Why 4 years of shooting?

Micheal Greco as 'Steve Lynch'

NIL is set in London on a bank holiday that also happens to be the hottest day of the year (in real life usually in late July, early August). The film was partly inspired by the summer of 2003, which had record breaking sunshine.
London becomes a completely different city in the heat: all its hidden cloisters and rooms are thrown open to the sun, and that is a strong theme of this film: dark secrets being revealed by sunlight.



However, trying to make an indie film when you are relying on a specific weather condition is a dangerous business, as the summers of 2004 and 2005 were mostly disastrous. The weather was such a strong component of the film, and gives it such a unique look, we had no real choice but to wait it out. We also became expert amateur meteorologists, repeatedly checking about 5 different websites for the latest weather updates, and gazing constantly to the horizon looking for a break in the cloud.

In the end, it served the film well in other ways: we had more time to contemplate script and character changes and even format changes (HD arrived between 2004 and 2005).

But its certainly something we won't be doing again!

MT