by Macosta
Part 7
Back at the hotel Big bill and frank are at the bar.
It was a hard evening of filming. At the crack of dawn most guests are sleeping, with only the barman they have the whole bar to themselves.
Big Bill: “C’mon buddy. Something is bothering you. I know you gonna tell me.”
Frank: “I don’t know. Is there any point? It’s always what you say that goes so what’s the point?
Big Bill: “Kid. I liked you from day one. You stood up in my office and showed some balls, now cut the crap.”
Frank: “Ok! (After hesitating he picked up the courage and was going to speak his mind)Tonight’s filming was bizarre.
Big Bill: “Bizarre?”
Frank: “All those posters. I understand you want to cover the budget as much as possible. But do we need so many products? I get a feeling of selling out. And what about the extras? How can you use the same extras on six separate scenes? The audience is not stupid; they will pick up on it. I just feel its turning into a B movie and its all down to saving money.
Big Bill moves forward from the imposing leather armchair. He stares at Frank with a piercing look, like an eagle ready to pounce on a hopeless rodent.
Big Bill: “Bizarre! Let me tell you something. You know what’s the problem with your generation is? You don’t believe. You don’t believe in yourselves. You have everything ready. You just need to press the button.
We had to make things, we had resolve things. We made the button. I marched with my parents in Washington against Vietnam. I was there buddy, I was young but I was there. I protested in the eighties against nuclear missiles, I was gassed by the cops I was arrested. Your generation, well, you know everything, you have the internet, you know it all. It doesn’t matter if we invade another country on false pretences. It’s fine. Because you already know its gonna happen. You know all about it. You know its wrong but you know what’s going on, so you don’t have to protest, you don’t need to march. No. You have youtube, you just put up a video complaining how miserable your life is, you just know it all.
This certainly was a side of Big Bill that was new to Frank.
Big Bill: “You ever heard of digital manipulation? Did you know that Mercedes made Danny Boyle digitally remove the logo from their cars? No you didn’t. Its ok for gangsters to drive around in Mercedes but you put it in a slum and you in the shit. We can change the extras faces as many times we want. We can even ad extras with computers.
Big Bill leans back on his arm chair and smells his scotch, he hold the glass as if it was the only whiskey left in the world.
Frank sinks into his leather armchair, he notices the barman looking at him with a condescending look on his face.
Big Bill: “I wonder how Sue and Paul are getting on.”
Across town in a London suburb on the floor near the sofa, Sue is semi naked on top of Paul engaged in the most vigorous sex. She domineering thrusts herself on him with both hands squeezing the poor mans pecs, he screams in a mix of agony and pleasure.
Next evening they start the second night of filming. Arriving in a taxi Frank and Big Bill make their way to the tube station. Master and apprentice walk in as if they owned the place.
They make their way to the station office. Once inside, the station manager and another member of staff are looking at CCTV footage from the previous night.
It’s a fairly big office with two desks and ten TV monitors on the wall. There are no windows only a cubicle type window that is the ticket window.
Big Bill: “Got the tapes?”
Station Manager “All here” (a cardboard box with few tapes is on the desk; Big Bill takes out a brown envelop and hands it to the station manager.)
They walk out into the station and Frank remarks.
Frank: “Wow I never thought it would be so easy. This will give the movie an alternative esteem.
Big Bill: “This will give the movie… less filming for us”
Back at the station office.
Member of staff: “I hope we don’t get in trouble over this”
Station Manager “We only leaving the cameras on, the memo said, to cooperate fully with them. This is how the Yankees do it. This is their show”
Member of staff: “yes but those tapes are Underground property. If they know we’re taking money…” (The station manager cuts in)
Station Manager “Listen to me. We already went over this. We give them the tapes because the big cheeses told us to give the Yankees full cooperation, so we assume that the tapes are part of that cooperation since they ask for the tapes. See? As for the money we just deny it. Deny everything about money. There’s no prove they pay us, so we just deny it. The big fella walks around with a pocket full of envelops. You think the top managers are not getting some?”
Going down the escalator Frank notices the amount of CCTV cameras scattered all over the station and as they get at the bottom Frank tells Big Bill.
Frank: “I just go back to the office for a minute. I want to have a better look at the equipment they have.
Big Bill: “Sure”
Back in the office the station manager had already gone for the evening. He sits down with the member of staff and after some small conversation.
Frank: “So, you were here last night as well?”(Frank still doesn’t know how to tell him what happened last night.)
Member of staff: “Yep. Sure was”
Frank: “Well let me tell you something! Last night someone, I have no idea who, tried to play a prank on me. You understand, I have an important roll in this movie and I need to know if the crew is messing about. If they did it to me they can do it to someone else”.
Member of staff: “I think this is what you want to talk about” (and he puts on a tape that shows Frank running along the tunnel with fear on his face).
Frank: “but there’s nothing behind me, I could swear someone was playing a joke on me. Wait a minute! Run that part again in slow motion. What is that?” (This time Frank could see on the ceiling of the tunnel a brown blotch. For a split second it shows a moving brow smudge)
Member of staff: “Oh yeah, I’ve seen that before. They say it’s optical something… technical… something… Basically, because there’s so much light in the tunnels yeah, sometimes the cameras they like pick up on dust and makes it bigger and for some reason it only happens at night, because there’s less people so there’s more light… like light distribution and all that.”
Frank: “Oh, ok. I’ve studied that yes… its electromagnetic spectrum… a technical thing. Forward the tape let me see what you got when we left”
Member of staff: “Well that’s no good for you mate. All cameras are switched off after the last train or in your case after everyone has left.”
Frank: “The cameras are switch of? In the whole network?”
Member of staff: “Yep. London underground policy. No people, nothing to film”
Frank: “What if something happens?”
Member of staff: “Well it won’t happen to anyone, there’s no one here”
Frank: “Ok. I catch you later”
Member of staff: “Latter alligator” (he makes a gun shape signal with his index finger and thumb and points at Frank, He’s childish behaviour makes Frank feel like an adult in comparison)
Frank: “Yeah…Sure” (Frank walks out into the station. Going down the escalator he mumbles to himself) “What about the noise? What was that noise?”
Frank arrives at the platform and all hell had descended on set.
On the far corner Big Bill and Sue are surrounded by five builders…
I now move ahead to part 17 so that you can have an idea of how the story develops.