Government house stood quiet and peaceful on a glorious Saturday morning. Golden sunlight lay languidly across the northern lawn as three fine gentlemen of the highest class ran about with high energy clutching glasses of port wine and kicking a ball to each other. Beside the lawn, dappled in light, three stunningly beautiful young women, all in white, sat watching, giggling and discussing the boys as they drank tumblers of whiskey. Or at least they did until the Director yelled cut.

This was the first location of our 48 hour film. We had been very lucky and were able to get Government House (let’s just say we had a man on the inside to help us). The last person allowed to film there was Peter Jackson for The Lovely Bones (and we stole his location, a beautiful little dell).

The grounds, which have been endorsed as a "Garden of National Significance" by the New Zealand Gardens Trust, cover about 12 hectares, some of which is flat lawn or garden, with much of the rest being steep hillside. Exotic species of trees are increasingly being complemented by trees and shrubs native to New Zealand. As well as the Policeman's Lodge at the main gate, other buildings and facilities include a tennis court and pavilion, a small swimming pool, a World War II-era bomb shelter, a squash court, eight cottages and garages.

The “National Significance” did mean some restrictions on us. We couldn’t film the actual building, nor could we film the gates, nor the interiors. Indeed, when C4 came to interview us and film some behind the scenes stuff we had to meet them outside as they weren’t allowed in at all.

Click "Read More" for the rest of our antics:

Luckily our genre was romance, and from the above description, hopefully, you can tell we went slightly Jane Austen mixed with heavy drinking (in fact the film is full of cocktail references).

Later in the afternoon we moved to logistically harder location of Courtenay Place and Electric Avenue. A crew of roughly ten, a cast of seven and a van full of very expensive gear are not the simplest things to transport to that part of town. This is one time when public transport was not an option.

As I trudged through town carrying a monitor and a handicam I came across another team filming in the alleyway beside Mermaids. They had a guy with an acoustic guitar that looked like he was supposed to be a busker.

“Musical?” I asked.
“Nope”, came the reply, “animal film”. And they pointed to a rubber duck.

We had been gifted the upstairs bar from 1pm to 5pm. We arrived at 3pm. The owner very kindly extended our invitation until 8.30 (though our AD cleverly told us all 8pm to hurry us up). However, the bar setting proved to be troublesome.

Our camera had a problem in that it would add a flicker to the footage if there was a vibration. This made the hardwood floors of the bar a concern as the actors had to walk past the camera in various scenes.

We also had a bathroom scene devised by the utterly brilliant writers who had never seen the bathrooms at Electric Avenue. Turned out they were just big enough for actors, lights, cameras and some crew (something to note).

At 5pm Electric Avenue opened and the catchy 80’s music was turned on, music that we didn’t have the copyrights for (despite how well Pat Benetar’s Love is a Battlefield complimented the scene). Oh well this is what the 48 hours is about soldiering on!

I had not been to Electric Avenue before and I have to say it’s a nice little bar in a good location. I’ve still not had a drink there though. And no matter what problems we had, we are eternally grateful to the owners of Electric Avenue for their support.

In the end we finished and handed in our film with ten minutes to spare. Thanks to all the organisers, including fellow Wellingtonistas Dan Slevin and Robyn Gallagher, and to all 160 teams in Wellington. Let’s do this again next year.

Were you involved in the 48 hours weekend and have some great stories? Or did you see some crazy teams out on the streets? If so tell us about it in the comments