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!!
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