On the 15th of February, the Machete Maiden’s Team flew from London’s Heathrow Airport to Manila via Singapore. The massively long and boring flight was also apparently our day off according to the schedule! That’s a whole other issue, our days off have been far too few considering the time zone changes etc but I wont linger on this. Otherwise, the production has been going very well.

Back in London, after our whirlwind tour of Paris, the Team moved from our hotel in Acton North, to Ealing Studios. Talk about amazing. The historically important film studios of Ealing are legendary. Unfortunately, the place is falling apart by the seems and rotting to pieces! We were based at the back of the Studios in a former ADR studio. This had been guttered and while usable for what we were doing, the studio was in bad repair. On the walls were photographs of past productions which certainly reminded us of the importance of this place in film history! Rushing to setup, we interviewed three filmmakers before rushing to pack our gear up for a massive travel!

At the last minute, an interview with John Landis was made possible! Unfortunately for us, he was shooting his new movie in Kent that day, so we drove for an hour and a half through traffic. John is shooting a period film at a historic manner which was dressed with hundreds of extras, horses and a courtyard filled with period furnishings that just looked amazing! We were rushed past the enormous unit base, through the grounds of the historic building to an upstairs room the size of shoe box! In fact, considering where we were filming, our interview took place in a bland and boring environment which was a shame! The interview it self was amazing! John is a very knowledgeable and incredibly articulate man.

Arriving back at our hotel very late, we just made it to dinner at the pub across the road (The Castle) before returning to our rooms to pack up! At around midnight, I finished packing down all my gear ready for the flight to Manila. The flight required us to leave the hotel at 6AM which was hard. Finally we took off from 0ºC that morning in London to +30ºC in Manila! Only 2 days ago we had been in -3ºC in Paris so not only are we dealing with the time zone differences but the massive shift in climatic conditions. Arriving at the hotel in Manila at around 5PM local time, we checked in and had only a 20 minute walk around before collapsing at a Chinese restaurant for a feed. Then back to our rooms where I barely remember hitting the pillow!