Monday 24 March 2014

Yellow rainbows

It's been another long and arduous day, which started at dawn, and seems to be going on well into the evening.

We did our last day of pre-wedding filming today, in and around Alexandra Palace with members of the Rebel Chorus. It was tiring but hugely rewarding. I love my choir so much. Every day spent with them is remarkable fun, like a big family party. But somehow even better because we don't argue and we make music instead of babies!

The weather threw all sorts of craziness at is. Rain storms, high winds. Apparently it hailed everywhere else in London. But every shot we filmed was blessed with golden, blossom-scented sunshine. In fact, the last thing that was sent to us before darkness descended was a glorious double-rainbow. Proof if proof were ever needed that someone upstairs thinks it's good to be gay! Uncle Bill sent us a text as she left the rehearsal; "I can see a giant double rainbow. One for you and one for Nathan." I shall cherish that text.

So the choir marched, jumped, gestured and screeched their way through a series of shots, before we were joined by Dame Kestelman, who performed in a sea of blossom, and Meriel, who, as I was leaving, was spinning around like Julie Andrews in a field! Elsewhere in London, various other friends were standing in front of a green screen filming another sequence. It will be strange to see everything cut together.

This afternoon the choir rehearsed the song Yellow; choreography and all. How proud I am to be having that particular song sung at my wedding! This was the piece of music which was dragged through the courts by the Choir Invisible. The piece of music which almost crippled me financially. It was described as every awful word under the sun; unsingable, unsoulful, badly written, filled with arbitrary key changes... And here we are singing it with wonderful new lyrics written by my husband-to-be at one of the first ever UK gay weddings! How glorious to finally reclaim the joy which someone tried to suck out of the song!

The shoot ended in a Chinese nail bar! What a curious and wonderful place to wrap a curious and wonderful film. It's owner, who spoke very little English, and was hopelessly lactating because it was her baby's feeding time, wished us the very best of luck as we left the shop. And here was me thinking she probably wouldn't approve. Never judge a book by its cover!

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