SEPTEMBER!

It's September. That means one thing. I'm shooting this month!

Two years ago me and a friend sat in a pub having a few beers and talking about movies. We kept saying we should do something together. I had this idea of getting a bunch of actors together and putting them in one location with an story and seeing what came out (a lazy writer's dream!)

There was a location I had in mind. As it happened another friend was in the same bar, a councillor at the time, so I asked if we could get into a certain location. He said yes. And so it was in motion. I had planned to shoot that October. Just one month later! But... didn't happen. Reality dawned.

We set to writing a script, Mark Lebenon and I. We didn't get very far. The idea kept falling flat. We couldn't find a hook. A reason to keep everyone in the building. Mark and his family eventually decided to return to South Africa after the recession took it's toll on them. But before Mark left we met for one more chat and he told me about a play he was working on, one that took place in a school, all over the school. So the audience would be lead around from class to class to watch different scenes. I thought this was a great idea. And so grew the idea of shooting the film in one take.

From that came the idea of having to shoot in real time. That's when I thought of the Tiger Kidnapping idea, the idea that it would take one of the kidnappers and hour-and-half to go to a bank and comeback. So there it was. That took about a year.

While Mark was still here I started casting. And once again planned to shoot in October of that year, 2010. But then the location fell through. I pushed it to January, scheduling problems. March, money problems. May, more scheduling problems. Finally I said September, and that's it. If anyone can't do it then I'll find someone who can, but everyone committed. If I don't have the money, I'll beg steal and borrow... which I did!

So here we are, September 2011! Finally. Less than 4 weeks out from shooting. I'm meeting some actors tomorrow to talk in detail about characters. I meeting Dermot O'Mahony on Saturday to talk Music and from here on out I'll be working on it everyday. Which is exciting.

And, I can also finally announce that Catherine Wrigglesworth joins the cast playing Louise. Welcome Cath, happy to have you on board!

Catherine Wrigglesworth (centre) in Jason Figgis' Railway Children.

Plenty more news to come as we move forward. Stay tuned.