So on Saturday, the three of us went searching for a location I had seen 3 years ago, we eventually found it after an hour of driving around... On the way we went via a DIY shop and got some battleship grey matte paint... We are shooting in B/W you know... As soon as we found the right location, Nicky, AKA Frances, started to paint the interior of the rental vehicle grey... Luckily it was water colour and I managed to wash it off the next day...
The location was in Dagenham, a great place for urban decay but not so for the residence. Unknown to me, the narrow street had huge trucks passing through ever five minutes... Oh well, that has never stopped me before... What we got that day was actually some of the best dialogue delivery of the film so far... It was a very necessary emotional scene with Peter and Frances, AKA Ed. and Nicky, and their delivery seemed spot on... It was one of those times I knew it was all worth it...
The next day was Sunday and I had been shitting myself... This was a very big scene...
Jeanni and Boris discussing make-up for 'Dumper Truck' scene.
About 2 years ago, Myra, a few of the crew and I had travelled down to the 'War and Peace Show' at Beltring in Kent. Its a place where 2,000 privately owned military vehicles gather and camp out for a few days... When we went down we were in preproduction on the film and luckily we managed to buying enough very cheap army clothes for a regiment... On my scouting around I met Les Parris who had a beautiful Austin K9 Dumper Truck, a very clean modification... I asked 'Les' if he would help me, and two years later he was still willing... So that Saturday on the 7th September, while we were filming, Les drove his beautiful K9 round the M25 and stayed a hotel, ready for the next day... I'm not even going to talk about the hotel booking scenario... And please don't ask...
Les' fantastic Austin K9 Dumper Truck...
After not much sleep from all of of us, on the Sunday at 7.30 am we all headed down to Vicarage Road in Bagshot, the place where I had been brought up and the Dumper Truck Scene location...
I drove the LandRover with Ed, and Myra drove the Suzuki with Nicky and the grub, in convoy... We arrived at the location at about 9.00 am...
Once we had got to Vicarage Road I left everyone and went to pick up Les and the Austin K9... Can you believe it, some arsholes had jumped on his bonnet during the night... Thankfully Les was very cool about it... Then the convoy of LandRover and the K9 made its way slowly down to the location...
Les turned out to be a real brick, he was so very, very helpful... Definitely 'man of the year'... Talking about another 'man of the year', Boris arrived at about 10.00 am, as scheduled with his friends who have volunteered to be dead refugees for a day... Thank you V. Aleksic, V. Vukomanovic, Joanna Krokos, Georgina Heuser, Damir Ajanovic and Zojko Sinkovic. Thanks also to Suzanna Tamamovic, a friend of Boris' who stood in for Johnny and shot the Documentary/Website footage.
Myra, being the devoted and crazy person she is, had offered to make breakfast and lunch for everyone... I can't say thank you enough... Neither can everyone else, including Ed... So everyone dived into the grub before we started.
Jean French, our new Head of Prosthetics and Makeup, got straight down to work applying cut and bruises to our 2 lead actors and 8 dead extras. As it would take a few hours to complete... Les, Myra, Paul, Head of Stunts and another 'man of the year', Suzanna and I went down the treelined lane to shoot the pick-ups of the Dumper truck driving past the camera.
Paul, Head of Stunts, watching my back as usual.
By 2.00 pm, after having a few sandwiches from the back of the Suzuki, thanks again to Myra... We began to film the scene where 'Peter McMullen' has to crawl over the dead 'Frances' and other dead refugees to get to the rear of the truck and haul himself over the tailgate...
Dead bodies, Ed and Nicky on top.
By about 5.30 I had got the 6 shots I desperately needed and for a change we could go home early... Thanks again to all Boris' friends who acted as the refugees, I know it must of hurt to have Ed climb all over you... And not one of you complained, true professionals... Also a million thanks to Paul for making sure no one got hurt...
Myra and 'baby bunny' catching some zzzzzzzz.
