No, I'll Stand Here ... Because I'm The Director

5 and 6 May – Early wakeup call to hit the film set of Lemmings ... Had been given instructions to make it on set by 8am in order to start the ball rolling but, expectedly, technical and creative reasons meant it would not be many hours before the film actually started rolling.   In my role as sound guy and general dogsbody my tasks included moving the car to a better timed parking place and hiding the parking ticket that had already been given for sitting in a disabled space overnight.  The other individuals involved in the production were of various levels of professionalism and I had to endure the discussion between the actors of how psychic their agents were (and keep a straight face).  The camera man seemed particularly intent on getting the lights right and this and a few continuity issues caused filming to go way past the shooting schedule but best laid plans are always bound to go wrong.  Some of the team were happy to kick on until the wee hours but camera man was fading rapidly post 10pm despite regular kaffirnation so a wrap was called and I shuffled back towards Redfern with the intention of an early night but Richard Dawkins’ Christmas lecture tempted me to push the boundaries a little further which was probably a mistake as the wakeup bell was none too welcoming the next morning (is it ever?).  Rolled Paddington way, not fully equipped, but couldn’t be helped.  Got to push through the fear factor at the moment, always a bit difficult but just has to be done.  Sunday shoot seemed to fl0w quite a bit better than Saturday’s – despite the adage that it is unwise to work with children the script necessitated the presence of one small baby and we managed to get through his scenes without too much difficulty.  Whenever he was supposed to cry he was smiling and whenever he was supposed to smile he cried but that’s just the nature of babies.  I would have preferred 20s style film making where we locked the babe in the closet until it was sufficiently traumatised for work but unfortunately the mother wouldn’t leave the set.  Next time.  Rest of the afternoon moved pretty rapidly in fits and starts – Ang Lee number of takes on the final death scene but a wrap was inevitable.  Still not certain whether I like the script – definitely unsure about the “message” that the film/play was trying to say ... Definitely agree that there are far too many humans being born in the world but am also pretty certain that it should keep on happening otherwise we’d be living in a crappe science fiction world but more on that once I see a final product.  But who am I to judge?