Life’s been somewhat routine lately. Partly because I’ve been trying to financially recover from Christmas, but also because there seem to have been little opportunity to do fun things.
Recently though i had the opportunity to be an ‘Extra’ in a Hollywood movie. Obviously i jumped at the chance! Being an Extra can be dull, but it’s easy and different way to earn a bit of cash.
Call time was 9.30am, but because of various delays we didn’t go to makeup/wardrobe until 11am. Finally we got to set for midday, but the lighting guys hadn’t finished setting up. The Assistant Director had us take our positions at about 1pm and we did a couple of rehearsals before breaking for lunch.
Extras are the bottom of the food chain, so it’s not uncommon for the caterers to have run out of the best food before the Extras get an opportunity to tuck in. What was left though was still delicious.
Back on set the scene was ‘speed dating’ in a trendy bar. I have no idea how this fits into the film and to be honest i don’t really care, but for part of it I am sat behind one of the actors, so there is a possibility of some screen time. The scene itself called for the Extras to silently pretend to talk to each other, which invariably meant fits of hysterical silent laughter...
Several different angles were shot and the scene was in the can by 7pm. I was held back to appear in the background of the 3rd scene they planned to shoot that day, but due to delays on the 2nd scene (which I wasn’t in) they decided to bin the 3rd scene entirely allowing me to ‘wrap’ at 10pm. I didn’t mind though, the overtime rates aren’t bad...
Speaking to some of the other Extras, I found out that it’s best to sign up with several different agencies in order to get ‘decent’ jobs. Several of them had just come off working on Pirates of the Caribbean 4, the new X-Men film and various other big budget Hollywood films currently being shot in the UK.
One of those agencies just happened to be having a recruitment day in London a few days after, so off I went to our nation’s capital. The recruitment day included a photo shoot, which is handy as I don’t have many good photos of myself to send to other agencies. I then had some time to kill and a Travelcard, so over a bite of lunch I perused the internet to see what London had to offer that day.
The British Museum’s exhibition of The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead (clicky) appealed, so off I went.
The British Museum is a gorgeous building with the most amazing ceiling and the exhibition was being held in the central reading room – basically a large circular library. Not that you could see much of the library because they had built a room within the reading room specifically for the exhibition. The walls painted black and the only illumination from the exhibit lights meant that it was very dark and the hundred or so tourists (most of whom were wearing rucksacks) meant that it was very crowded.
Hollywood has lied to us. I half expected to see a big book which had lain undiscovered for thousands of years and contained all the Ancient Egyptian secrets, or something. What I didn’t realise is that every Pharaoh, important person or even average person with a bit of money was buried with their own copy of The Book of the Dead, so there are loads of them knocking about. What makes them special though is that they were written on papyrus, then tightly rolled and bound, so that at first glance they appear to be a wooden log with the age rings you’d associate with a cross section. Over the years these books have been carefully unrolled and preserved and it’s amazing how the colours have survived. The books vary as to their quality, size and number of spells they contain based on how much the deceased’s family were willing to pay the scribes. Usually they were written in advance, then the pictures and the name of the deceased added for the particular customer. They have an example of a Book of the Dead which was buried with someone without being filled in, there are spaces for the pictures and name still to be added. The most impressive example of a complete Book of the Dead is that of a priest’s daughter. Intricate detail, clear writing and every spell in full, it comes in at a whopping 37 metres long!
For me though, the exhibition was ruined by the hand held multi media guides. I didn’t use one and I’m glad I didn’t. The earphones reduce spatial awareness meaning that everyone is bumping into each other and they cause the wearer to unnecessarily raise their voice. My main gripe though is that the presentation for each artefact is about 3-5 minutes long and the user has a tendency to stand right in front of the exhibit, blocking the view of others, even though they spend more time looking at the screen in their hand than the exhibit itself. I made do with the description cards next to each exhibit and feel that I got enough out of the exhibition for me. I also took some photos on my hone – probably not supposed to, but I don’t care and no one tried to stop me.
My Photos here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/big-ashb/sets/72157625711569781/
Life then settled down again, back into the routine of work and very little play. That was until the other day when I got a phone call from a nice lady at Subaru who asked me if I’d like to test drive the new 2011 Subaru WRX STi saloon. I explained to her that I’d bought a new car – a Subaru in fact, less than a year ago and that I’m not looking to replace it any time soon. She was most insistent that I come for a test drive anyway, so not wanting to be rude, I spent half an hour yesterday thrashing the nuts off a 300bhp 4 wheel drive saloon car. It felt rude not to drive it like I stole it and in the process break most laws of the road and even, I think, some laws of physics! It was a fantastic car to drive, but even at the ‘bargain’ price tag of £32,995 I doubt I’ll ever own one, at least not while I still need a driving license...
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