April Fresh writes:
What can I say, except that this movie is going to be great. The director, Carl Bessai, is amazing to watch; he’s the DoP too, so he was busy. He and Sir Ian seemed to have great communication going on, but I couldn’t really see much of what was happening because, well, I was a PA, the lowest form of scum on set. However, I got pie. I did see a little bit… Carl calls him Ian now, not Sir like he did on the news.
So it was like this: they were shooting in the Goolden Hall (not a typo) at the Royal Conservatory of Music from about 2pm to…uhh…..what time was it? I think it was 3am but honestly, it’s all a fog. I was told to show up at 7:30pm so I did, and I had the shortest day of anyone there. “The Scene” was a graduation ceremony, with Emile (Ian) recieving some sort of honorary degree from the University of Victoria (FYI: Props spelt “bachelor” wrong on the damn thing.) He was wearing a big purple grad gown and floppy hat over a three piece suit on the stage, he must have been dying of heat. Nice hat though. His personal assistant, a great guy named D.W., was running around a lot, getting water. I think Ian got cranky.
Anyway, Emile tries to make a speech, but ghosts from his past (with one bloody guy who scared the hell out of me) keep distracting him. I might be wrong about this by the way, I wasn’t really on set,I was watching doors. Or rather, watching THROUGH doors. Once, I didn’t know that the door I was watching was hot (being filmed) and I almost got in the shot. Big trouble! Oh well, I’m a volunteer PA, you get what you pay for. Sir Ian, however, was only a few feet away… I hope he didn’t notice.
What else? Ian signed autographs for the extras in the Gym between shots, what a nice guy. I saw a few of the autographs, he signs his name with a profile of Gandalf w/pipe. Awesome! I saw someone who got “the Hobbit” signed. Lucky extras. I had to help with food, and apparently when I was paying attention to the cookies (one each, please) Sir Ian passed about 4 feet to my left. Damn it!
Yeah, so the film does take place in Victoria, unlike everything else shot here, which is unprecidented. Earlier, I had thought that it was taking place in England. Sorry.
So that’s all for specifics, I think I’m forgetting something, I don’t know…oh yeah, I was dozing on a chair and I woke up seconds after Ian walked right past me. I’m sorry, it was three in the morning! Oh well.
Thanks for reading,
-April Fresh, film student (in Victoria, but from Gimli)
