Production...

The place that I am working in is an old staircase which is blocked off at the top. There is a landing half way up so the stairs continue in the other direction. I am mostly working on the landing though because of where it is blocked off there's not quite enough room to stand, so I have to crouch or sit. I'm OK at negotiating small spaces so the lack of vertical space isn't too much of a problem.

Good things about the space:

• It has the perfect look, cracked walls, chipped paint & dirt.
• The stairs themselves are handy for standing small lights etc.
• It's cold in there but is a small space so it heats up quickly with the help of a small, portable radiator.

Problems:

• The wooden floor is to hard to get the pins in for pinning models etc.
• It is a bit cramped.
• There's no power points so I have to run an extension lead in there for power.

Not being able to pin the models has been the most inconvenient thing about the shoot. I've had to use very close shots so that I can actually hold or gaffa tape the models out of shot. I've even had to use bluetack in places! I have considered changing Elizabeth's feet so that they have short spikes built into the bottom as the pin-wheel seemed to have spikes of the right depth to go into the floor. It seemed like a lot of effort to go to though when I might only use them for 1 scene. It's been very hard to fix anything to the floor though, so the final scene will have to be set up carefully to avoid any of the models 'floating' around.