Just Friends

July 4th

     Today is the day. The day that filming begins. Weirdly, I have no nerves. I'm too excited and pumped about starting. Wayne, Stanley and I drove over to the newly refurbished police station. The whole placed was flowing when we pulled into the car park. Trailers and people scattered everywhere. People rushing back and forth with different equipment.
     Wayne opened my car door, "Have a great first day on set Miss Bishop."
     I thanked him and followed Stanley towards the station. He appeared to be in a rush, which is understandable since it's the first day and he'll expect everything to be in position. I should mention that movies aren't filmed in order. We don't film one scene inside, then head outside and film there, then head inside again. That's how I thought it was done when I was younger. We're shooting in sections and locations. This movie will be rather easy to film since the majority will be filmed in one building, meaning the equipment and trailers needn't be re-located every other day.
     "Can we get our chairs, please?" Stanley shouted as we stepped inside the building. "Two hundred million dollar budget and we don't even have any frickin' chairs set up for us."
     I smirked, but stopped in case he wasn't implying sarcasm. The station is not the cleanest place, but it definitely looks the part. Obviously outside is the large car park. You come up the stairs inside and there's a little reception desk at the front. You can't turn right so you turn left down a small corridor. If you keep walking straight there's the interrogation room on your right and then an emergency exit just past that. If you turn right before the interrogation room you enter a large floor, filled with desks, running on the outside of the floor are separate offices and then there's two floors above us, but I haven't been up there yet. A woman rushed over with some chairs, she unfolded one in front of me. It had BISHOP printed on the reverse. It was the coolest thing I had ever seen. I pulled out my phone and took a photo, sending it everyone at home.
     The first few hours of filming were spent filming everyone apart from me, this was after I'd spent an hour in hair and make up. It got to lunch, and I still hadn't filmed one take. It was fun to watch at first, but I wanted it to hurry and get to where I'd be in front of the lens. While everyone ate lunch, I headed outside and called Ethan. I needed to hear a familiar voice to settle down my frustration.
     "Hello, Ethan here."
     "Hey, it's me. I'm on set now... well outside. I've been sat around for three hours and not filmed one take yet. I just needed to speak to someone to settle me down."
     "August, don't worry. How are you going to manage for the next couple of months if you're like this after the first three hours? You're gaining experience from watching remember. Consider this, would you rather be sat watching or would you rather be back at college? I think we both know which the obvious answer is. Appreciate it as much as you can August, because once it's all over, you'll regret it."
     "I know, I know. I'm just panicking, and I'm nervous and anxious at the same time. Thank you, Ethan. How are you? Are you doing ok?"
     "I'm fine, don't worry about me. I got my cast off early! They said I could take it off and replace it with a brace. It's a lot more comfortable. I can take it off for showering and things now. And it's black instead of that disgusting yellow colour."
     "That yellow was horrible wasn't it? Well anyway I just wanted to call you and tell you how it's going."
     "August, I need to speak to you about something."
     "Oh hold on. They're calling me back in. I'll call you later Ethan if I can. Lots of love, take care. Bye."
     It's the most exhilarating moment, filming your first take. A lot has to be said before the scene begins. I'm sat waiting a minute for everything to be said before we're actually rolling.
     "Going for a take. Quiet, please!"
     "Camera running!"
     Then in quick succession some would shout "Sound," and "Speed."
     Meanwhile I'm sat wondering what the hell is going on.
     "MARK IT!" A woman yells at the top of her voice.
     A guy comes running from out of nowhere and sticks a clapperboard in my face and says, "Tables Of Turning scene thirty seven, take one."
     All that is left now is Stanley to shout action. After all that screaming, shouting, marking and yelling. I'm left there, completely baffled. My first take didn't go well, because I was too confused by everything that everyone was saying, but by my second take I was in full flow. I'm afraid I can't say that about the other thirteen takes we had to do because the guy in the background failed to fall over the desk correctly. I had to act all shocked and upset, and after thirteen takes, I sensed I would have meltdown and cry for real. The guy got it right eventually and we stopped shooting for the day.