Oh, What A Circus #1
6:30pm So, I ended up here. Nothing had been set off while I moved round, which was a big relief!
I’ve seen movie actors being interviewed and commenting that much of their time on-set is spent waiting in their trailer for a call to say that everything is finally ready for them. This was much the same. "Come on guys – I’m ready!"
The high-rise, from the rear
Canon EOS 350D, EF-S 18-55 USM @ 31 | ISO 200 | Av | 1/200s f9.0
Although you can’t see them in either this photo or the previous one, there were lots of crew on the other side of the fence seen here. They all wore high-visibility (bright yellow) waistcoats and hard hats. Many of them were in radio contact with the director and running about preparing things, while some were simply waiting patiently. I spent my time closely watching whichever ones were in view, trying to gauge from their actions when the show was going to begin. After several false alarms, it looked like we were finally ready…
very good pics, i like the way u got the shot of the man
Comment by karl — Sunday, January 14, 2007 at 8:10 pm
Great pics – glad I found your site. I read somewhere that this was the most expensive TV commercial ever made although I believe more money was spent on relocating families during filming and repairing the damage afterwards than making the actual film. The total bill was around £16m ($32m). Scott
Comment by Scott — Tuesday, August 21, 2007 at 7:42 pm
Hi Scott – Thanks for your comments. As I understood it, no families were relocated. The two blocks which were “painted” were already empty and each has now been demolished, so presumably they didn’t require cleaning. Adjacent residences were covered in white netting (as can be seen in several of my shots) to protect them from the worst of any drifting paint spray. It was reported that a team of about sixty people worked for five days to clean up the mess left from the water-based paint. Additionally, the producers laid on several events for the residents to make up for the inconvenience. I recall hearing of a party in the local community centre and a trip to the seaside. I can’t see any of that amounting to a significant amount of the budget.
While it’s not too obvious, there was some post production CGI carried out – I’m sure the cost of that would have exceeded the cleaning costs, etc.
I don’t recall ever hearing a figure, but £16m does seem pretty high…
Comment by Gary — Tuesday, August 28, 2007 at 2:18 pm