ON THE ROPES - 10/02/2025

Very sucessful first shoot of our graduation project ON THE ROPES. Quite a complicated day logisiclly as there were 2 locations and three settings we had to prepare for between 10am and 5pm but we made it possible. I have nevery working with a crew of this size before so having to handle all the logistical and planning of it for that amount of people was a shock but I had loads of fun doing it.

Due to some location complications, we decided it was much more convenient and time efficient if we changed one of our locker room scenes to an office scene. This helped both with logistics as there we no local location giving us enough time to film all our shots and it also helped give Mandy a personality outside of her conversation with Bill. Amie and Will did a great job at pulling together this last minute location.

Most of the people on this crew had already worked with Helen before so it was very easy to work with her. Every one was more than aware of her skills as an actress and she really helped make this scene go so smoothly.

This location is at the university Sparkhouse which I had scouted earlier in the year with our 1st AD Oliver Townsend and the director of our other film, TIME LINE. The room I found also had a joining room for equpiment and we were also allowed to use the main lobby area as our greenroom which was extremly handing considering the amount of people and equipment on set.

I had worked with Kelsie before and I was so excited to do so again as she is such an amazing actress and extremely professional. I met her on another film I produced this year (LE PETIT BOUFFON) and we had spoken about this project whilst on that and her potentially working on it. She was really excited and so was the crew so it was an easy choice.

The location we are filming in this shot is Lincoln and District Bowling Centre which was found by our sound designer Em Webb. She and did a scout of the location before filming and decided it was a great place for this scene. We did have some trouble with this location as the gym our director was contacting had minimal communication so we all pulled our heads together and landed with this amazing location, thank you very much to Dani for letting us use it.

It was a completly free location to film at as well as Sparkhouse which is brilliant for our limited budget. Our only clause was that we have to go play bowls together as a crew once we have wrapped, we can't wait for that!

Jemma and I took some time just before Helen left to get a start on some publicity stills. These are great when it comes to promoting the film with a variation of posters and ensuring all of the characters have some depth, rather than just being a connection to our protagonist. It will also help our audience get a sense of who our characters are, even before they have seen the film.

Thank you to everyone who made today possibly, especially Caroline and Dani who helped make our locations possible. Can't wait to continue filming with this cast and crew this week and for the final film to come together.

CREW

Producer/1st AD: M Carter

Writer/Director: Dominic Hayman

DoP: Robert Barnes

1st AC: Oliver Townsend

Editor/2nd AC: Theo Quant-Epps

3rd AC: Christy Crossen

Gaffer: Emily Sivieri

Sound: Emily Webb

Boom Operator: Jack Cartwright

Production Design: Amie Gant

Production Assistant: William Harmer

Script Supervisor/DIT: James Fullelove

BTS: Jemma Gray

CAST

BILL - Chris Agha

JOSIE - Kelsie Couse

MANDY - Helen Fullerton