Shooting a drama is a lot like tournament poker. Hours of boredom interspersed with moments of sheer terror.
Due to scheduling alterations I had most of thursday off with a call at 5, so I pampered myself with a sauna, jacuzzi and swim. I thought to myself, if the lads could see me now in a jacuzzi waiting for a Hair&Makeup call I'd never live it down.
Then I wandered Westport in the sunshine looking for a nice photo or two with my Canon. Westport has grown as a town impressively since the last time I was here. The Covies (the nickname of the people who live here and coincidentally the name of the drama) can be rightly proud of the place. The support we have had from the locals has been astounding, really overwhelming. Its big news here that we are filming and everyone wants to help. Its an incredible community feeling, from the Gardai loaning us a uniform to the hotels putting up the cast (i'm in the 5-star Castle Court Hotel... its lush). All the costumes have been provided by local shops on loan and the locations have all been loaned as well.
Part of the project has been funded by local councils of various kinds in order to show that Westport is a viable option for production companies to come and shoot and I have to tell you that it most definitely is that. Its beautifully scenic, the locals businesses and politicians are thoroughly supportive and people couldn't be nicer. I really hope they like the final outcome because parts of the drama are quite dark and other parts (like mine) are comic. I wouldn't like them to think we were mocking them.
So on to the shoot. We have a scene where my family are all seeing/hallucinating/imagining other characters unbeknown to each other. The scene is long, it involves the entrance and exit of 4 characters plus it has to be shot from 4 different angles, and each time it has to be shot with and without the imaginary characters (but we still have to act to empty places they were) so its 8 shots in total. Its a technical nightmare. Its also hard on the actors who have to play this long scene over and over and over again, each time exactly as they had been doing it before sometimes without the other actor to play back at you. The crew went to work setting up while we sat around waiting for our turn in the makeup chair.
By the way, here's a "pro tip", if you are sat at a breakfast scene on a long shoot and you are hungry, DON'T make yourself breakfast with the props. It really annoys the director and the continuity guy :)
I had mouthful of (absolutely *foul*) Tesco Special Flakes in my gob and another spoonful halfway to the target when they looked back at me, cheerily tucking in. Suffice it to say, its really not a good idea to move props. Thankfully everyone saw the funny side of it... :)
We move to the lounge for this tough shoot and the actors huddle to sort out cues and lines and blocking. The crew are still debating how they want to shoot this and the costume and makeup ladies are fussing over everyone. We're all dreading this scene because we know how hard this is going to be to shoot but its also comedy gold and we if we can nail it it will really be a great scene. The crew are stifling laughs at it already.
Its a testament to the professionalism of everyone on the set that even though we were well into the evening everyone went to work and did their jobs and we got it on tape pretty damned quickly. Its 1am and we're all chilling with a beer and breaking down lights and cameras and I walked out into the Mayo night. Clew bay is speckled with bungalow lights and the slightest moonlight on the waves. How do I get myself into these mad situations, but you know what... there are worse places to be right now. Many of them.
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