It’s a sunny Happy Hour here in London. Friday faces everywhere.   The streets are packed with thirsty looking folks with wearing their best work/out clothes.  You know, the outfit the ladies save for Friday at work in case they go for a pint right after the whistle blows.  All hands walking with purpose to their chosen local, here in the Heaven of Pub Culture.

I am a big fan of this time of the week, when the people who just can’t wait for Friday Night, race from their desks to the bar.  But I am not joining them today.   Whist they have their workday behind them, mine is just beginning.  Myself and Scott Grimes, who plays Will Scarlett, are working the night shoot tonight.  We get picked up at 5pm and must be made up and camera ready for dark.  We are shooting a fight scene, but I can’t tell you anymore than that about the action.  I can tell you that I’ll probably work till 4am, then hope to turn the body clock around enough have a normal Saturday and Sunday.

Like I said, this is Friday.  This is a significant Friday.  This is the last day of the second last week of filming.  All things being well, in exactly 7days, the Assistant Director will shout, “Cut. Checking the Gate.  That’s a picture wrap for Allan A’Dayle.”  And that will be it.  Quick as that all my scenes will be shot.  All my involvement in the principal photography will be complete.  There may be some postproduction to follow in the months to come, but as of one week from now, the twenty week mountain will have been climbed.

And not just by me, of course.  Many folks have worked many more hours than I on this massive project, and all hands will be delighted to call it a day.

I’ve been consumed by this project since the first week of December, 2008, when, some of you may recall, I jetted from the GBS SmilingLand gig in Toronto for a meeting about this film.  Since then, I’ve pretty much been awash in a boys dream, of fight school, sword lessons, archery competitions, horse riding, training and admiring the skills of the amazing actors I’ve had the pleasure of studying. 

I’ve walked in a Ridley Scott Medaevil Set designed and built by the best in the world and filled with folks in full period garb.  This is as close to time travel as one could hope to experience.  I have felt the Earth move beneath me as a hundred plus horses and riders stormed a breathtaking Welsh beach. 

I cannot begin to describe this whole experience yet.  Give me a few weeks and I’ll have a better perspective.  Because right now I’ve got my eye hard on the prize, and there’s no prize I want more than to sit in my kitchen and watch my little fella play with his trains. Hopefully, AC Flight 861 is on time this weekend, and after a brief stop in Halifax, I’ll get to eat Sunday Brunch at home.

Look forward to seeing you all at the shows.

Cheers
Alan