Caught in the Act

Our drumming teacher messaged us last night to ask if some of us could stay back as a video was being made.  Most of us put our hands up and organised lunch at a nearby cafe as the first meeting with the director was to be at 1.30 with filming to start at 2 pm and drumming finished at midday.

In fact it turned out to be a bit of a film rather than just a "video".  I had thought there was some drumming to be filmed in our studio but it was rather a film outside of what goes on on the site so there was a lot of other action including pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, .people loading and unloading trucks etc.  There was the director, producer, two assistant directors (with megaphones) and two videographers plus a drone.  We were given the layout of what would be happening in a continuous scene of around 5 to 10 minutes.   We were "background" with our drumming.  

When the director called "background action" that was our cue and the cue for the cyclists, pedestrians and motorcyclists and then he called "action" which was the cue for other activities. 

We were playing a couple of rhythms which we had worked out in our class as our teacher was not going to be there to lead us.   Here you can see the djembe players, A on the bells and shakers and I am playing the two small dun duns.   Behind A you may notice a dog.  There are two dogs that hang around with their humans who have businesses on site.   This one I think was called Togo.   He had opened A's handbag (which was zipped up and on the ground behind her) and got her chicken schnitty (schnitzel) sandwich out and was scoffing it down.  A only noticed when he was cleaning up the last of the crumbs.  To make it worse, his human is a vegan apparently.   I can't stop laughing every time I look at this shot as A and I are blissfully unaware of Togo's crime going on behind her.

Suffice it to say, it was a very interesting thing to take part of - I guess just like being an extra in a film except it was a very short film.   There was a rehearsal and then three takes and waiting around in between.  Well here is the weekend again and as they say.....cut!!!!.....that's a wrap.