Newspaper business

Text: Can you be a business person for a newspaper ad? 

Well, seeing as I seem to spend half my time wearing a suit (I obviously look the office type)

and appearing as an Executive /Business woman, it seemed an easy task. Off I went with my trusty pink back pack with the usual several changes of clothes for the 'just in case they don't like what I'm wearing' scenario. I was very early so I just sat on a nearby wall and waited for the cast and crew. I had only been there a couple of minutes when round the corner came a lovely girl, Jo,  that I had met previously on Lee Nelson.  It always makes the shoot extra special when there is someone you know working on it too. Crew arrived and as nobody really knew where we should go we were ushered in to a nearby coffee place. As we entered, the Director shook our hands, kissed Jo very enthusiastically and greeted her like a long lost friend. I assumed they had met before. We chose our coffees and chocolate croissants and sat down at a table. Jo looked a bit puzzled. It turned out she had no idea who the man was and couldn't remember having worked with him before. We tucked in to our free breakfast, which, it has to be said, we weren't expecting as we had been previously warned that  no food would be available. Suddenly the A.D. (I don't know if he was the second or third A.D) rushed over.

"Don't tell anyone else  that you've been given breakfast!" 

Aha! They thought Jo was the main leading actress! 

Shortly after that we were ushered into a very smart looking restaurant. By the look of it, the restaurant had no idea of the chaos that 30 - 40 extras can create, each with their own bags of yet more stuff.  Having filled the downstairs of the restaurant we were then led outside in to the freezing cold. It was being filmed in a shopping mall but we were outside not  inside. 

"None of you will be seen. You will all be blurred in the background!" Totally the wrong thing for the Director to say.

After we had walked about in front of the camera for a short time we were taken back to the restaurant. No coffee, no food. We all started chatting away to each other when in came the A.D wanting volunteers. People ducked their heads down or wouldn't meet his eye, some people suddenly developed a curious interest in their shoes...Well, who wants to be a volunteer to freeze their butts off outside when they're just going to be a grey blur? Eventually he managed to persuade people to leave the nice warm restaurant but tapping people on the shoulder and telling them to get outside. More walking about, left to right, backwards and forwards. Finally lunch was called. We were each given £10 in an envelope to pay for food - very unusual. Off we went to the nearest place, M&S for their soup & roll deal. Everyone went for the cheapest option possible as the change from lunch could be used for transport home! The day didn't get any better. There was a flight of concrete stairs that we had to walk up and down over and over again. I thought my leg muscles were going to burst at one point! I began to wish I'd had more than soup and a roll for my lunch...still, there's always a positive side and at least I wasn't cold any more!