On Making our First Feature Film - Pt.2
In the second of our trio of posts on making our first feature, my co-producer Penny Cobham sheds a bit of light on production. It was a crazy time, but what a buzz. It has to be said up front - the crew were absolutely amazing. Considering everything that could (and did) go wrong, the fact that we all cracked on and came out smiling is testament to everyone involved. It certainly helps that we had existing relationships with a lot of the crew already, but still, you don’t know how you’ll react as a team until you’re thrown into the thick of it. Once again, credit due to Sonja Blietschau for all photography.
Toby Trueman, Managing Director
Production
Well. What a full on 15 days that was. 15 days is not a lot of time to shoot 90 pages, but if you’re used to moving fast, which we are due to the nature of our work, then it turns out it is absolutely achievable. I have to be honest and say it was pretty stressful, but thanks to the amazing crew I laughed every day! It has to be said that we had some long days and some late nights (wrapping one shoot day at 2am…), but using the locations to our advantage, we were able to prevent the production getting out of hand.
Many of the challenges came from location moves. Sometimes we’d have three locations across Edinburgh and the Lothians in a single shoot day, which took a fair bit of planning and coordination to get everyone there and set up in time to make our day. At the same time we had locations cancel on us the day before, and we also ran up against the Scottish weather which forced us to reschedule one day twice, meaning a shift in hotels, actors bookings, crew movements, catering and everything else that comes with a spot of unplanned rain! In these instances the support from the office production team was invaluable.
Unforeseen circumstances are always going to pop up though. We were shooting Glasgow for New York (naturally), but we hadn’t noted the Pride March that would be taking place just outside the window. Luckily it kind of adds to the busy NY vibe on screen, but a lot of patience was required and we shifted the schedule around to have lunch whilst the majority of the parade went by. It wasn’t all like that though, Winton Castle became a second home to us over the course of production, and we loved going back there over multiple days. There was a feeling of calm every time we found ourselves back there, with Wee Green Van serving fresh coffee and cookies overlooking the amazing gardens, we were spoilt really.
The climax of the film takes place in an event hall, and we used the spectacular main hall at Ghillie Dhu as our location. This was the biggest single day of the shoot, with over 30 extras and some key emotional moments for our lead cast. Watching director David Lumsden and 1st AD Remo Catani direct all the extras through an entire scene while they acted it out on stage to get their reactions was a real highlight - it was the final scene of the film and they ran through it like pro’s!
Top 3 Tips for Production
Catering - SO IMPORTANT. Get yourself decent catering and decent coffee and it will keep everyone on side. Wee Green Events Catering was amazing. Always have biscuits and snacks available – it can save you and keep everyone on side if you go over on your schedule slightly
Runners - Always expect that things will happen that you do not expect! In these instances having that extra person on hand to help out is vital, and if that person can double up as a driver too, then they will prove invaluable for keeping things moving smoothly.
Enjoy it - It can be easy to forget you're making your first feature, and it’s a big deal, so keep smiling and remember why you’re doing it. Even at 1AM in the freezing cold in the middle of nowhere.