Nov 28: From volunteer to movie star

I can't ever imagine anyone writing a sufficient job description for a Production Assistant. In the 9 months I've been with Spanner Films, I've been a volunteer, an office manager, an accounts assistant, a cook, a courier, a cocktail waitress, a make up artist, but today was officially the strangest working day (to date) of my time at Spanner.

Last week Producer Lizzie mentioned that Animation Director Martyn needed to shoot some footage in a green screen studio for the animated 2055 devastated world sequence. We needed to find half a dozen tall and skinny people willing to walk around a studio looking depressed for a few hours. Sounded easy enough.

Lizzie stopped talking, but was still looking at me, well, more like my lanky, skinny arms. I realised then that I didn't have to look far for 'Skinny Refugee Girl #1'. Damn. Soon after, our dainty Archive Researcher Beth walked into the room and was immediately cast as 'Skinny Refugee Girl #2'.

Pre-refugee shot.		Sylvia and Lee dressing as refugees.

The past drama filming that we've shot has taken place in the front room of Franny's dad's flat, using Mr Armstrong's lights and a (very) second hand blue screen smelling of moth balls. But thanks to a one of our keen volunteers Christiaan (who also happens to be the studio manager of Spectrecom Studios in Greenwich) along with a couple of DVDs and a box of nice chocolates, we had ourselves a proper posh studio for the afternoon.

Our next job was to find a hand full of 'Refugee Kids', so we did what Spanner has done on every other occasion, (no, we didn't go with Franny and Andy in) we nicked our mate's kids. Alfie and Louise kindly agreed for us to borrow their offspring Alistair, Oochella and Zac, for the afternoon.

Refugees in costumes		Martyn giving kids compositionlesson

Once we reached the studio, myself, Lizzie, Martyn and Animator Greg go to work with the superb crew at Spectrecom Studios, setting up lighting, props and last minute faf.

Due to the customary central London traffic, Beth and the kids were running late, so the crew spent the first hour filming me waddling in front of a green screen looking cold and depressed. Eager to get the shoot under wraps, we needed to find a few refugee boys. Studio Manager Christiaan was cast as 'Refugee Boy #1' but wasn't available until later in the afternoon.

Lizzie searched the studio and discovered carpet layer Lee who was immediately dragged in front of the camera to play 'Refugee Boy #2'.The shoot went down a storm. Martyn and Greg were happy with all of the shots; the kids were hungry for dinner and the adults in need of a stiff drink.

So now sitting here in the studio while Christiaan touches up the stage with green paint for tomorrows shoot, I thank myself for never taking an interest in acting. Being in front of the camera scares the shit out of me. But then again, we will all eventually be animated and unrecogisable, so I may just secretly pause the 0.03 of a second I’ll be on screen and watch my mother burst of pride.

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