Production notes: 3rd – 17th May

Monday 3rd May
First problem of the day is the fact that we don’t have a dog to play Bollox!! I ring a dog handler who has trained dogs for use in film and TV but the £200 per day she charges is far too extravagant for our meagre budget. We try to think of other trained dogs we could get, Police dogs spring to mind, but we never imagined Bollox would be a German Shepherd, we are looking for a smaller dog with lots of charm (not that German shepherd’s aren’t charming!). Rang the organiser of the West Lancashire dog trials, Guy Richardson, and he put me in touch with the lovely lady who stepped in to save the day – Marion Mooney! Marion’s highly trained pug, Renzo, becomes our Bollox (as it were!) and he hasn’t put a paw wrong! He’s a cheeky charmer and I see a great career ahead of him – he’ll be demanding his own Winnebago before the shoot is through!

Tuesday 4th May
First thing our crew has to cope with is today is the inclement weather. We are shooting an exterior scene today and typically, the weather has turned wet. Nothing we can do about that so we have to work around our schedule and shoot the interior scenes first and wait for a break in the clouds! In the office we are busy trying to recruit 10 x willing helpers to work with the art department to dress a derelict church fit for filming on Sunday! We may well need divine intervention as it’s a big job, but we have every confidence that our super-talented art designer and his new team will get the job done. Interchill send us a few willing pairs of hands and we hit the jackpot with a pair of design students from LIPA, Lucy and Mitch who are excellent.
Nicky is busy ringing local food outlets to try to get food for extras for the next few days. She strikes gold and Costco give us a load of their pizzas and muffins…Mmm!

Friday 7th May
Location problems
Car Showroom
Nightclub
Communion Order of Services

Sunday 9th May
Big Church Scene today and the Art department has waved its magic paint brush once again and transformed the disused church to its former glory – magnificent, well done Noel and team – no divine intervention required after all!
140 extras and a surreal sing-song led by the now-typecast Father Chris Bernard made for a spectacular scene.

Local support has, again, been wonderful, and we have a splendid Horse and Carriage transporting Olivia, Joe and Sally to the church. This was loaned courtesy of Hale Hall Carriages. Mal and Bobby Sutton played a blinder supplying us with a splendid Victorian carriage led by two Norwegian Fjord ponies and I even had a quick ride round the block in the carriage myself (wardrobe banned me from borrowing the wedding dress though!!) Superb white limousine was supplied by Andy Westbrook (a star!) and Grand Cherokee Jeep by Kings Dock Chrysler.
Head back to the office as there is a problem… a lack of extras for the social club scenes on Monday, so office (Julie and Nicola) has a mad afternoon/late evening phone bash – first to all those who have auditioned, then to casting agents whose mobile numbers we know and finally, as desperation kicks in, to bingo halls, social clubs and British legions (hope legions turn up!) where announcements are made to punters! Hastily leaftlet local pubs too. Hope it pays off…

Monday 10th May
It didn’t!! Sunday’s efforts result in a meagre 35 extras…we need 100 plus!!! We ring all the usual suspects (the casting agents we couldn’t get hold of on Sunday) and end up putting ads on the radio and begging live on Juice FM!– Doesn’t anyone want their 15 minutes of fame anymore?! May have to resort to kidnapping members of the public off the streets! Its all looking desperate but a few more extras trickle in (Nicola’s Uncle Sid and Aunty Ev among them!) and in the end, the crew step up to fill some of the gaps, and with clever use of the extras we have, it all works out (sort off).

Next problem is that one of the speaking extras we need pulls out and there is no one of a similar age suitable to step in. We hastily try to get a stand in (Jasmine’s nan is on standby) and in the end Sol volunteers the services of his mother-in-law (the wonderful Maureen Kelly!) Phew!.

Tuesday 11th May
Need to confirm the use of aircraft steps asap as we are using them on Thursday!! Also need the little tow tractor that pulls the steps. So spend all day trying to sort this. Service Air at Liverpool John Lennon Airport have been FANTASTIC. “Small world” clichés occur when the charming chap I’m dealing with turns out to be the father of Barry Sloan one of the leading actors from our last production (I’m A Juvenile Delinquent – Jail Me!

-Sorting out car Shot Gun Grey Cherokee to the rescue
-Karaoke
-Getting the Social Club Sign
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Wednesday 12th May
-Bollox makes a grand exit in the Limo.
Haulage
Grand Cherokee

Thursday 13th May
-Julie and Nicola were on set!
-High jinks with computers and printers
-Mini bus fiasco Scouts to the rescue
-Lenny and Mick on Airport steps!

FRIDAY 14th May
Went out to set to see the big end scene of the film! Dazzling performances despite the cold weather and the drunken high-jinks of umpteen partygoers “is this Hollyoaks?” “Can I be in it?” etc etc. Our trusty haulage “king of the road” Steve Parry was back to unload/reload our aircraft steps and the wonderful Andy Westbrook, supplier of a fleet of luxury cars (and Helicopter!) was there to act as a superb stunt driver, what a star he has been. We really could only trust this driving to the man who managed to painstakingly park a stretch limo in a small studio in Toxteth TV during our last production! Felt surreal watching the final big scene and for many of the cast it was their final night so there were big hugs and kisses all round. Huge thanks to Kathy and her team at St Mark’s for their patience with us, our filming ran over and we didn’t get away until around 3:45am.

Driving sequences are scheduled for tomorrow and we realised, (today!), that the talented comic (Keith Carter) who we have cast to play our psychic cabbie can’t actually drive – doh!! Had planned to use a low loader but our dwindling budget means we have to put a contingency plan into action. We need a tow bar to tow our vehicle along and we ring round auto recovery companies and Dave Walters from DKW Autos Ltd offers us his!

MONDAY 17th May
Aahh! The penultimate night of the shoot (stunt week to be scheduled when further funding has been raised!) and we say farewell to our lovely leading ladies and wish them luck with the exams they are sitting on Wednesday – cheers girls, you have played a blinder! Thanks also to the wonderful Steve Waterhouse for keeping Interchill open til the wee small hours to act as unit base to keep our merry crew warm and comfortable with hot tea on tap! Jackie our hairdresser was at it again offering massages and haircuts to our weary crew, I believe Mr Boulter had a post wrap short back ’n’ sides at 03:15am!! I think that just about completes the whole crew makeover (before and after piccies will be posted!)
Can’t believe that tomorrow is our final night…