"BAD DAY" MAKES GOOD FILM

Here's a success story: man gets an idea for a film in the summer of 2006 and by the summer of 2007 it is shot, edited, locked and on the Big Screen.

How does this happen while other filmmakers wallow in development hell and worse for years, maybe decades?

One, it helps in the first instance if the man with the idea is a guy like Ian David Diaz who has already made four feature films, including The Killing Zone, Dead Room and Fallen Angels (more on these later). Obviously, this is a creative who likes to get things done instead of sitting in a coffee shop admiring the back of an envelop.

Besides extensive experience of movie making, Diaz is a practical type. Not for him those all too common, pie-in-the-sky pipe dreams. He knew he had to limit his ambitions. One of the reasons he liked his own idea so much was that, as the title implies, it embodied one of the most helpful of script concepts: keep the time frame short. In this case, 24 hours. Gee, I wonder if he was influenced by any recent TV shows???

Actually, Diaz happily concedes his debt to "24", when he notes that the first half hour of the film was literally coloured in post-production to have "a warm LA-style feel a la 24" .

Oh, but what about the story? In brief, two agents from the fictional London Organised Crime Division have to track down one of their undercover colleagues who has gone AWOL following the murder of her daughter. The first draft was finished within three weeks - obviously not a lot of navel gazing involved there, but then this is not a film meant to change the world - and it was polished by the end of the summer 2006.

What Diaz did lack was an abundance of funds, so skillful planning was called for.

First, he pulled together an exemplary cast: the two hunters are played by Anthony Ofoegbu and Donna Air (leaping a bonnet above) while the hunted is Claire Goose (getting to know Air in the main photo). Sterling support comes from Sarah Harding (yes, she of Girls Aloud in her first acting role) and Robbie Gee (who learned all about bad days in Snatch).,/p>

And secondly, he opted to be the first to use a new and affordable Panasonic HDV camera to get the dynamic and visually interesting look he wanted.

He says: "I loathe the usual grim-looking images from which low-budget British films often suffer. We wanted to get as professional a look as possible. I've always been a fan of the raw, documentary style of films such as The French Connection and, more recently, Narc. "

This ideal was not easy to attain, given that the production called for a tight two week shoot entirely on locations around London, from Hackney and Camden to Wandsworth and (outside London) Windsor. But the crew pulled together more than enough superlative footage to produce a final version by early 2007, ready for music and other post production enhancements which were finished in June.

All that remains now is for the first limited screenings to create some buzz and earn a wide release. That would really be a triumph for one brief year of filmmaking.

If you can't find a screening near you, there is always the very posh website www.baddaythemovie.co.uk waiting for you to enjoy.

Filed July 10, 2007