Had a phone call from the agency, and they tell me that this thursday's job has been cancelled. They've re-written the scripts, and the 'character' I was scheduled to play is no longer required. I ask if it was something I said, half jokingly (well, you never know!) and the agent tells me no, the're just simplifying a lot of the scenes and cutting some of the parts.
She tells me that there is loads coming up, and she'll try and get me in some of these, I tell her thankyou.
On the same day this all happened, I saw the ad on TV that I auditioned for in London. It's the Orange one, with all the people in the desert building a frame for the blow up animals which represent the packages they are now offering. It's difficult to remember sometimes that unlike 'proper' job interviews, mostly it really is all about the way you look, and if you're not right for it, you're just not right. Being an actor must be really tough on that front. I was watching a programme on one of the freeview channels just recently, about a few acting hopefuls in Hollywood. One had auditioned, along with 249 other guys, for a small part in a movie, and had been told he was down to the last two. This was his big break, his first chance. Imagine being told you'd lost out at the last hurdle. I think I'd rather not know I came that close, but, as my wife pointed out, getting to the last two would spur you on for the next audition more than knowing you were within 250 of getting it. He got it, by the way.
Sometimes, as my friend would say, you eat the bear, and sometimes the bear eats you.
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Doctor Mac, I presume!
After a long drawn out process of deciding how to get to the centre of London on a Sunday, and more importantly how to get home again, I set off in the car at 9.15am. As today's call was for 11.30am to midnight, trains were out as the last train back to my home town is at 11.30pm, so I decided to park somewhere near and tube in. Except there are maintenance works at Newbury Park and Leyton. And the last tube is at 12.00. I finally decide to park at Stratford, so if necessary I can get a night bus back from central London to the car. Parking in Stratford proves a little tricky too, as all the car parks close early in Sundays, but eventually I find a place on a street, abandon the car and walk to Stratford station. So much for '24 hour Britain' I think, as all this messing around means I get to the set just in time to grab a green tea and head up to costume.
There are a few other extras around and we all get our gear on. It's another Victorian Drama today, and the attention to detail is admirable. My outfit today is a black morning suit, braces, long jacket, black waistcoat, white shirt with stiff attached collar and a black tie, which the costume guy struggles with before he's finally happy. It fits really well, but I can feel that this collar is going to be irritating after a few hours. How the hell did the Victorians cope with dressing like this all the time? One bloke suggests that we might be funeral directors, as his outfit is similar. To finish it all off, I get a (yes, black) top hat. Everyone else seems to be in much more colourful garb, and we all chat amiably as we set off to make-up. The make-up lady fluffs up my hair a little bit, darkens my sideburns, and tells me I'm ready. blimey. I really do have good Victorian hair, and according to the make-up lady, a good 'period' look. I decide against the obvious joke, thank her and set off for breakfast.
From the widest choice of breakfast stuff you can imagine, I choose a veggie sausage sandwich, some fruit and some water - a strong feature of today. After driving through some rain earlier on, the weather in London is sunny and hot, and, along with everyone else, I'm sweating cobbs in this costume. Water, water everywhere...
After a chat on the 'crowd' bus and a flick through the sunday papers we are taken over, en mass, to a leafy and (thankfully) quite shaded grassy area which for this scene will act as Hyde Park. After the crew have positioned everyone around the park and given them fairly strict directions in which to move, I'm taken out of the scene, along with the similarly dressed bloke whose name is Dale, and told that we will be appearing in a later scene as staff. 5 minutes later we're back in the scene, walking away from camera. This one involves horse drawn carriages, and is fairly long, so every re-set takes a long time. They get about 5 takes before setting up to shoot from different angles, which means that we get to go and sit down in the shade. And drink water.
Those of us not involved anymore chat quietly about music, films, books and american politics, as well as which of the women extras are the most attractive. Well, you can take the boy out of the gutter etc etc, and all the ladies do look fantastic in the period costumes.
Once the director is happy and this scene is wrapped, Dale and I are taken over to a different street to rehearse our next scene while all the others go off for lunch. As the 'day' started with breakfast at midday, lunch is taken at 6.00ish, while Dale and I, a few crew members, a leading lady (Gemma, I think) and two main male characters are talked through the action. Dale is to shut the door of the carriage after Gemma has got in, while I am to be checking the luggage is secure at the back of the carriage before turning and walking up some steps and standing by a doorway. I recognise one of the main male actors as Julian Rhind-Tutt, or Doctor 'Mac' MacCartney out of "Green Wing". We run through the scene a few times before the crew are happy, and we set off for lunch.
The lunch queue is huge, and as this costume is resonably tight I decide to just have some fruit with cheese and biscuits. I take this opportunity to call my wife while wandering around the street, and become aware of a steady precession of tourists taking pictures of me. Wierd. I chat with a Tibetan ex-monk, a guy from a band with 20 members, a stand-up comedian, and a girl who has been a nurse on 'Holby' 20 times. Just like a normal night out for me then...
At 7.15 we're back on the set shooting the carriage scene. All the other extras are lined up, and two are picked out to walk past during the scene. The others are told they can go, and they all wander off to get out of those costumes. Dale and I are given white gloves to wear, and I feel like a snooker referee. We do 4 or 5 takes and a couple of close-ups, Julian is very funny trying to make everyone laugh - usually just after the director calls 'action!' - and asks if I could be his brother, as our hair looks similar.
Dale, the two lady extras and I are released, and we wander over to the costume rooms to get changed. The rooms are full of new extras getting changed for a ballroom scene being shot that evening, I get changed, thank the costume guy and go off to find the guy who has the sheets for us to sign. Without these, we don't get paid.
It's just past 8 in the evening when I leave the set, so it turns out I could have got the train after all. As it is, I tube it back to Stratford, find the car and I'm home by 10.15pm, to find my wife sitting in the garden with the neighbours, so I pour a glass of wine and join them. I have a call for the same project on Thursday week, in Buckinghamshire. I'd better not have that haircut then...
There are a few other extras around and we all get our gear on. It's another Victorian Drama today, and the attention to detail is admirable. My outfit today is a black morning suit, braces, long jacket, black waistcoat, white shirt with stiff attached collar and a black tie, which the costume guy struggles with before he's finally happy. It fits really well, but I can feel that this collar is going to be irritating after a few hours. How the hell did the Victorians cope with dressing like this all the time? One bloke suggests that we might be funeral directors, as his outfit is similar. To finish it all off, I get a (yes, black) top hat. Everyone else seems to be in much more colourful garb, and we all chat amiably as we set off to make-up. The make-up lady fluffs up my hair a little bit, darkens my sideburns, and tells me I'm ready. blimey. I really do have good Victorian hair, and according to the make-up lady, a good 'period' look. I decide against the obvious joke, thank her and set off for breakfast.
From the widest choice of breakfast stuff you can imagine, I choose a veggie sausage sandwich, some fruit and some water - a strong feature of today. After driving through some rain earlier on, the weather in London is sunny and hot, and, along with everyone else, I'm sweating cobbs in this costume. Water, water everywhere...
After a chat on the 'crowd' bus and a flick through the sunday papers we are taken over, en mass, to a leafy and (thankfully) quite shaded grassy area which for this scene will act as Hyde Park. After the crew have positioned everyone around the park and given them fairly strict directions in which to move, I'm taken out of the scene, along with the similarly dressed bloke whose name is Dale, and told that we will be appearing in a later scene as staff. 5 minutes later we're back in the scene, walking away from camera. This one involves horse drawn carriages, and is fairly long, so every re-set takes a long time. They get about 5 takes before setting up to shoot from different angles, which means that we get to go and sit down in the shade. And drink water.
Those of us not involved anymore chat quietly about music, films, books and american politics, as well as which of the women extras are the most attractive. Well, you can take the boy out of the gutter etc etc, and all the ladies do look fantastic in the period costumes.
Once the director is happy and this scene is wrapped, Dale and I are taken over to a different street to rehearse our next scene while all the others go off for lunch. As the 'day' started with breakfast at midday, lunch is taken at 6.00ish, while Dale and I, a few crew members, a leading lady (Gemma, I think) and two main male characters are talked through the action. Dale is to shut the door of the carriage after Gemma has got in, while I am to be checking the luggage is secure at the back of the carriage before turning and walking up some steps and standing by a doorway. I recognise one of the main male actors as Julian Rhind-Tutt, or Doctor 'Mac' MacCartney out of "Green Wing". We run through the scene a few times before the crew are happy, and we set off for lunch.
The lunch queue is huge, and as this costume is resonably tight I decide to just have some fruit with cheese and biscuits. I take this opportunity to call my wife while wandering around the street, and become aware of a steady precession of tourists taking pictures of me. Wierd. I chat with a Tibetan ex-monk, a guy from a band with 20 members, a stand-up comedian, and a girl who has been a nurse on 'Holby' 20 times. Just like a normal night out for me then...
At 7.15 we're back on the set shooting the carriage scene. All the other extras are lined up, and two are picked out to walk past during the scene. The others are told they can go, and they all wander off to get out of those costumes. Dale and I are given white gloves to wear, and I feel like a snooker referee. We do 4 or 5 takes and a couple of close-ups, Julian is very funny trying to make everyone laugh - usually just after the director calls 'action!' - and asks if I could be his brother, as our hair looks similar.
Dale, the two lady extras and I are released, and we wander over to the costume rooms to get changed. The rooms are full of new extras getting changed for a ballroom scene being shot that evening, I get changed, thank the costume guy and go off to find the guy who has the sheets for us to sign. Without these, we don't get paid.
It's just past 8 in the evening when I leave the set, so it turns out I could have got the train after all. As it is, I tube it back to Stratford, find the car and I'm home by 10.15pm, to find my wife sitting in the garden with the neighbours, so I pour a glass of wine and join them. I have a call for the same project on Thursday week, in Buckinghamshire. I'd better not have that haircut then...
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
it's been a while...
So now I realise what it's really like in the extras business. Two jobs in two weeks, and then nothing for two months! It seems that the initial rush of signing up for a couple of agencies means that you're at the top of the pile, and once the early rush is over, you're filed away. To combat this I decided to be agressive again, and applied for about five things on a new (to me) site called 'tobeseen.co.uk'. To my considerable surprise, I got a phone call a couple of hours latter asking me to go to an audition in London for an advert to be shot the next week - in Spain! The audition is the next day, so I rearrange a couple of things and head up to 'the smoke' for a 3.00pm call. The office is near Soho Square, it's a scorching day and everyone is sitting in the little square reading, chatting and eating, so i decide to sit in the shade with my water until it's time.
The office seems, and bare in mind that I've only been to one audition / casting call before, temporary - but there is a whole bunch of people sitting on the hastily arranged chairs, moving nearer the big electric fan as people are called upstairs. I am given a form (height, shoe size etc) and pose for a poloroid which is stapled to the form. I am also given a sheet describing four different demographics with animal names, and told to read this and decide which of these resembles me the most.
After about 20 minutes I get my call. Upstairs there is a large room, a blue backdrop, a camera and cameraman and two women, one of which introduces herself as the one that called me the day before. I'm asked to stand on a cross on the floor, and then asked a whole bunch of questions, starting with "have you worked on any adverts for any of this company's competitors?".
The questions are all fine, and I think I'm doing OK, when the question comes about the demographic groups. In the previous 20 minutes I had struggled to catagorize myself, and felt that I could fit into elements of all four groups. So, I gave a flowery answer based on that, they said thankyou for coming, told me the shoot was the next week which meant leaving on Sunday, and off I went.
I didn't get it. Which is a shame, because I wanted to do this one. Maybe I should have plumped for one or other of the catagories...
The next day I get an e-mail asking me to attend an audition for a pilot TV show. I decide that as it is unpaid, will take up at least 5 days and because I am quite poor at the moment, to turn this one down and concentrate on proper work that I can get paid for.
Yesterday, I was walking back to my house from town, and walked passed my usual barbershop. Well, it's really hot, my hair's geting a bit long, I have a couple of meetings coming up for freelance work...I should get it all cut off. Just as I get to the shop I remember I don't have any cash on me and carry on walking. Which brings me to today. 11.30 in the morning, I am preparing for a meeting the next day and I get a call from the agency that got me the victorian shoot. Have I still got long hair, she asks. I'm offered two days (paid, BBC rates) work, again on a period drama, based on the fact that I still have longish curly hair.
That's karma, my friends...
The office seems, and bare in mind that I've only been to one audition / casting call before, temporary - but there is a whole bunch of people sitting on the hastily arranged chairs, moving nearer the big electric fan as people are called upstairs. I am given a form (height, shoe size etc) and pose for a poloroid which is stapled to the form. I am also given a sheet describing four different demographics with animal names, and told to read this and decide which of these resembles me the most.
After about 20 minutes I get my call. Upstairs there is a large room, a blue backdrop, a camera and cameraman and two women, one of which introduces herself as the one that called me the day before. I'm asked to stand on a cross on the floor, and then asked a whole bunch of questions, starting with "have you worked on any adverts for any of this company's competitors?".
The questions are all fine, and I think I'm doing OK, when the question comes about the demographic groups. In the previous 20 minutes I had struggled to catagorize myself, and felt that I could fit into elements of all four groups. So, I gave a flowery answer based on that, they said thankyou for coming, told me the shoot was the next week which meant leaving on Sunday, and off I went.
I didn't get it. Which is a shame, because I wanted to do this one. Maybe I should have plumped for one or other of the catagories...
The next day I get an e-mail asking me to attend an audition for a pilot TV show. I decide that as it is unpaid, will take up at least 5 days and because I am quite poor at the moment, to turn this one down and concentrate on proper work that I can get paid for.
Yesterday, I was walking back to my house from town, and walked passed my usual barbershop. Well, it's really hot, my hair's geting a bit long, I have a couple of meetings coming up for freelance work...I should get it all cut off. Just as I get to the shop I remember I don't have any cash on me and carry on walking. Which brings me to today. 11.30 in the morning, I am preparing for a meeting the next day and I get a call from the agency that got me the victorian shoot. Have I still got long hair, she asks. I'm offered two days (paid, BBC rates) work, again on a period drama, based on the fact that I still have longish curly hair.
That's karma, my friends...
Sunday, April 30, 2006
"Just go f***ing mental!"
And so I get a phone call to go in for the last day of filming, which I'm pleased about. It means I did a good enough job to get the call back, I get to meet up with the good bunch of extras and crew with whom I've got on very well, and it means I don't have to cut the grass...
It's a 10.00am call, and I can't quite work out why but it seems much earlier. The base office is very calm, considering it's the last day, and there is a lot to get through. As with every other day, it starts with gathering around the catering truck drinking tea and chatting amiably, before getting costumed up (the dreadful jogging trousers again!) and make-up. There's about 15 extras today, and we get made up with dust and bruises before heading over to the set, where the crew and some of the main characters are already busy filming. Various combinations of extras are called in, and just before I get a call there is more debate about whether I would have survived being shot earlier in the week, and therefore would be around. In the end I get a different jacket (which makes me look like an east-european drug dealer) and my one scene for the morning sees me helping a line of women and children over some bales of hay in a corridor and then looking worried as I carry on guarding the corridor.
A late lunch is followed by the producer gathering eight of the men together, walking us over to a field and handing us over to two gun experts for weapons training! I, along with most of the others, have never shot a proper gun before, and we get given safety tips before shooting a Baretta hand gun, an M16 rifle and a semi automatic AK47. The guns don't 'kick' as much as you expect, and the blank cartridges really do fly all over the place - like in the movies! The guy instructing me says it's OK to use the guns left-handed, I just have to be more careful of the flying cartridges. Even though the guns are loaded with blanks, the barrels produce a flame-like flash, produced from the compressed gas in the chamber, which would blow a hole in your hand if you were stupid enough to put it over the barrel. It's all a bit scary, but exhilerating all the same and after 20 minutes we're driven over to the set where, three of us get called up and told we're shooting guns. The 1st AD takes the first two and positions them before grabbing me and taking me to the end of a corridor, and along with my designated gun expert, tells me that this is going to be a long shot down the corridor, with lots of stuff going on while I stand at the end firing an AK47 out of the window. The gun expert says that one magazine wouldn't last long enough, so they agree that I should have two guns! The camera man comes over and tells me I'm in shot for the whole of this sequence, and to make sure I'm really going for it. Then the Director comes over and says "Just go f***ing mental! OK?" The props guy tells me that the hot cartridges from the gun shouldn't sert fire to the hay bales around me, but if they do just get out of there. OK!
Deciding this is my big scene, I get ready with the gun expert loading the guns, and just before the shoot starts, the 1st AD comes over and says, "Oh yeah, can you shoot right handed - can you wear this too" before handing me a gas mask. So, I get my big scene, going 'f***ing' mental with an AK47, and I'm shooting right-handed (imagine playing snooker, or eating with the wrong hand) and wearing a gas mask!!! We do the scene three times, it's an absolute blast and the others seem to be having as much fun as I am. The camera man grins and says "boys with toys, eh!" and I just have to agree.
We all go back down to the green room and talk about the guns a lot, deciding that being a lefty liberal guardian reader isn't half as much fun as shooting randomly with an AK47, but decidedly safer. An hour later we're told that we are done for the day, and the whole shoot, and we can go home.
It's been a mixed bag of a week - the waiting around is very trying, although certainly made easier by the company of all the other extras and the excellent crew. The short bursts of activity are fun, I think I did a good job (well, I didn't get kicked off set!) and I can't wait to see the results, which I believe won't be on telly till much later in the year. Thanks to everyone involved - and see you all soon.
It's a 10.00am call, and I can't quite work out why but it seems much earlier. The base office is very calm, considering it's the last day, and there is a lot to get through. As with every other day, it starts with gathering around the catering truck drinking tea and chatting amiably, before getting costumed up (the dreadful jogging trousers again!) and make-up. There's about 15 extras today, and we get made up with dust and bruises before heading over to the set, where the crew and some of the main characters are already busy filming. Various combinations of extras are called in, and just before I get a call there is more debate about whether I would have survived being shot earlier in the week, and therefore would be around. In the end I get a different jacket (which makes me look like an east-european drug dealer) and my one scene for the morning sees me helping a line of women and children over some bales of hay in a corridor and then looking worried as I carry on guarding the corridor.
A late lunch is followed by the producer gathering eight of the men together, walking us over to a field and handing us over to two gun experts for weapons training! I, along with most of the others, have never shot a proper gun before, and we get given safety tips before shooting a Baretta hand gun, an M16 rifle and a semi automatic AK47. The guns don't 'kick' as much as you expect, and the blank cartridges really do fly all over the place - like in the movies! The guy instructing me says it's OK to use the guns left-handed, I just have to be more careful of the flying cartridges. Even though the guns are loaded with blanks, the barrels produce a flame-like flash, produced from the compressed gas in the chamber, which would blow a hole in your hand if you were stupid enough to put it over the barrel. It's all a bit scary, but exhilerating all the same and after 20 minutes we're driven over to the set where, three of us get called up and told we're shooting guns. The 1st AD takes the first two and positions them before grabbing me and taking me to the end of a corridor, and along with my designated gun expert, tells me that this is going to be a long shot down the corridor, with lots of stuff going on while I stand at the end firing an AK47 out of the window. The gun expert says that one magazine wouldn't last long enough, so they agree that I should have two guns! The camera man comes over and tells me I'm in shot for the whole of this sequence, and to make sure I'm really going for it. Then the Director comes over and says "Just go f***ing mental! OK?" The props guy tells me that the hot cartridges from the gun shouldn't sert fire to the hay bales around me, but if they do just get out of there. OK!
Deciding this is my big scene, I get ready with the gun expert loading the guns, and just before the shoot starts, the 1st AD comes over and says, "Oh yeah, can you shoot right handed - can you wear this too" before handing me a gas mask. So, I get my big scene, going 'f***ing' mental with an AK47, and I'm shooting right-handed (imagine playing snooker, or eating with the wrong hand) and wearing a gas mask!!! We do the scene three times, it's an absolute blast and the others seem to be having as much fun as I am. The camera man grins and says "boys with toys, eh!" and I just have to agree.
We all go back down to the green room and talk about the guns a lot, deciding that being a lefty liberal guardian reader isn't half as much fun as shooting randomly with an AK47, but decidedly safer. An hour later we're told that we are done for the day, and the whole shoot, and we can go home.
It's been a mixed bag of a week - the waiting around is very trying, although certainly made easier by the company of all the other extras and the excellent crew. The short bursts of activity are fun, I think I did a good job (well, I didn't get kicked off set!) and I can't wait to see the results, which I believe won't be on telly till much later in the year. Thanks to everyone involved - and see you all soon.
Friday, April 28, 2006
"have you been shot yet?"
Back to the set for a 9.30am call, and a third day. There's a gaggle of people from the last two days gathered outside and we drink tea and chat before being dragged off and costumed for a 10.00am start. Now the previous days we've been all ready and then waited for our bit - today we're straight on set, and marching up and down corridors with guns, and I almost get a line to say, and then the director decides to not to go with it, so my chance is gone.
One of the things i've learnt on this job is that it matters where you stand. It's not like picking teams at five-a-side, it's generally if you're at the front or back, left or right - whichever is nearest the bit of action required. The only reason I nearly get the line is that I'm at the back of a crowd, and the 1st AD knows my name now, and not a reflection of any recognised ability. However, the exception is one of the guys that the director has taken a liking to, who later on does get a line, does a great job, and gets a call back to do some more.
It's lovely and sunny outside, and in between takes we take advantage and sit outside. Just before lunch, and it's my big moment. After a short debate, the continuity people decide that, although I appear in some scenes (already in the can) that are sequenced later than this one, it's OK for me to be shot, but maybe not dead. Which is kind of reassuring.
So I'm positioned on the floor, and the make-up people go to work. I have a bullet hole in my stomach, with copious amounts of fake blood applied to both my sweat shirt and my hands, and my face is greyed up and some sweat applied. just before 'action' is called, some more blood is applied and I'm told to grimace and act hurt. The guy opposite me has a bullet wound in the head, with blood pouring down his face and shirt. I think he's dead. When the camera rolls, people run all over the place, someone is shouting "get down!", kids are hiding under tables and screaming (with the 1st AD encouraging them) while a main character walks past the mayhem. I can't see very much of what's going on, and only later find out that behind my position there is (polystyrene) bits of building flying around, and my fellow extras are positioned at windows pretending to fire thier guns. Everyone seems very happy once it's been run a few times, and I'm told to try and keep my make up intact as they might need me in later scenes.
The guy who was sent home a few days ago without doing anything is back, and gets to do his big scene. he has his bullet wound in the neck, and gets to lay in a pool of blood. He's all done quickly, and after lunch goes home.
We have a late lunch, and the kids are fascinated by my bullet wound. "Does it hurt?" asks one of them. It's quite difficult to eat lunch with blood all over your shirt, but i am allowed to wash my hands. After lunch we all wait at base while the crew do some other scenes, and after a bit of a nap in the sun we get driven back to set. And sit around in the sun again, until every so often a runner appears and asks one of the others "Have you been shot yet? okay, we need you...".
It's late in the day when I and the two others who have been sitting around all afternoon get taken to set, and the director decides it's not worth me changing for this, so I get to clean up and watch the last couple of scenes get shot on the monitor. It really does look completely different on the monitor once framed properly, and fascinating to watch.
One more day to go, which is good because I only have a couple of chapters left in my book that I started at the beginning of the shoot...
One of the things i've learnt on this job is that it matters where you stand. It's not like picking teams at five-a-side, it's generally if you're at the front or back, left or right - whichever is nearest the bit of action required. The only reason I nearly get the line is that I'm at the back of a crowd, and the 1st AD knows my name now, and not a reflection of any recognised ability. However, the exception is one of the guys that the director has taken a liking to, who later on does get a line, does a great job, and gets a call back to do some more.
It's lovely and sunny outside, and in between takes we take advantage and sit outside. Just before lunch, and it's my big moment. After a short debate, the continuity people decide that, although I appear in some scenes (already in the can) that are sequenced later than this one, it's OK for me to be shot, but maybe not dead. Which is kind of reassuring.
So I'm positioned on the floor, and the make-up people go to work. I have a bullet hole in my stomach, with copious amounts of fake blood applied to both my sweat shirt and my hands, and my face is greyed up and some sweat applied. just before 'action' is called, some more blood is applied and I'm told to grimace and act hurt. The guy opposite me has a bullet wound in the head, with blood pouring down his face and shirt. I think he's dead. When the camera rolls, people run all over the place, someone is shouting "get down!", kids are hiding under tables and screaming (with the 1st AD encouraging them) while a main character walks past the mayhem. I can't see very much of what's going on, and only later find out that behind my position there is (polystyrene) bits of building flying around, and my fellow extras are positioned at windows pretending to fire thier guns. Everyone seems very happy once it's been run a few times, and I'm told to try and keep my make up intact as they might need me in later scenes.
The guy who was sent home a few days ago without doing anything is back, and gets to do his big scene. he has his bullet wound in the neck, and gets to lay in a pool of blood. He's all done quickly, and after lunch goes home.
We have a late lunch, and the kids are fascinated by my bullet wound. "Does it hurt?" asks one of them. It's quite difficult to eat lunch with blood all over your shirt, but i am allowed to wash my hands. After lunch we all wait at base while the crew do some other scenes, and after a bit of a nap in the sun we get driven back to set. And sit around in the sun again, until every so often a runner appears and asks one of the others "Have you been shot yet? okay, we need you...".
It's late in the day when I and the two others who have been sitting around all afternoon get taken to set, and the director decides it's not worth me changing for this, so I get to clean up and watch the last couple of scenes get shot on the monitor. It really does look completely different on the monitor once framed properly, and fascinating to watch.
One more day to go, which is good because I only have a couple of chapters left in my book that I started at the beginning of the shoot...
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Rotation, location and expectation
Day 2 for me, and the crew has had a day off, most of them heading back to London for some capital air. The shoot is scheduled to start at 1.00 lunchtime, so my call is for 12.30 to have some lunch and get costumed, and a couple of the other extras from my day 1 are here too. There's a new guy too, but in total there is only four of us after the madness of the previous days shoot.
It's good to walk in from the car saying hello to everyone, a bit like the second day at your new job - you're more comfortable because you know what to expect, you've met all the people, and you know what they expect from you. We eat and get dressed before we are wisked off to the set. All the shots today are in one building, so a 'green room' - a room for the crew and cast to sit and drink coffee, tea or soft drinks and eat chocolate in between takes - has been set up in the same building. The days papers are delivered and scoured through, we chat and keep ourselves amused while discovering more about each other, mutual likes and experiences.
It's an ambitious schedule today, with the crew switching between days, the cast switching between costumes and one cast member swapping between hair styles! I get to be in a few scenes holding an AK47 rifle - a first for me - and again, the main actors and the crew are all incredibly professional and efficient. Each scene is shot from a number of different angles to give the director a good choice of cuts, and the continuity people are kept busy with the flitting time zones. Only by being involved in something like this can you realise how difficult it is for actors to do thier job when, if the scene calls for them to be alone and contemplative, for example, they are surrounded by 20 crew members, and every nook and crany just out of shoot contains lights, cameras or people.
By 7.00 in the evening it's time to break for tea, and we are all driven back to base for another excellent meal and a chance to check phone calls and grab all the stuff we'd left, like books. When we get back to the other green room, the crew have managed to rig up a TV to watch the football, and there is a steady stream of people coming in and checking the score over the next hour and a half. By 11.00, the schedule is behind, and one of the runners turns up with more food, a finger buffet as I believe it's known, and the four extras are being utilised in each scene using a rotation system similar to Chelsea's.
At 12.45 the director shouts 'cut' for the last time this evening, everyone piles into cars and vans and within ten minutes a convoy of cars is finding it's way through the mist of the airfield towards home for some of us, and hotels for the others. I get home at 1.15
I have a day off to try and find some proper, and paying, work in the real world and could be back on set tomorrow, depending on whether they need me. It's exhausting, all this sitting and waiting, then standing holding a gun. But also a great experience.
It's good to walk in from the car saying hello to everyone, a bit like the second day at your new job - you're more comfortable because you know what to expect, you've met all the people, and you know what they expect from you. We eat and get dressed before we are wisked off to the set. All the shots today are in one building, so a 'green room' - a room for the crew and cast to sit and drink coffee, tea or soft drinks and eat chocolate in between takes - has been set up in the same building. The days papers are delivered and scoured through, we chat and keep ourselves amused while discovering more about each other, mutual likes and experiences.
It's an ambitious schedule today, with the crew switching between days, the cast switching between costumes and one cast member swapping between hair styles! I get to be in a few scenes holding an AK47 rifle - a first for me - and again, the main actors and the crew are all incredibly professional and efficient. Each scene is shot from a number of different angles to give the director a good choice of cuts, and the continuity people are kept busy with the flitting time zones. Only by being involved in something like this can you realise how difficult it is for actors to do thier job when, if the scene calls for them to be alone and contemplative, for example, they are surrounded by 20 crew members, and every nook and crany just out of shoot contains lights, cameras or people.
By 7.00 in the evening it's time to break for tea, and we are all driven back to base for another excellent meal and a chance to check phone calls and grab all the stuff we'd left, like books. When we get back to the other green room, the crew have managed to rig up a TV to watch the football, and there is a steady stream of people coming in and checking the score over the next hour and a half. By 11.00, the schedule is behind, and one of the runners turns up with more food, a finger buffet as I believe it's known, and the four extras are being utilised in each scene using a rotation system similar to Chelsea's.
At 12.45 the director shouts 'cut' for the last time this evening, everyone piles into cars and vans and within ten minutes a convoy of cars is finding it's way through the mist of the airfield towards home for some of us, and hotels for the others. I get home at 1.15
I have a day off to try and find some proper, and paying, work in the real world and could be back on set tomorrow, depending on whether they need me. It's exhausting, all this sitting and waiting, then standing holding a gun. But also a great experience.
Monday, April 24, 2006
"We are? we are!"
Getting out of bed at 6.00am seems a little alien, but I have a call to be on set at 7.00am, about half an hours drive from my home, and I mustn't be late. getting close to the set, and there is a bit of a convoy forming - well, at this time of the morning the only people out seem to be heading in the same direction as me, including the blue fiesta which insists on sticking rigidly to the speed limits.
The set is on an old air base, which still has a gatehouse. the first car in the line of about seven stops and speaks to the guard, who operates the barrier and lets all of us through. As i suspect all airfields look the same, it's a bit like the TopGear test track, and there is a temptation to do a few laps, but it's nearly 7.00am so I head towards the cluster of cars outside a building in the distance.
The smell of bacon wafts across from the catering truck which is set up outside the building, people are drinking tea and smoking, trying to keep out of the drizzle, while others come in and out of the doors looking busy, or important, or both. There are two guys standing there talking in american accents - I assume they must be main cast. I spot the production assistant from the audition, just as she spots me. she shouts hello, invites me in and gets me to sign the standard release form before taking me and three others through to costume. The week before, all the extras had been sent out a mail asking us to bring specific clothes with us, so everyone, including me, had big sports bags full of cloths. But each of us has a hanger ready with a costume, and a name tag attached. I learn that I have two costumes - one general, and another that I'll be shot (with a bullet, not a camera) in. the second has two of everything, because it's likely that the being shot scene will be, er, shot before the preceding, er event. I think that makes sense. In any case and as with most TV and FIlm, the action is shot in a different order to the sequence that appears in the final edit. This makes it easier for the crew to set up and shot all the necessary scenes at one location before moving on to the next. The Director and Editor then piece it all together in the editing suite.
I get a nice suede jacket (the material, not the band) and a not so nice eighties jumper, both of which still have the charity shop price tags in them. £10 for the jacket, £3.50 for the jumper, if you must know. I had found some straight jeans in my cupboard, and was allowed to keep these, and to finish the look I was given some deck shoes. Everyone else is getting togged up, there's clothes all over the floor, people standing around half naked. This is no place to be shy. I reckon there must be about 30 extras here today, and as I sit down in the 'extra's greenroom' with my first cup of tea I start chatting with a couple of guys who had been on set yesterday. It's all very amiable with everyone comparing costumes, and my jacket seems to be a popular item, before the wordrobe team gather everyone together, change one or two tee-shirts and send us off to the mini bus which in turn will take us to the set.
More standing around in a much colder building, with a photographer taking lots of snaps is followed by being shepherded into the set, and arranged on a small terrace affair which is facing a stage with a drum-kit, bass guitar and bass amp, guitar and marshall stack, a micstand with microphone and an acoustic guitar. My mind races ahead and i'm thinking hey, I wonder how many other people in here can play, before the guy arranging everyone gets me to move, because the camera has to go there. I'm stuck on the end of a row, meaning that I more than likely won't be on camera.
The main cast arrive and are placed strategically throughout the crowd, including the 1st Assitant Director, who also has a role in the production. The lead actor comes in and is very friendly and chatty with everyone. This scene involves him performing a long speech and ends with a song, with him on the acoustic guitar. At two points in the speech, the crowd have to repond to a question with "We Are!" The first time it sounds like a question - We Are? - but we get the hang of it. The first run through goes so smoothly I suspect the director wishes he'd filmed it, however the scene is run a number of times with the camera in different positions. The lead actor is great, delivers pretty much every time and fits the part really well, and by the time the crew are happy it's 11.00am and time to move on to the next one. All the extras are ferried back to the green room, tea is drunk, biscuits are eaten, and a bunch of women and children are taken off to the next scene.
All of a sudden it's 1.00 o'clock, and we're told to go and get some lunch and be out of the way before the crew get back. Even when you see your name on a costume, or someone tells you you did well, you have to remember that essentially, extras are part of the scenery and although important as a whole, individually you are not. Even so, myself and the others jump up and, pleased for something to do, go and fill our plates with a very good selection of food from a full roast to salad and vegetarian options. After some apple crumble and another cup of tea, wordrobe want me and a couple of others to change to our secondary costumes. Unfortunately for me, after having the coolest jacket for the morning (and not getting on camera), I now get the un-coolest get up of big baggy black jogging bottoms and a pale blue sweatshirt in which to get shot. We go back and sit in the green room, where people are now napping, the papers are strewn across the room, and conversation is getting more strung out.
Some people go as thier day is over, and others are taken to the next set leaving me and five others sitting around until 4.30 when we are all piled into the mini-bus. we get to watch a scene being finished off with a bunch of extras running around in a corridor brandishing guns, and at one point the 1st AD shouts that he needs one more, and I'm too slow to say yes so another guy gets to join in the fun. I don't reckon the costume was right anyway! One of the other extras who has been sitting around with me waiting to get shot is suddenly told that his scene won't be 'till thursday, so he can go. He'd driven 4 hours to be in the first scene, and now, having sat around for another 6 hours, had another 4 hour drive ahead of him. Such is the life of an extra.
The crew move to another part of the same building to get the last scene of the day. My shooting scene has also been moved, and I'm not in this last one but they might want me to be - so I stay around. Besides, it's a long walk back to the headquarters. The room we're sat in is right next door to the room in which the scene is being shot, so we have to be quiet a lot more. I get to stand a watch a lot of this scene being shot with the Producer, in which a major plot line is revealed, and finally, at 7.45 the scene is wrapped and we all get to go back to base. I've never seen so many people pack up, change and get out so quickly! by 8.00 I'm on the road back home, reflecting that I'll still be home before the guy with four hours to drive. This time!
So not quite as busy as I would have hoped, I have a call back tomorrow for lunchtime, and have been told that although it's a late day (till midnight) my scenes should be over earlier than that. I will, of course, let you know.
The set is on an old air base, which still has a gatehouse. the first car in the line of about seven stops and speaks to the guard, who operates the barrier and lets all of us through. As i suspect all airfields look the same, it's a bit like the TopGear test track, and there is a temptation to do a few laps, but it's nearly 7.00am so I head towards the cluster of cars outside a building in the distance.
The smell of bacon wafts across from the catering truck which is set up outside the building, people are drinking tea and smoking, trying to keep out of the drizzle, while others come in and out of the doors looking busy, or important, or both. There are two guys standing there talking in american accents - I assume they must be main cast. I spot the production assistant from the audition, just as she spots me. she shouts hello, invites me in and gets me to sign the standard release form before taking me and three others through to costume. The week before, all the extras had been sent out a mail asking us to bring specific clothes with us, so everyone, including me, had big sports bags full of cloths. But each of us has a hanger ready with a costume, and a name tag attached. I learn that I have two costumes - one general, and another that I'll be shot (with a bullet, not a camera) in. the second has two of everything, because it's likely that the being shot scene will be, er, shot before the preceding, er event. I think that makes sense. In any case and as with most TV and FIlm, the action is shot in a different order to the sequence that appears in the final edit. This makes it easier for the crew to set up and shot all the necessary scenes at one location before moving on to the next. The Director and Editor then piece it all together in the editing suite.
I get a nice suede jacket (the material, not the band) and a not so nice eighties jumper, both of which still have the charity shop price tags in them. £10 for the jacket, £3.50 for the jumper, if you must know. I had found some straight jeans in my cupboard, and was allowed to keep these, and to finish the look I was given some deck shoes. Everyone else is getting togged up, there's clothes all over the floor, people standing around half naked. This is no place to be shy. I reckon there must be about 30 extras here today, and as I sit down in the 'extra's greenroom' with my first cup of tea I start chatting with a couple of guys who had been on set yesterday. It's all very amiable with everyone comparing costumes, and my jacket seems to be a popular item, before the wordrobe team gather everyone together, change one or two tee-shirts and send us off to the mini bus which in turn will take us to the set.
More standing around in a much colder building, with a photographer taking lots of snaps is followed by being shepherded into the set, and arranged on a small terrace affair which is facing a stage with a drum-kit, bass guitar and bass amp, guitar and marshall stack, a micstand with microphone and an acoustic guitar. My mind races ahead and i'm thinking hey, I wonder how many other people in here can play, before the guy arranging everyone gets me to move, because the camera has to go there. I'm stuck on the end of a row, meaning that I more than likely won't be on camera.
The main cast arrive and are placed strategically throughout the crowd, including the 1st Assitant Director, who also has a role in the production. The lead actor comes in and is very friendly and chatty with everyone. This scene involves him performing a long speech and ends with a song, with him on the acoustic guitar. At two points in the speech, the crowd have to repond to a question with "We Are!" The first time it sounds like a question - We Are? - but we get the hang of it. The first run through goes so smoothly I suspect the director wishes he'd filmed it, however the scene is run a number of times with the camera in different positions. The lead actor is great, delivers pretty much every time and fits the part really well, and by the time the crew are happy it's 11.00am and time to move on to the next one. All the extras are ferried back to the green room, tea is drunk, biscuits are eaten, and a bunch of women and children are taken off to the next scene.
All of a sudden it's 1.00 o'clock, and we're told to go and get some lunch and be out of the way before the crew get back. Even when you see your name on a costume, or someone tells you you did well, you have to remember that essentially, extras are part of the scenery and although important as a whole, individually you are not. Even so, myself and the others jump up and, pleased for something to do, go and fill our plates with a very good selection of food from a full roast to salad and vegetarian options. After some apple crumble and another cup of tea, wordrobe want me and a couple of others to change to our secondary costumes. Unfortunately for me, after having the coolest jacket for the morning (and not getting on camera), I now get the un-coolest get up of big baggy black jogging bottoms and a pale blue sweatshirt in which to get shot. We go back and sit in the green room, where people are now napping, the papers are strewn across the room, and conversation is getting more strung out.
Some people go as thier day is over, and others are taken to the next set leaving me and five others sitting around until 4.30 when we are all piled into the mini-bus. we get to watch a scene being finished off with a bunch of extras running around in a corridor brandishing guns, and at one point the 1st AD shouts that he needs one more, and I'm too slow to say yes so another guy gets to join in the fun. I don't reckon the costume was right anyway! One of the other extras who has been sitting around with me waiting to get shot is suddenly told that his scene won't be 'till thursday, so he can go. He'd driven 4 hours to be in the first scene, and now, having sat around for another 6 hours, had another 4 hour drive ahead of him. Such is the life of an extra.
The crew move to another part of the same building to get the last scene of the day. My shooting scene has also been moved, and I'm not in this last one but they might want me to be - so I stay around. Besides, it's a long walk back to the headquarters. The room we're sat in is right next door to the room in which the scene is being shot, so we have to be quiet a lot more. I get to stand a watch a lot of this scene being shot with the Producer, in which a major plot line is revealed, and finally, at 7.45 the scene is wrapped and we all get to go back to base. I've never seen so many people pack up, change and get out so quickly! by 8.00 I'm on the road back home, reflecting that I'll still be home before the guy with four hours to drive. This time!
So not quite as busy as I would have hoped, I have a call back tomorrow for lunchtime, and have been told that although it's a late day (till midnight) my scenes should be over earlier than that. I will, of course, let you know.
Friday, April 07, 2006
Can you walk a bit more aggressively?
Having flown through the traffic to get to junction 10 on the M1 2 hours early, I stopped at a service station (Toddington, if you must know) and had a calming coffee and a bit of a read. The shoot was taking place at Luton Hoo Farm, and following the signs to the location made me feel like I was 'in the know', as all the signs said was "gold". I still have no idea why, but if you notice some signs tied to lamp-posts or trees which seem a little cryptic, it just might be a TV / Film shoot.
The site seemed deserted when I got there - just the expected trailers, loads of cars and the catering bus. Having watched "Extras" on TV, I expected the bus, and wasn't disappointed. As I parked, I noticed a bloke sitting in his car, and ambled over to check that I was in the right place. His name was Peter, and yes, he was to play a Victorian drunk, too. We wondered how many drunks there was going to be.
Pleased that I'd found another extra, I followed him over to the bus, where we found the Assistant Director, Bart, to whom we were to report. On the bus was one guy, called Chris, also an extra, whose role tonight was that of a chestnut seller. We were shown to our trailer, a little cramped for three of us, but we were getting on fine and we were joined by two wardrobe ladies. Much discussion of sizes results in the ladies returning with three outfits, all of which fit perfectly, apart from my frock coat, which I nearly destroy trying to get on. They come back with a huge overcoat, which fits, and of which I will be very grateful for later on.
As this is a night shoot, obviously the crew need to wait for it to be dark. So next is lunch (The day officially started at 2pm, so in effect it IS lunchtime). A Catering truck is set up near the bus, and we queue up (in full costume) to get some hot food. I plump for the stuffed tomatoes, brocolli and mash, and sit with Chris and Peter. We notice that there are no other costumed people around, and are then shunted off to the make-up truck. Chris, a white haired gent with a goatee, gets a full beard, and his long hair teased under his floppy hat, Peter gets some great big bushy side burns stuck on, and I get - nothing. Apparently my hair is 'fantastically' Victorian, my side burns are fine, and all I need is some make up to make me look a little older, and drunker. The make-up girl is new to the job too, but does a great job, and we are sent back to the trailer to wait for our call.
So far, so good. I've been dressed, made up, eaten some good food, and spent a couple of hours chatting to two very interesting people. Chris, it turns out, has only been in this game for a year or so, following a previous life as a Creative Direc tor, and has roots in Melton - a village not far from my hometown. He has appeared in a few things, including The Da Vinci Code, and in the next couple of weeks has a role in the new Harry Potter film - which, in my short career so far, seems to be a bit of a peak in the extras world. Peter, on the other hand, has been an actor for nearly 50 years, starting in the theatre, and has a resume which reads like the A - Z of British Film and TV. Star Wars? did the first three. Carry On films? was in every one. Bond Films? yup. played 006 in one, doubled for George Lazenby in another. Hugh Grant's dad in 'About A Boy'? oh, yes. Porridge? Dr Who? Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em? yes, yes and yes. This man gets invited to fan conventions, and seems genuinely concerned about the sanity of the attendees, and wonders if people really have nothing better to do that create websites listing his work. He makes a living from royalties, but hardly ever watches TV. Or Films. A real old school gent.
We chat for a while before Bart comes and gets Peter and Myself - it's time to go on set. The set is left over from the making of Bleak House, and it's a dingy filthy Victorian street set. You half expect Jack the Ripper's carriage to appear round the corner. The crew are all busy doing, er, something. It seems like a well oiled machine, everyone doing thier job. There's a guy spreading rotten veg around, lights are being positioned, carpenters are finishing off doors, a bloke is hosing down the street and the 3rd Assistant Director, who's job it is to tell us what to do, comes over and introduces himself as Paul. The whole crew seem to be dressed in Skiing gear. Paul tells us that he wants us to walk out of some doors (inside of which the carpentery dept. are set up), stagger up the street and turn right into an alley way. We've had a skinfull, and we're having trouble walking. The main actress will be playing a lady venturing into the dark alleyways of the working class, and I ask if two drunks would look at her. Apparently not, and Peter whispers to me that that would constitute interaction, and we'd get more money. I decide not to ask any more questions. We rehearse a couple of times, so the crew can get the lights and camera positions sorted, and the director walks over, says hello to Peter (everyone seems to know him) and asks us to walk more aggresively. She says that the lady needs to be scared of us, and frankly she's more likely to laugh at us staggering around. After a few more run throughs, we end up just walking normally. In the other direction. I guess we're not drunks anymore!
It's also strange that, considering I've been walking quite happily for near on 40 years without thinking about it too much, as soon as someone tells you to walk from here to there in a certain time and you know it's being filmed, you become obsessively aware of how you walk.
We do our bit to film 3 or 4 times, and after standing around getting very cold for about 30 minutes (at which point I am glad to be wearing the big overcoat), we get sent back to the trailer. Peter says that's it, our bit is done now, but Paul tells us not to get changed. It's Chris's turn as we get back to the trailer, and Peter and I sit and chat for another ten minutes, before Bart knocks on the door and tells us we're needed again. We walk back to the set, which is a good 5 minute walk, in the pitch black, and when we get there, Paul tells Peter he doesn't need him, just me, and sends him back. This time, I have to wait for a cue, and walk across the street, and down another alley. I have one of the runners, Jody, standing behind me and tapping me on the shoulder when it's time to walk. Chris seems to no longer be a chestnut seller, but just a bloke on the street walking in a different direction to me. There are now two proper actors on set, and this is part of a fairly long sequence in which the lady speaks to camera while walking and then meets the other character. We do this 12 times before the director is happy, and Chris and I are then photographed on the set by loads of the crew, and finally, just as frostbite is setting in, we are sent back to the trailer. Peter has had a nice nap, and eventually Bart comes and tells us we can get changed and go. It's ten to one in the morning.
Three or four poeple come up and say "Good job, see you soon" as I leave, I exchange details with Peter and Chris, and head to the car for the long drive home. I'm sure that after 40 or 50 of these it gets quite dull, but for my first experience I found it all very exciting, and frankly for sitting around chatting, doing a bit of walking from here to there, being fed, and getting to see a bit of TV being made, it seems good fun. We'll see how I feel after the next one!
The site seemed deserted when I got there - just the expected trailers, loads of cars and the catering bus. Having watched "Extras" on TV, I expected the bus, and wasn't disappointed. As I parked, I noticed a bloke sitting in his car, and ambled over to check that I was in the right place. His name was Peter, and yes, he was to play a Victorian drunk, too. We wondered how many drunks there was going to be.
Pleased that I'd found another extra, I followed him over to the bus, where we found the Assistant Director, Bart, to whom we were to report. On the bus was one guy, called Chris, also an extra, whose role tonight was that of a chestnut seller. We were shown to our trailer, a little cramped for three of us, but we were getting on fine and we were joined by two wardrobe ladies. Much discussion of sizes results in the ladies returning with three outfits, all of which fit perfectly, apart from my frock coat, which I nearly destroy trying to get on. They come back with a huge overcoat, which fits, and of which I will be very grateful for later on.
As this is a night shoot, obviously the crew need to wait for it to be dark. So next is lunch (The day officially started at 2pm, so in effect it IS lunchtime). A Catering truck is set up near the bus, and we queue up (in full costume) to get some hot food. I plump for the stuffed tomatoes, brocolli and mash, and sit with Chris and Peter. We notice that there are no other costumed people around, and are then shunted off to the make-up truck. Chris, a white haired gent with a goatee, gets a full beard, and his long hair teased under his floppy hat, Peter gets some great big bushy side burns stuck on, and I get - nothing. Apparently my hair is 'fantastically' Victorian, my side burns are fine, and all I need is some make up to make me look a little older, and drunker. The make-up girl is new to the job too, but does a great job, and we are sent back to the trailer to wait for our call.
So far, so good. I've been dressed, made up, eaten some good food, and spent a couple of hours chatting to two very interesting people. Chris, it turns out, has only been in this game for a year or so, following a previous life as a Creative Direc tor, and has roots in Melton - a village not far from my hometown. He has appeared in a few things, including The Da Vinci Code, and in the next couple of weeks has a role in the new Harry Potter film - which, in my short career so far, seems to be a bit of a peak in the extras world. Peter, on the other hand, has been an actor for nearly 50 years, starting in the theatre, and has a resume which reads like the A - Z of British Film and TV. Star Wars? did the first three. Carry On films? was in every one. Bond Films? yup. played 006 in one, doubled for George Lazenby in another. Hugh Grant's dad in 'About A Boy'? oh, yes. Porridge? Dr Who? Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em? yes, yes and yes. This man gets invited to fan conventions, and seems genuinely concerned about the sanity of the attendees, and wonders if people really have nothing better to do that create websites listing his work. He makes a living from royalties, but hardly ever watches TV. Or Films. A real old school gent.
We chat for a while before Bart comes and gets Peter and Myself - it's time to go on set. The set is left over from the making of Bleak House, and it's a dingy filthy Victorian street set. You half expect Jack the Ripper's carriage to appear round the corner. The crew are all busy doing, er, something. It seems like a well oiled machine, everyone doing thier job. There's a guy spreading rotten veg around, lights are being positioned, carpenters are finishing off doors, a bloke is hosing down the street and the 3rd Assistant Director, who's job it is to tell us what to do, comes over and introduces himself as Paul. The whole crew seem to be dressed in Skiing gear. Paul tells us that he wants us to walk out of some doors (inside of which the carpentery dept. are set up), stagger up the street and turn right into an alley way. We've had a skinfull, and we're having trouble walking. The main actress will be playing a lady venturing into the dark alleyways of the working class, and I ask if two drunks would look at her. Apparently not, and Peter whispers to me that that would constitute interaction, and we'd get more money. I decide not to ask any more questions. We rehearse a couple of times, so the crew can get the lights and camera positions sorted, and the director walks over, says hello to Peter (everyone seems to know him) and asks us to walk more aggresively. She says that the lady needs to be scared of us, and frankly she's more likely to laugh at us staggering around. After a few more run throughs, we end up just walking normally. In the other direction. I guess we're not drunks anymore!
It's also strange that, considering I've been walking quite happily for near on 40 years without thinking about it too much, as soon as someone tells you to walk from here to there in a certain time and you know it's being filmed, you become obsessively aware of how you walk.
We do our bit to film 3 or 4 times, and after standing around getting very cold for about 30 minutes (at which point I am glad to be wearing the big overcoat), we get sent back to the trailer. Peter says that's it, our bit is done now, but Paul tells us not to get changed. It's Chris's turn as we get back to the trailer, and Peter and I sit and chat for another ten minutes, before Bart knocks on the door and tells us we're needed again. We walk back to the set, which is a good 5 minute walk, in the pitch black, and when we get there, Paul tells Peter he doesn't need him, just me, and sends him back. This time, I have to wait for a cue, and walk across the street, and down another alley. I have one of the runners, Jody, standing behind me and tapping me on the shoulder when it's time to walk. Chris seems to no longer be a chestnut seller, but just a bloke on the street walking in a different direction to me. There are now two proper actors on set, and this is part of a fairly long sequence in which the lady speaks to camera while walking and then meets the other character. We do this 12 times before the director is happy, and Chris and I are then photographed on the set by loads of the crew, and finally, just as frostbite is setting in, we are sent back to the trailer. Peter has had a nice nap, and eventually Bart comes and tells us we can get changed and go. It's ten to one in the morning.
Three or four poeple come up and say "Good job, see you soon" as I leave, I exchange details with Peter and Chris, and head to the car for the long drive home. I'm sure that after 40 or 50 of these it gets quite dull, but for my first experience I found it all very exciting, and frankly for sitting around chatting, doing a bit of walking from here to there, being fed, and getting to see a bit of TV being made, it seems good fun. We'll see how I feel after the next one!
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Left turn...
Well, as a bit of a left turn in my career, today sees my debut appearance as a walk on background artist. I'm driving to glamourous Luton this afternoon for a night shoot for the BBC, to appear as a drunk in a Victorian drama. This all started when a friend and I were discussing getting involved in the world of voice-overs, having both done one or two radio adverts and enjoyed the experience. I started searching online, as you do, and found a site which listed loads of adverts from production companies and extras casting agencies. Why not, I thought. SO, for £15, I signed up for three months, selected four pictures of me from previous holidays where i didn't look to fat, and then applied for four ads. Within 2 hours I'd got two replies, one of which invited me for a casting call in London, and the other for a casting in my hometown.
I went to the one in London which turned out to be a bit of a cattle call. You line up in a corridor, sign a form saying you'll hand over 15% of your earnings, get called in to answer a bunch of questions (have you ridden a horse? do you have a driving licence?) and get measured. Then you have a picture taken, and you can go. This particular call was for an Elizabethan movie being shot in Shepperton in June, and I decided I wouldn't be in luck, having sat with a whole bunch of younger, more handsome and slimmer blokes in the casting call.
However, yesterday, I got a call from the casting agency asking if I was free the next day to go to Luton and play a drunk, to which I of course answered yes!
The week before I had been to the completely different call for a documentary being shot near my hometown, and having signed the obligatory form, I was ushered into a room to meet the producer and director of the programme. It was fun! we chatted about the subject matter (of course I'd read up on the subject the night before), I told them I'd done no acting before, and then they got me to sit and act like I was being preached at, I was interested in what was being said, and they filmed it. Then they asked if I'd ever held a gun. They asked to pretend I was holding a gun, and someone had just shouted "they're coming in!" and I was to act scared but ready to defend my position. All that went through my head was the opening to 'Dad's Army', when the home guard are walking through the fields with thier weapons brandished... They said thankyou, they thought they could use me, and the'd let me know.
So, an hour after getting the call about the Luton shoot, I got an e-mail telling me I was in on the documentary shoot too!
I hopw can do as I'm told...
I went to the one in London which turned out to be a bit of a cattle call. You line up in a corridor, sign a form saying you'll hand over 15% of your earnings, get called in to answer a bunch of questions (have you ridden a horse? do you have a driving licence?) and get measured. Then you have a picture taken, and you can go. This particular call was for an Elizabethan movie being shot in Shepperton in June, and I decided I wouldn't be in luck, having sat with a whole bunch of younger, more handsome and slimmer blokes in the casting call.
However, yesterday, I got a call from the casting agency asking if I was free the next day to go to Luton and play a drunk, to which I of course answered yes!
The week before I had been to the completely different call for a documentary being shot near my hometown, and having signed the obligatory form, I was ushered into a room to meet the producer and director of the programme. It was fun! we chatted about the subject matter (of course I'd read up on the subject the night before), I told them I'd done no acting before, and then they got me to sit and act like I was being preached at, I was interested in what was being said, and they filmed it. Then they asked if I'd ever held a gun. They asked to pretend I was holding a gun, and someone had just shouted "they're coming in!" and I was to act scared but ready to defend my position. All that went through my head was the opening to 'Dad's Army', when the home guard are walking through the fields with thier weapons brandished... They said thankyou, they thought they could use me, and the'd let me know.
So, an hour after getting the call about the Luton shoot, I got an e-mail telling me I was in on the documentary shoot too!
I hopw can do as I'm told...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)