Advert on Total Talent caught my eye looking for passersby, school teacher and mums for a TV Commercial. Decent pay so I applied. A week later I got a call confirming that I had the job.
It was a very wet and miserable day when I arrived at Willesden Junction for the 9am call. Base was in the park where three large buses were holding everyone. Having grabbed breakfast, I jumped on board one of the buses and started chatting to a couple of the women. They had been given the job through an agency, which, strangely enough was an agency that I was registered with. It turned out that the agency had supplied everyone except me - very unusual. Well, I didn't mind as it meant I would have no agency fee to pay and would probably have my invoice paid long before anyone else had their pay.
With breakfast over we were off in a mini bus to a location outside a school. Here, we discovered about 100 children all dressed up as Hank Marvin complete with guitars! They had chaperone's and mums in tow so it was a little bit cramped on the holding bus. This was an easy job, just walk up and down and ignore the Hank Marvins. I had to laugh when one person behind me had to be shown how to walk...it never fails to amaze me how some people lose all ability to do something so simple when put in front of the camera. Believe me, I have seen it all, people who suddenly can't clap, walk, run, eat, talk once a camera is on them, yet quite able to do these things when rehearsing without the camera!
The rain started to pour down relentlessly so we sat or stood on one of the two double decker buses. I sat next to a 'stage mum' who had two children on the shoot. Invariably doing this job I've always found someone that shares an interest with me and in this case it was our children. I keep referring to them as children but the majority of them were 16 or 17. One of her children had been to audition at the same drama schools as my daughter. What was interesting was that nobody that was on the bus and had auditioned had got a place at any of the drama schools. Yet these schools are very happy to charge £30 for each audition. I later discovered that most of these places want older people with life experience. One school recruits for their show in 3 years time! It's a shame they don't refund the £30 when these kids don't get in.
Anyway, the weather had cleared and we moved over to the High Street causing a bit of a stir with the locals as the music blared out and the miming and dancing began. Most of the adults weren't used in this part so we climbed back on to the bus to swap stories of past jobs and to exchange names of good agencies whilst berating the bad!
After a very long time queuing for lunch and having eaten it in very cramped quarters we were asked to get back in to the mini bus again and traveled to the other side of the park. Yet more rain so we all sheltered under our umbrellas watching the kids do their thing until we were called upon to walk up and down outside the park. Excitement grew as word went round that this could be the last scene of the day.....but, no it wasn't. We were moved to a block of flats where we observed lines of children going up and down stairs....whilst we all stood there, not being involved at all and there we stayed for the next hour....
Funny, isn't it how some people think filming is exciting!!
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