James: With the weather holding up we manage to get the scenes in town. I take to doing the sound again as it is quite tricky. I enjoy mixing and recording immediately, and wish I wasn’t the director. Tough shit James. Gabby: This is a setup we are used to; me on camera, James on sound, (and Larry holding the umbrella and generally around for a thousand and one other uses) it’s comfortable. Unfortunately shooting around the general public is not so, and in the edit I could have personally throttled both the woman with the clip-cloppy stilettos who killed the sound continuity and the man with the really bad Christmas jumper who is lingering in back of most of our shots, magically behind both characters!
James: These scenes were later absolute hell to edit. We shifted the position from the original script. Originally Ann bumped into Beth whilst shopping for the sandwiches that she mentions to Nan. It works so much better where it ended up, I haven’t a clue what I was writing when I put it in the original place.
Ann’s scene at the family clinic was in the afternoon, which was played with Jane Lindsey Smith playing Doctor Marshall. I’ve lost the will to continue by the time she arrives on the set and I still believe I didn’t give her a fair time. She was offering me lots of variables, getting into the role with realistic fervour. I just wanted her to say the lines.
As it happened, she said some good things, but we couldn’t cut the scene easily between takes as responses would change. I felt I should have directed her more perhaps. It was my fault.
Gabby: Yes, James is in a particularly bad mood. I feel quite apologetic about this. I also felt like this scene is going to be boring in relation to the way in which I shot the other scenes so far, however in the edit this becomes one of my favourite scenes.
We try to take the big clock off the wall because it is ticking really loud, not realising that it is wired to a campus circuit so that all the clock read the same. Not only did we break the wire and shatter the back, we are rumbled by the member of staff who works in this office. No one says anything as she collects her stuff, but we all know she sees the shards of broken plastic on the floor. Thankfully we have a very talented Larry on the crew and he wires it back to the circuit and saves our arses.James: Phyliss McMahon arrives in Worcester and the mood lightens. Staying in halls are three generations of the Whelan family – Beth, Ann & Nan. I end up thinking that Phyliss is a Godsend. A true pro.
