Barnstorming.

Yesterday was Reunification Day, to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the rebuilding of Germany as one nation again. Of course, many of the team can’t actually remember when Germany was divided, which makes me feel old. Anyway, we used the time to make the film parts for “Baroness Isabella von Katzenberg’s evil and despicable plans for world domination”. This year we are building up the film section of the story, and we are including some action sequences.

Fed team is happy team.

Knowing this was going to be a long day, we started with a bring-along brunch at eleven, and moved on to filming at about half past one with the aim of finishing at four. You’d think I’d learn that this is a ridiculously short time for this team once ideas start flying about the place. I have three team members in particular who seem to come alive when they are carrying a video camera (Note to self: more video next year).

Anyway, the film was finally finished just in time for rehearsals at seven thirty in the evening, but it’s far better than I dared hope for. The location of several scenes was moved from a rather boring corridor in the church into a barn nearby at the suggestion at the suggestion of one of the aforementioned camera-wielding trio, who then choreographed the fight scene before I arrived on location…

Choreography underway in the barn.

This was our first attempt at such a complex film. We had some things in place, but more will need to come together next time: we’ll have a better idea of what we want to do, which will help, but we need to have a storyboard, production schedule and locations all set out in advance, and I need to give the person organising better lists so the communication will be improved for the whole team, which will make a big difference. It's also rather obviously time for me to step back and hand over film direction to other team members.