Filming for Against The Clock finished

On Saturday we shot the last day of footage for my documentary on drag racer Nigel Holland. We were really lucky; the weather was bright and clear and Nigel and his car got the all clear to race. And this time we had a car, three cameras and we dressed properly for Santa Pod– thick sock, hoodies and jackets with lots of pockets.

Very important to have pockets – you can stuff ‘em with tapes. And it’s very important to have hoodies, because when it’s cold, or should I say colder, you can flip it over your bonce for added protection.

But perhaps the best garment was Rhys’ bobble hat. Everyone agrees to an interview when the cameraman filming sports a bobble. It just seems impossible that the experience will be a bad one.

Once again, Santa Pod proved to be a place full of positive people only too eager to share their stories. Even Rick and Carla - who it seemed, had a bit of shit day - were only too happy to take time out from swapping a gearbox for a quick portrait.

We filmed for about 11 hours, right into the fading light, when the racetrack began to look quite magical and you could clearly see the flames from the exhausts.

Once again a massive thanks to Nigel Holland and his family for letting us film him and ask silly questions.

Here’s what we learnt:

•    Top fuel cars – depending on what they’re running will spew a crude form of tear gas out of their exhaust. Nice!

•    Shooting from the island in the centre of the track is do-a-bit-of-wee scary, but that’s where the best shots live

•    My camera shoots natively to .mov whereas Rhys’ records in .dv format fans!

•    But my camera is smaller

•    Don’t forget gloves

•    Bike drag racers have the biggest balls on the planet

•    The smell of Santa Pod reminds me of my Dad’s shed

•    I think I actually did the job of director this time, as opposed to someone who kept saying ‘well, what do you think?’

•    Faulkner’s fish and chip shop on the Kingsland Road ain’t all that

So that, as they say, is a wrap. Now uploading all the footage for Rhys to edit in Final Cut Pro, so I’m going to use this bit to say an absolute massive thanks to Rhys Thwaites-Jones of Cox & Jones for basically working for food. What a gent.

Looking to finish the film for Christmas

Posted via email from the antigob