Some of you know that I'm in the process of doing some film work with Formulator. Spent yesterday doing the first, and most dramatic, day of shooting. Over the 24 hours from wednesday evening to thursday evening we covered over 100 miles in the boat - and burned a correspondingly huge amount of fuel.
The "plot" is that the out of control boat (have they seen me drive it then
) crashes into rocks, with the 2 actors jumping out at the last minute, followed by the boat blowing up in a dramatic fashion.
Weather was surprisingly kind compared to earlier forecasts, so other than the usual confused solent chop, we couldn't have asked for better weather. Filming took place round at freshwater bay just off Stag Rock. The locations manager, Peter Chadwick (very nice guy) had all the right teams arranged, pyrotechnics on the shoreline, Freshwater lifeboat on standby and to show us a safe route, ambulance in attendance, etc.
After a couple of trial runs on the planned route, including with 1 tab down and the boat healed right over to try and make it look out of control (and hide my mug from view) it became apparent the shot wasn't going to work so a rethink was needed.
We did a couple of slow runs aiming directly at stag rock, 90 degrees to the shoreline, turning at the last minute to run parallel with the shore. Tide was high enough so we were safe from submerged rocks as long as we kept a safe distance out - but the director also wanted as close as possible to make it look real (I did suggest that for 25K the boat was his and we could stick it on the beach for real - sadly budget doesn't stretch to that).
That shot worked, so we had to make it happen at a decent speed. Looking for a speed where the boat stayed in frame long enough, was going fast enough to look realistic, and also where I could wind on a load of full lock without tipping us all in the drink! About 40mph seemed to balance them all. It's a very unnattural feeling deliberatly aiming yer boat at rocks and opening the throttles.
In all, we did 4 takes. Of the 4, we had the pyrotechnics guys set off the mortars twice, sending a 100ft plume of flame and smoke into the sky.
Not sure yet how much of will make it into the film, and how much on the cutting room floor - but have got another 3 days of shooting to go, and the boat crash is a significant part of the plot, so I'm hoping it should make it.
The german (and some english) film crew are an excellent team, and all a pleasure to work with - none of the horror stories you sometimes hear. Hope the remaining days all go as smoothly and that the weather is as kind to us.
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