Mr. Topp and the Big Bad Blog

It is, as they say, a wrap.

Here in the UK, last weekend was a Bank Holiday weekend. The end-of-August holiday is traditionally time for the Notting Hill Carnival (always a good time) was likely crowded as usual — reportedly 1.2 million people attended — but I was not one of them. The Top Floor Flat has recapped it, if you are looking to learn more.

No, your Mr Topp did not participate in the usual London end-of-August shenanigans. He did not even do the back-up Londoner thing and go to Brighton. Instead, your insane correspondent participated in the making of a short film. Concerning the phenomenon of communist vampirism in the 1950s, Better Dead than Red details the work done by one Dirk “Ace” Brannigan in repelling the communist vampire threat which threatened London.

While a huge amount of fun was had, we only had the camera equipment rented for approximately 72 hours. For those of you who might not know, filming is exhausting — between learning lines that might change minutes before a scene is shot, repeating scenes up to twenty times in search of the perfect scene (or, at least the simultaneous occurrence of good light and good sound), and running from location to location we were worn out by Monday evening. I cannot imagine how hard it must be for actors on TV who get a new script every week and need to be in the majority of scenes for a 45-minute show. These people have my profound respect.

But with only 72 hours to film in, we had to be all-systems-go all the time, and almost always on the ball. With people watching at the edge of our makeshift sets and applauding at the end of scenes, and our near-professional quality equipment, following Monday night’s wrap I cannot help but anticipate the end product.

However,there is still editing to be done, CGI to be added(!), music to be composed and so on before it is available for viewing. Look for regular updates both here and over at No Fixed Address, where the writer/director lives, in the days leading up to general Internet release.

Related articles:

1. Better Dead than Red – The final profile
2. Iron Man II: The triumph of copyright
3. Introducing the Prime Minister
4. Better Dead than Red: Miss Simons
5. Evading .300 – The Big Scene