By the end of today we were halfway through the Macbeth shoot. We are recording what we believe to be a terrific screen version of the play -- and we are on schedule. What else matters? Well, we're not far off our budget either, and most people seem to be enjoying the rigours of making this film. While doubtless something will come out of left field and disrupt everything, at the moment there are no discernible crises and it's all ticking along rather well. Which doesn't necessarily make for the most compelling blog.

It was day two in the kitchen. The morning was devoted to Kate Fleetwood's Lady Macbeth ensuring that Patrick Stewart's Macbeth's resolve to murder Duncan doesn't waver. So it's a close, intimate scene with a tight focus on the performances. There's some great use of really big close-ups as the true nature of Lady M is revealed. All of which takes place in this everyday environment with, as she admitted, Kate thinking of her character as a kind of evil Nigella.

During the lunchbreak (truly, truly delicious beef and cheese cake with caramelised oranges, although others had mackerel or a squash-based patty) the set was re-dressed with all of the game and other food that our props buyer Kate had purchased yesterday. The result looks fabulous, with distant echoes of seventeenth century Dutch still lifes and Peter Greenaway's The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover.

The scene is the arrival of Duncan, who enters the Macbeths' castle with his retinue through our kitchen. Rupert and Sam chroreograph a spectacular move with the camera tracking over the preparation tables groaning with food, revealing the king's party and then playing out the exchange ('This castle hath a pleasant seat...') in the same camera shot. There's a real sense that the unit is growing in confidence in terms of what can be attempted and, quite often, pulled off.

Just off-set, the art department works furiously to produce yet more nibbles and canapés for the dressing. Long ago I worked on a film (writing a book about its production) where a banquet was laid and left under the camera lights for three days. Everyone was under strict instructions not to touch anything, let alone eat, but when half of the unit went down with food poisoning a couple of days later it wasn't hard to determine who had flouted the warning. And if we hadn't had such a good lunch, it would be tempting to nibble now.

It feels like we're making great progress through the day, and we release much of the cast early. But then as often happens we slow down as we spend what feels like forever filming a shot of a pig's head being removed from an oven. Quite why we need 9 takes (is this a record for this shoot?) is not immediately apparent. And then we move to another part of the location for a scene with the witches. Which we then fail to complete by the wrap time of 7pm, and our collective frustration slightly spoils the more triumphant atmosphere of earlier.

Perhaps it's that we are halfway through but everyone feels exhausted -- and I put off posting this until tomorrow (which is today now). You can tell that the end is in sight because we've started planning the next major logistical element of the production: the wrap party.