The weather outside is like my mood - depressing. The rain hasn’t stopped all day and the bad news outweighs the good.

First thing in the morning I called Greasepaint. I got through to a lovely lady called Hannah. She listened to my plight and went to work to find me someone. I had to go into town, to pick up the fangs for Mary. I went to Charles Fox in Convent Garden to buy them. While I was running through the rain, I was on the phone to Hannah as she was trying makeup artists on her books. So far no luck. It was at this point she asked me if I would have a student do it. I said yes, as I still hadn’t heard back from either Brendan or Sophie. Hananh got back on the job and I jumped on the tube to go home.

When I came out of the tube, I got a call from Hanah. She had found me a student who was willing to do it. Her name was Helen Gant and she was the best in her class. Hanah had passed on my mobile number to Helen and I should expect a call. The call wasn’t long in coming. I received the call while I was on the bus heading home. We spoke briefly. Helen asked me lots of questions about the production and what makeup was needed. I asked Helen to get to the location early, so I could go through the production photos showing her the makeup that was put on Benjamin Green. Helen asked if I could send her a copy of the script, the address of the location and the times we were shooting on each day. I told her I would email them as soon as I got home.

Helen was really looking forward to working on the film and I was really glad that I had found someone to replace Sophie. I was really relieved that I had dealt with that problem. I was back on track to shooting the Prologue. I skipped off the bus and down the hill to home. The rain had even stopped.

I entered the door and made lunch. Once I had eaten, I sent Helen the email with the script and the address of the location and the shoot times. I also sent her the link to the trailer, so she could see Benjamin Green in action. I then called Brendan to say I found someone. We arranged to meet for a drink that evening. I got an email from Sophie with some makeup artists for me to try. But I had found someone and I didn’t need to contact them. I was feeling good. Then it started to rain and my mobile rang.

It was Charlie Weisfield. He had some bad news. He had hurt his back and couldn’t do the shoot. I was gob smacked. I had just fixed one problem to have another one pop up. He was so sorry. He offered to try to contact some other sound recordists on my behalf. Of course I accepted his offer. I asked how he had hurt it. He had done it on another film shoot weeks ago. I didn’t say anything at the time, but I should of told Charlie that he should of contacted me when he hurt his back. It would of made the job of finding a replacement much easier. But what could I do. I was now without a sound recordist and I now had to find someone... and find them quick.

So it was back to phoning up people. I called Richard Wood first. I wanted to make sure he was still doing it. He was. Phew! I then asked if he knew any sound recordists. Apart from Charlie, he didn’t know anybody else. I contacted a few other people, but no joy. Time was marching on and I had to go, so to meet Brendan. This is when I got the next call.

Elly Wdowski called me. She sounded terrible. She had the flu and couldn’t do tomorrow, costume shopping with Elizabeth Knight. She didn’t know if she could do the weekend. I didn’t need this. I was going to need Elly’s help with the costumes on the set. I have to say I wasn’t sympathetic to Elly. It was another thing on top of another thing and I could do without it. I told Elly to get well and I would speak to her later. I hope it’s only a 24 hour thing.

So I am about to head off into the rain to meet up with Brendan and I am not in the best of moods. I wanted to have everything in place by tomorrow before heading to the location, but now I have to find a sound recordist on top of buying costumes tomorrow. I hope I can get it done.