If this is the first of my Blogs that you have watched, I should quickly bring you up to speed – over a year ago I set out to make a feature film entirely on my own and I am blogging every step of the way with the help of my girlfriend, Gabi (helping on the blogs not the film itself) This has seen us uproot our lives, has had highs and lows and saw us struggle through Blizzards high in the Swiss Alps etc.About twenty minutes walk from my childhood home in Farnham lies the Bourne Woods, a place that I used to walk regularly and would hang out with my friends after dark and drink Hooch – a cheap and nasty alcopop that we seemed to like for no apparent reason when we were less than legally allowed to drink. Then one day, Universal Pictures rolled in and filmed a third of an entire feature film over a period of months. The film was Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Russell Crowe, Richard Harris, Joaquin Phoenix, Oliver Reed and Connie Nielson. Every single shot (apart from the memory scenes of Maximus’ home) was filmed here until Maxmus staggers through the desert. 20:20 casting turned up and held mass casting sessions in the Farnham maltings for the thousand or so extras they needed, and I became a Roman Soldier in Maximus’ army.Since then on this site they have filmed Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, The Wolf Man, The Golden Compass, Children of Men, The Man Who Cried, many adverts and music videos (inc. Coldplay) and now, Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe have returned to film Robin Hood (previously known as Nottingham) starring Cate Blanchett and William Hurt.So in these woods I am returning to my roots to film some scenes for my film and I show Gabi around the location explaining where and how various parts of Gladiator were shot.Thanks to Harry at www.fordoing.co.ukfor the use of his photos of the Nottingham film set (as I have been too busy to take a look around!)Music licensed by audionetwork.