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The Best Man was made as a no-budget film and so we depended on the goodwill of friends and family, who provided locations, equipment and the cast. We managed to get permission to film inside a school, a church, a rugby club, two flats, four houses, and a bar. We also filmed guerrilla-style in a nightclub and were accused of being terrorists planning to blow up a McVities factory!

All of the principal cast and crew have full time jobs and so the film was shot in 17 days entirely at weekends, between April and July 2005. The locations were mainly in Hertfordshire but we also made a couple of trips to Norfolk for the beach scenes.

Getting the film shot was a mammoth exercise, with very many late nights and early mornings. Three days in particular stand out. The first was the wedding reception: we filmed the scene over two days, using just the top table on the first day and then eighty-plus extras on the second. It was short in long sections, almost like a live event with 3 cameras simultaneously capturing the action. Not only was it amazing that so many people were willing to get dressed up and give up a sunny Sunday in June, we were also fortunate that Jon's mum and her friends provided a buffet lunch for the entire cast!

The second big day was the Teenage Party. Sandy and Lou Underwood let us have the run of their house for the day, provided period 1980s clothes from their loft and recruited their children's friends to play the guests. Thanks to their efforts, keeping twenty-odd teenagers inside, with the curtains closed all day was far less stressful than it could have been.

And then the beach! Most of the scene was filmed at dusk to look like dawn, on a beach in Norfolk. However, torrential rain meant that we didn't get everything done before it became too dark. The second trip was on a gorgeous August day, when the beach was packed with families. Fortunately we managed to find a tiny spot of unoccupied sand where we could film the missing close-up shots, using a duvet cover to block the sun.

With the shoot complete, we began post-production, sifting through the 36 hours of material in search of a 75 minute film. The film was edited on Jon's laptop, the sound was mixed in Rob's spare room and we recorded the additional dialogue in Rob's airing cupboard!

Despite these somewhat makeshift arrangements, we were lucky enough to be able to record the music at Air-Edel, a really fantastic studio. Thank you Lucy!

This film has been highly dependent on good luck. Not only did we manage to get so many locations, actors and technical favours for free, we also met Tom, the composer, in a queue for a night bus which never came. The Best Man really would not be the same without Tom's fantastic score, so we have Transport for London to thank for that.

So many people have helped us make this film, and we are extremely grateful to all of them. In particular, Glyn Maxwell, the writer of the original stage-play, has been very committed to the project. Despite living in the USA, he still managed to get to St Albans to play an extra at the wedding!

The plan now is to enter as many festivals and competitions as we can and to get as many people as possible to see the film. So, please get in touch if you are interested in The Best Man or if you think you can help us in any way.

You can see the trailer on this website and email us at producer@felixfilms.co.uk.

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