Happiness for Ducks set-visit: '80% of film-making is problem solving'

(Happiness For Duck's Felicity Jayne and Graham Saxon in between takes)

"Hi! Could you give me a hand carrying these boxes upstairs please?"

These were amongst the first words my friends at Twisted Pixie Productions said as I arrived at their on-location set in Saltwell Towers and with good reason!  My senses were struggling to take in the piles of camera cases, boxes overflowing with food, costumes, ironing boards and makeup bags that sat outside the stately home in Gateshead's Saltwell Park.

What was immediately clear was that this wasn't a casual production, this was serious art-in-the-making.  Happiness for Ducks is a lo-fi Indie musical and Twisted Pixie Productions' most ambitious project to date.

(Half of the equipment mountain)

(Lead Actress Olivia Egbunike stands in the foreground)

Once the gear had been unloaded, makeup applied, rails laid, camera mounted, LED light's setup, sunscreen sorted and a million and one other tasks completedwe were almost ready to shoot.  I snapped busily away trying to find good angles with the still camera assistant director James William Bartlam had given me, whilst he busied himself setting up the sound.

(Getting an earful: Assistant Director James Bartlam)

(Meticulous attention to detail: Director Victoria Lapping and cinematographer Tom Sheppard)

Meanwhile director Victoria Lapping sorted the lawyer (actress Felicity Jayne's) hair and powdered the face of protagonist Chris Wilson (John Turner).  Then a sun screen they had put up earlier came unstuck and fell down and a dash to put it back up occurred.  "80% of film-making is problem solving, so if we're not solving problems we're doing something wrong!" she told me later on.

So much sweat! Over the course of the day we lugged the equipment around to at least 5 different parts of the park.  One of the things I quickly learned is that when your shooting time is always against you especially when you're trying to make something of significant quality.

Many of the team have been living together for the last couple of weeks, eating, sleeping and breathing this project into life and it shows.  The team work very well together, from script supervisor Joshua Neilson, production assistant Ben Dawson-Punshon and 1st Assistant Cameraman Atif Shafiq  lugging equipment around and shot logging, to lead actress Olivia Egbunike operating the clapperboard to the fantastic creative chemistry between Director Victoria Lapping and cinematographer-and-cameraman Tom Sheppard.   It's going to be fascinating to see how production on Happiness for Ducks progresses over the next few months.