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Urbancroft at work…top secret film project 🙂
SOME last minute promo for Aberdeen…ticket sales have thankfully picked up. A combination of some targeted Facebook and Instagram video ads and a nice wee preview in the Press & Journal.
There’s a lot of photo, video and other backups/archiving needing done. Some is a;ready on an external drive, but it all needs rationalised before backing up and archiving.
I get some of it done before the Urbancroft Films team – Martyn and Jamie – arrive for a top secret filming project. We do a bunch of interviews around the house/office/garden then some filming on the lochside.
We’re done by about 7pm and all tidied up and the guys head off.
I deforsted some burgers earlier, so get a chimney-full of charcoal lit and Margaret makes some coleslaw and prepares some runner beans she picked earlier.
We watch a documentary about Queen (the band) on the BBC iPlayer then have an early night. Aberdeen tomorrow (Friday)!
One of many cutaway scenes….
…and another.
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Martyn and Jamie get some performance cutaways
VIDEO shoot day! We’re away at 7.30am to meet Martyn and Jamie at FilmCity.
We planned to take just one vehicle, but the coffin Jamie hired won’t fit in the van. We manage to get it in our car, so Margaret drives to our secret location in Ayrshire with the coffin and I go in the van with Martyn and Jamie…no room for the coffin and me in the car!
After stopping for a roll and sausage and to pick some daffodils from the roadside to dress the coffin, we arrive at the location under blazing sun. There’s no vehicular access, so it’s a bit of a slog getting everything on-site to our first location.
My amp won’t play nice with the generator so we do away with the planned lip/finger-sync to Hellbound Train and I play it live a few times. It’s gonna be wildly different from the recorded track, but  hopefully the guys can Joey it around a bit and make a few phrases fit here and there…if not, we can use ’em as cutaways.
The guys have an extensive list of shots they need to tell the story they’ve put together behind the song. They’ve already done a pile of work on this.
We’ve all taken a packed lunch, but Jamie’s gone a step further and brought a stove, pan and enough brioche buns and burgers for everyone. Amazing! We enjoy a break in the shade and some grub.
It’s absolutely roasting…especially when I have to get in the coffin for a scene. I’m not claustrophobic, but the heat, lack of air and a few stinky farts make it pretty unpleasant waiting for “action” and an emergence back into fresh air.
We shift stuff around from location to location. It’s hard work for all of us, but a great laugh and good fun….especially when Jamie gets his foot stuck in a hole on top of a train engine while trying to steady himself to shoot for one of the scenes. When I go to help it’s almost five minutes before I can take the camera from him thanks to a severe bout of hysterics…we both laugh so much we nearly fill our pants.
There’s handheld shots, static shots, drone shots…all kinds of stuff going on in the blistering heat. Feels more like we’re filming a Wild West movie in the Nevada Desert than a music video in Scotland.
It’s a wrap just after 8pm and we ferry the gear and props back to the vehicles and make our way back to Film City.
We unload, say cheerio and head for home. We’re both knackered and feeling pretty grubby so it;s straight into the shower, a quick snack and a large dram before falling into bed. An amazing day that I certainly won’t forget in a hurry.
Click the thumbnails below for bigger images and to scroll through our ‘behind the scenes’ gallery…
