Block 2 Episode 4, Heathcock Pub Llandaff, 6:30-9:45pm
So far this week, it has done nothing but rain (giving us stress about the planned weekend ahead of us) but for now we concentrate on this shoot - a interior, thankfully!
The Heathcock in Llandaff - a fantastic local bar, great food and to be honest the best pub quiz ever! We had half the pub set aside privately for us to film, which we have to say a big thank you to the landlords, Paul and Geoff, for allowing us to do this.
We had a busy night ahead of us, three scenes to film and limited time to get them shot. We had Andrew (playing Liam) and Scott (playing Lloyd, Liam's Dad) with us for the evening - tonight they will film some very fun scenes and a four page epic dialogue scene - no spoilers on the content, but a great bit of writing by Matthew Ford.
We started the evevning with making the most of our cast and our guests cast/extras- most notably Lucas Eisele making his guest appearance with us. Lucas was cast back in April to play a major part in Episode 1. Unfortunately, due to location availability on Episode 1, we lost Lucas. Luckily, we were able to recast him in Episode 4. He plays a pub patron - and plays it very well!
Our two extras that night were fantastic too. Denyse and Jordan were great sports, patient and gave some brilliant reaction acting- no standing in the background saying rhubarb on this shoot.
We have mentioned before Andrew's costume, that we are not revealing until the episode goes live - well, the shoots so far have taken its toll on the costume. Terrance and Hannah took a lot of effort to get it looking fresh for the shoot! Fantastic work on their part.
The evening was going great, the first scene was shot in no time, actors hitting their marks and lines delivered amazingly.
The second scene was an interesting one to film - mainly because it was my turn to make a cameo. I have four lines! Not bad considering I haven't acted in over ten years! Also directing yourself as part of a small crowd is an interesting task - thankfully we had crew on hand that night. Craig Handley our B Camera Operator, took on directing duties for the scene's wide shots and Hannah Celyn Griffiths (Jen in Episode 4 and Production Assistant) jumped on Camera, given her a third credit on the series. I managed to fluff the fourth line a few times, but we got it all - the scene wrapped and we released our extras and Lucas.
After a short break, we rigged the third scene. We got Andrew and Scott into positions. We filmed a few takes - and we hit a wall.
It was something that hasn't happened on the production up to this point. We called it a night and decided it will be best to film this scene again.
There were a few reasons for this choice - the other half of the pub become busy, which gave us sound issues which was slowing the filming. This in turn was dragging us towards 10pm, when we had agreed to be finished and clear around 9pm. We were on borrowed time, not that Paul and Geoff minded at all. But more importantly Andrew and Scott were both tired, and importantly the scene we were trying to film is that four page amazing scene - full of moments and opportunities for our actors to shine. With all this happening, Tez and myself called it and within five minutes had a plan of where, how and when to re-shoot the scene and get that scene right - all cast and crew agreed with this choice. A big thank you to Andrew and Scott for being very understanding.
We wrapped for the evening, later than planned, feeling happy for the most part. I'm sure when we have the final piece of that evening's puzzle in the can I will no doubt know we made the right choice