Adventures in Filmland 3

 And that's a wrap. 

The film is better than this weak pun. I didn't take a single photo during production. That's mental. So here's a bad stock photo. 

Five films in three days? Under budget and ahead of schedule? Every set-piece figured out, every one of my half-baked ideas realised and ennobled? 

Yeah. All of them. Done. With a ton of coverage. The edit is going to be like the slaughter of the innocents - darlings run through, all over the shop. We have a lot of really, really cool stuff. 

But it's all in there. Waiting to be shaped, teased into its ultimate form. I'll be editing with Simon, the indefatigable camera man, and getting notes from Cian, the extremely-fatigable-in-the-evenings producer. The entire crew was fantastic: Stevie on sound, Megan who did our lighting, Covid compliance and seemed to run the Riverside Theatre at the same time! Roseanne dropped in to do some fabulous, spot-on improv. Turan from the Truva cafe kept us fed and watered throughout.

And Nicky, who took my words, my ideas, and turned them into something rounded and real, often funny, and just as often beautiful. The film is about theatre as magic, and she is the living embodiment of that, an alchemist at work. 

And while there were at least three people on set more qualified to direct the film than me, I got it done. It's in the can, man. And the rushes look gorgeous. 

I'm going to leave it a few weeks (it won't be out till September, so there's time to unclench) and come back to the edit with fresh eyes. But its done. We made a film.