Sunday, March 09, 2008

ladies and gen'elmen

I spent the last two days in London. A heck of a lot happened in that time but most of it will be delayed in posting due to the enormity of one event. I will try to relay what happened sequentially, so that you might experience the same feelings that we did. Martha and I were walking along the river Thames towards The Globe when we saw a low flying helicopter. Normally, I would not have thought twice about a helicopter but all the people along the river had stopped to look at it. I thought, "Okay, British people its just a helicopter, we've had them for ages." Then I noticed that it was circling one area and it had a camera attached to the front. I then realized it was only a traffic helicopter and went to lunch. When we finished eating we headed back towards the chaos. There was a large portion of the side walk along the river blocked off from public access. I quickly noticed the many cameras that were on the other side of the barrier. Now we were interested in what exactly was going on here. The barriers were placed at the foot of the Millennium bridge, a rather odd looking steel configuration meant for pedestrian enjoyment. It was still open to the public. As we walked by we got a closer look at who was behind the police men. I continued to think this may be a news station set up until I saw a director's chair with the name David Yates. Excitement pierced my stomach. My dork levels began to rise when I realized that David Yates had in fact directed the last Harry Potter film and was currently on production for the next. Still, I thought he must be working on a side project.
Martha and I continued to walk up to the bridge when I caught a glimpse of the badge on a camera man. It clearly spelled, "HP6." Excitement suddenly left my stomach and swam through every vein in my body. Could they really be filming Harry Potter here in middle of such a public place? I turned to Martha, and told her what I saw. We followed the camera man and his boom mic operator so that we could have a chance of walking by on screen. We saw this sign and immediately knew that it meant business. There was a camera on a high crane that overlooked the bridge, one on a boat, one on a helicopter, and still another walking across the bridge. We crossed the bridge maybe six different times to ensure that and editor didn't ruin our life long dreams. As if we needed more proof that this was the best discovery ever we returned to where we could see David Yate's chair. On it laid a sheet that was most likely the shooting list for the day. It was titled, "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince." Our hopes were affirmed and we screamed a little as we tried to share the information we had discovered. They obviously didn't want everyone to know what exactly they were filming. There were no actors or Warner Brother's logos. Being the devoted fans that we are, we figured out that this scene is most likely a quick glimpse of the bridge that collapses in the beginning of the book.

To everyone that I told, "Hey, I'm just gonna walk up to set and say here I am and they will put me in when I go to England" I wasn't joking.

To J.K. Rowling for demanded an entirely British cast, "What now?"

And I went to Platform 9 3/4 afterwards.

7 comments:

Red said...

I am so jealous. You have no idea. That must have been amazing.

Meg said...

hahaha you made me laugh so much because i would have done the same thing. i'm so jealous, but at the same time, i'm happy for you. they were coming to durham and i was gonna check it out, but they aren't anymore. :(

and i'm entirely dissapointed that it took you so long to see platform 9 3/4. that's the first thing i did when i got to london!

Anonymous said...

hey, mitch!
it's jacquelyn.
i've been reading your blog for a while now.
hope that's not creepy.
but this is so awesome i felt like i had to comment.
i reallyreallyreally hope you get in the movie!!!
if you do, i will see it a billion times and scream each time i see you.
=]

Amy-Jo said...

YEAH! So excited for you. Your mom told me something huge had happened and I freaked because I thought...what could happen huge in England other than meeting the Queen...or getting engaged...or actually having a videotape fall from the air with an adventure now logo on it. I'm glad it's harry potter though.

Anonymous said...

what?!

Amy-Jo said...

I said I'm glad that Mitch had the opportunity to see the Harry Potter movie being filmed...

Mitch said...

Jacquelyn, its not creepy. and if a video tape fell out of the air I probably couldn't watch it becuase it would be in PAL and Region II.