It's a wrap 4: Still rolling

30 July 2005
More trivia from the weekend film shoot.
I always thought that the director just said 'action' and then the actors began to do their thing.
How wrong I was. It starts with the least busy guy on the set (whatever his official title is) saying 'Quiet everyone'. Then the director (or sometimes DOP) says [camera] 'rolling'. The director then says 'mark it' and my beloved clapper board is 'clapped' and the clapper flapper person says slate 16, take 752. She then tears away as the director says 'first positions' whatever that refers to. He then says 'background action' meaning 'extras try to act and fail as usual' followed by those mythical words 'and action'. I decided I preferred 'and action' to 'action' and subsequently felt let down if 'action' was detached from its conjunction.
Last blog, I imagined Bush and Blair trying to make unscripted speeches.
Here's the next instalment. Just Blair, this time:
"Well, y'know, it's all very well for you to ask me to make an impromptu speech but, y'know, it's not as simple as that. If I want to say something important to the people of this country, I leak it. It would be very irresponsible for me to leak from the top of my head. Everyone knows that I'm a decent bloke, doing a decent job, indecently and I'm not as simple as that. I can't just walk in here and expect people to take me seriously, unless I have a stupid grin on my face, like this. Or this. No I prefer the first one, no that's my wrong side. Try this. Perfect."
More to come, but that's all for now.
There endeth this blog. Stay tuned!