Lack of a filmmaking blog due to the actual filmmaking!

We're getting really close to wrapping principle photography on Night is Day - The Movie now. We're filming this weekend and then we've only got the 14th/15th and 28th and 29th of August to go and then we're WRAPPED!

It's been an amazing journey, filled with lots of ups and a few downs along the way. Like everything I've done it's been a massive learning curve though. It lets me see which crew members work well together so when it comes to making my next film (whenever that may be!) I'll know who to bring back to the team. I've also worked with some fantastic actors on Night is Day and I don't think we've seen the end of their stories so I really hope I get to continue them.

Since my last post we've been to the Caledonia Club House in Falkirk and filmed a LARGE chunk of the movie involving the evil Caillech who wants to destroy mankind and start again, while poor Jason got the living snot kicked out of him.

Sean Clancy, a professional cage fighter, joined the film and he has co-ordinated every single fight that you'll see. And they are vicious. Jack, our sound designer, has a lot of work ahead of him with adding in cracking bones, punches and kicks, but it'll be brilliant. 

We were filming in a warehouse in Falkirk, and it was mostly Sunny. Mostly. When it rained, IT rained. The wind pounded against the warehouse, birds chirped, the sound was almost impossible and everybody had to try to understand Gaelic. To top it off we then had to film the final fight of the movie. Jason VS three scavenger demons - round 2. 

My hats off to Chris Summers, Sean Clancy, Sean Anderson, Crawford Young and Graeme McIntosh for working so hard to get the fight filmed. Well done to Adam Wardrop, Simon Ferguson and Gavin Orr for filming the fight. I can't wait to edit that section.

We wrapped two hours later than planned, which, in the grand scheme of things, wasn't that terrible. Well done to everybody - you worked your hearts out.

The previous day was lighter in comparison, but only just. We had to film Jason's first encounter with Lena, resulting in a mind-numbing (with a little help from CGI!) vision of Lena being attacked by scavenger demons. A nice relaxing scene of conversation between the pair, and then off to the Botanic Gardens for the third and final time to film Jason VS the Scavengers round 1! 

The following weekend was hectic too. 

We filmed scenes with Nicki Fleming, who plays a 197 year old vampire, Lexi, who wishes to help Jason's quest to stop the Caillech, in return for a little help in stopping the bad guys along the way. Lexi leads Jason to a warehouse where ancient daggers are being stored for the war, resulting in a fight with Jason and Frank Stone - official assassin and psychopath for Mr. Philips.

It's hectic to say the least. In Scotland we've got two types of weather. Wet and Dry. When it's wet there isn't much you can do - and when it's too sunny we can't film without white-out and shadows messing with our continuity. Weekend 5 and 6 consisted of filming in the Hub again - with Gavin creating an art gallery for Lexi to peruse, and the warehouse foyer for Jason and Lexi to investigate, Mr. Philips and Frank to arrive in to meet the Caillech and kick-start the apocalypse. 

Miss Jones arriving to help Jason after finding herself on the wrong side of Frank, and Lexi getting shot.

Oh and there's a box in there too ala Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Arc. 

Next up is a scene that my special effects guy Mathew is dreading. Taking 3 actors in Scavenger demon makeup and turning them into hundreds. But there will be a BBQ so it's not all that bad! 

So yes, I had to finally bite the bullet and buy an iMac. a 21.5" bad boy. It's powerful, it's fast, and it edits HD footage like you wouldn't believe. And it's DAMN expensive! I'll be paying this one back for quite a while so I need Night is Day The Movie to be sold and go into the cinemas, and I need a lot more paid corporate work.

Or you'll next see me at Macdonalds asking if you want your double cheeseburger to be upgraded to a meal with fries and a drink...

Next up on the old filmmaking blog is weekend 7's adventures, a look forward to the final days shooting up north in a cabin with a man called Angus, and the beginning of post production. All going well the movie will premiere at the Edinburgh Film Festival in 2011 and rumour has it we might be off to Comic Con next year too.

But for this year we'll be happy with Collectormania in the Braehead Arena in Glasgow. 21st and 22nd of August we'll be there with scavenger demons, sexy girls, a vampire or two, a brand new Night is Day comic, pictures, postcards, and a brand new trailer exclusive to Collectormania. 

See you on the other side! 

An earthquake comes to Glasgow - superhero action film

(Super)natural disasters hit Glasgow!

I completely forgot to post about Sunday 27th June's shoot on my blog as I was too busy recovering from it all and then it was suddenly the 4th and 5th of July, but we'll get to that later.

On the 27th the crew headed off to Muse, a bar near Queen Street Station in Glasgow. We'd been given permission to film in their downstairs bar to film a scene early on in the film (scenes 6, 7, 8 and 11) where we catch up with Detective Inspector Iain Mullan (Steven McEwan) for the first time since series 2. He's on a blind date with Mandy (yes, a reference to the filmmaking website Mandy.com) played by Rachel Loughran. 

The date is going well until Mullan goes to get another drink and there is an almighty earthquake!

Queue 20 or so extras flailing around the bar on my command (Bang! I believe was their queue) as Simon our camera guy shook his camera around each group of extras, creating the desired effect. 

The extras take a break while awaiting their next stage of direction

Eventually we would ask everybody to close their eyes while we brought in our villain of the movie, The Caillech, a Gaelic speaking old hag in battle armour, screamed at them in Gaelic. It was wonderful. Everybody reacted brilliantly and the footage looks brilliant. 

John G McCall took the extras up stairs and filmed each of them for his Behind the Scenes blog (which you can see here http://www.vimeo.com/user4040085) so everybody will get a little bit extra screen time which is nice.

It was then on to the task of smashing glasses, bottles and shaking tables safely with the extras away from the bar to add to our earthquake. 

Smashing! (Yes, I went there)

It was then on to the next scene, one of my favourites, where Mullan's colleagues, Superintendent Sloan (John Gaffney) and Inspector Rebecca Munro (Clare Sheppard) find him and he tells them about the Caillech. Confused, they decide that Mr. Philips (Tam Toye) could be involved. Jason (Chris Summers) arrives and they have a heated argument over their involvement with the supernatural.

With the scenes wrapped we took a break back at the base (aka my flat) and I took the footage from the cameras and edited the earthquake scene together quickly and it looks brilliant. Once it has proper special effects, sound effects and music - it will be fantastic.

Off to the South Side of Glasgow we went to film the last scene of the day - Scene 10 - where Sloan and Rebecca arrive outside the Night Club and meet PC Douglas (the fantastic Kenny Boyle who runs his own web review show called Queens of the Pawnage) before going down into the club. 

On the next blog I'll talk about how I've had to succumb and buy an iMac to edit the film in all it's HD glory and how I'll be in massive amounts of debt thanks to it, the stressful weekend which was the 4th and 5th of July when we filmed a large chunk of the end of the movie (where Jason fights three scavenger demons...twice) and our plans for the film when it comes to conventions.