Day nineteen

It's the one we've all been dreading, the late shoot. First up we need to re-do the final shot of the film. We got a version on the steadicam day but it just wasn't good enough, so we're going to have another go on tracks. Luckily the weather is on our side and it's glorious sunshine. The first few takes are OK, but there's disaster on the first really good one when the wheel on the trolley Stvie carries his amp on shatters and flies across the road. Art department set to work and we try again. Finally, and with a second trolley, we get a great take.

Next up we do the opening shots of the film, which are surprisingly easy. Once again the general public are astounding accomadating, crossing the road to keep out of our way. After this there's a break of three hours, during which time most of the crew play football. I whince everytime one of them tackles Ian, the lead actor. A broken leg now will be had to write into the remaining scenes.

Thankfully he comes through unscathed, and as the sun goes down we're set to do the romantic scene on top of a local tower block. We manage four takes with amazing city lights in the background before it's too dark, at which point we turn round for singles. It takes an age to get all the lights right with the aid of our huge generator truck, and then it proves tricky for the actors to recreate the energy of the earlier scenes. Luckily I plan to do this scene all on the rverse, and it's tricky spending so long on shots I'm sure we won't use, but it's better to get them now just in case rather than have to come back. There's a few short tempers, but that's to be expected as we wrap at midnight. Long, long day.