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Show Ten O'Clock Whistle I by David Fleisher Action! Here's how it begins: Director (low, controlled voice): Okay, Let's go. 1st Asst. Director (yelling): Okay, this is picture; quiet please! 2nd Asst. Director (yelling): Quiet please! . 1st Asst. Director (yelling, but not as loud as before): Roll sound! Sound Director (Normal volume): Speed! 2nd Asst. Director (yelling, quite loud): We're rolling! Sound Technician (yelling, mildly): Mark! Director (same as before; low, relaxed): Action. This is how a typical scene begins during the shooting of a film; I know because I'm in this particular film. The film for CBS television is LADY WITH A BADGE, starring Eileen Brennan, and part of it is being shot on Main Street in the sheriff's office (actually, make that the Utah Power and Light Building). I am nervous. This is the first film I've been in and believe me, I'm nervous. People all over the country are going to see me on their television screen. My friends are going to see me; my enemies are going to see me; my parents are going to see me; the guy who fixed my typewriter last month is going to see me. I begin to sweat. I wish I had an Alka Seltzer or an aspirin or a scotch and soda. Thank God I don't have a lot of lines to say during this scene: as a matter of fact, I don't have ANY lines to say during this scene, but who's counting? Out of the corner of my eye, I can see the camera pointed in my direction. I play the part of a cop in this movie, a sheriff's deputy; appropriately, I am dressed in a deputy uniform (brown shirt and pants, badge, gun, holster, etc.). There are several other . deputies in this scene as well as Eileen Brennan. ..the sheriff... THE "Lady with a badge." I can't help but think that Eileen Brennan is prettier in person than she is on the screen. Lust wells up inside of me, but I have no time for lust now; the scene is beginning. ..Oh my God! What are my parents going to think? What's the typewriter repairman going to think? What am I going to think when I see myself in this scene months from now when the movie's on television? I begin rehearsing my lines, then remember I have no lines. Eileen, who has just become sheriff in a small town in Wyoming, is standing in the middle of the deputies, telling us of the changes that are to come in the department. She wants to clean up the town and get rid of all the nasty dealings. All of the deputies, including myself, are staring directly at Eileen as she talks. Suddenly, she turns, looks at me and says no one is allowed to go to the massage parlour any more. I want to say, "Why not?" But I can't because I don't have any lines. And that big, ominous camera is staring at all of us. ..and so is the director... and so is the 1st assistant director.. .and so will the typewriter repairman. I want that scotch and soda, even a beer would do. Director (relaxed, definitely not nervous): Cut! Very nice. Who was very nice? Oh, Eileen. I thought he was talking to me. This scene's over, but we're going to do it again, and again and again. I have a few suggestions for the director before we begin shooting this scene again, but I refrain thinking action speaks louder than words. Just as we are about to begin the scene again, I suddenly have this tremendous urge to run outside and scream at the top of my lungs, "shut up! We're rolling!" After several more "takes" (that's show biz talk), the director says something about "printing" it, which I soon learn means that's it; this scene is over. As we walk outside, I want to say to one of the other deputies, "Hey! Wasn't that exciting!" But I decide not to, realizing it would make me look unsophisticated at best, a complete moron or an idiot at worst. I go to lunch with the other actors, a buffet set "up under the tent in Swede Alley. I keep thinking to myself, "I wish I had acted better in that scene." I should have done this, or I should have done that. 1 wish I could have said something, anything! We're having hamburgers for lunch today; yesterday we had Chinese food. I want to run up to the director and say, "Listen, we've got to do that scene over again! I've got an idea!" Forget it, we have to keep on schedule, he'll say; so I eat instead. Later that night, just as I am about to fall asleep, I jump out of bed, open the window and yell (quite loud): "We're rolling!" 1 mi f.cwn M-in . :. I hcr the Ten O'Clock Whistle. |