Clapperboards and cameras have been spotted around Chippenham over the past few weeks, as a film production crew from the US descended on the town to shoot their latest project.

Pine Road Pictures came to Wiltshire to shoot Right Hand Drive, a romantic comedy set in the county's villages.

It marks a return to home turf for the Wiltshire-born director, Mark Kalbskopf, who moved to the US over 20 years ago.

Mr Kalbskopf said: "I went to Devizes School and I was involved in school productions there.

"Mr Haydock I remember was very encouraging and professional - he used to ask the Bristol Old Vic if we could borrow costumes from them. He sort of instilled in me the love of getting things right."

Right Hand Drive is the first feature length film that Mr Kalbskopf has directed, although he has made several short films and directed many theatre productions.

He moved to the US originally to work in IT, but decided to go to film school in 2000 and has not looked back since.

He said: "It is great being back here - it is much more beautiful than I remember. When I was a kid I took it for granted."

He also wrote the script for the film, which he describes as dealing with a young man's struggle to come to terms with his childhood faith, his embarrassing heritage and romantic impulses'.

The shoot has not been without its disasters - a van that was parked without the handbrake on rolled back onto the set, narrowly missing some of the crew, and there have been other car accidents involving narrow lanes and ditches.

Mr Kalbskopf said: "There have been some scary moments - the van was a near miss and we were all pretty shook up - but there have been some funny moments too."

The crew have been shooting all around Chippenham, and needed to film one scene in a secluded country lane.

One of the crew found them a suitable lane and they put up signs saying filming in process' in the hope of reducing the amount of traffic. Unfortunately, the opposite was true and the road saw more cars than it did on any other day of the year.

The weather has also affected the filming schedule, with recent torrential rain meaning some scenes had to be adapted to be shot indoors.

Mr Kalbskopf said: "We are slipping behind schedule, we might have to go on another day which is a pain, but we have done pretty well."

They plan to finish editing the film in early 2007 and will then enter it into various film competitions in the hope of finding a distributor so it can be released in cinemas.