are often electrifying. 

Act one has a great sense of buildup because it's about people with dreams. Act two on the other hand is about the cost of those dreams and how people let you down - it's messy, ugly and disappointing... and I mean this quite literally.

The moment an in-world train goes off the rails, so does the storytelling. Scenes feel increasingly fractured and devoid of context. We hop over to Italy for ambiguous reasons (because the plot demands it, apparently) and the final few scenes with Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones feel hurried and unresolute. It kinda lost me in the last stretch which is heartbreaking because everything that came before was exquisite.

Does this mean the film is in harmony with the art style it champions? Possibly. Does that also mean the conclusion is inherently unsatisfying? Almost definitely.

Storyboard Fake Artist

To thaw ourselves out we all enjoyed another studio day, with all the infrastructure and amenities our hearts could desire. The crepe van was the icing on the cake of course, keeping us on side as we huffed the haze being puffed out the fog machines. Same again tomorrow, with a relatively early finish time so there's all the time in the world to enjoy a real Friday evening.

This evening however, I wanted to do something a little productive so I continued storyboarding my short film idea. I got the ending down pat now, just the logistics of the film's intro now which I just need to settle on. Again, I've had this idea rattling around in my brain for a while and I'm eager to scoop it out and show it to the world. There's always the urge to sit and brood on an idea until it's perfect, but in this instance I'm just keen for it to exist.

Chilling / Not Chilling

 Back to standing on the side of the road for me, this time with very little to do in terms of immediate work. However, this freed me up to do plenty of prep stuff for the double bank unit next week AND for my new boss who has asked for a few bits and pieces. The whole time I was thinking to myself 'I wish I had a laptop' but I made it work by standing up with a phone in one hand and an iPad in the other. In the midst of all this I had other people emailing me at all angles... I just wanted to be cold on the side of a road in peace, instead I was getting whiplash on how busy I was meant to be.

Side Step Up

I low-key mentioned to my Script Supervisor boss that my next gig wouldn't be within the same department as it's looking like I'm going back to Production. I didn't want it to come across like a slap in the face considering all the mentoring I've been doing with her, but thankfully it actually made her double down on the training. She stepped me up to supervise the whole of the afternoon today (while she stood by as a safety net) and it all went pretty well! I'm a little sad to be closing the door on Script Supervising, but this move back is the right thing to do at the present time. After such a feel good day I walked out to my car to drive back to Bristol and my laptop slid out my bag. Now it won't recognize there's a battery connected to it so it doesn't power on anymore. Into each life some rain must fall.

The Comforts of Home

It was pretty novel to drive up my old road and head into work. It was even more crazy to think that my crew, a team I've worked with for the better half of a year, were all stood in a location that has a lot of personal history to me. That feeling of 'what a small world' was almost enough to distract me from the bitter cold of the day after standing outdoors for basically 10 hours straight. My collection of chilblains is growing nicely along my toes, a sign that I should probably double sock tomorrow. I did get to press my feet up against the radiator when I got home and warm my bones in a hot shower. No matter how tough the day can be, the comforts of home always see you through.

Close To Home

Clawed back some of my weekend by setting an alarm early - this gave me ample time to waste on video games first thing which is just what the doctor ordered. We also swung by a friends house for games and snacks. We discovered that I have a penchant for memory based games, but my reaction time and spacial awareness still need work. All the way through today there was a niggling thought: work tomorrow... Worse still, I had to do a travel day so I was ready to go close to our next filming location. And for the first time ever, that also meant I got to stay at home with my parents before a shoot day. They were mortified to hear I was getting up early for work (and by all accounts, tomorrow is a bit of a lie in for me) but I'll hopefully be able to dispense some fun stories to them tomorrow evening.

Some of Our Favourite Things

Being away from home all of last week made me want to ensure this weekend was extra special with Rebecca. It started a little hypocritically because we both slept in for a lot longer than either of us had expected, but we still managed to get a lot of things done together. Rebecca made blueberry pancakes which we topped with maple syrup my family brought over from Canada and we headed up to a nearby micro taproom for some drinks while we played some 2 player board games - our little date afternoon. Then there was video games and a film together, basically spent the day doing all of our favourite things... The only 'unpleasant' part was pressing send on a very large chunk of money towards paying off our mortgage. Ultimately a good move, but saying bon voyage to your wealth is always a little vexing.

Drone Benchwarmers

I was nestled inside a unit car for two hours of my working day. We went cross country so we could shoot some drone footage so I was summoned down as the main Script once again. It was a very short little unit, but never in a million years did I expect to spend the day crewed up with familiar faces: a 2nd AD I met a couple years back plus an old base runner - both of which were very glad to see me too. The shoot ran super smoothly and we all got home early as a result. With the extra time in my day I ran up the road for board games, there's one game I always bring because the owner loves to play it and tonight we roped in a new pair of faces to join us and they had a blast too. When I step back I realize it's quite an odd thing to spend a Friday night often in the company of some total strangers, teaching them how to play board games... But it makes me smile big time.

Bananagrams

Landed on set and I was immediately being pulled in multiple directions for requests. Splinter units, questions about dialogue, reference photos and complimentary copies of board games, it all, very suddenly, came my way. I rolled with the punches though and got through the day A-Ok. Our final day out in a remote location to be exact. Literally everyone was so excited to up and leave, it felt like a Friday. Just one more day though and then I can enjoy the first idle weekend of 2025 - cannot wait!

OJ's Glove

I clicked my heels together as I left my hotel room early this morning, for today was the day my new touchscreen gloves arrived at a nearby parcel pick up point. I got dressed, popped out, greeted the high street, picked up my post and dreamed about how useful the gloves would be on set. Returned to the hotel room, ripped open the parcel to try them on and they were far too small. I was like OJ in court trying to squeeze them over my fingers. The gloves didn't fit, so I had to acquit... To the expensive return policy of the website.

So yeah, that was my morning. The days work was same as before in this location - continuing one scene while the sun was up, then onto another bunch once the sun had set. The whole time I kept thinking to myself 'I wished those damn gloves fitted'. At the very least we got to pop into the hotel bar this evening with a few crew. The very nice staff member kept extending the closing time for us and continued to pour us drinks. Ready for one more day on the road before I'm back in my normal bed.

Fleeting Spring

Managed to play video games in my hotel room this morning without completely losing track of time. Driving in was leisurely too because the sun was shining, so much so that a lot of the crew were stripping off all their winter coats. Of course, they all went back on again the second the sun went in but it was a fleeting glimpse of Spring. After dinner the day really felt like it was dragging along. I kept thinking it was Thursday but we're not even halfway through this week. I told Rebecca I'm missing her, and I never thought I'd say this, but I'm also missing the cat sleeping on the bed with us. I'll be eating my words soon enough, but the idealisized image of my bed is what I'm longing for the most.

Time Froze

Repacked my bags and re-steeled myself for another Monday. I'll be living out of a hotel and doing night work for most of the week, video games and maybe a movie or two will have to keep me company in the mornings. Not that I'm homesick at all, but it will be nice to be reunited with Rebecca and my own bed to sleep in. Thankfully the days are going quickly, being out in the cold makes you forcefully will time to get a wiggle on it turns out - the week will go by in the blink of an eye.

Cold = Character Building

 Did the Sunday sweep from London back to Bristol, but we stopped in briefly on my parents. Rebecca and I always joke to brace ourselves for the chill of the house and today was on another level. I was passed a blanket more or less on arrival so we could drink coffee in some degree of warmth. Having grown up with it I don't mind it so much (older generations would call it character building), but it still makes me chuckle to remember waking up in my old bedroom before school being able to see my breath. Maybe that's why I like to sleep in colder spaces to this day...

Another week fo filming lies before us, hopefully we won't get snowed off again. I'll be living in a hotel for most of the week, it's a pretty Dickensian room with single glazing and a large writers desk inside but it's plenty charming and near to location. I'm just hoping I don't turn into a popsicle again.

Loads of Limonchello

 Back down to London for the last of the Christmas engagements with Rebecca"s family friends. I was blown away by the fact most of them had watched (and loved) Rivals so I was flooded with fun questions to answer for most of the night. Better still, for the past month I had been preparing a batch of limonchello for tonight which I finally got to share with everyone. While it wasn't perfect, it was pretty good for a first ever concoction but everyone loved it. While I know I can sometimes be a fairly quiet guest at finner parties, sometimes I bring the goods.

Where's My Kettle?!

It was only after I left my hotel room that curiously didn't have any tea/coffee making facilities in the room is when I realized exactly where my tiny kettle was hiding. Not that I got a chance to use it because I misread the callsheet and my start time for this morning so I was in a manic dash to get out the door. I landed just in time though for another day stood out in negative temperatures. Never have looked forward to sitting in a heated car more in my life, and even after an hour long drive home I hadn't quite thawed out. At least I'll be back in my own bed this evening with Rebecca and the cat to keep me warm.

The Cold Cometh

All the warm clothing in the world didn't quite prep me for the fierce chill of our next location. Night shooting didn't help either but we're in for a penny... The one saving grace was knowing there's a nice warm hotel only a short drive away at the end of the day. Walking into my room I got temperature shock and now that I'm tucked up in bed ai cannot wait to enjoy the warm dreams I'll be having.

Nosferatu Once More

Our first studio day of the block was utter bliss. I think it's the first long stint we've done indoors over the last few months so we all got a chance to appreciate shelter from the elements. We were all doubly glad when we're wrapped early again and only a short drive home for me. 

I took Rebecca out on a little date night to see the new Nosferatu film which looked exquisite but still fell into the shonkey pacing of the story. It was also a total jump scare fest, but watching it in a packed cinema, projected on 35mm was pretty dang cool. To add to the blood and nastyness, Rebecca wore her brand new Dr Marten's on the walk into town. On the way back she started hobbling and I needed to give her a piggyback... Her feet were molded by the shoe but not without some real pain. I had to help yank the boots off when we got back and let me tell you, her blisters were nastier than anything in Nosferatu. And that film has a man eating the head of a live pigeon.

On Set Snow Day

 While driving in a coworker to location we both got a message on the crew chat. 'Snow is very bad, please hang tight somewhere til we have made the roads to set safe'. So we pulled into a nearby service station and pondered about how long we'd be waiting for. Minutes? Hours? Either way, we both quickly agreed that the best thing to do was have a nap. So right there we each swaddled up in our respective spare jackets and got a bit of shut eye. We started stirring once the sun came up properly, so we hopped out the car to stretch our legs.... Only to find a good number of crew cars around us, each with snoozing coworkers inside. Very humbling.

Once we got the all clear to come to work it was clear it wouldn't be a full day. All of our material was outdoor stuff to match to yesterday... When there wasn't snow on the trees. So we cheated a little bit and then poked off to do some pretty cutaways then called it a day. SNOW DAY!

Wet No Legs

I convinced myself I was wearing my waterproof trousers, yet when I stepped out the car only the blue of my jeans greeted my eyes. Same goes for my wooly hat and I was gutted to not have either on a day like today. We were doing a bunch of car stuff today which often means I'm warming the bench due to seating space on the following vehicle. It made for an easy breezy first day at least, a chance for us all to refund our feet and run the last few miles over the finish line.

Gotta remember my hat tomorrow.

See Ya Tree

It's funny how quickly we can go from delight to disgust in seeing Christmas stuff at the supermarket. The season is officially over and I was in Asda, phone in one hand, tape measure in the other as I talked with Rebecca to figure out how big a storage box we needed to stow away our decorations. We didn't want to leave anything to change so I walked a 64L box back - if it were any bigger I could have used it as a boat to get back home in through the rain. 

De-decorating the tree is always a sordid affair, but it was nice to look at our ornaments one more time. A couple of new ones came to stick around this year, and each and every one of them has their own story to tell. I look forward to recalling them again next December. 

Back at work for me tomorrow. Hope my body remembers what it's like to be jolted awake at 5am.

NY Slice

It feels like a different lifetime since I was at work, it's only just dawned on me that I don't have another week off, I only have another day. I did my best to spend it well by offering to hang out with a chum from work - a golden opportunity to play some social games and to get my head back into the filming headspace.

Then this evening it snowed! Rebecca and I had planned to grab some takeaway this evening and merged it into a wintery walk. Heading back home at night with a carton of hot pizza in the snow as police cars passed us by, it was almost like strolling through Manhattan. Then we munched our slices while working together to solve whodunnit murders - basically the perfect evening.

Best Games of 2024

I pulled up a chair and got to writing, finishing up my best games of the year article which you can check out here. I had a good time getting back into the swing of typing up quick paragraph pitches of games and condensing my thoughts. Increasingly, I'm trying to write about why games have stuck with me which is a fun thing to meditate on - anyone can say that they liked a thing, the hard part is quantifying how it made them feel.

Keeping Up the Resolutions

I gave a lift to our New Year guests up to the train station and gave them both a cheery hug goodbye. I felt bad not staying outside the car to wave them off properly but the sudden cold snap forced me back into shelter. True to my mini resolution, I did a bit of writing today - I'm cracking on with my best games of last year list that I'm so fond of doing. I got more done than I'd anticipated which is great so hopefully I can publish it very soon indeed. I'm back to reading too, I picked back up The World According to Garp, my Kindle delighted to inform me I was 11% of the way through it so I picked up where I left off. I also wanted to make a habit of wearing a watch more often so I wouldn't have to glance at my phone to check the time... Of course my watch battery died this morning though...

Happy New Year 2025!

So, here we are. On the dawn of another new year. Yesterday Matt and Ben joined us in Bristol for some early merry making before heading off to Mark and Lucy's for food, festivities and friendly games. We met Harold, the giant octopus that was won at a Christmas carnival. His 8 arms meant we all had an extra hand to hold during Auld Lang Syne, and an extra glass to raise as we rung in the new year.

New Year's day was naturally spent sleeping off said champagne, the chilly rain outside gave the perfect excuse for us to have a duvet day with our guests. We spent quality time together playing games and appreciating little things - basically doing the things that I want to do more of in 2025.

Looking back on 2024, it was a bit of a placeholder year for me. I blinked and I missed it, especially after landing my latest gig which hoovered up all of my time. If we're talking achievements l, suppose the job could be considered one. I got my first Assistant Script Supervisor role and continued to develop my skill set. The small uptick in salary meant that Rebecca and I could visit Rome, something that's been on our list since New Year's Eve of 2020. 

My watched movies list ballooned too, resting on 107 new films to me this year - My favourite of that bunch was 1999's Human Traffic, loveable for it's rough edges and commentary on the unbearable weight of being rudderless your 20's.

Perhaps I sound a little down about last year, but I'm treating it as a wake up call. Going into 2025 I want to ensure the year doesn't pass me by. I want to do more things that I want to sing from the rooftops about. I want to write more, read more and create more. I want to feel a marked growth between myself today and the person I'll be in 364 days. 

Til then, Happy New Year!