KC and Andrew Ormerod, decided that it was best to start shooting on Friday night, rather than the Saturday. My call time was 7pm at the office interior (in The Cannon Street Business Centre), to tell Andrew Ormes how I wanted it dressed, and work out any last minute things with the crew.
Then, it was off to our first shoot location; the office exterior at Aldermanbury Square (different to the interior). This first scene we were shooting was supposed to have a crowd of Londoners evacuating the city. I wasn’t expecting many people; I had asked for about 50, and then use camera lenses and angles with visual effects to enhance it. Instead, only about 15 people turned up! The weather and late night were probably to blame, but I was lost. We tried it a few times, and it looked really bad. 
After a bit of thinking between Pete and myself, we came up with ways to try and make do with what we had. From what I saw on the monitor, it looked quite cool, but I have a feeling there will be a need for a lot of post-production work.
My hero of the day has to be Chris Andrews. Unfortunately, our original “visual effects supervisor”, who I won’t name, didn’t bother to turn up to any of the shoots. Luckily, I know my visual effects so I had managed on those days, but I really needed somebody to supervise this crowd scene while I focussed on directing. A few hours before the shoot, Chris got in contact with me asking me if I needed help with post-production. I asked if he could actually help with the production as well, and he said yes. The bonus is, he actually turned up and was a big help. Thanks Chris!
While I’m thanking people, I’d like to thank the extras that came and were so patient in the cold, doing one take after another. It wouldn’t be a crowd of people without you. 
Thanks also goes out to Jacqui Adams for looking after the extras for us.
We finished the crowd scene at about 12am, thanked and sent the extras home, and then it was back to shoot the scene in the office interior. It was better than most of the other shoots, as it was indoors, dry and warm, but it was during the night so the whole crew were fighting sleepiness.
I am always a “crazy” person, but I think I went even crazier than usual that night. It was hard. We finished the office scene at about 6am. We needed to shoot a newsroom scene, so we thought we might as well do it on the same night in the office. We put up a not-so-green-screen on the wall (it had a lot of yellow in it), and Pete tried his magic to make it evenly lit and not look too yellow.
Lubna Milne, who I had never met before the shoot, played the newsreader. She was such a professional, and we filmed it fairly quickly.
I can’t remember when, but we finished earlier than scheduled. I ended up getting home at about 9am. Went straight to bed, and woke up at 5pm. The night shoots mess up my brain. I can’t tell what day or time it is. I felt like it was afternoon, when it was really 11pm. Our next and final shoot started at 4am on the Sunday, but that will be talked about in my next post.
Here’s some production stills taken by Andrew Ormerod:
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