The Longest Distance Short Film

Photo by Amy Coral

This August I had the amazing experience of filming down south In London for the first time. So far in my Career I have been based up north working in Leeds, Sheffield, York and Newcastle. I had the chance to travel down to the capital to source furniture before the shoot taking the train which was super quick and easy from Leeds. I visited Superhire for the first time. It was incredible. Everything you could think of they had. There were different floors for different styles from modern to period, small props to furniture. It really gave me an idea for the future of what type of items you are able to hire by exploring all of the different floors. We also went to Stockyard prop hire but this prop hire was more suited to large features, or Tv Shows and definitely out of our budget . I was able to decide that super-hire was more in our price range, and suitable for our project. It was really great to get to know the local prop hires, in and around London for future projects. I now feel a bit more familiar with shooting down south, which will really benefit me if I ever do more projects down there.

For the shoot I travelled down from Leeds to Guildford, this was the first time I had driven to London and I feel like I wouldn’t worry about doing it again which means I would definitely be open to more work in London. The prospect was daunting but I would happily do it again. For the four day shoot I stayed in an Airbnb with costume and makeup.

In the lead up to the shoot I had done a lot of prep hiring props, in both Leeds and London. I designed graphics creating a WWII cigarette packet and a label to go on a record vinyl, along with labels for the picnic jars. I then had to transport all of these props and some of the furniture down south, while the rest of the props would be delivered to the set from Superhire based in London.

The shoot went quite smoothly. We filmed in a house location for half of the first day, which was the heaviest day for design. This was the day where all the furniture would be needed. For the rest of the shoot we shot outside in Brookwood Cemetery which was huge. We all had to drive down to the graveyard from the entrance. I won’t lie I did get lost a few times and managed to find myslelf off road on a dirt track, where I may have driven into a huge crater of mud surrounded by cones which was quite comical. My car ended up very muddy by the end. The weather held out for most of the shoot and there weren’t really any issues, the only thing really was the record player. Unfortunately due to the record player being so old and antique.  It was historically accurate but didn’t work in the way we would have wanted. The needle wouldn't stay on the record but luckily we managed to find a solution. I also learnt some cool information from the sound department on the differences in records from different time periods. This shoot was hard due to the fact I was the only one working in the Art department as it was a small crew. It has really made me realise having an assistant makes the world of difference.

One of the best parts about this shoot was the crew. I built some great relationships. Costume and makeup I became closest with along with the gaffer, who brought a lot of laughs and giggles to the shoot entertaining all of us. Overall I was happy with the work I put in, especially with the budget. I even managed to come in under budget which helped due to unexpected costs that cropped up on the shoot from other departments.  Both producers did a great job and solving problems and supporting all of the crew which I was thankful for. During pre-Production the shoot had been cancelled twice due to unforeseen circumstances but I am glad I stuck with the production as I met some great people and gained more experience. Below I have included a photo taken by the wonderful BTS Photographer Amy Coral.