Been in
Milton Keynes all day shooting a commercial. And I really
was shooting it; in this commercial I operate the camera
as it's hidden in the bag I'm carrying. It's for VW
Golf cars and I'm a customer who goes into check the
price of the cars while secretly filming it (as the
price is so unbelievably good I want the evidence -
you get the idea). Anyway, you don't see my face in
this ad (a relief for many I'm sure), just hear my voice
while the camera is on the VW salesman (played by Justin
Edwards) and lots of wobbly camera work. Some of
the script was improvised and I reckon it will be one
of those ads that is either very funny and memorable
or will sink without trace (by that I mean they won't
use it)… we'll see. So, the joys of Milton Keynes…
This may seem a tad controversial but who the fuck in
their right mind would live in Milton Keynes? And WHERE
do they live? All I could see was roundabouts, hundreds
of them, I was dizzy by the time I found the VW showroom
although I had a good eight hours to settle myself.
That's the one thing I'll never get used to with filming,
the waiting. These days (as I've done it once or twice
before) I know that if you have say, a 10am call you
won't be used before 1pm; so I take every gadget under
the sun with me to keep me occupied. My PSP is my latest
gadget (plays music, films, plays games etc) so with
that and the usual books, magazines, newspapers, telephone
etc I seem to get through it ("seem to get through
it"??? There are people working in frozen food
factories for £4 an hour and I have the filthy
cheek to complain about being bored in an over-paid
joke of a job like acting…). in this case it was
a 12pm call (I got there at 11am as I drove myself in
as I have a phobia about being late) and I was eventually
used about 7.45pm. Got home about 10.30pm. I did manage
to write some good notes today re the musical I'm having
a bash at (when I say notes I don't mean of the musical
variety); will write those up tomorrow. So all in all
we waited around all day then worked for about 1 hour,
doing about thirty takes (no 'set-ups', no waiting for
lighting, reverse shots, close ups etc, just me, Justin
and my wobbly secret filming). What an easy job I have,
sometimes it's embarrassing…
