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  • Synopses For Episodes 1 - 3

    Episode 1: Waiting Four Written by Terrance Edwards, Matthew Ford & Rhys Jones Directed by Rhys Jones In a queue for a book signing, Andrew, Steph, Bradley and Liam wait patiently (and not so patiently) for the line to move. Episode 2: The Master Of Fear Written by Matthew Ford & Rhys Jones from a story by Rhys Jones Directed by Rhys Jones Andrew's made a mistake. A mistake that he really needs to fix. To rectify what he's done, he must get on his bike. Literally. Episode 3: The Woman Who Loved Written by Terrance Edwards Directed by Rhys Jones Steph is single and perfectly happy. However, she gets more than she bargained for when she meets a handsome man whilst heading to a location shoot.

  • Project Torchwood: Blog Interview

    Great article from Project Torchwood - take a read here.

  • Saturday 5th September, Shoot Day 25 - Final Day of Filming, A Video Diary....

    Sit back and enjoy our Video Diary of the last day of Principal Photography on #WhoviansTV. Also if you havn't seen this - here is a look back over the three month shoot.

  • Friday 4th September Shoot Day 24

    Block 2, Episode 3 - Millenium Stadium Ben (who plays Andrew), Craig (Camera Operator) and I all met at 5pm. We had one goal this evening - to continue the bike sequence from Episode 3, but more importantly, we had to get shots of the stadium. We had no window for error, this was our penultimate shoot. Tomorrow Wales play Italy and the stadium will be unfilmable - we needed sunny skies and the stadium looking great. What we got was a miracle - the sun came out that evening! I had forgotten what daylight looked like. We come to the end of the shoot and August and the skies are blue again! We got Ben to cycle past to and away from the stadium, shot after shot - grabbing so many angles. Coverage doesn't come close to describe us that night - to be honest, I may have overshot! I think we were in shock at seeing sunlight! We were wrapped after a few hours and contemplating the busy final day ahead of us. The realisation that this is finally coming to an end was hitting home!

  • Wednesday 2nd September, Shoot Day 23

    Block 2, Episode 4 Aberdare, 7.30pm-9:30pm We've covered a fair bit of ground and seen an awful lot of Cardiff during the shooting, but this is the furthest afield we've gone to film. You may remember from a previous production diary that, when we filmed at the Heathcock pub in Llandaff, we decided to finish the shoot without getting the final scene due to several technical issues. This left us with a quandary of how to get this final scene shot. Our ever-resourceful second camera operator, Craig, came up trumps and offered the use of Beluga, the bar he manages in Aberdare. So Rhys and I jumped on a train whilst Rebecca, Andy and our two actors drove up to get this scene filmed. Rhys and I arrived early and, with Craig's help, set the lights and cameras up so that- when the actors arrived- it was a case of in costume (and, in Andrew's case, make-up) and on set. It also gave me time to examine Andrew's costume to see if any repair work needed doing on it. It did. Actors arrived and suited up, then we were able to start the filming. We were only filming one scene, but it's a long scene, six pages of dialogue, and it's amongst the very best of Matthew Ford's writing for the series. It's a proper father-son heart-to-heart and is pivotal to Episode 4. Within the first few takes of the evening, it became clear that wrapping early at the Heathcock was the right decision. Both Scott and Andrew were absolutely brilliant and really did Matt's writing justice. The scene is a mix of pathos and comedy and our two actors delivered that pitched-perfectly. One particular take had me and several other members of the crew in tears (not the first time that has happened during filming). After several takes to ensure coverage, we were able to finish for the night and able to declare a series wrap for both Scott and Andrew. Another main cast member wrapped and principal photography completed on five of the six episodes. The end is nigh...

  • A Day In The Life Of Sophie Aldred

    On 13th September, I was very fortunate to attend A Day In The Life Of Sophie Aldred at Penarth Pier Pavilion on behalf of Watchers Productions to show the assembled attendees some exclusive footage from Whovians Episode 1. This was the tenth A Day In The Life Of... event that Timeless have arranged. Previous guests have included the late Elisabeth Sladen, Louise Jameson and Simon Fisher-Becker. They are intimate events which allow fans to ask questions, get autographs and pictures and generally enjoy being in the company of the special guest. Full disclosure: Sophie Aldred is one of my childhood heroes. I remember watching all of Sylvester McCoy's stories on their first broadcast and I just loved the character of Ace. She was feisty, kick-ass, handy with a can of Nitro 9, took a Dalek down with a baseball bat and generally took no nonsense. What's not to love? So to have the opportunity to meet her was just wonderful. And I couldn't resist having a photo taken with her either: That's all very nice, I hear you say, but what about Whovians? Well, from what I could gather, it went down well. The audience was small as it was shown at the end of the day but there was laughter in the funny places- which was good- and a few audience members recognised two of our actors (Andrew and Rob). Plus, Whovians looks amazing on the big screen: We have to give a huge thank you to Neil Goodman and Timeless for inviting us to attend the event and giving us the opportunity to share Whovians with the crowd. You can follow Timeless on Twitter @TIMELESS_SF or look for Timeless Diamser on Facebook. They also offer regular meet-ups in Cardiff and Pontypridd to discuss all things geeky. Keep an eye out for any other A Day In The Life Of... events because they are definitely worth attending if you can.

  • Sunday 30th August, Shoot Day 22

    Block 2, Episode 3 Various locations, 10am-3pm So we inch ever closer to our final day of filming, filming scenes for Episode 2. We started the morning up in Roath, shooting a scene in a corner shop where Andrew has a very funny encounter with a shop assistant. We have to give huge thanks to Naran Ladhani of Cyfarthfa Stores for allowing us to take over the shop for an hour. With the use of a Go-Pro and some interesting camera angles, we've got some really unusual footage that will make the scene look very different. Joining us on set today was Zoe Azzopardi who is playing the shop assistant. It's a small role but Zoe gave a wonderful performance. Ben was also on top form, really selling Andrew's frustration in that moment. Just as we finished filming Ben leaving the shop and were able to wrap for that part of the shoot, we could feel rain in the air. The plan was to then travel up to the Danescourt area of Cardiff to film a scene from later on in the episode which involves a car. This required the road to be quiet and, more importantly, dry. However, the heavens absolutely opened and we had to abandon that scene to be filmed on another drier day.However, we didn't waste the rest of the day. We were able to use the afternoon to shoot some interviews with cast and crew for the short behind-the-scenes videos that will accompany each episode. Luckily, the weather cleared and dried up enough for us to pop out and film a few short pick-ups for the episode of Andrew waiting at a bus-stop. It was on a busy street with a lot of passers-by but we were able to get the shots needed. It may only be thirty seconds on screen, but it will all help to sell that particular moment.As we wrapped for that pick-up, it started raining again. Time to call it a day.

  • Saturday 29th August, Shoot Day 21

    Block 2, Episode 2 - 3:30pm - 8pm, Various Locations around Cardiff It finally happened. There were times when we thought even Mother Nature was against us, but at long last we managed to get the cycling shots for episode three, Andrew’s episode. It was dry, reasonably warm (if a bit cloudy, but at this stage we’re not complaining), so filming was a go. A huge, grateful thank you has to go to Tez’s other half, Alex Marshman, for letting us borrow his trike so we could get the shots we needed.It must have been an odd site: Whovians’ director, Rhys Jones, pedalling a trike, with writer and exec producer Matthew Ford sat in the back, not only clinging onto the camera, but for his life. Rhys’ legs took a pasting, while Matthew’s buttocks got bruised going over Cardiff’s many speed bumps and the odd pothole. During the auditions for Whovians, one of the questions we asked the male actors was, “Can you ride a bike?” It’s a good thing Ben Wilson can cycle, as he was doing loads of it! We started off down the Bay (outside the Atradius building, which we’re using as Andrew’s workplace), then off to Loudoun Square to get a sneaky shot of Ben cycling past the flats used for the Tyler residence in Christopher Eccleston’s opening episode of Doctor Who, over to St Paul’s Church in Grangetown for another nod to Eccleston’s Doctor (the exterior of the church was used in Father’s Day), and finally ending up in Llandaff, filming in the fields as well as the village (another nod to Who, the green featuring in Matt Smith’s first go as the Doctor, The Eleventh Hour) before calling it a day.It needs pointing out that while Ben and Matthew were being chauffeured around by our camera operator and all-round God send, Craig Handley, it was Rhys and sound supervisor Andrew White who pedalled all the way from the Bay across to Llandaff (plus detours). St Paul’s Church in Grangetown was picked as a location because – usually – Paget Street is a quiet road and ideal for filming one of the few dialogue scenes in this montage. You couldn’t make it up… Cars, people talking ridiculously loudly from halfway down the street, doors slamming, music from speeding boy racers, one driver taking far too long to parallel park near to where we were filming, plus a group of children who, rather than cycle past and leave us alone, stopped directly in shot and stared right at the camera. These were just some of the many problems we faced. Guaranteed, the second Rhys said “Action!” there was noise coming from somewhere or someone walking into shot. Poor Andrew on sound wasn’t broken, but he very nearly cracked. The filming in Llandaff went a lot more smoothly (still the odd pothole, mind), where we could fire through the shots we wanted. Problems arose when we tried filming the second and final dialogue scene for the day’s shoot. Clearly someone out there doesn’t just want the sound on Whovians to be terrible, they want it to be “What the hell?” bonkers. Pretty much the second we started filming Ben’s dialogue, music was blasting from somewhere nearby. We soon realised we had picked the same night as Llandaff Rugby Club’s summer bash to do our filming.Pedalling up to the green, as far as we could from the Rugby Club (the music was good, to be fair, all Blues Brothers soundtrack-type stuff; it just didn’t help us out all that much), we managed to get away with it by filming in-between songs (“Ray Charles is wrapping up! Go, go, go!!”), the music nowhere near the slap-bang in the middle of Glastonbury levels.Much thanks has to go to Ben for not only having to act and take directions, but the amount of cycling he had to do that afternoon/evening. Once again, it shows just how lucky we are with our cast and crew; the passion they have for what we’re trying to do here and going above-and-beyond what’s expected of anyone involved in a zero budget production.Thanks to Alex lending us the trike, we’ve got ourselves yet another classy looking episode.

  • Sunday 23rd August: Shoot Day 20

    Block 2, Episodes 2 & 4, Various Interiors Cardiff. Weather forecasters are dirty, filthy liars, and should be put in the same category as politicians, bankers, and One Direction!! We were all set to do a major external shoot on Saturday featuring Ben Wilson for episode three, Andrew’s episode. The whole week, forecasts had the day down as a biblical washout. On the Friday night, that changed to intermittent showers with sunny spells, which didn’t help us as we needed the shots to match up with earlier externals from back in July. Remember July? Heat, sunshine, the odd clear blue sky? It’s a hazy memory. You can’t have Ben cycling through one shot where there’s puddles around, then in the next shot the ground is bone dry (although Cardiff’s weather can be like that sometimes), so the shoot was cancelled. On the day, there were no intermittent showers, no dark clouds. It was lovely and warm, with the rain not setting in until the early evening; plenty of time for us to film what we needed. Tragically, it was too short notice to get all the equipment together to really show off this scene, so a day’s filming was abandoned. Mercifully, we pulled it back on Sunday. We filmed the last few interior shots for Andrew’s episode with Ben, including the other side of the phone conversation with Rachel Dunston’s sister-in-law, which was filmed WAY BACK (it certainly feels that way for us!) on July 1st. Later that evening, poor Joe Rivett was the latest person to have his home invaded by the Whovians cast and crew, so we could film the opening of episode four, Liam’s episode, plus Liam’s guest appearance in episode three. Joe’s flat is very tidy; there’s no clutter, everything has its place, and there’s nothing remotely geeky to be found anywhere. So to have several people come in and take over, turning the bedroom into a Doctor Who shrine with posters and memorabilia everywhere you look, must have stung a tiny bit. Joe however was the perfect host, letting us crack on with filming, and having free reign of his home. A massive, ginormous thank you to Joe, who really saved our bacon, as we were struggling to find a location for Liam’s dwelling. So this weekend wasn’t a complete waste, we managed to get a decent chunk of filming out of the way. Next weekend is (if everything goes to plan) the last weekend’s filming on Whovians. We’re having another stab at the bike scenes, as well as running through everything else left to shoot for episode three. After that, we have the remainder of the pub scenes from Liam’s episode on Wednesday 2nd September and we’re wrapped. One last push and we’re done!

  • Wednesday 19th August: Shoot Day 19

    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

  • Saturday August 15th: Shoot Day 18

    Block 2, Episode 4 - Fairwater Train Station, 10am The last hurdle; not that long to go now until we officially wrap on Whovians (never thought I’d be typing this when me, Rhys and Tez first sat down, firing ideas back and forth, figuring out what we could do with six webisodes). Today was one of the last exterior shoots on the schedule, all taking place at Fairwater train station. This is one of the first scenes in Liam’s episode (episode four),it’s where Liam and his father meet as they make their way to the Comic Con; it’s also the big reveal of Liam’s cosplay outfit. Rhys, Tez and myself made the decision not to reveal anything about Liam’s costume, so I’m not going to give anything away except that this is going to produce some giant belly laughs when you finally get to see it. It got the right reaction from the train drivers and general public, who were all smiling, laughing and taking photos. This has been said before in the production diary, but whatever we film next will be set in one interior location with no dialogue. There’s a reason for this: Every time we’ve tried to film outside, we get royally screwed over with the sound. We’ve had children, dogs, helicopters, builders, rugby fans, and today it was the turn of trains, announcers, loud traffic, and circular saws. We had no idea where the circular saw was coming from, but it was already going at nine-o’-clock in the morning. You had to pity the neighbours… With Fairwater being one of the stations on-route to Cardiff Central and Pontypridd, we had a gap of twenty minutes to film before the next train showed up and we had to stop what we’re doing. No Stanley Kubrick, let’s do a-hundred-plus takes here, we had to film quickly, then move along to the next shot. A couple of fits of giggles aside (Andrew Machin has THE MOST adorable laugh; it’s like a new-born puppy sneezing!), both Andrew and Scott did exactly what was asked of them. The script I wrote has Liam and his dad as totally different people: Liam is a bit of a diva, highly strung, and makes a crisis out of every day, harmless situations, while Lloyd takes things in his stride, makes a joke out of everything, and is laid back to the point of being half-asleep. Andrew and Scott get this, make a great team, and will – fingers crossed!! – have people smiling and welling up when episode four has its grand unveiling. So, that’s one more tricky shoot out the way, next weekend we’re filming Ben cycling round some of Cardiff’s famous landmarks for episode three, Andrew’s episode. We’re very nearly at the home straight now, and it won’t be long before you’re properly introduced to our four Whovians, with the launch of episode one on Halloween.

  • Wednesday 12th August: Shoot Day 17

    Block 2, Episode 2, Cardiff City Centre. 7pm-8:30pm We found ourselves filming Episode 2 once more. As I have said before, this episode takes place in one evening and so for the most part we are trying to film this episode over various evenings to try and get the correct light/feel. So two small scenes - no dialogue, one scene involves a cashpoint, the other a bus. What could go wrong? This shoot is very much what a film maker calls guerilla filming, which means when you have no budget, sometimes you just have to go film things on the sly! So, Ben (who plays Andrew), Andy on Sound, Craig on Cam B and myself all head out on foot, no tripods, no large microphones, using two handheld small cameras and Andy recording sound from his bag! Surprisingly we film the cashpoint scene in no time and no fuss. From here, well... To summarise - our bus scene involves Andrew getting on a bus, riding the bus and exiting the bus - that's all (well plus some spoilers!), and you would think how hard can this be? Very as it turns out - especially if you're walking along a street and there is a horse parked up outside a shop to which the traveller owner came out of the shop and insisted we don't film his horse or 'I'll whip you around the head' (actual quote). It was at this point I tried to not laugh as we walked away. We successfully all got on the bus, filmed what we needed - but somehow when we got off, Craig ended up going for a tour around Cardiff for half an hour! Well, to say I now have a large amount of footage of Cardiff and the interior of a bus is an understatement. We continued to film the exit of the bus and then all joined back up and thought it was best on this occasion to end the shoot... in the pub! An interesting, eventful night's filming. One thing I've learned about filming in Cardiff - it is never dull!

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