03/02/2008 by Rob.

I’ve been working at Wembley Arena as a steward since October 2007 (Rush was my first gig). The best has been the Police, as I was positioned in front of the stage throughout the concert. I heard everything, but only caught the odd glimpse of the band, as we are supposed to be watching the crowd, to prevent them from rushing the stage. However, the crowd were really great that time, in a really good mood, and a happy time was had by all.

Other gigs haven’t been quite as enjoyable. Babyshambles proved a tough one, with several girls having to be taken to First Aid throughout owing to the crushing conditions in front of the stage. Motorhead & Alice Cooper were the same (although Joan Collins walked past me at that one!).

And then there are the boring concerts. Stereophonics (several people walked out). Wet Wet Wet. And UB40.

But UB40/Maxi Priest threw up an amazing experience. I was positioned in front of the sound desk and had to walk back and forth showing people to their seats. I was doing this with one couple towards the end of Monsieur Priest’s supporting set, and was coming back to my original position afterwards. As I neared the desk, the barrier in front of it opened up, and a security guard came out.

Followed by another.

Followed by a little guy in a crumpled suit. ‘I’m just following you,’ he said to the guard in front. As he walked past me, I realised who he was.

Sir.

Paul.

McCartney.

MACCA!

I froze. I wanted to reach out and grab him. I wanted to shake his hand and thank him for his music.

But I wasn’t allowed to. I was supposed to be professional. AAAAAAAARRGH!!!

So I watched him go. Couldn’t believe my eyes…………….

Not many people knew he was there - only a few who, like me, had seen him leaving the sounddesk area. They were as stunned as I was, telling their friends around them, who understandably scoffed.

The interval soon followed, and word was going round that Sir P. was in the building. Towards the end of the interval, the same security men came back, sandwiching Macca and another, smaller, gentleman, with long, wispy grey hair. I studied him for a few seconds, and then realised that it was Denny Laine! Two members of Wings, who allegedly had been angry at each other ever since the demise of the band in the late ’70s.

And yet here they were, hanging out with each other! Could a Wings reunion be on the cards?

By this time, people were on the lookout, and the few rows surrounding the sounddesk burst into applause as Macca approached, which he acknowledged with several waves. A few people were flashing their mobiles at him, and standing in front of the desk as UB40 started up - we had to clear them away.

Then Ali Campbell announced from the stage during their third number that Macca was in the audience, and the whole place erupted. People deliberately walked past the desk area, ‘pretending’ not to be looking at him. One girl asked me to get his autograph for her, and couldn’t understand it when I said no. All the while he was grooving to the lilting reggae noises being played in front of us.

What I found interesting about my encounter was that it showed Macca as a human being. You normally only see him either playing in concert on TV, being interviewed, or running from the divorce courts. It was nice to see him simply letting his hair down for a change (albeit to UB40! What’s the story there?).

So I’ve now had a close encounter with four Beatles. And seen George Martin.

Sorry, Neil……

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03/02/2008 by Rob.

Flashback: Fri Oct 19th

‘Hi Rob! It’s Sarah at Casting. Are you free to film next Tuesday?’

‘No problem.’

‘Great. You’ll be playing a train traveller on a film called LAST CHANCE HARVEY. Filming takes place at Paddington Station and on board the Heathrow Express.’

‘I’ll be there.’

Tues Oct 23rd

Got to the station at 8am - missed breakfast (damn!). Had to make do with a bowl of cornflakes. Sat on crew bus - couldn’t remember name of film. Found a callsheet - film called LAST CHANCE HARVEY. First actor called to shoot today: Emma Thompson. Oh my God. Emma Thompson. Yes. Suddenly remembered reading an article in the newspaper whilst I was shooting THE DUCHESS a few weekends ago. An accompanying picture of Emma with….no, it couldn’t be….

I check the callsheet again. Second actor called today: it’s only Hoffman! Dustin bloody Hoffman. Benjamin Braddock. Ratso Rizzo. Marathon Man. Rain Man. The man I saw playing Shylock on stage in THE MERCHANT OF VENICE in 1987.

The Hoff-meister.

Dustin.

Hoffman.

I can’t believe it. I’m going to be making a film with Dustin Hoffman.

10.25am - I’m standing in a train carriage with several extras of various sizes, waiting to emerge as part of a ‘morning rush hour’ scenario.

And in the middle of us all are Emma Thompson & Dustin Hoffman.

I’m attempting to act blase, as though this sort of thing happens all the time. I make no attempt to look at them directly. In reality I’m screaming inside.

Now you might think, ‘Get a grip, Rob - they’re just two human beings.’

No - they are not. They are living gods. And one of them is Dustin Hoffman.

We do the scene over and over again, each time emerging in a different formation. I’ve been instructed to have my mobile clamped to my ear, pretending to shout into it (all the extras have to be silent so that the director and sound engineer can hear E & D’s dialogue). And thus the morning passes.

11.30am - E & D are filming a scene of the two of them taking a taxi away from the station. However, this means that they have to do it in the middle of the general public, and there are problems with various star-struck(!) people trying to watch or take photos. They eventually manage to shoot the required shots, and the techies start to dismantle the lighting rigging. D. nips off sharpish to the base unit round the corner, bodyguard in tow; it seems that the public are nervous about approaching him for autographs, but they have no such qualms with E. She signs left and right, poses for photos, etc. for a good five minutes before following Dustin. A good egg. My estimation of her goes up enormously.

1.30pm - after lunch, we head back to the station concourse. Time to board the Hogwart’s Heathrow Express. We have two carriages all to ourselves, and we’ll be making two round-trips whilst we film another scene with E. and D.

One of the assistant directors seats us all (40+ in total) in the main carriage. As luck would have it, I’m placed in a window seat, facing the back of train. I’ll therefore be hidden from view when the cameras are turning. Damn, damn, damn.

But the director’s not happy. The camera has to be placed further back than first thought. He needs the extras brought down the carriage more, and the AD asks us to move accordingly. I don’t need telling twice. I’m up from my allotted seat and hare down the carriage to the seat nearest the camera. Sorted. That’s better.

The scene involves E. standing in one compartment, and D. in another. He spots her at the other end of the crowded carriage, and makes his way through the standing passengers to reach her, talking at her while he does so.

The first shot is the scene from E’s POV. ‘We need a few people to stand in the aisleway,’ says the director, and the AD selects them at random. ‘You, sir…you, madam…you, madam….you, sir…..and you.’ A hand taps me on the shoulder. Blimey.

I’m told to stand in the aisle with my arm outstretched, holding on to the luggage rail over the opposite bank of seats. D. is standing at the other end of the carriage, calling out suggestions as to various shots. He then makes his way down the aisle, and comes to rest in front of me. ‘Why don’t we do the take with me trying to peer over and then under this guy’s arm? Hi! What’s your name?’

‘Rob.’

‘Hi Rob. Pleased to meet you.’ He shakes my hand.

I can’t believe this is happening!

We do the shot several times, each time with D. struggling to get past me to reach E. At the end of the shot, D. comes up to me and shakes my hand. ‘Thanks, Rob. Good working with you.’

‘My pleasure.’

Blase on the outside - screaming inside.

By this time, we’ve arrived back at Paddington, and several people get off, including many of the extras. However, I stay on - how could I not?

The crew then have to turn the camera around and re-film the shot, this time from D’s POV. Whilst this happens, I’m sat down in a compartment at the end of the carriage - opposite Emma. We discuss various things - the shooting schedule, her dress - and share in a plate of biscuits that one of the ADs is passing round. Then she gets the call to pose for the camera, and she’s off.

So the scene is re-shot, with the emphasis now on Emma. However, D. still needs to deliver his lines as before, to give her someone to focus on - but this time behind the camera. Another big guy is called upon to stand in front of D., and I appear to have been forgotten. Ah well…that’s show biz.

However, Emma pipes up. ‘The original chap is still with us.’ She calls back to me. ‘Rob?’ 

I’ll love her for ever and ever.

So once again I’m called upon to bar D’s way, in order to give his voice an ‘authentic’ sound. Several takes, and that’s that. I take my seat amongst the other extras as we head back to Paddington.

As we’re all talking, I notice D. edging towards me. ‘Scuse me….’scuse me’. He’s standing in front of me, grinning. ‘Thanks again, Rob.’ His hand is stuck out towards me. I take it and shake it again. ‘No problem, Dustin.’

And that’s that. My day of glory has finished. Filming with Emma and Dustin. Don’t know if my scenes will end up in the finished movie, but it doesn’t matter. I know I filmed them.

I can now die a happy man…..

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19/10/2007 by Rob.

Just as a follow-up to my previous story - look out for my cameo in the latest Morrisons advert featuring football pundit Alan Hanson (I’m in the horse-racing sequence). Spotted tonight on Channel Five after 30 Rock.

Cheers, R.

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17/10/2007 by Rob.

Have just spent three days shooting a new film in Greenwich called THE DUCHESS. It’s the story of Georgiana, who was Duchess of Devonshire in the late 18th Century - a sort of Paris Hilton of her day.

Day 1 - Sunday 14th Oct

Had to get down to Greenwich for 8am, which meant rising at 6am (on a Sunday morning - help!). The shoot took place at the old Naval College near the Cutty Sark - a location I’ve been to twice before with the Arts & Heritage Club. I’d had to go for a costume fitting the previous Monday, so I was already familiar with the 80 min tube journey via the Jubilee Line and the DLR.

I had to queue up at the costume tent on site for 20 mins in order to get my outfit, and then a further half-hour for my make-up and wig fitting before I was deemed ready to start work. Unfortunately I had arrived too late for the normal full breakfast, so had to make do with a sausage roll (which was OK). I then had to sit down to wait in the mess tent.

I was playing a gentleman farmer attending what would have been the original ‘farmer’s market’ in Westminster. When all 300+ of us got to the set, we were amazed by the transformation of one of the roads beside the Dining Hall. What once had been asphalt and pavement was now a mud-and-straw-strewn marketplace (I say mud and straw - as the day progressed, it was gradually mingled with extraneous droppings from the horses that were pulling five carriages up and down the street. I was next to one of the coaches at one stage, and had to jump to avoid being splashed by an unhealthy amount of discarded dung!).

There were numerous stalls on both sides of the road selling vegetables, pewter items, wood, live geese and hens, dead rats (and rat-traps!) and so forth. A lot of the food was artificial, but several stalls contained game shot the previous day on royal estates - partridges, rabbits - as well as a roast pig split in two a la Damien Hirst. There was also a fresh fish stall, with several real ones scattered amongst the plastic variety for sampling purposes.

Our task was simply to browse amongst the various stalls, and then react with joy as the Royal Coach containing the Duchess rolled through the thoroughfare. Again. And again. And again. Fortunately it was a lovely sunny day, so everyone was in a good mood.

I was lucky enough to be positioned near to one girl playing a ‘lady of the night’ (even though it was daytime), with a low corsage. Needless to say, it was like flies to a honeypot to some of the gents on set, and there was much flirting and witty euphemism-ing from one and all (myself included, of course).

Did I mention that the Duchess is being played by Keira Knightley (or did my heading give it away?)? We had great fun playing ’spot-the-Keira’ each time her carriage shot past us, as it was usually her stand-in doing the run whilst the crew were rehearsing the scheduled movements. (At one point, the horses decided to gallop down the street rather than trot, and only the quick-thinking of my younger male companion prevented me from being trampled to death as I was caught between the carriage and a horse-and-rider coming the other way. Phew! Thank you, sir!).

We filmed the same scene over and over from different angles, and it was only the onset of dusk that brought the day to a close at 6pm. However, there was then a stampede as 300+ extras raced back to base in order to have their wigs removed and costumes carefully stored away - as a result, I didn’t manage to escape until 7.30pm, eventually arriving home at 9pm. More of the same tomorrow!

Day 2 - Monday 15th

8.30am start today - a little more acceptable, with the crowd reduced from 300+ to 250. The scene has now shifted to an inner courtyard at the college, and the majority of the stalls have been transferred accordingly (fortunately minus the dung!). The roadway has been completely converted overnight back to its usual condition - hard to believe it’s the same location as yesterday.

Today we are a crowd listening to a political speech given from a wooden podium, surrounded by a different market to the one we were frequenting yesterday. However, the sunny weather is not being kind to the produce - the pig is attracting several flies (most of whom I thought were supposed to be dead at this time of year?), and the fish, which was fresh with a slight scent yesterday, is now getting a little whiffy - and with another sunny day on the cards, the prospects are not appealing.

However, it’s our first chance to see Keira in the flesh - and to say you’ve spent two days staring up at her on the podium would make many a man green with envy. She’s wearing a huge bushy blond wig and what looks like a dead ferret on top of her hat - the weight was probably phenomenal. Her hands are also stuffed inside a dead cat for a muff. She seems to be coping, though, and appears to be in good spirits - though all she has to do on each take is to introduce the main speaker, Mr Charles Gray of the Whig Party (played by Dominic Cooper, who Paul advises me was in THE HISTORY BOYS). He has the bulk of the scene on his shoulders, as he has to give a rallying speech over and over again, each time from a different angle. We have to chip in with cheers, claps and ‘hear hear’s’ at various points.

What I have seen off-camera are most extras walking around with mobile phones glued to their ears - it’s a bizarre sight seeing any of the extras doing a 21st-Century occupation, such as drinking from styrofoam cups or ’smoking a fag’. And as for going to the toilet, and coping with various flaps and stockings etc whilst doing so - well…! All I can say is, thank God for the invention of the zip!

P.M. - we are all assembled in the mess tent after lunch for a severe talking-to. Apparently one extra has been ‘discreetly’ photographing Keira with his mobile phone, and she’s not happy, especially after a number of recent ‘private’ snaps that have made their way into the papers. So we are all forbidden from taking our mobiles to the set. Marvellous. Thanks a bunch, mysterious extra.

Don’t know if lunch has affected the stars, but Dominic starts to mess up his speech during the afternoon. Then it’s Keira’s turn, with a few well-placed f-words emerging as a result. Then Dominic again. Focus, guys, focus….

Finish 6.15pm - manage to make a quicker getaway this time, which meant getting home for 8.25pm - just in time to miss University Challenge. The perils of not having Sky + - oh well….

Day 3 - Tuesday 16th

7am call this time - up at 5am (groan - feeling the worse for wear by this time). Same scene as yesterday - a few more close-up shots of the stars, with us lot chipping in our interjections - but as we’re not being directly filmed during this, we’ve been reduced to 80+ in number. However, rain is forecast for today - and as we arrive at the forecourt to film, all dressed up to the nines, the downpour starts. Fish a lot stinkier now - however the rain is helping to keep the pong at a reasonable level.

So we’re meandering around the college in the dry, drinking tea, coffee and apple juice, and I’m taking the opportunity to learn my lines for OUTSIDE EDGE, which goes on stage in November. A few extras have brought their mobiles on set today, but no-one on the crew seems to have said anything about them. Unfortunately I’ve left mine in my bag in the mess tent - and I subsequently miss out on a filming opportunity for another job for this Wednesday. I should learn to break the rules a little more often….

The rain finally slows to a fine drizzle at 11.30am, and we proceed with the day’s filming. We won’t actually be seen on camera during the close-ups, so we’re given plastic ponchos to wear to protect our wigs and costumes from the drizzle. As we’re merely providing a sightline for Keira and Dominic, we haven’t got to look at them, and my attention wanders to an extra standing behind them who will be seen in the background of the close-ups, between two pillars (those aren’t pillars….!). Some outrageous over-acting, obviously being done in an attempt to stand out on-screen whilst Dominic is talking. Looks suspiciously like Ricky Gervais, ironically….. disgraceful behaviour. Hope he gets CGI’d out of the shot…..

Lunch is announced, and I get to leave the set walking directly in Keira’s footsteps. Her usual minder is mysteriously absent this time, which gives me a chance to examine her massive headdress from a few feet away. We walk through a small corridor. She subsequently climbs into a waiting limo, and I head off to join the rest of the extras at the mess tent - such is fame!

After lunch, with both the rain and ponchos now thankfully absent, we shoot a number of establishing shots in and around the courtyard, while Keira and Dominic film an intimate moment elsewhere. Unfortunately this means having to get nose-to-nose with the aforementioned stinky fish, which people are understandably reluctant to do, and the more wily extras (including yours truly) manage to get to the outskirts of every shot in order to avoid the pong.

This takes up the rest of the afternoon, and we finally wrap proceedings at 5.45pm. I wave both wig and costume goodbye, and get back to Harrow for 8pm. The shooting will continue here until Thursday, after which time the film unit will move on to Hampton Court (having started at Chatsworth House); however, as the number of extras needed is shrinking by the day, I am now surplus to requirements. Sob!

Thus my first period piece comes to an end - rather satisfactory. More please!

Posted in Work | 4 Comments »

07/10/2007 by Steve.

The process of undertaking a decorating or home improvement project always seems to be the same. First you identify a need - maybe the living room looks a bit tired and it needs a lick of paint. Or you want to change the use of a room for practical purposes.

Our well-presented garden…the way it was

Next come weeks of discussions about how the improvement will be implemented - colour schemes, drawing of plans etc. If it doesn’t lead to a potential divorce, this can produce results over time. But the plan is never finalised until you…..START THE JOB!

Starting the job. Hmmmmm! When is the right time to start the job? A degree of commitment will be required, so when will you be clear to get started?

All kinds of excuses offer themselves up: you’re going on holiday; you have been working hard and need a break; you haven’t got the money etc.

But then one weekend, for no apparent reason, the day has come. A positive attitude has overcome you. You know you will get the job done by Monday! And it will be wonderful and you will soon be inviting your friends round to show of this greatly improved part of your property.

By 10am, the tools are all out and the job is underway. DIY! The great British weekend pastime…

But by 2pm the next phase has normally started. It’s the bit where, having started at long last…you really wish you hadn’t! Surprise, surprise! Clearing all the old stuff out is harder than you expected. Those people who put the old wallpaper up didn’t intend it to come down!

Just keep saying ‘it’s got to get worse before it gets better’

Or in our case….THE PEOPLE WHO BUILT THE GARDEN-DECKING ACTUALLY DID A REALLY GOOD JOB. Remodelling our garden was not going to be a quick job!

And at the end of the weekend? I haven’t got all the decking removed, I’m knackered, the garden looks like a building site and I have a ton of wood to get rid of!

Anyone with a lorry having a bonfire party in the next few weeks….?

Is it too late in the year for a BBQ?

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02/10/2007 by Rob.

Dateline Sept 25th: I have just completed a marathon 18-hour day shooting a commercial  for a Polish beer named Tyskie:

Apparently the influx of Poles into the UK has meant that a lot of Polish products will be following them accordingly, and thus we have yet another beer on an already-flooded market.

And to top it all, I doubt if I’ll even be in the final result, as I only shot one scene, in the far distance, obscured by two pints of said brew in the immediate foreground. 12 mid-day Monday to 6am Tuesday morning, with only a light snooze in the middle to get by on…..still - could be worse - could be stuck in an office in front of a PC all day…..

Cheers

Rob

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23/09/2007 by Rob.

Hello! Rob the Guinea Pig here. I shall start off my first entry to this blog by sharing with you lovely people a few exciting days from last week.

Thursday 13th Sept - up at 4am to get to Pinewood Studios in pitch darkness for 6am (joy!). (Got stopped by the police at 5.20am for weaving my way through the scene of a traffic accident, rather than turn back to find another route. I’d had four hours sleep - so sue me!)

I’m playing a ferry passenger in the new Batman movie, and am told to bring clothes that ‘a refugee would grab had they had to flee Gotham City in a hurry’ (does anybody actually flee slowly from anywhere?) - so I basically wore what I usually wear - black jeans and patterned t-shirt. Had to swap the t-shirt at Costume for a denim shirt instead, as that was said to be more American-looking (they found one that just about fitted my ample frame).

I then spent eight hours sitting on a baking-hot bus waiting to be called to the set, during which time I: (a) ate a cooked breakfast and dinner, (b) chatted to a few ‘femme fatales’, (c) snoozed a little, (d) read a few pages of my book (THE TERROR by Dan Simmons - excellent so far), (e) texted a teacher friend (Jeremy), and (f) visited the toilet portacabin twice.

It’s a life of glamour making films, I tell you.

Then at 3.15pm we got the official summons to Stage ‘S’, where the ferry set is in position. Can’t tell you anything about the scene, I’m afraid (owing to a confidentiality agreement we’re all obliged to sign), but one of the villains can be heard over a loudspeaker. Sadly, I doubt if you’ll see me in the finished movie, as I was right at the back of the room throughout filming.

We eventually wrapped at 6pm - a twelve-hour day. Still…beats nine-to-five in an office somewhere…

Friday 14th - interview with RES Ltd, who provide stewarding at Wembley Arena amongst other places. Given my current employment with CES at Wembley Stadium and QPR, I was accepted without qualm. I have an induction on Oct 3rd, and presumably will start work asap afterwards. I’d hoped to start work with them back in July, but they’ve been a little tardy with their recruitment programme. Still…some excellent shows coming up (Rush, Police, Bill Bailey, Hard-Fi) - don’t know yet how I go about registering for them. Should be good.

Sat 15th - rehearsal for OUTSIDE EDGE, the play I’m doing with Proscenium in Nov. I’m playing Dennis, the cad - interesting part, as I’ve never played a cad before. Am summoning up all my memories of Terry-Thomas as I go through the lines.

Eve - games evening at Chrissie and Nick’s. Played Scattergories, and had great fun winding up Nick. Under ‘Famous Duos’ and the letter ‘O’, he had ‘Orville’. We discounted it, as he hadn’t written down ‘…and Keith Harris’, thereby nullifying the answer. He wouldn’t have it. ‘Who else would it be??’

‘Could be Wilbur Wright,’ his mate Steve replied, ‘but you haven’t written that down either. We’re not mind-readers!’

Suffice to say, he added a point to his score, and we all took it off at the end….

Sun 16th - took advantage of the London Open House Weekend and went down to Rotherhithe. Had a tour of the Sands Film Studios and the Brunel Museum, with an eye to organising an outing with the Arts & Heritage Club next year. Very good - will definitely suggest it to Head Office.

Also visited Soseki Museum in Clapham, after reading about it in The Book of Lists - London under ‘8 Unusual Museums’. Maintained in tribute to Natsume Soseki, one of Japan’s most famous writers, who live opposite the museum from 1900-1902 (the museum founders tried to buy the actual location, but as the owners wanted £5m for it, they thought again!). Most of the visitors are Japanese, but there were one or two Europeans dotted throughout the Visitors Book. A shame that he’s virtually unknown over here. The museum is actually a converted two-room flat - a little strange from the outside, but it works after a fashion. I doubt if anyone would be aware of it if you either (a) weren’t Japanese, or (b) hadn’t read The Book of Lists - London.

Mon 17th - another day’s filming, this time at Kempton Park racecourse for a Morrisons commercial, with Alan Hansen. Unusually, we were called at 10am for breakfast, didn’t start filming till midday, and then wrapped at 3pm, followed by a roast beef lunch. I was playing a punter comparing the odds in front of a line of tic-tac men, deciding which horse to back. I was in the foreground for this one, so may appear on-camera. All in all, very satisfying.

Tues 18th - stewarding at Loftus Rd for QPR. A little nippy, but a couple of free hot pies went down well. Moved to Directors Box for a change, instead of standing at the bottom of a draughty stairwell - much better!

Wed 19th - day off. Bliss!

And that’s it! Ciao for now!

R.

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