Hollywood Inaction

I tootled off late this afternoon following the tinseltown trail to see The Wolfman filming in Lacock. OK, I had a bit of a thing about Sir Anthony Hopkins as a teenager (in his classic BBC serial/Alistair McClean action hero phase), so I was really after a glimpse of the beknighted one. What struck me was how so many people (at least 50) can do what seems so very little for so long. The pictured extras were positively animated compared to what didn't happen for most of the hour I spent there. The fact that we were outside and most of the filming was inside the Tithe Barn probably didn't help either. In addition, the crew's communication system was less obtrusive than Monday's, so I suspect they heard all sorts going on through their earpieces. They did react, rather zombie-like in my view, to unheard commands from time to time. Sometimes this resulted in a series of barked orders - 'Stand by guys, let's lock it up',... 'Rolling',...'Cut there'. During this sequence two actors (one of them a rather dishy Benecio del Toro) briefly appeared at the door of the Tithe Barn and went in (dialogue - 'Morning', 'Morning' quickly fading to a mutter, mutter, mumble) whilst a lady with a basket walked past the door. That's it. 5 times in half an hour.

Three newspaper photographers were there to capture it all. Judging by their conversation they'd had a pretty thin day of it and had resorted to discussing their kit, especially lenses. 'Is that a 35:70 you've got there?' 'Yes, but I've got a 28:35 - I can do anything with that'. So why weren't you using it then? I also got an insight into the Hollywood hierarchy - the pictures they'd got of Hugo Weaving and Benecio del Toro just weren't good enough. 'Is He (Hopkins) here then?' 'Oh yes, went past this morning in a silver Merc.'

Trouble erupted just as I was leaving. The filming was right by the village hall which was holding a craft fair. Stallholders were disgruntled that no-one was visiting them and were complaining bitterly to the film crew about blocked access. To be fair, the film crew did keep the footpath open during most of the filming, allowing access both to the hall and the scarecrow trail many children were following in the late afternoon sunshine. I think the scarecrow trail was more of a problem than the filming - plenty of people were going past the hall, but with kids in tow crafts weren't really what parents had in mind for an afternoon's entertainment.

Update: dnd, one of my regular Commenters was an extra in another life. I just had to pull out her Comment into this Post as it adds a further insight into what happens on a film set:

'One of the reasons it takes so long is that it is re shot with the focus on a different person each time, so they can cut to full face view. That plus getting exactly what the director wants can take for ever even on an indoor set. There is also the problems of extraneous noise, people, cars, planes that we filter out but the sound recordist picks up.

But you do sit around for a long time, I discovered I could usually crochet a pet blanket during one days filming.'