A Cold Night Out

Filming continues with The Silent City and this Saturday just gone was an experience in the types of extremes an actor goes through. Without going in to too much detail, we spent a long evening trying very hard to get a number of shots in before time got away from us. The question then is, why didn't we plan it better? Well we did plan, but occasionally the plans of men...

We met with a number of challenging factors.

• Firstly, the temperature dropped during the evening to just above freezing. This is not all that common in Perth, but this winter (and indeed the last summer) has been a little more extreme than usual. So between takes, the cast were often seen hopping in and out of dressing gowns, quilts, jackets and the slightly warmer office space inside.
• Then there were environmental factors including passing trains along the railway some miles away. Large freight trains can take a long time to pass by and are very noisy.
• More significantly was the persistent alarm that repeated a cycle for hours on end. All attempts to contact the owner, security or anyone failed to resolve the matter.

With these difficulties, what should have been a few hours of shooting slowly crept out to several more hours and colder temperatures. One fellow cast member was not wearing very much, ie thin clothing, and really soldiered through the night, and then cut down by the dreaded flu.

Now I have a short break of a few weeks before I have four weeks of weekend filming, which will wrap up my character for the show.

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