The I Care revolution was birthed in High Schools at the start of 2009.
Orchestrated by Nick Rough, he approached me one morning, asking me to make a video, which can be played in high schools.
I gave it my best shot;…. combined with Jay Cook and the ICR band we ploughed our way through 4 months of high schools- piecing together different elements to the show as went.
The response we were receiving throughout the schools was very encouraging, and fortunately our bosses saw the potential to take the ICR to the next level.
With that in mind, we were asked to put together a new movie- focusing on the decisions teenagers are faced with living in London. Nick had a contact through a friend, which turned out to be director Rob Chiu aka-The Ronin.
We approached him, hoping he would be interested.. Fortunately for us he was, and things were immediately underway.

Initially I was excited that Rob would be doing the project, and that I would facilitate anything he wanted to do.
I remember our first meeting, and how nervous I was, knowing that I was way out of my depth, my only logic was to say yes to any of his requests.
I lied many times in that meeting, making promises, which I know I could never keep, but at least we had started the ball rolling. Even if it was going to be Rob, a camera and a couple of lights, I was determined, that I would do whatever it would take to make this project great!

As weeks passed and I was introduced to a word called organisation, I began to realise that with a little planning we could map out what was needed to make Rob’s vision come to life.
Using what little initiative I had, I started making phone calls to film councils, The London film office as well as searching the internet for acting academies etc.. I soon realized that there was so much recourse within London just waiting to be used, and the best part of it was that it was mostly all free.
I then met with a great friend called Patric, who owned a camera hire business called FAVA, he had worked in the film business within London for the past 10 years, and was full of knowledge.
I sat down with him, explained the scenario and what was needed. Well outside of our budget, Patric stretched everything he had, calling in favors, lending equipment, he practically provided a full film crew with professional equipment for a fraction, and when I say fraction I mean fraction of the price it should have been.

By this stage it had been three months of pure planning , and organisation, getting everything in place for a tight 3 day shoot. Rob and I had most of the locations locked down, the actors had all been cast and the food was all sorted.
In total we had 19 cast, and 23 crew, with a bunch of extras thrown in.

Shooting commenced on the 2nd of July, at an apartment on an estate in Elephant and Castle. We only found the apartment the day before after a frantic flyer drop on some dodgy estates in London.
The first day was a trying day, not only for my patience but for my friendship with Rob (haha). After falling behind our tight schedule, we were scurrying between the 3 locations need to shoot on the first day. A complex call sheet, which would give Heathrow airport a run for its money in relation to timeslots and schedules, we some how managed to get through the first day, with every box ticked. Rob was happy, Nick was happy, I was wishing it was all finished.

Day 2 (Party, Train Station)

The day started at 6 am sharp- Patric and I travelled to Southfields for the party scene. We were filming in my mates house, which unbeknown to him was letting me film a little video, not a short film to the extent we had.
It took about 3 hours to reconstruct the house to make it look like a house party at night time, considering it was the middle of the day.
As filming got underway, once again we fell behind our shooting schedule.
My job was to constantly harass Rob, telling him we had to hurry up. His reply was always yep almost done… 3 hours later behind schedule he was done.
Throughout the shoot we had a brilliant DOP name Paul OCallahan, and a camera assistant called Andrew Trewartha, both were fantastic and really worked hard and bought there expertise along to really help Rob vision come to life.
We also had a brilliant sound guy called Robin Gerrard and a steady Cam operator called Tom English. The entire crew was so brilliant, and so professional.

After the party shoot we moved along to Clapham Junction train station, where a mix up on their behalf meant we weren’t able to film the scene where Boy A is picked on by the hoodies. This meant we had to film in a car park close by, which in turn was far better, and gave us that amazing sun flared shot needed.
In turn the day went well, we got all the shots we needed and Rob was pleased with how it was turning out. 2 down 1 day to go.

Day 3 (School, Field)

The final day, what was to be a relaxed final day of filming turned out to be the most stressful of the lot.
With only a few scenes to film at the school, we took our time setting up shots etc..
All the actors had been great for the entire film, especially Lani Jackson, a real pro for such a young woman; she did a fantastic job and defiantly a name to look out for in the future.
Throughout the day, we started to fall behind with the filming. We were constantly being harassed by the school janitor to hurry up and finish. Rob left me to distract him, buying some time for the crew to rush the remaining scenes.
We eventually finished the school shoot and headed off in our 3 van convoy to the last location, a large field in Surrey where the last scene we needed to film would be shot. As we turned up, we were expecting the field to be ankle high grass, exactly what we saw when we researched the location a month earlier, rather it was waist high sun kissed grass, making a beautiful aesthetic, enhanced more with the sun setting.
As we shot those final shots in the field, there was this relaxed enjoyment, with the crew, really soaking up the sun and the cool afternoon breeze, knowing that this was the pinnacle of the filming. As Rob yelled, “It’s a wrap”, we all mulled around the equipment eating pizza and enjoying a cold drink, packing away the last of the equipment, we all knew we had pulled together something far greater than we could have imagined. It was a great feeling, and a sad one at the same time- knowing that our short time as a team was coming to an end, those three days had been grueling to say the least, but it was the best experience of my life.

Lincoln Waldron