Sunday January 25
The shoot is back on, and we spend the morning shooting the central scene of the film - the confrontation on the beach with the cops. The scene is shot "day for night", a technique which allows it to be colour graded later to look like night-time. Our cops are shot again and again, and I seem to spend most of the morning brushing sand off them. Somehow, we manage to find time to re-shoot two scenes shot on Friday on the smaller camera - the director and cameraman were not happy using it, and since the scenes are already blocked out and rehearsed, they prove very quick to re-stage.

Monday January 26, 2009
Today we left the beach, a bumpy two and half hour drive down a dirt track bought us back to the 21st century with a bit of a jolt. The location we were filming in was supposed to be a remote house down a dirt track, and when we last visited on a Sunday it was very quiet, but today, it turned out to be the busiest road in all Mexico. What should have been a fairly simple day was completely thrown by the noise, shots were interrupted constantly by passing traffic. At lunchtime, we decided it would be impossible to film Jake being captured by the police on this road. I set off to find another location, luckily, five minutes round the corner there was a quiet turn off and so we relocated there. By the time we finished, everyone was exhausted, and the hotel turned out to have a million stairs to every room - mine is at the very top, which feels more like a penance than a penthouse right now.

Tuesday January 27, 2009
The first of two days filming in the prison - actually Puerto Vallarta fire station. This actually used to be the local prison, and still has a couple of cells and a yard which have been cleared of fire-fighters equipment for us. We had eight local extras who were great prisoners - glaring, jeering and fighting right on cue.

Wednesday January 28,2009
This morning we filmed the interrogation scenes in the prison, the actor who was playing El Jefe was great, our lead actor says he was genuinely sacred at points. In the afternoon, we headed to a local disused hospital which the art department had brought back to life. We have been making up our lead actor to look progressively more dishevelled each day - he is supposed to be covered in dirt and blood after being beaten up and sleeping on the prison floor. At the hospital, at last he can be clean.

Thursday January 29, 2009 Today is the last day of the shoot and we are filming the opening and closing scenes of the film. We spend the morning at "Jake's house" - the hardest location to find in Mexico, a "Texan" house. In the afternoon we drive out to a quiet bit of highway and shoot the end of the film. As the 1970s car drives off into the sunset, we all know it's a wrap.