The ParaPod AVBGH - "Yeah But..."

Hello there

A very good Monday morning to you, and let’s get the ball rolling with a potentially regular feature called – as the title says – “The ParaPod AVBGH – Yeah But…”.

The reason it is only a potentially regular feature is because it relies fully on you saying “yeah but” and then pointing something out from the movie that doesn’t make sense to you.  Then I get to respond, as I am doing today, by either throwing my hands up in defeat (unlikely), or fully explaining the anomaly.  I reckon there’s only two or three potential things in the film to be honest, but you may disagree.  Feel free to “Yeah but” and I promise this is a safe place to discuss it without mockery.

Unless you say something that’s reeeeally daft. Also, you need to start your message with “Yeah but…” or I refuse to answer. We must do this properly.

Today, I shall be responding to something that was sent in a DM to me in December.  I’d already sort of written a post about it, but put it on hold to make it into this post instead.  I’ll just cobble it all back together. I shall shush about who sent the message (they are more than welcome to make themselves known in the comments should they wish to, but it was a DM so am respecting anonymity), and there was another comment on a post with a very similar point which I have just had a look for and can’t find it.  I know it was in December but the scrolling was giving me a headache.  Apologies to that person, and if you are reading this then you can also stick your hand up should you wish to.

Right, here’s the bit of the DM that refers to what I shall be talking about;

Can I ask a question that perhaps might be a bit cheeky? The scene in the movie, with Barry leggin it around East Drive, did you keep him mic’ed up after you ‘went to bed’ and then filmed the video at a later date to replicate what he was doing?….or did Barry actually instinctively pick up a camera and film that portion himself whilst he was freaking out haha?? If that’s a trade secret, just tell me to bugger off haha!

And here comes my response to it now…

I totally get this as a query.  A few things came into play in that section of the film when Simon and I were putting it all together, and the idea that it would seem odd that Barry picked up the camera in that moment was one of them. The reality of the situation though, is that ‘picking up the camera’ was the absolute golden rule whilst we were in East Drive.

There was no available reliance on other folk covering what was going on, because we were genuinely in there alone filming everything ourselves.  Early in the evening on the first night, I’d sent Barry back downstairs to get his camera when I was upstairs doing something or other.  I can’t remember what it was, but I recall asking him why he didn’t have his camera and pointing back to the stairs.  There’s also a fair bit of footage where we were both walking around the house together, both with cameras, and we discovered when watching the rushes back that Dodds’ camera wasn’t actually on.  Then it was on for a bit but very blurry.  Then off again. It’s a miracle it wasn’t upside down at some point. None of that footage ended up in the movie because – obviously – I wasn’t really in it. It was difficult enough to get the actual crew to film me, let alone have my co-star not doing as well.

But these are just some of the obvious issues arising when you are attempting to film a movie, send the actual crew to a Travelodge, and don’t really know how to work the cameras yourself.  Throw in somebody working a camera who will scream and jump at a dripping tap, and it’s hard to be keep your expectations that there will be adequate coverage.

The jumping is a further issue, in that Barry had a habit of hitting the off button when he jumped.  There were loads of examples of this when he was working that annoying video camera early in the film, and a prime example was just after he jumped at his own reflection in the East Drive mirror.  Immediately after this I phoned his mobile, and the ringer made him jump.  In the film we immediately cut back to me in the services, but this was also the only option available to us as Barry had turned the camera off when he jumped at his own phone ringing.  The cut in the film is Barry’s edit.

The point being, there was a very regimented and regular assertion that everything needed to be filmed.  No matter what was happening, pick up your camera.  This was coupled with me saying that it was reallyimportant for Barry to pick the camera up if ‘weird stuff’ was happening.  I was under no illusion that the claims of potential weird stuff, that had come from both Barry and the producer, were not going to transpire, but it’s a lot easier to get through to Barry on these things if you tie it in with the idea that it will be to his benefit. I mean, the film existing is to his benefit, but it was just a quicker shortcut to say he had to make sure he captured any ghosts on film so had to get used to picking up that camera before doing anything.  Don’t forget, this is after he had been robbed of the opportunity to film his own ghost in the vaults, because I had taken his camera off him lest it interfere with his ghost hunting toys.  It was a completely justified move, but still annoys me that he wasn’t holding that video camera when it all kicked off.

So, long answer short, we didn’t film it later no, that was as it was happening. When I reconvened with Dodds, I asked him if he’d filmed it (yes – big relief), and asked if he thought it was clear (Not sure – worry).  I said that as long as it was clear whilst also not looking like it had been professionally filmed then it’d be ok, and Barry said there would be a bit where you could see it was him filming because he passed the bathroom mirror.  When we watched the rushes (pretty much immediately), I was gutted that the bathroom mirror didn’t show him up at all, and the filming was surprisingly accomplished.  It potentially looked as though it had secretly been filmed by a professional. Then we got to the bit where he jumped at his own reflection and, when I’d finished screaming laughing, I was so glad we had it confirmed on film that it was definitely Barry filming it. He had genuinely filmed that entire section brilliantly.  Except for the bits where he turned the camera off by accident, but we got around them.

I mean, look at this framing...

On the question of being mic’d up, the simple answer is we weren’t mic’d up at East Drive when we were there alone.  When you’re wearing lapel mics there needs to be somebody there monitoring them through headphones and doing all the levels (which was Danny for the rest of the film), but as we were there completely alone this wasn’t an option.  All the sound from when we were alone in East Drive was done through the mics on the cameras themselves, and then sound edited later by Danny.  At one stage the producer said that Danny should be outside in a van covering the sound live.  I think it’s because Bil had seen Most Haunted with their Outside Broadcast equipment, and just thought we could do that.  Off his rocker. When I explained to him what was actually involved in an O.B van (and this was only the little I knew), plus the costs of it, he very quickly went to “Well do those cameras have microphones on them…?”.

The sound was actually ok, the cameras had separate top mics on them, but there was an issue with them picking up breathing/wheezing quite heavily, which is crazy when you think of how fit myself and Barry both are. Danny fixed all that and the disparity between sound in that section and the rest of the film is very minimal.  You’d have to really be listening out for it.

So, there’s my response to today’s “Yeah but…”; a mixture of training and luck.  Also, as they argued in Blair Witch, the camera becomes a safety thing when you’re that scared.  Looking through the lens detaches you from the horrors of the reality.  You’d have to ask Dodds if that was the case for him, or whether he didn’t think of it that way at all.  I was personally all fine having a tea in Wooley Edge services myself.

Have a lovely week ahead please.  I’ve a short snippet of deleted footage from this moment at East Drive coming your way on Wednesday, which isn’t elaborate enough for a first of the month post but is an interesting little linking bit that was reappropriated in the finished film.

Sending all the love

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