During the summer of 2015 I was involved as a DOP on a film about a famous whisky distillery in Perthshire, Scotland called Edradour.

I was one of a few cameramen in Scotland at that time who owned a Sony FS7 and got a phone call from Rory the director of the film asking me if I could down tools and join him in two weeks time to produce a film about a whisky distillery. The previous DOP had let him down and I was his only hope of getting the filming done on time.

I agreed a price and prepared for my journey up to Perthshire. Fortunately for Rory I got involved as the previous chap who pulled out last minute had hired a lot of tungsten lighting. Whisky distillery’s do not lend themselves to heat from tungsten lights as they produce flammable fumes from the storage of the Whiskey barrels. LED lighting was the only solution and I got my pick from the hire company from Rotolight Anovas, Litepanels and six Canon prime lenses I was like a child who won the Golden ticket to visit Willie Wonkas Chocolate factory.

I was also to produce a wee behind the scenes documentary for my blog as Rory knew of me via the blog. I did offer Rory S-Log but he was a man after my own heart who preferred the baked in look ie “What you see is what you get”.

Ten to twelve hour shifts were very tiring especially when you had a one hour drive every day to get to work. My son Scott and myself stayed at a Travelodge in Stirling and looked forward to our chicken burger and chips every night.

I was a tough seven days but all went to plan and the job was finished bang on time. We built a lot of good friendships on that shoot and Garry was the man producing the lunches every day which were almost a three course meal hence the chicken burgers at mealtimes. I enjoyed that shoot and I still keep in touch with my good friend Watt who played John Barleycorn…the spirit of Edradour.