Scottish feature films - Sci-fi superhero movie in production

Scottish feature films - Sci-fi superhero movie in production

The second weekend of filming our Scottish superhero movie "Night is Day - The Movie" came to an exhausting end on Sunday evening at around 11pm.

(Superhero's Jason and Caitlyn, played by Chris Summers and Anna Walseth. Next to supervillains Gwen and Angel portrayed by Kelly Love and Liz Strange)

I've made around four short films in my 4 year career, as well as two seasons of "Night is Day" as a web series, all with very little money, but this movie is tough. That's not a complaint - if it was easy then everybody would be doing it. It's just a lot of work and time goes into making sure everybody knows what they are doing, where to be, when to be, what to wear, etc etc. And then you need to make it look brilliant. We're shooting on two HD cameras, Sony WEX3 to be precise. We've not got a £50,000 or a £1 million budget, we've not even got £2,000!

Let's just say I'm very glad to have a fantastic production team and a wonderful cast around me - that keeps me going. I love making the film - it's a huge step for me - and I've got a lot further this time than I did with my first attempt at a feature in 2006 - so I am grateful.

The footage is looking great and three scenes have already been edited together and coloured - I am definitely very happy with how it's going.

On Saturday the 19th we filmed a LOT of scenes. We started at 8.30am outside the Pitt Street police station,  waiting for Elaine C Smith to arrive to film her cameo scenes. In the movie she plays Rebecca Munro's mum. Rebecca is a new character to the Night is Day world, working with Superintendent Sloan and DCI Mullan in their F-Division group for the police.

(Clare Sheppard on set with Elaine C Smith)

Elaine was lovely, a real pro and very, very funny. Her and Clare worked really hard on the scene together and we got the result we wanted in the end. It's only a shame Elaine is only in two scenes of the movie. I hope I can work with her again one day. We wrapped her scenes and headed back to the Base (aka my flat) and we filmed another scene with Clare before taking a break for the day.

(Fight director Sean Clancy takes the girls through the fight)

Thanks to Glasgow City Council we've been given permission to film for three days in the Botanic Gardens, with two scenes shot over the two days, the first was a fight scene between Caitlyn (Anna Walseth) and Gwen (Kelly Love), which was directed by cage-fighter and fight director, Sean Clancy. Everybody worked really hard, and the last part of the scene was DAMN impressive. Well done to Anna and Chris for that brilliant scene.

We wrapped just before 10pm and the next stay started at 9.30am again as we filmed two scenes with Mark Harvey and Tam Toye, who play villainous assassin Frank Stone and corrupt businessman, Mr. Philips respectively. Mr. Philips has genuinely no connection to our main villain, The Caillech, but that doesn't stop him from wanting to share in the havoc that she is creating. Leigh Butler, our makeup artist, did an amazing job on The Caillech. We are NOT releasing ANY photos of the Caillech at all, not until the next trailer is created, and even then we might not. All we can say is that she is really freaky. In a good way.

With those scenes filmed we wrapped until the evening when we had a few problems with timing. We needed to film a scene where The Caillech summons her soldiers, vicious Scavenger Demons (Cat Joss, who plays the Caillech, referred to them as "her puppies"). The makeup for the scavengers is long and complicated, but scary and fantastic at the same time. Back to the Botanic Gardens we went to the abandoned train station there to film that scene before heading up the road to film a scene where Sloan, Mullan and Rebecca are confronted by the Scavenger demons for the first time. I can't wait to see the footage! 

We wrapped at 11pm, which totally wiped me out and I'm sure the cast and crew are exhausted too.

Sunday the 27th sees the next day of filming until the 3rd of July - we'll be in Muse near Queen Street to film 5 scenes of the movie - some involving The Caillech again. Can't wait to get started!

Night is Day - Confidential - Behind the Scenes of Night is Day The Movie

Thanks to John G McCall I can now show you the first behind the scenes video from making "Night is Day - The Movie".

Warning - I'm in this video :p



Next weekend we're filming with Elaine C. Smith who played Rab C Nesbitt's long suffering wife, Mary, in the long-running BBC Scotland comedy of the same name. We're in talks with a few more well known actors to take cameo roles in the film to help boost the profile of what we're trying to achieve.

On the 18th of June we're holding a Superhero Costume Party in Karbon Night club in Glasgow City Centre from 7pm which is free for everybody to come to (18+ only I'm afraid) and on the 2nd of July we're holding a sponsorship party to help us raise the funds we need to pay for expenses, costumes, makeup, and yes, locations.

Despite being granted access to film in places such as The Botanic Gardens and The Hub for free, we're still struggling to find a big enough office to film Mr. Philips (Tam Toye) office scenes. The cheapest we can find is £300 for a few hours in an office in the city centre, but that's still a nightmare!

Wish us luck on our 2nd weekend of filming!

Night is Day The Movie: Filming Blog - 1st Weekend

Filming for Night is Day: The Movie has started! Woo hoo!

Things have really stepped up a gear this time for the production, giving it a proper movie feel. We have proper departments dealing with hair, makeup, costumes, locations, production, producing, assisting etc, and it's brilliant. We're filming on two Sony WEX3 cameras - which are giving us brilliant HD quality. 

On day one we started a bit later at 3pm, where we filmed three scenes. Two right at the very start of the film where we have news reporters working on the story of a lightning-powered vigilante fighting crime on the streets of Glasgow. Unfortunately the sound for the first scene we filmed didn't work out, and we had to re-film it on the Sunday, but regardless it's in the bag.

We had Lynne Hoggan who presents the breakfast show on Real Radio with Robin Galloway and she was a pro. Really lovely girl and her acting was spot on. Simon is going to add in special effects to make it look she was in a news studio. 

DCI Iain Mullan (Steven McEwan) gets caught snooping around by Taylor (Colin McCredie)


After which we took a break from filming and once Chris, aka Jason Mackenzie, arrived on set, we filmed a scene which sets up the story, driving Jason to the heart of the film - the villain! It took a little bit longer than we hoped to film that scene, but we got there in the end.

Day 2 started MUCH earlier, arriving at the Hub at Pacific Quay at 9.30am and setting up to start filming at 11am. We were given access to what I can only describe as a hanger at an airport. A massive open space which we transformed into our press conference where the evil Mr. Philips is opening a new medical centre, only to get interrupted by our police heroes who think he's been up to something dodgy. 

We had around 15 extras playing journalists, as well as a real journalist from the Evening Times showing up to interview us. The scene wrapped and then we moved on to the interrogation scene with the cops and Mr. Philips. A much smaller office made the scene feel really tense and atmospheric and it looks brilliant.

We were very lucky to have Simon Weir (The Acid House, Taggart, Monarch of the Glen, Take the High Road) step in to play CS Carlisle, Sloan's superior. The two of them acted out a scene in the hallway of the medical centre which blew everybody away. The entire cast and crew stood to watch and it was something special. 

Simon Weir wrapped his scene and then we quickly set up for the scene with Mullan and his informant, Taylor, played by Taggart actor, Colin McCredie. Again another tense scene where Mullan has a gun pulled on him and it's all very exciting. At the end of the scene the cast and crew applauded, which was brilliant.

While our great team tidied up the offices and restored it to the way we found it, a few of us went downstairs to re-film the scene where Sloan is hounded by a TV news journalist played by our very own producer, Gavin. 

With the filming wrapped at the hub it was back to the flat to debrief and eat some pizza. Yum! We all took a breather before heading to Kinning Park to film Jason's first scene in the movie. Wow is all I can say. We had already filmed the scene once (it's in the trailer) but we really upped the game this time. There was far more electricity (no pun intended) between the actors and it was so good to watch. 

We finished just in time for the rain to come down and I got home, collapsed on the sofa and fell asleep. 

9 scenes filmed, 59 to go. 

Next Saturday we've got fight rehearsals as we continue to fight with Glasgow City Council to find an office to film in which won't cost us £1,200, and permission to film in the Botantic Gardens on the 20th of June.

Ah, the joys of being a low budget filmmaker...

Simon Weir (CS Carlisle), Clare Sheppard (Inspector Rebecca Munro), Steven McEwan (DCI Iain Mullan) and John Gaffney (Superintendent Sloan) prepare for "Night is Day: The Musical"