By Icrus Murphy

May 9th, 2008

 

NOTHING PERSONAL was shot over one weekend in 2008. Through my professional contact, we had organised a small studio space for free, just large enough for our set to be built. The week before production my boss told me that the space was no longer available to us and that we were going to have to figure it out. I pleaded with her to help us find another solution, as everything was set for that weekend – talent, crew, equipment, everything. Eventually she decided to let us “share” the studio space with her production that had just started shooting that week. The only stipulation was that we had to “hide” our set from the visiting UK broadcaster and production partners.

 

“We’ll do it!”

 

So my partners, Peter and Nick, my wife, and I spent the Wednesday to Friday nights after work (7pm to 3am) before the weekend shoot, prepping our set amongst the sets and props of a children’s puppet show. The surreal concept of building a basement torture space surrounded by happy children’s sights and puppets was not lost on any of us. It actually added to our enjoyment of the situation. Every night after prepping we would hide everything under tarps in the corner of the studio behind the tree props for the exteriors of the puppet shows – just out of the camera sight-line. The execs didn’t bat an eye. By Saturday morning Peter had not really slept in 4 days. All he had to do was direct his first film.