Blood Creek was a supernatural horror directed by Joel Schumacher, starring Henry Cavill, Dominic Purcell and Michael Fassbender, and filmed out in Romania.

I got a call from Peter Hutchinson at Effects Associates, asking if I would fly out to Romania and take over the Special Effects department from Ian Wingrove. It made for a slightly awkward introduction — Ian hadn’t been told I was coming to replace him, and I had no idea that he didn’t know. Neither of us had created the situation, but it certainly made the handover memorable. Both Ian and I are credited as Special Effects Supervisors on the film.

The job itself was demanding. Resources were tight, the budget was tight, and we had to find practical ways of getting as much production value onto the screen as we could. There was plenty of atmosphere, fire and physical effects work, culminating in one of the highlights of the shoot — burning down a huge barn for real.

That was a genuine one-take wonder. Once we lit it, there was obviously no reset button. Everything had to work first time. What a night that was.

I got on extremely well with Joel Schumacher. He was quite a character — slightly mad-professor in his energy and approach, but great fun to work with, and for whatever reason he seemed to take to me.

It wasn't a production blessed with huge resources, but I’m proud of what we managed to achieve with what we had. Another challenging location, another step forward for me as a supervisor, and certainly one I remember well.