Blog: The Video Shoot

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Off to ENDERBY yesterday, for the Video Shoot (VIDEO SHOOT) for It Only Works Because You're Here. FITTINGLY, for a song based on Work Life, our alarm clock failed to go off (alternative version: was switched off by a pillock who then got straight back into bed and went to sleep) so I woke at 8.50AM and had to DASH through a wash, shave and getting dressed then FLY out of the house in order to get to St Pancras to catch my train at 10am.

It was all FINE and I arrived in Leicester to be met by Tom in The Tigermobile. We drove off to his work in Enderby, where we discovered The Pattisons waiting for us with a BIG BAG OF CLOTHES, for LO! They had brought MANY changes of costume. You can see for yourself on the FLICKR Set. You can't see Tom in these photographs as, well, he was taking them, but rest assured that, like me, he didn't get changed either.

SO, armed with The Shooting Script (SO professional) we got to work and pretty much WHISKED through the filming. We started a bit nervously with our STARS a little trepidatious about The Acting, but they soon got into it and we were moving smoothly with a LOT of shouting of "ROLLING!" and "ACTION!" and so forth. It was just like HOLLYWOOD!!

We did all Emma's scenes first, in chronological order, being careful to take NOTES of Tim's t-shirts for when we went back to film his solo bits. It was all a bit complicated but seemed to work, and soon we were ready for the Big Crowd Scene. When Tom had checked with his work that we were OK to film there lots of people had got Excited and asked if they could come and be extras - I was expecting LOADS of them to turn up, but Tom was less sure. As it happened in the end we only got ONE Supporting Artiste, Mr Warren Pilkington, who arrived at the front door about three minutes after Tim had gone to see if he could find him.

With us all regrouped we noticed a PROBLEM: the Leaving Do scene had us ALL in it, so who was going to work the camera? The answer: TRICKERY! I knew watching all those DVD extras would pay off one day! Then it was time for THE BIG KISS which, it should be noticed, The Pattisons did more times than we actually FILMED. SHOCKING!

Emma left at this point so we went back and filmed Tim's solo sections, which seemed to involve an awful lot of running up and down stairs - which he did even when we weren't FILMING those specific bits, just to get into CHARACTER. METHOD ACTING. It all got wrapped up surprisingly quickly and easily, and so we had a bit tidy up and Idiot Check then headed back to Tom's. On the way I noticed I was still in DIRECTOR MODE: this is something I slipped back into VERY EASILY even tho it is YEARS since I did Dramatic Direction (darling) at Poly. It basically involves being REALLY BOSSY and saying "Right, now you're doing THIS, like THIS. DO IT!"

We also had an Artistic Discussion about how to start the song - Tom and Tim were heading to Derby that evening to do the violins and final mix, so we still weren't sure. My idea was to do a STRINGS intro, which prompted Producer Pattison into a LENGTHY metaphor about how the violins are the SAILS for the song, which need a MAST (rhythm section) and RIGGING (lyrics?) and... well, it made sense at the time anyway, basically he was saying that on their own they'd sound a bit FLAPPY so we needed something else. INSPIRATION suddenly struck - just as Warren ALSO had the same idea, but HEY! I was still being a BIT bossy so got in first to make THE CLAIM: it now starts with JUST a phone ringing. Tim pointed out that the EP would thus START with the same ringtone that ENDS Do The Indie Kid at which point the ENTIRE CAR had a MASSIVE BRAINWAVE about sequencing the EP so that Do The Indie Kid is the LAST of the bonus tracks, thus starting and ending the whole thing with the same sound.

It was a car journey of MIGHTY THORT, I can tell you, and we very much needed the HOT DRINKS which Tom provided back at his house. He went and did us CDs of the photographs and then we popped over to The Pump & Tap for a Swift Pint. The P&T is probably the pub i have been to more times than any other - i first went in there in 1989, during my first year at Poly when it had sawdust on the floor, a clientele made up almost entirely of Hells Angels and was run by (apparently) Devil Worshippers, and for the next 14 years went there as my first (and sometimes last) stop on almost every night out. I'd not been in for about year tho, so once we'd looked nostalgically at all the Christmas Photographs (there's a group photograph of everyone who goes to the pub on Christmas Day stretching back nearly 20 years) Tim directed me outside, where I was AMAZED to find The Arches had been cleared out and turned into a Beer Garden. They even have a cupboard of BLANKETS you can borrow out there if it's a bit chilly!

It was lovely to be back, and horrible to realise that this brilliant pub could soon be demolished - there's a (EVIL) plan to knock down the Bowstring Bridge over Braunstone Gate and if THAT happens then the P&T will be knocked down too! It's yet another local Landmark that's going to be taken away for no reason other than to give a tiny bit more land up for even MORE of the Funny Curved Lid Roof buildings that DOMINATE that part of town now - there's a petition to stop it but, knowing the way these things works, I somehow doubt the pub will be saved.

Anyway, Tim and Tom went off to their recording session and me and Warren headed into town, stopping off for another swift one in The Criterion (it would have been WRONG to pass it!) before he sidled off for a MOOCH around town and I went to get my train.

Trains, offices, BEER and more trains - why do i get the feeling that the SHOOT for RIO wasn't quite like this?

posted 2/6/2008 by MJ Hibbett

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