Lee Kemp

It’s been a long week. We had scheduling fun all week, particularly trying to fit a photoshoot into an already packed film shoot, but the results always looked good on the monitor. Sufficient preparation allowed us to accommodate a constantly changing schedule, mainly due to the vagaries of shooting in the Dorset countryside in December.

Armoured Land Rover has a wading depth of 4ft

I have some more tips for myself, next time round:

If you’re doing a car film, there is much better stuff around for cleaning it than the first stuff that comes to mind.

Sometimes its ok to step back. If you’ve got two very experienced specialist car photographers (David Shepherd and Nick Dimbleby) and a DP with a gift for lighting putting magic together in front of your eyes, you don’t need to stamp your mark on it. Incidentally Ed put together a great team with Phil Wood as camera assistant and Michelle Arbon, fresh from her MA Screenwriting as pretty much every other job.

A British Army identity card is sufficient permission for filming at Canary Wharf.

If you leave ‘wiggle room’ for soldiers to interpret instructions in a way that is fun and interesting for them. They will. I already knew this. That is not the lesson. Here is the lesson, make sure EVERYONE else knows that.

Write down the relevant name and address of every location you like. You never know when you’ll need them again.

A 5 point harness when shooting vehicle to vehicle doesn’t really solve any safety problems, but it keeps the police happy.

Preparation is absolutely King.

The most common question you will be asked is “what’s next?” Always having the answer only comes from being prepared (spotting a theme yet?)

Everyone has good ideas. If you’re the director, it is apparently ok to steal them. You won’t get to have personal conversations with everyone that watches the film and explain who specifically did what, so people will eventually think it was your idea. That’s really cool for you but sucks for everyone else!

I’m stealing this one from Nick Booth. It doesn’t matter how beautiful it is, if it doesn’t cut together it’s a waste of time.

As Roy Batty was feeling in Bladerunner. Time is very, very precious.

Our Jimmy Jib

Armoured Range Rover