by Macosta
Part 6
Frank arrives at the tube station where the filming is taking place. In the case of “Underground the movie” and this is a common practice in certain films, they are starting filming not from the beginning but further in the story where the young twenty something year old man and twenty something girl first make eye to eye contact.
The reason for this, is not as in case of other films were weather conditions or a certain season of the year dictates that the film starts half way thru the script in order to take advantage of the perfect environment, in this case its all about saving money and filming on location.
The location is a real working, fully functioning London underground station that happens to be in one of the lines that are being upgraded. As a result of upgrading and carrying out some essential work to the station, the line is closed earlier in the evenings, this is when workmen such as builders, electricians, painters and so on, take over and have total access to the station and tunnels.
In order to get as many hours of filming as possible and finish the film quickly Big Bill and Sue managed to negotiate with London Underground the use of this particular station even if they have to share it with a construction team.
It’s a relatively small station but serves two main lines. It has four platforms, northbound and southbound on one line and eastbound westbound the other line. The station is not much different from hundreds of other stations on the network system but this one has unusually long corridors leading to the platforms, its perfect for the scary scenes were the two love birds run for their lives, terrified of the monster.
From the station entrance Frank goes down the escalator and in to the left corridor that leads to one of the four platforms.
As he enters the corridor he immediately is taken by the amount of posters on the corridors wall. The London underground as many underground networks all over the world use poster advertisement, it’s not uncommon practice, it’s an income generator. However, this corridor is full of small posters, from top ceiling to the floor, there isn’t an inch gap on the wall that isn’t covered in paper.
As Frank slowly walks down the corridor with his mouth open in total shock, he turns his head to both sides of the corridor wall and sees the most outlandish collection of products being advertised. From tool boxes to indoor TV antennas, from rugs and kitchen utensils to nail varnish and fashion labels he never heard of, the walls were a mishmash of tacky and cheap goods. One poster even advertised a psychic, an old scary woman holding a tarot card in one hand and with the other hand her finger pointing straight at Frank.
Frank walks the end of the corridor and finds himself alone on the platform. The posters now are much bigger, across the rail tracks from top to bottom and all along the tunnel, they only advertise one product, but they are massive. Some of the products on the big posters are of more established products such as soft drinks and laptops, but the scale of these posters dominate the background.
Frank quickly walks back to the end of the escalators and into another corridor, the landscape repeats itself, small posters everywhere, at the end the platform also empty of people, not a living soul. All of a sudden a feeling of emptiness engulfs Frank he feels a certain unease about the place, it feels like a ghost town, or in this case a ghost tube station of a ghost town. Standing back at the end of the escalators he only has another two platforms to look at, he knows Big Bill, Sue and the rest of the crew are down there somewhere.
He goes in the third corridor, the garish colours on the posters seem like trapped souls in a third dimension fighting to get out, he slows down as he hears what sounds like the wind coming from the platform at the end of the corridor, but it’s not the sound of the wind, the wind doesn’t sound like that.
What could it be? He wonders.
After a few seconds again the sound.
It’s like a mix of wind and breathing.
A scary breathing sound that echoes from a distance.
Frank is now paralysed with fear. He stares at the end of the corridor in total numbness.
All of a sudden and unexpectedly the sound gets louder and louder, as if someone or something was just around the corner, he doesn’t have time to see who or what it was since he instinctively turns and runs. He runs and runs thru the long corridor in panic as he can feel something is behind him. The corridor never seems to end as keeps on running and running, his face in panic he runs like a little child scared for his life.
He arrives back at the end of the escalator and gasping for air he looks at the tunnel he just came out from, there’s an enormous feeling of relief on his face as he knows he’s outrun whatever that thing was. It’s at this time that he sees someone standing behind him.
He jumps in shock.
Frank: “Jesus! What the f..k! Who are you?” (It’s someone from the crew)
Frank: “Where is everyone?”
Crew Member “Over there” (he points to the fourth corridor) “are you alright mate? You having an asthma attack?”
Frank: “Er, yeah. Asthma. Its asthma”
Crew Member “My brother has that. Don’t you have your puffer?”
Frank: “I’m ok, don’t worry”
Frank walks ahead of the crew member, rubbing his forehead.
He wonders if he overreacted, he feels like an idiot like an amateur, a lost novice at his first day at work and decides to rub this occurrence completely from his mind, like if it never happened.
It didn’t happen; it didn’t happen, it didn’t happen, he keeps repeating it to himself over and over again.
Frank arrives at the fourth platform and is immediately struck by the chaotic setting. He walks along the platform like an officer wonders into a military camp on the eve of battle. It has people all over the place, mostly young and inexperienced with the filming crew, actors and extras all scattered along the platform. Frank had been on film sets and on filming location before, but this was different, there were no trailers for the actors, no mobile food trucks, everything was set up along the platform. The makeup artist had a little space near a fire extinguisher; two chairs a small mirror and her makeup box, it was an open air makeshift studio, in fact the whole thing was makeshift. Three fold up plastic tables with food and drinks are the food area and the changing room was a white tent with all the costumes on a railing outside pushed up against the wall.
Frank finds Sue talking to the cameraman. She stands with a clipboard in her hand, never has he seen a clipboard with so many sheets of paper, it was thick as a yellow pages directory. Flicking back and forward thru the pages as she talks relentless, Frank notices Paul the author, sitting on a chair, quiet, motionless. He’s not in the filming today but Paul who plays the monster in the film is here because due to his “unstable condition” needs 24h supervision and it was decided that Sue would supervise him.
For a moment Sue stops talking and glances at Paul, her face mellows and there’s a slight inhalation, like a teenager glimpses at a secret boyfriend.
Sue: “Oh there you are! Where have you been? We about to start”
Frank: “So where’s this mysterious director?” (It had been an ongoing saga to find the right director, for the right price)
Sue: “Do you like surprises?” (She looks at corridor that leads into the platform)
In comes Big Bill. All on site stop chitchat and follow him with their eyes. A filming set is a bit like a military fort, there’s a hierarchy and everyone knows their place in it. In big productions the main actor usually is the equivalent to a General and the director second in command, sometimes the director would be the big cheese with a diva actress right behind him in rank.
Big Bill has a silly black French beret on his head and holding a fold up director’s chair. He makes his way to the hydraulic lift camera, he looks towards Sue, she nods at him and the cameraman rushes to Big Bill.
Frank: “You not serious? It’s a joke right?”
Sue: “It was his decision”
Frank: “What about al
l those directors we interviewed?
Sue: “Excuse me! We interviewed? I interviewed! You were there to look pretty.(It wasn’t the first time that Sue defended Big Bill, Sue never question Bill, in fact no one ever did.)
Frank: “this is a disaster, its ridiculous”
She stares at him and with a self-possessed tone in her voice she calmly replies.
Sue: “Ridiculous? Listen little boy! BB has been in this industry shuffling shit since he was 16. He’s worked his way up from the mail room to produce some of the biggest movies ever made. He can direct this via video link from Hollywood. You better stick with the program kid, there’s not much need for you around here anymore”
More than what she said, it was the way she said it. It was colder than ice, it could have frozen a penguin.
Frank: “Great speech. It will be in a movie one day. You should have been a writer” (Sue is about to reply, moving closer to Frank’s face… when from a distance, a loud shout)
Big Bill: “And Action”
In this scene the handsome young male character (played by Mario a waiter studying engineering, a total amateur with a crash course in acting, administrated by who else than Big Bill) makes eye contact with a beautiful young woman. (The actress is Fiona Foxwell, an aspiring young actress daughter of a famous English actor that died of a drugs overdose in 70s)
The plot here is simple. They both have night jobs, Mario works as a waiter and Fiona a hotel receptionist. They end up at the same time in the underground and live two or three stops from each other down the line.
Both on the platform flirt with each other from a distance. Big poster of beer in the background. The scene is only a few minutes.
Big Bill: “And Cut”
And out of nowhere. A small open top rail carriage slowly slides down the tracks with five builders with hard hats starring at all on the platform. Back on the platform everyone open mouthed stares at them as they slip down the tunnel. It was a surreal moment, like a sea ship all of a sudden appearing on lake full of holiday makers.
Sue: “All right! Listen up people. Back to the tent” (As if nothing had happened about 15 extras, Mario and Fiona all queue up outside the tend in order to change clothes for the next scene.)
Few minutes later same actors and extras are in different clothes filming scene two. In scene two it’s supposed to be a different night. More flirting.
Big Bill: “And Cut”
Again all rush to the tent. The pace is hectic, there is no respite.
They make a total of four platform scenes with the last scene Mario and Fiona entering the carriage together
For the carriage scene they built a fake carriage in the corridor that leads to the platform. It’s a flimsy construction, so delicate that extras have to stand still and go in one by one.
The prop man didn’t even build windows; the carriage wall is the actual corridor wall with small posters all over it.
There are two scenes in the carriage, on the second scene Mario and Fiona kiss; next to them the extras seem tired and sweaty. Mario looks closely. Some of the clothes don’t really fit that well, the tall extra has ridiculously short trousers and the fat extra has a winter jacket when its summer and all have t-shirts. This is when Frank notices a black woman with a blond wig on, he could swear she had no wig on previous scenes.