On our fifth production day, we shot with Jasmin in Carousel Bar Lincoln. In the script, this scene saw James Miller (Andre) going to the theatre bar after Madeleine’s performance to look for her – finding Linda there instead. Originally, the plan was to shoot a tracking shot of Andre walking past the window and looking inside the bar. However, the bar was only available for us to shoot in between 10am until Midday on this day and as the scene is supposed to be set at night, we were unable to film this. Instead, during the two hours we filmed Jasmin sitting at a table alone and slowly taking a sip of her drink from different angles – to provide the sense that she is suspicious. We are planning to get a shot of James looking through a window or door at a later date, to ensure the shot(s) of Jasmin have some context within the film and don’t seem out of place.
In the evening, around 9pm, we travelled up to the Airbnb, the Duke’s Cottage in Bailgate, to shoot exterior scenes with Jamie (Elisabeth Miller) and Andre (James Miller). Not only has the Duke’s Cottage been acting as the location for James’ House, but it has also been where the actors are staying. For the shoot this evening, which was particularly cold, we shot in the street behind the Airbnb as it was close by in case the actors needed refreshments
This shoot was a struggle and took much longer than expected, as the road was much busier than we anticipated. I wanted to frame the actors walking down the middle of the road, which required the equipment (LED lights and the Sony A7Sii on a Manfrotto Tripod) to be positioned in the road. Every time a car came, we would have to shift the equipment onto the pavement. Luckily the car headlights gave us plenty of warning, but this hindered the shoot massively and meant we did not finish until after 11pm. It was also particularly cold, so I felt there was a lot of pressure to get the shots as quickly as possible. It did help, however, to have Shealin Murphy and Darcy Allen on set as runners.
Whilst this street was a great location due to the stone walls and brickwork of the buildings, as well as the old-fashioned streetlamp, there were modern elements that could not be included – wheelie bins and cars, for example. However, we needed an establishing wide shot of James and Elisabeth walking down the street and no matter what angle I positioned the camera at, double yellow lines could be seen on the road. I consulted our production designer, Emma, about this and we discovered they had not come into force until the 1950s in Britain. Despite this, we decided to go ahead with the shoot and keep them in shot, as the postmodern style of the film allowed us to keep the time period ambiguous.
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