Being Taken for Granite
So today was the last day on the WWII shoot as Russian POW’s and quite frankly everyone was looking forward to finishing this production, but yet still in very high spirits.
We rocked up to a car park not far from where we did the night shoot the other week, but after costume/makeup routine we were rounded up onto a minibus and driven nearly an hour away to a quarry on the middle of nowhere.
The first half of the day wasn’t much to write home about to be honest; we divided up and either breaking rocks or putting rocks into the back of a truck. Which was pretty comical as some of the rocks were real and some were painted lumps of polystyrene. I even found one with a ‘recycle materials’ logo as clear as day.
I was in a line of gents passing down the rocks in a row and as we were instructed that the rocks were “really heavy” everyone naturally started over-acting, pretending to strain with all their might with the fake rocks and then being nonchalant with the real ones, not caring at all. Doesn’t sound like much but it was damn funny at the time and certainly made the day go quicker.
The second half of the day involved a few of the boys working with the stunt guys for a scripted scuffle over a scrap of food. Considering the director was knocking out scene after scene with little time for us to recuperate or get refreshments between takes, it was great for this stunt guy to grab his radio and be like “Nah, these guys haven’t had a break in hours. We are taking a 10 minute tea break.” Nice to be treated as a human now and again!
The last scene of the day involved us walking up a trail which lead out of the quarry. The problem was that there wasn’t much time left for shooting as daylight was fading fast so once the director yelled “cut” we all had to sprint back down this massive trail (which wasn’t easy to move up in period shoes who no soles let alone moving back down at speed) to get back to our number 1 position ready for another take. But it was cool, the lads I was working with were a fun bunch and had a laugh making our way down after every take.
I guess that’s what makes this job worthwhile; not necessarily what you’re doing that makes the day, but the nutters you’re stuck with!