On the set of saline

Being on the set of a film was, on the one hand, exciting but on the other, mind numbingly boring! The film was being shot near the peer on the beach of Weston-super-Mare. We only found out about the film a couple days before they were due to start recording. I think our presence on location also came as a surprise to the other members of the production team but they still made us feel welcome.
On the first day of shooting we arrived at the beach at mid day. With not much to do, we stood around observing the equipment that was going to be used for filming. After a while we were asked to carry out some of the duties that are required of the runners on set. These duties involved such things as running messages to the actors waiting in the near by hotel, moving huge polystyrene sheets from the equipment truck to where we were filming (they were to be used to reflect light from the sun), and those strong enough helped hurl a gigantic dolly across the beach to the tracks on which it was to run along to capture different panning shots. There were delays with filming due to the fact they didn’t have a camera on set that was operable so they were waiting for a replacement. However this replacement was coming from London and didn’t make to the set on time for us to see any of the action.
The next day started a bit more promisingly. We arrived at the location with all the cast and equipment already there. It was warmer than the day before, which was lucky for me as my job for the day was to patrol the peer answering the public’s questions about the production and also asking them, politely, if they could resist the urge to stop and stare at the filming (it wouldn’t look to professional if, in one of the shots, there were an elderly couple looking and pointing towards the camera). As important and responsible this job sounds, I really didn’t have much to do, plus the filming was going on to far away for me to see anything. I didn’t get to see how the director works with the actors, how the cameraman works with the director, or how that dolly that was such a pain to move even worked.
All in all I don’t think I gained anything from being involved in this production, apart the understanding of how time consuming and knit-picky filming a film is. It hasn’t put me off film altogether. I would love to see how different it is on higher budget productions….with more money involved precautions are taken to prevent hiccups that occurred in productions such as this one.