Sunday, 3 May 2009

Splendid: Pilot - Production Diary Part 6.

DAY SIX:
Goldfish & Badger facts

We moved into Elstree studios for Day Six. Kicking off with Richard Glover's GOLDFISH sketch.
It's a very clever concept and not something I can really write too much about, or it will spoil the punchline.
We did use a real goldfish, which we christened Phoebe. Being an animal nut, I was dead against causing the goldfish any distress. My attitude to animals in films is that they are not expendable for the sake of a shot. So, we shot around the goldfish as much as possible, before finally placing it into the shot and shooting all the footage we needed with the real fish.
I'm very happy to report that immediately after the shoot the fish was taken to a friend's goldfish pond, and Phoebe is alive and well, with lots of new friends.

Day Six was also interesting for me, as it was the first time my wife Rachel had ever been on one of my shoots. Events had always conspired in the past so that she never got the chance to come along. It was great for her to finally see exactly what went on, and for her to see me in action. Although, she very quickly and perceptively pointed out "From what I can see, you stand around giving orders whilst a lot of people run around doing the real work".


The second sketch we shot was BADGER FACTS. This sketch was many people's favorite, to the extent that even the cast had been fighting over who would play the two parts!
Jamie built a brilliant set, assisted by the crew, who had been working hard the previous day at Stanstead airport to create all the elements he had designed.
With the cast in place, we shot for about 3 hours on the set, and it was heartbreaking to have to strike the set after taking so long to put it together.



Eric Lampaert and Hayley-Jane Standing brilliantly play the demented Clara and Johnny Clarmtwist, and I think we have created one of the best Splendid sketches. It's a Splendid mix of silliness and ingenuity, with many elements that will hopefully make it a sketch you can watch again and again and find new things to laugh at.





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