Filming The Lounge Scenes, Day One
Location: Hartford
Bodies present: Henry Burrows, Howell Parry, Nick Stocker, Steve Powell, Helen Powell, Alex Wilkes, Rob Spilsbury

We had a big change of plan today.

Howell demonstrates surprise

Originally the remaining scenes set inside the student house were to be filmed at Darren and Alex's place - but due to circumstances beyond anyone's control, we couldn't actually use that location today. So we moved.

Once again we found ourselves in Hartford, Northwich, at the house of Steve and Helen Powell, thanks to their kind generosity. This is our major location now, until we move to the exterior scenes.

Today was lounge scenes. These come right near the start of the movie, as Jimmy settles down to watch a video while he eats his evening meal and generally drinks a lot of beer, while his house-mate Scanner tries to relax with a comic.

The first set-up was a shot of Scanner leaping out of his chair in surprise as something furry came flying out of the air at him. The first few takes were not bad, but an element of spontaneity was missing. Howell decided to "show Rob how it should be done"... however, his attempt was a complete disaster as he jumped up in shock seconds before the thing landed on him and he ended up heading it across the room!

Steve cracks up

Things became a little more straightforward for a while, as we filmed Jimmy watching Saturday Night Zombies on the television. Then, as Laura arrived in the scene and we decided to shoot a page of the script in one continuous take (never before attempted by us!) things slowed down a little. Still, practise makes perfect, and after several takes it was looking good!

Laura is not amused at Jimmy's joke

At one point Laura has to ask Jimmy if the film he's watching is any good. On take number eleven, Steve replied "I don't know, I've never seen it before" - well it was funny at the time.

As night fell we packed up and people disappeared off in various directions. Hopefully it won't be long before we're back...