The overview

James: Seeing the documentaries broadcast without Gabby was terrible. Later, when we made Peppermint there was a sense of support when the film finally played. On this occasion, it was a little look at the phone and a giant deflation. Some people called, others emailed, but it was all a bit flat without Gabs around. I got on with writing Peppermint and spent the next few months chasing Maverick for the production fees.

I guess my final point is simple. We wanted to get it made for the experience, and we certainly got that. I'm not overly positive that it ended up the way we wanted, but it was a taste of compromise. And I guess that was an important thing to taste! It certainly cemented us with the determination to get other stuff made independently, without the input of external factors. It was also the end of short filmmaking for a while, as it felt like as much, if not more effort, than features.

That was our next hurdle - Peppermint.

Nightshift - Tim

Nightshift - Kamaljit

Nightshift - Mandy

Gabby flys out

James: Gabby goes to Canada and everything that was manic before becomes suddenly serene. There is no editing, no filming, no frantic phone calls...

Hand over

James: Jonnie was at Maverick when we handed over the masters, and he congratulated us upon the achievement. It is all enlightening, especially as we come out the other side of a taxing project. Strangely though, we are not as relieved as we would like. The films still have to pass 'tech spec' at Channel Four, and Gabby is preparing to travel to Canada for two weeks, so she won't even see the transmissions. It is an anti-climax for me personally.

Finishing the edit

James: Back in Leeds, we re-cut the films. The main changes are the removal of 'Hotel California' from the Tim short, and a whole debate about the technical specifications for Channel Four.

Without becoming too boring, the footage needed to be zoomed into as it was shot on 4:3 letterbox as opposed to 4:3 anamorphic. It was also shot with about 18db gain (it was a night shoot with no lights!), so we were lucky to pass 'tech spec' to some extent.

The overwhelming sensation watching them on-screen is that they are so homogenised, and nothing like the original brief that I had sent to Jess. It all felt a little hollow, as if we had compromised a good idea. I still feel this way about the films, and it has always left me feeling that I should develop work away from the meddling of broadcasters and production companies... after all, I don't particularly like television, and here was us making the stuff. Ho hum.

Christmas Eve - A flight to Ireland

James: So everything has been so hectic that I don't feel Christmassy at all. It is not until I'm on the plane to Cork that I realise that I'm seeing my mum for a week, and doing none of this documentary. It is all a bit surreal. Everything then nothing.

The edit begins

James: I head up to Yorkshire TV in Leeds where our friend Gareth Spensley helps us with the edit. He is a godsend, and a much needed fresh face. As Tim's footage is already logged, Spense starts with him. I get digitising Kamaljit. Gab joins us later in the day.

That night, we sleep in a caravan in Spense's driveway. His parent's put on an amazing spread of food, and it is much appreciated. It has been the most manic few weeks, and this is such a welcome change. If you are reading this Spensley family - THANK YOU!!!!

The edit goes on for another two days, and Spense was so professional and calm at sticking these films together. Gabby and I just said yes and no to things, and it all felt like we were singing from the same hymn sheet. Even though the Kamaljit short needed jamming together quite extensively, it ended up strong enough.

Basically, we ended on Sunday with three really tight films to show Channel Four. It was all going to plan...

Filming Kamaljit

James: It is Thursday and tonight we will be chasing a milkman around London. We need a driver as neither Gabby or I drive, and we need to concentrate on filming. No-one is up for it, except an old friend, Lisa Brethrick. It is an easy way of earning £150 after all.

So we head to Hounslow. We meet Kamaljit. And we panic. He has a van, not a milkfloat, and there is no way we can join him on board. So our contingency plan is rapid and effective - Lisa must drive behind him and we must jump out at every opportunity to catch a shot. Gabby and I would decide as we went along as to what we would gather next. It was quite hard as you never knew what action was going to take place, but if you tried to follow everything, you got into the car with nothing.

It is fair to say that this was a taxing enough shoot to compensate for the ease of the other two. But it became harder...

As we prepare for the morning interview, one thing becomes glaringly obvious. Kamaljit's English is shockingly bad. Gabby and I are stuck, and just try to get as much out of him as possible, but leave feeling hideously stressed. We have no time to get another contributor, and I have to make my way to Leeds immediately to start the edit.

I am exhausted. What we needed now, was Spense.

Lord of the Rings

James: Somehow Gabby and I managed to get in to a private screening of the final Lord of the Rings film, and took time out from Nightshift. Jackson making those three films must of had a pile of patience to deal with all that. Making these three has been hard enough.

Here is the crux of it. We have two films in the can, and very easily done. But the third has raised an issue with Channel Four. They want ethnic diversity. I say that our Welsh speaking milkman is ethnically diverse. Not enough apparently. So in the background of all of this, we have to find an ethnically diverse nightshift worker, preferably a milkman.

It finally works out when Sidhu diary in Hounslow offer us Kamaljit Sharma. We are over the moon. Albeit that we have to travel to London, again.

Filming Tim

James: So, two days after our first shoot and we are out again. This time it was Tim, the DJ, at BRMB. Once again, all went smoothly. Tim was great, a wonderful talent. The sense was that this process was just so overwhelmingly easy. Gabby and I as our own bosses, filming our own way. At this stage I think I was the happiest I had ever been in an otherwise frustrating 2003. It was feeling positive, and a good way to start 2004.

Day off? Nah...

James: There is nothing scheduled for the Sunday night, but we run out with the camera anyway and film so exterior night shots that can be dropped into the projects. I guess it was just out of fear of not having enough. We certainly ended up using some of them, so I guess it was a good idea.

Filming Mandy

James: Our first day of filming is at ATP Taxis in Dulwich. Our contact, Steve Hardwick, is the kindest guy we could hope for. We basically had the rule of the roost. He gave us food, he gave us a lift around London, he gave us whatever we wanted. He was great.

We chose Mandy, the taxi controller, for a variety of reasons. Most obviously, she was working the entire Saturday nightshift. Secondly, she was a unique character, kind of grumpy but also sweet. She was also in a job role that we thought people didn't perhaps realise existed - that of a dispatcher of taxis.

Anyhow, long story short - it was easy. We filmed for about eight hours, got lots of footage, and then interviewed Mandy for the narration. When we left back for Paddington in our free taxi, we thought 'this is easy', and were very happy with ourselves.

Kit list

James: Gabby and I had emailed a kit list to Maverick and they felt it was excessive. When we turned up to meet our production manager, Helen Jenks, we found we had no sound mixer, and no fishpole to attach our gun mic to! We were provided with a Sony PD150, but we opted to hire the Panasonic DVX100, as we felt it was better. We had no monitor and no lighting kit. Just tripod, camera and microphones. All in all, we were quite light... which was really guerilla filmmaking! It was difficult to imagine that we had been filming Gabby's student project 8 months before with a superior kit, and here we were, doing a job for Channel Four, with not a lot at all! Either way, we headed down to London with what we had and my step-mum Nic drove us around that night to get some exterior shots of the city.

Using the airwaves

James: Getting BRMB gave us an idea. We were up in the daytime trying to get people to agree to film their nightshifts. They were presumeably in bed whilst we were calling. So we decided to email radio stations with a request to read out our requirements. Indeed, this is how we got Steve Hardwick at ATP taxis (which ended up as the Mandy doc).

The downer on the day was that Maverick came in with a compromise. They had brokered a deal with Channel Four that said we would deliver three documentaries instead of four, amd we'd deliver them a week later. Gabby and I were really annoyed at the time, but in retrospect, it was probably a good idea. We agreed to take the compromise, if it meant we made something instead of nothing.

Calling contributors

James: We urgently set about calling companies for contributors and hit an immediate brick wall. Office cleaners at night didn't want us filming, security firms didn't want us either. It was rejection after rejection. So we targeted medium sized businesses, and it all became unstuck. We got a welsh milkman, Bill Jones, and a lorry driver, Bryan Hales. We also got BRMB to agree to us filming Tim Lichfield, their night DJ. But we struggled to find a fourth.

Meeting Maverick

James: We are scheduled to meet Claire Welch and Jonnie Turpie at the Custard Factory offices at 15.15. Maverick are in the process of moving their premises and the whole place is a state.

Our meeting is mixed. Claire Welch, the Head of Production, believed that there wasn't enough time for us to do the project, and is reluctant to take us on. Jonnie Turpie, the company director is keener. But he doesn't think we'll have enough time to make four films, and suggests we take on three. He also wants us to follow one set of people, like postmen, as it would be easier. Gab and I are not happy when we leave. We feel that they don't have a can-do enthusiasm for the project. We were encouraged to feel happy that we had been picked and got this far, but that realistically it couldn't be done.

Gabby:Yeah weird meeting. A lot of promised were made in that meeting that were never honored. Claire and Jonnie seemed like they though we were taking on an impossible project and were throwing offers of equipment and such at us thinking we would need all the help we could get. In the end we walked out think we could achieve much more that they believed. I remember we both put our foot down about follow the same set of people for 3 films, but more than feeling disheartened I think this was the point I picked James up. Jonnie and Claire's doubt made me more sure we could do it, if only to prove them wrong. Wow, it seems pride turns out to be a great driving factor.

Can we do this?

James: So by the time I'm back in Worcester, all revved up and excited about the project, Gabby is ready to bail out on me. She didn't feel as if she was up for doing it, and nowhere near qualified enough to take the pressure of co-directing and producing. I can't remember how I convinced her to do it but I'm sure it was something along the lines of 'what an opportunity' blah, blah, blah. Anyway, I'm glad she said yes, otherwise the project would've stumbled at the first weekend.

Gabby:I can't remember feeling like this, although it was no doubt the case. James and I had a good balance like that..I would generally be under confident and James had enough for us both. I know I would have enver walked away from the project, I was probably just trying to make James aware of what we were about to embark on.

Friday comes

James: I don't sleep at all well on Thursday night and I call Maverick at the first opportunity to confirm the deal. Have I got a production company or not??? Maverick as to meet me on Monday. Katie says she'll wait. I'm nervous... and we're not even making it yet.

Gabby: Yeah it all hinged on this...Channel 4 wouldn't commission us the project if we didn't have a production company. We didn't have much experience of all this, so we had no idea what our chances were.

Finding a company

James: So I get up in the morning and call Katie. I ask her for some input, after all, I don't know of many productions companies. We decide it would be best to go with someone in Birmingham, and we whittle it down to two choices - Endboard and Maverick.

I get off the phone and call Endboard. No answer. I get on the phone and call Maverick, and get through. It was that simple. The message is taken by an assistant at Maverick and I ask them to call me back as quick as possible so I can cement the deal with Katie before Friday. The call is never returned.

The call comes

James: So I've been sat around, teaching Media part-time and not a lot else. But one day, I'm on the train heading from Worcester to London, when Katie calls and says that she wants me to go to Horseferry Road immediately. I get there at 15.30pm.

The meeting is brief. She wants to make Nightshift and she wants to make it asap. All I need to do is get a production company to take me on. And do it by Friday.

Gabby: I had a hurried phone call off of James - to which I was very shocked. I thought that Katie must have been overwhelmed by commissioned slots because the news had been extended for so long. I guess we just got lucky. I must admit I was relieved too because I had recently been back to visit my University and when I told someone that we had may have got a set of the slots they looked at me disbelievingly. I wondered how many people we had talked to didn't really think it would come off...and then remember I was one of them!

Nothing happens

James: Nothing happened for months. I'd left my job, sat on my bum for a bit, and dined out on the promise that this project was going to happen with Channel Four.

Gabby: The Iraq war had kicked off recently and that meant that the Channel 4 news had it extended its remit to the whole hour slot, which meant "The Slots" had got pushed back. We thought that this was going to be the chop for this idea, and although James was positive I must admit I was less so.

Katie calls

James: I can't remember the exact date but I remember exactly where I was. Katie Speight, a commissioning editor called me whilst I was loading the car for a shoot with a different production compnay. I didn't get on particularly well with this production team, and I didn't want them to ever touch something that was my idea, despite their offering.

Basically, Katie said she liked the idea, but needed some more information about it. She explained that they had no spare spaces for the Slot at this point, but she'd like to go ahead with it later in the year. I should send her my expanded thoughts, on no moree than two sides of A$ paper, and she'd get back to me accordingly. She hung up, and I had a rare smile from ear to ear when I got in the car to film that day.

Gabby: I can't really remember talking to James about the idea apart from discussing the idea of having visuals of places that we were used to being full of people, empty and desolate. Apart from that I didn't take much notice, we had certainly had stronger ideas between us before, but I guess they didn't hit the same buttons in the end.

How it all began

James: I was working at a production company who invited me to attend the Channel Four Commissioning PACT day at Horseferry Road. At this event you get to hear each of the commissioning editors stand up and say what they want in turn. I was very excited and gave some thought to some ideas that I could pitch. They said they were looking for 'Ordinary People - Extraordinary Stories'. One day short of my 22nd birthday, I wrote this letter to Jess Search at Channel Four:

Dear Jess,

A possible idea for the Slot… The Nightshift: portraits of British cities at night. An ambient illustration of what happens when the city goes to sleep. The films follow those that prepare the world for the next day: the office cleaners, shelf stackers, delivery drivers, and road workers to name a few. Delivered in an alternative fashion, with no interviews or direct dialogue, the programmes concentrate on the visual beauty of a baron city and the sonic qualities of what the night brings (from sirens to silence). These films are not date specific and could sit anywhere in the year.

I am a young independent director/producer who has shot two shorts on DVC Pro in the past year as well as working on other short videos in various capacities.

If you are interested you can contact me on the above details,

Yours sincerely,

James Fair