shooting a film in a small town, pt. 1

Random Upton charm

     I love small towns. I drive through them without blinking, I live in one, and I always seem to write about them: My comedy Drilled, which Jason Priestley is set to direct later this year, is about a Welsh dentist and a dental groupie in a small Canadian town. My upcoming short War Diary is about a small town in a parallel reality in southwest England. And The Macaron Conspiracy is a rom-com that unfolds in a French village whose lifeblood is cookies of meringuey fluffy goodness.
     So when we started looking for the best place to shoot The Wasting, and somebody said “Upton-upon-Severn” I didn’t bat an eye. I expected it to be great. How could a town called Anything-Upon-Any River not be filled with awesomeness? What I didn’t count on, was just how much awesome was there. 
     Upton has been nothing short of spectacular in its support of the film, its outstanding locations, its friendliness, and its excellent pubs. I want to move here.

---

Holdfast Manor

     It started with Holdfast Manor. Spectacularly full of hundreds of years worth of character and history and different looks, surrounded by woods and outbuildings that can be as spooky as we need them to be. A stunning location that’s better than anything you could build in a studio. For those who care about such things, as I do, it also has a really nice, warm vibe. 

---

Creepy loo in Holdfast woods

     

The owners are graciously allowing us to shoot the majority of our film there.  For so many reasons, this is the perfect location in which to anchor The Wasting; 
I’m going to leave you with the most cheesily delicious of all those reasons. The name. 
     

When I was a kid, people hung annoying inspirational posters on their bedroom walls instead of posting them incessantly on Facebook. The one that I remember has a big happy bird soaring over this: 

---

Barfy, yet sweet

Hold fast to dreams 
for if dreams die 
Life is a broken-winged bird 
That cannot fly 

---

Hold fast. Holdfast. Get it? 
     This film is a dream I have held fast to for years. I have never let go. And now it is happening. How absolutely perfect that it will happen at Holdfast.