Looking back on The Bird Nerd

Liam Rushton as Alan Argus in the official thumbnail for The Bird Nerd

Last week was a busy week for me - the week for shooting individual productions for the first year of my university course. In crews of four, we filmed four films over four days, which is one each. And on Friday, as we were on the last of these four days, The Bird Nerd came up in conversation, something it hasn't done in a while. You see, we needed a poster to decorate a plain wall, and it just so happens that I have a very large Bird Nerd poster. And the return of The Bird Nerd to the forefront of my thoughts got me thinking about the shoot, and just how much fun it was.

And so I thought I'd post a little bit of a retrospective about the film, my involvement in it, and the overall experience.

The Bird Nerd was made in 2014, and it was around about two years ago that I was first involved in it in any way. That year, I'd been part of the BFI Film Academy in my hometown, and my good friend Ben had got one step further, making it to the national residential. The idea seemed to stem from there, and he mentioned to me that he was planning on shooting a film with several others of the same age from across the country, people he'd met on this residential. Naturally, as it was a film project, I was excited to be a part of it. But I was also skeptical: could it be done? Could we, first year students at Sixth Form, really raise enough money for several people to descend on Hereford and shoot a film?

So of course, when the crew actually arrived and we were actually ready to shoot, I was surprised. Delighted, yes, but surprised as well. The Monday of the shooting week came with a production meeting and a chance to meet a number of the crew who, not being local, I'd never had the opportunity to work with before. I will maintain until my dying day that giving the crew a chance to meet up before they arrive on set is one of the best things a producer can do - it gave us the chance to build a rapport before we had the time pressures of being on a location we couldn't stay at forever.

Now, we had ourselves a very busy schedule. There were only two full days with the whole crew in Hereford, and as most of the key roles (most notably director and sound recordist) had been filled by people from out of town, we had to make sure we got our entire film shot during those two days. Which meant for a very fast-paced period of time; we worked as quickly as we could, savouring our time at Haugh Wood or the Hereford Christadelphian Church, where we weren't especially restricted in terms of how long we could stay in our location. On the other hand, our Wednesday morning shoot in the Bunch of Carrots pub was stressful; not only was it the largest gathering of cast and crew during the entirety of the film - all of the extras were needed for these scenes, as well as the principal cast and of course the whole crew - but we had a definite time limit. By 11am, we needed to be finished and tidied away, so that the pub could open for trade.

And yet the Bunch of Carrots shoot was probably the most enjoyable, and I was left with an overwhelmingly positive experience of filming The Bird Nerd. It might not be the best film in the world, but it's certainly a decent attempt, still as far as I'm concerned the best thing I've ever been involved in, and it became one of the most enjoyable weeks of my life. So much so, in fact, that I've already begun to plan another similar shoot, which I'm hoping to film in the coming summer - I had so much fun making The Bird Nerd that I've got back in line ready to have another turn.