In the Public Eye
Ah, another day with copious amounts of SA’s in the middle of the most car-unfriendly town in Britain (aka Bristol) on a weekday in the build up to Christmas. What could possible go wrong?
Well, firstly the night before we were all e-mailed a map specifying where we needed to go as parking was in one place, crowd costume was another, crowd holding was one place and guess what? Location was the other side of the river.
So we parked up on time, walked through the centre to crowd holding. As our group was part of the continuity 20-or-so, we were told to get breakfast at crew dining. Back at the car park. So a walk back to the car park and the caterer promptly informs us that he doesn’t have enough food for us AND the crew and we’re to go back to crowd costume as he’s sent down bacon rolls (the crew get full cooked breakfasts, may I add). Patience is starting to wear thin with the group already and we’re not even in costume yet. To save us walking back and forth like lemons, I collared the runner on site to talk to the 2nd who sent us over in the first place as it was obvious there’s crossed wires somewhere. As it turns out all the SA’s are meant to go to crowd costume to get ready and have measly bacon rolls expect us 20(ish) who get prioritized because of continuity. Result! Even though part of me felt they were somewhat redeeming themselves from a previous discrepancy. So after a lovely full cooked breakfast was consumed we were ready to take on the day!
As there was quite a lot of us, there was understandably quite a lot of waiting around. The entrance to our costume change was surprisingly public, as in literally it lead straight onto a public road with the tea/coffee table outside and only one security lady to keep things in check. When I was in costume, me and my mate Tim decided to scrap the instant stuff and went to a stall and trying to blag a free coffee stating “Do you know who I am?!?” dressed as a WWII prisoner of war. It was funnier at the time. For the record, we paid full price. It’ll work one day…
One interesting moment however was I was just standing outside answering an e-mail on my phone and all of a sudden there was a flash! I look up to see a woman putting away her mobile phone, said “Thank you!” then jumped in her van and drove off. I was completely bewildered by what had just happened, moreso because she didn’t try and get my attention or ask to pose which normally happens. The security lady then told me that the lady who papped me noticed me, pulled over asked her to take a photo and obviously she said she couldn’t as it would have been unprofessional. Still, was very unexpected and was taken back by it.
The walk TO set however was entertaining. Now imagine this: you’re walking around your local town around half 10/11ish. You’re maybe on your lunch break? Or just doing some Christmas shopping? All of a sudden you see a group of people catch your eye; you do a double take. Yes. It’s a large group of men dressed as Nazi’s walking through the centre. This is what my dear friends had to endure. I got a few looks myself with all the cuts and bruising makeup had done but those guys… I REALLY felt bad for.
The set itself was even in quite a public location. It was a dock scene so there was a massive ship there and we had numerous members of the public taking photos and recording the events from the bridge adjacent to the set. The tea/coffee table was inaccessible from the SA holding area and I was half-tempted to put out a tweet to see if anyone would bring me a latte, hell even a black coffee from anywhere! We were bloody freezing!
At one point the continuity-20 of us were asked to line up then remove the cuts and bruises makeup and certain items of clothes for fresh newer ones as it was a scene where we were getting sent home. The problem was, nobody had told the costume department this. Oops! So there were rushing around trying to find us clothes which where stylised to the last-minute brief given to them and get us changed pronto. I had the short straw it seems and the shoes they gave me I could not walk in, not even the slightest. Wasn’t even funny actually, the shoes were flopping off my ankles and I inadvertently became the outlet for the costume girls frustration literally to the point where I had to sit out of an entire scene then return for another scene later with my new trousers stretched over my original boots and then placed at the back of a queue in the scene to hide me as much as possible. At this point it was like 10 o’clock on a winters night and it was freezing! The majority of the SA’s had been released and there were only a few more scenes left.
I really hope this film looks good when it’s finished as we really did suffer throughout the entirety of this production. Only one day left, hope that goes well…