I experienced the second shoot day to be a little bit messier and slightly more stressful than the first, but I still mark it as a success because we did everything we needed to do and avoided any actual disasters. I would put the slightly heightened stress and mess levels down to the group being tired from shooting the night before and being aware that this was our last chance to get everything we needed (we had left only a week for editing). Also, particularly towards the end of the night, there was a definite desire amongst the group to just get it done.

We shot the flashback scenes, the final scene and all the shots in the doorway/hallway, so we had a lot to get through. During the shoot, I learned the hard way that it’s important to take breaks. We were probably about 2 thirds of the way through the shoot and I noticed that the group was starting to get a little bit restless. On reflection, as soon as I noticed this I should have suggested that we take a break, but unfortunately my reaction was to get a bit frustrated. I tried to get the group to pull themselves together and keep shooting, but it wasn’t really working so I started to get more frustrated. Fortunately, before I lashed out in frustration, I realised that not only did the group need a break, but I really needed a break. I’d been standing for hours and hadn’t given my brain a rest. In that situation, calling for a break was exactly what the group needed. In future, I’ll push for breaks earlier and more often.

An unfortunate result of the messier nature of the second shoot was that we didn’t have time to shoot an alternate ending as Robin had suggested. Looking back now, I think an alternate ending would have been valuable, so for future projects I’ll endeavour to make time for shooting everything we want, even if it might not get used.