One very cold Saturday morning I found myself standing in an outside shopping mall with the wind whipping up a frenzy all around. It was extremely cold and I was very glad to be shown to the basement of a local restaurant. I was to be a stand-in for the day for a Japanese actress (I never did find out her name) and this was an advert for a well known camera company. Others started to arrive and having been told not to expect breakfast we all milled around hoping at the very least for a hot cup of coffee. One of the runners appeared:
"You know that breakfast is in the next room? Help yourselves."
We didn't need to be asked twice! To this day that breakfast stays in my mind. There was cheese, hot croissants, rolls, freshly baked bread, ham, cold meats, fruit, yogurt, danish pastries (well, that was me in Heaven right there!). In fact, anything you could think of that you could possibly want for a cold breakfast was there with plenty of hot drinks.
The AD came up and asked me to stay where I was for the time being as he was about to take the Supporting Artistes on to the set. To be honest, I was delighted as it was a beautifully warm room with food, plenty to drink and the days papers had been given to me.
It wasn't long before the S/As reappeared very cold and needing the warmth of the room.
"We will be using you shortly" I was told. I began to dread going outside. Everybody had red noses and were stamping their feet trying to get some feeling back in them. I had to remind myself that as a Stand-In I was getting paid more than the S/As so I would just have to get on with it.
The S/As were called on to set once more.
"We will get to you soon" said the AD to me. So I took the Saturday papers and magazines, gathered a danish pastry and a coffee and settled down in to my seat. Time went by. Nobody called. Had they forgotten me? Well, at least I was warm and cosy. From time to time an S/A would appear and we'd have a chat over yet another coffee. Eventually the AD came over to me:
"Actually, I'm not really sure why you've been booked today. I don't think they're going to use you. "
I didn't mind, I was having quite a nice time thank you very much. After all, I would get my pay whether or not they used me.
"Lunch!" Various forms of pizza arrived and everybody dived in.
"And that's a wrap!"
The whole day had only been four hours long and I felt very blessed to be in such a lovely position to be paid for reading the papers, eating cakes and drinking coffee! Plus the lovely company of all the S/As to chat to - it really was the perfect day!
Monday, 29 July 2013
Friday, 26 July 2013
It's the End of the World!
I got an email from a friend asking if I had seen the casting on Starnow. For some reason it had bypassed me but this friend had been along to the casting on the Saturday and found that everything was above board and it was a proper casting for a film. The next casting was the next day so I should get myself down there. The casting was for dancing zombies.... well, the money was good so why not?
Off I went not quite knowing what to expect. In fact all I had to do was to fill in a form and have my picture taken and that was it. During the next few weeks I began to hear that friends had already started work on the film so I assumed that I wasn't needed. However, a couple of weeks later I got an email asking me if I could go to a recall. This would be in the form of a short dance practise. Off I went, not quite knowing what to expect or at what level they expected me to be at. In fact it was very easy and the recall was just to make sure that we could all work together as one. Various movements were made, for example walking up and down then turning heads to the right or left all to the count of eight. It was interesting seeing some of the people that couldn't walk in front of a camera. Their limbs seemed to take on a life of their own!
Another couple of weeks went by....
Mobile rang,
"Can I book you for three days work?"
Thank goodness for that! I was also asked to go for a costume fitting at Elstree Studios which would also be paid for. Now I imagined that we would be made up as zombies but, no in fact we had very ordinary clothes to wear. I work a knee length skirt, knee length boots, a polo neck and a padded jacket - very country woman!
The first day of work arrived at Letchworth and I turned up early (of course) and settled in for a coffee. A lovely lady called Jan joined me and I knew that the 3 days we'd both been booked for would certainly be a laugh as she had a wonderful sense of humour. Anyway, it turned out that the production team had a sense of humour too as we were moved out to location which was, for us, a freezing cold room with nothing in it above a pub. Luckily, another friend Derek had joined us and he had been filming the previous day so knew where to get lunch, coffee etc as nobody bothered to tell us anything. In fact the next two days were a bit like that and we really did feel forgotten about. We did manage to put the heating on though which was something. Day one consisted of ... well, nothing as we took turns to sleep on crash mats which had been left after Marshall arts classes. We were even given overtime! The next day seemed to be the same again. After several hours we were finally called downstairs to the pub where the main actors were. Finally we were going to do something! In fact it was just looking towards the actors at certain points all together. It didn't take long and we were put back in our room. Hours later, a man came up and said,
"You don't mind staying for overtime do you? It will be a couple more hours."
"Yes I do mind." I said. He looked a bit perplexed.
"I have been here for hours, done nothing and I have a long drive home."
At this stage we were already into overtime anyway but by then I was fed up and didn't want to part of it anymore so I left. I did feel a bit of a Diva when the minibus arrived to pick up just me...
The third shoot was to be a night shoot, weeks later, at a completely different location. I was dreading it....On arrival on a freezing cold late afternoon Jan and I headed for our breakfast. Although it was 4pm, the crew and cast had been working nights for that week so this really was breakfast for them.
We were moved over to location (a pub) and we settled ourselves in for the long night ahead. We were each given a pair of goggles which lit up so that it looked as if beams were coming from our eyes. Some people even had them in their mouths and I was very glad I wasn't one of them! When our time came we had to run up and down a closed off road. Now, when I say run I mean literally run - it was certainly not a dainty jog! It was also very slippery as the previous days rain had started to freeze. We all had shoes and boots on from costume as well so that wasn't easy running in somebody elses shoes! I can't begin to explain how cold it was - well it was the end of November but this was a particularly bitter night. Hand warmers and hot water bottles were very soon in evidence to try to keep some of the heat in. I was very grateful that I had been given boots to wear and although I had a short skirt instead of the tights I'd been given, I managed to get away with wearing my own leggings - nobody noticed :) Thankfully everybody had a good sense of humour which kept us going through the first half of the night before our dinner was served at 1am. We all felt so much better afterwards but of course nobody wanted to go back outside to do any more running! We finally wrapped at 3am and it was a very tired crew and cast that arrived back at base to get changed and then to chip the ice from the car windows. I thought I had put this particular film behind me when,
"Can you do one more day?"
Well, we'd been ignored, frozen to death, did I really want to do any more? It was a day shoot and it was at a different location so I said I would do it.
So on 19th December at 7.30 am I found myself near the Royal Business Park in E16. It was very cold but everybody had their thermals on or had smuggled in some heat pads and hot water bottles. We were taken by mini bus over to the location which was a disused water tower. This was an amazing place - you walked in at ground level and realised that the floor dropped quite a way down plus there was also quite a way up too. Add to this the bizarre dummies scattered about that were dressed as people also with the lit up goggles attached it was certainly a weird and wonderful place to be! We had to stand very still and lean slightly over so the camera could catch our lighted goggles. Basically, that's all we had to do whilst we watched the actors carry on in the bar that had been replicated in the basement.
I think we were all quite glad when the days shoot was over. The dining bus that had been our home for the day had steamed up as the rain came lashing down. Everyone was wet, tired and although more than pleased to say we'd all been on the set of The Worlds End, I think I can safely say we were all very pleased when "Its a wrap" was announced and we could all go off, warm up and dry out. Just think...some people think this is glamorous!!
(and no, I haven't even got the special goggles on - perhaps the alien invasion had a special effect on me!)
The third shoot was to be a night shoot, weeks later, at a completely different location. I was dreading it....On arrival on a freezing cold late afternoon Jan and I headed for our breakfast. Although it was 4pm, the crew and cast had been working nights for that week so this really was breakfast for them.
We were moved over to location (a pub) and we settled ourselves in for the long night ahead. We were each given a pair of goggles which lit up so that it looked as if beams were coming from our eyes. Some people even had them in their mouths and I was very glad I wasn't one of them! When our time came we had to run up and down a closed off road. Now, when I say run I mean literally run - it was certainly not a dainty jog! It was also very slippery as the previous days rain had started to freeze. We all had shoes and boots on from costume as well so that wasn't easy running in somebody elses shoes! I can't begin to explain how cold it was - well it was the end of November but this was a particularly bitter night. Hand warmers and hot water bottles were very soon in evidence to try to keep some of the heat in. I was very grateful that I had been given boots to wear and although I had a short skirt instead of the tights I'd been given, I managed to get away with wearing my own leggings - nobody noticed :) Thankfully everybody had a good sense of humour which kept us going through the first half of the night before our dinner was served at 1am. We all felt so much better afterwards but of course nobody wanted to go back outside to do any more running! We finally wrapped at 3am and it was a very tired crew and cast that arrived back at base to get changed and then to chip the ice from the car windows. I thought I had put this particular film behind me when,
"Can you do one more day?"
Well, we'd been ignored, frozen to death, did I really want to do any more? It was a day shoot and it was at a different location so I said I would do it.
So on 19th December at 7.30 am I found myself near the Royal Business Park in E16. It was very cold but everybody had their thermals on or had smuggled in some heat pads and hot water bottles. We were taken by mini bus over to the location which was a disused water tower. This was an amazing place - you walked in at ground level and realised that the floor dropped quite a way down plus there was also quite a way up too. Add to this the bizarre dummies scattered about that were dressed as people also with the lit up goggles attached it was certainly a weird and wonderful place to be! We had to stand very still and lean slightly over so the camera could catch our lighted goggles. Basically, that's all we had to do whilst we watched the actors carry on in the bar that had been replicated in the basement.
I think we were all quite glad when the days shoot was over. The dining bus that had been our home for the day had steamed up as the rain came lashing down. Everyone was wet, tired and although more than pleased to say we'd all been on the set of The Worlds End, I think I can safely say we were all very pleased when "Its a wrap" was announced and we could all go off, warm up and dry out. Just think...some people think this is glamorous!!
Humpreys music video
Got a message via that wonderful (!) site Starnow.
We are casting extras for a one day shoot music video happening in between the dates 27th- 30th of October.
The artist is called Humphrey Milles and you can listen to the track on this link.
http://soundcloud.com/raul-
Now, I never do unpaid work. Very occasionally I will do expenses only if its something I am interested in but No Pay No Way is my usual mantor. However, I listened to the track & found that I really liked the music so decided that in this case I would go ahead and do it for expenses.
So on a bright Friday morning, at 7am I found myself at an office building in Woolwich High Street dressed in office style clothing. There were about 20 of us so it took some time to get us all organised and fed and watered!
The job was simple, at first... we just had to sit down and listen to an actor give a speech. Of course there was no such speech as the music would be played over the top of the filming.
Next we had to stand up and give a person a hug whilst the actor directed us as to where we should be looking for hugs! Around this time people began to leave. Not because they didn't like the filming but because they had other things to do, work to go to and besides, they weren't being paid so it really didn't matter - did it? It certainly caused a few problems as suddenley there were empty chairs and areas of space where there wasn't any before. This often happens with no pay/expenses pay jobs. After a while we were asked to do a bit of mad dancing before being filmed having coffee & biscuits.
I'm not in most of it as I was sat next to Humprey Miles on his left side which is never seen but I still think the track is quite good. Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdmKFNQLQUk
We are casting extras for a one day shoot music video happening in between the dates 27th- 30th of October.
The artist is called Humphrey Milles and you can listen to the track on this link.
http://soundcloud.com/raul-
Now, I never do unpaid work. Very occasionally I will do expenses only if its something I am interested in but No Pay No Way is my usual mantor. However, I listened to the track & found that I really liked the music so decided that in this case I would go ahead and do it for expenses.
So on a bright Friday morning, at 7am I found myself at an office building in Woolwich High Street dressed in office style clothing. There were about 20 of us so it took some time to get us all organised and fed and watered!
The job was simple, at first... we just had to sit down and listen to an actor give a speech. Of course there was no such speech as the music would be played over the top of the filming.
Next we had to stand up and give a person a hug whilst the actor directed us as to where we should be looking for hugs! Around this time people began to leave. Not because they didn't like the filming but because they had other things to do, work to go to and besides, they weren't being paid so it really didn't matter - did it? It certainly caused a few problems as suddenley there were empty chairs and areas of space where there wasn't any before. This often happens with no pay/expenses pay jobs. After a while we were asked to do a bit of mad dancing before being filmed having coffee & biscuits.
I'm not in most of it as I was sat next to Humprey Miles on his left side which is never seen but I still think the track is quite good. Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdmKFNQLQUk
Black Mirror
Mid November I was asked to be a driver for a TV series that showed the darker side of life. My car, a very old Nissan Micra in Cornflower blue seems to get quite a bit of filming probably because of its colour.
The call time was early - 6.30am. I found the base which was in High Wycombe and went into the room allocated for some breakfast. Next we had a costume check. I have never understood why, when you are a car driver, you need a costume check and several people had to change their clothes. Sometimes I feel that it is the people in charge of costume that feel they have to justify their jobs so they make sure we bring lots of changes of clothes and then make sure we use them even though we can't be seen....
Next was hair and make up so we trudged round to another building whereupon a lady took off her shoe and a live mouse raced across the room! She had been wearing trainers that were too big and the tiny mouse had wedged itself in the front of her shoe jumping out at the first opportunity! It was certainly one of the strangest sights I've ever seen. Make up weren't too pleased though as we all went back to our allocated area leaving them to deal with the mouse...
It seemed to take a while to get the filming up and running so we just sat and chatted with each other. There weren't very many of us so it was lovely to get the chance to talk to other people about their filming and casting experiences.
Eventually, we were called to our cars and had to line up behind a barrier. We had to stop at the barrier and buy a ticket to go and watch, what I later found out, was some form of execution. The filming went on for some time with cars reversing back to Number Ones (first position) and then going again. It can be quite tedious as each driver is by themselves so only the radio for company and even then it has to be on low as the Directors wishes must be heard! This was quite a short shoot and after just a few hours we had finished, sadly before lunch was being served so there was just enough time for the chits to be signed and we were all on our way home again. What would be the next job I wondered.
The call time was early - 6.30am. I found the base which was in High Wycombe and went into the room allocated for some breakfast. Next we had a costume check. I have never understood why, when you are a car driver, you need a costume check and several people had to change their clothes. Sometimes I feel that it is the people in charge of costume that feel they have to justify their jobs so they make sure we bring lots of changes of clothes and then make sure we use them even though we can't be seen....
Next was hair and make up so we trudged round to another building whereupon a lady took off her shoe and a live mouse raced across the room! She had been wearing trainers that were too big and the tiny mouse had wedged itself in the front of her shoe jumping out at the first opportunity! It was certainly one of the strangest sights I've ever seen. Make up weren't too pleased though as we all went back to our allocated area leaving them to deal with the mouse...
It seemed to take a while to get the filming up and running so we just sat and chatted with each other. There weren't very many of us so it was lovely to get the chance to talk to other people about their filming and casting experiences.
Eventually, we were called to our cars and had to line up behind a barrier. We had to stop at the barrier and buy a ticket to go and watch, what I later found out, was some form of execution. The filming went on for some time with cars reversing back to Number Ones (first position) and then going again. It can be quite tedious as each driver is by themselves so only the radio for company and even then it has to be on low as the Directors wishes must be heard! This was quite a short shoot and after just a few hours we had finished, sadly before lunch was being served so there was just enough time for the chits to be signed and we were all on our way home again. What would be the next job I wondered.
Crime drama
Phone call: Can you go for a costume fitting?
Yes, I'm available.
Phone call: It's now been cancelled.
Oh well, never mind.
Phone call: You've been booked.
Without a costume fitting? Suits me.
Off I went to film a crime tv series. It was to be set in Brixton although the holding area was about a mile away. I found the place, walked in, had my name checked on the list and then:
"You've been cancelled. You're not supposed to be here."
I looked at my phone messages - nothing. Checked the voice mail - nothing. Email - nothing.
I phoned the agent.
"Why do these people think I'm cancelled for today?"
"Because they cancelled you late last night. I'm trying to get a cancellation fee for you...Hang on, where are you?"
"I didn't receive any text or email so am here waiting to go into costume but obviously theres confusion as to whether I should be here or not..."
At that moment I was ushered into costume with mutterings of people not turning up.
"Who hasn't turned up? " (Agent)
"I don't know but it's a good thing that I'm here then.."
For whatever reason, a couple of people hadn't turned up so luckily my day was not about to be wasted after all. I was quickly dressed into 1980s fashion and hair dressed accordingly.
Off to the minibus to travel to Brixton Market. This is a wonderful place full of food that I have never seen before and quite frankly not sure I would like to try some of it either!!
Walking up and down the market made it really easy to forget what you were there for in the first place because everybody on the stalls and in the shops were so friendly. I would have liked to stay for longer to find out about the food, how it should be cooked and eaten but time was against us.
Next it was back for a bite to eat then into 1990s costume. Now if you think about it, 1980s fashion was bad enough but 1990s? Can anyone remember what people were wearing in that era? Nope, most people remember it as pretty dull and boring which is exactly how I was dressed...and as for the hair...
The next location were some back streets where there were some old clapped out cars waiting to be driven. Actually, they were usually pushed because they kept giving up! The job was simple enough - walk up and down, light a cigerette and notice what was going on around me. I'm a non smoker so that took a bit of getting used to. The cigerettes are never real tobacco but are the herbal ones. Smoke enough of them and they give you the worst headache ever!!
After a very long 12 hours the job was done, filming was wrapped for the day leaving us to find our way to the nearest station....now, what direction was that again? !!
Yes, I'm available.
Phone call: It's now been cancelled.
Oh well, never mind.
Phone call: You've been booked.
Without a costume fitting? Suits me.
Off I went to film a crime tv series. It was to be set in Brixton although the holding area was about a mile away. I found the place, walked in, had my name checked on the list and then:
"You've been cancelled. You're not supposed to be here."
I looked at my phone messages - nothing. Checked the voice mail - nothing. Email - nothing.
I phoned the agent.
"Why do these people think I'm cancelled for today?"
"Because they cancelled you late last night. I'm trying to get a cancellation fee for you...Hang on, where are you?"
"I didn't receive any text or email so am here waiting to go into costume but obviously theres confusion as to whether I should be here or not..."
At that moment I was ushered into costume with mutterings of people not turning up.
"Who hasn't turned up? " (Agent)
"I don't know but it's a good thing that I'm here then.."
For whatever reason, a couple of people hadn't turned up so luckily my day was not about to be wasted after all. I was quickly dressed into 1980s fashion and hair dressed accordingly.
Off to the minibus to travel to Brixton Market. This is a wonderful place full of food that I have never seen before and quite frankly not sure I would like to try some of it either!!
After a very long 12 hours the job was done, filming was wrapped for the day leaving us to find our way to the nearest station....now, what direction was that again? !!
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