Written on the 26th November 2008.
It was a slog, but we finally wrapped Disrepute last night. I play Priest a young police officer who in a moment of madness lands himself up to the neck in it. His story interweaves with three other members of a police department in this tale about choosing where professional and personal loyalties lie.
QTI Productions are three young filmmakers based at Staffordshire University and despite lady luck clearly having a couple of days off were real troopers. Problems with equipment quality due to filming being postponed, run-ins with the real police and location-booking issues were a few of the problems all seven of us faced. However, we dug in and got on with the task in hand. Every new obstacle a solution was found and although it was frustrating that things didn’t always go to plan it was a thoroughly rewarding team experience.
My fellow actors Dan, Rob and Martin were cracking to work with; patient, focused, up for a laugh and above all enthusiastic. Jemma, Steve and Andy were committed and disciplined. I’m sure they’re proud of the efforts they went to in order to make this work. As I write three no doubt bleary-eyed students are clustered round a computer post-producing a shoot, to an extent that they clearly wanted to avoid, with a horrifically close deadline. I wish them luck.
So what’s this actual police involvement all about? Nothing too sinister, but entertaining nonetheless. As a courtesy the script was sent to Staffordshire Police along with an polite email asking if a scene could be shot outside their premises. The reply was a definite no due to certain issues that occur in the script. I’m paraphrasing their words slightly here, but “Staffordshire police cannot be seen to associate themselves with police corruption”. I’m presuming they do an adequate job on there own associating themselves with police corruption. It resulted in a mad dash to find a suitable location in Wolverhampton and this time a courtesy script was not sent.
