Most film productions have a minimum requirement of personnel onset which include camera operator, director, cinematographer, hair, make up, continuity, grips, sound recordist, boom operator, art department, props, costume. You get the idea. On Blood And Carpet the most people we had onset, not including the cast, was five. So when you read the titles on the next movie you watch consider that all those jobs were done by David Foster, Simon Cooper, Miaka Crampton, Jeanette Monero and Graham Fletcher-Cook. Obviously, this made the workload for all involved very heavy but also afforded a flexibility and speed which would have been otherwise unachievable. Also, not having a producer looking over our shoulders meant the usual creative restrictions that investors impose were absent. So there is an upside to not having any money or staff or equipment.

The bulk of the filming was shot over five nights which meant starting around 7pm and going on until 6am leaving everyone in a more or less constant state of jet lag. David (EPK) did manage to fall asleep in the middle of one of the takes and start snoring loudly at a particularly sensitive moment in the drama. Eventually we found ourselves in a kind of 1960’s twilight zone of our own making and a thoroughly enjoyable place it proved to be. To psych themselves up the cast would listen to the Small Faces, mimicking the cockney stylings of Lazy Sunday Afternoon and leaving us indebted to Steve Marriot’s skill as a songwriter and storyteller.

There would be an occasional break for spaghetti bolognese or sausage rolls. We worked out that during filming  Annie Burkin must have smoked 500 cigarettes.

So all in all a thoroughly enjoyable way to spend a half term break, solving problems, getting the chance to be creative and listening to David’s awful jokes.