Yes indeed, that is me in the new TV ad for Hibernian Aviva Insurance, thanks for noticing. (Thanks Will, for the video link). It was indeed a challenging, but enjoyable experience as I endeavoured to bring my starring roles to life with an injection of enthusiasm and personality I felt would suit them.
In December I was part of the shooting over a weekend, where I played an investor involved in the bank runs in the 1930s, an emigrant from 1950s Ireland and a dole queue participant in the 1980s. Two full days shooting (9am start Saturday, 6am call time the Sunday) for such an integral part of the advertisement.
In case your eagle eyes missed my starring roles, here they are:
Me heading off across the broad Atlantic foam:
Looking for my bank money:
In the dole queue (with the rest of the Commitments):
Now, in case you think i'm joking, it was quite a revelation to see how much time, effort and money went in to creating this ad - how many extras, how many costumes and how much time we spent filming in order to get those brief few seconds.
The 1950s emigrant ship scene was shot on the Liffey very early morning. This iwas probably the most fun to do. There were some 200 people there for a few hours providing tourists who had braved the cold with some pretty unique shots.
The level of detail was impressive, from the 1950s costumes 
right down to the real-looking fake cow they had suspended from a crane above the boat.
How did I look? Like a gombeen. Or me grandfather. After the funeral.
The 1930 bank scene was shot up on Cathal Brugha street. A call time of 9am to be in Temple Bar, a shooting time of 2pm and a finishing time of approximately 4.30. The overhead shot was achieved with some fancy camera angles
And some angry looking men. Considering how long we'd been waiting to move, this wasn't much of a stretch of our acting abilities.
How did I look? Like a gombeen. Or me grandfather. After the funeral. I play that part well.
I don't seem to have photos of the dole queue scene. Considering I'd spent the morning emigrating in the freezing cold, my fingers probably weren't working. Not to mention of course that digital cameras weren't invented in the 1980s...
I did, however spot this on the way home through Temple Bar. A photo opportunity if ever there was one...
Being an extra, though at times a lot of standing around is fairly easy money. If it's something you or someone you know might be interested in, check out MovieExtras.ie. A brilliant (Irish) service where Derek, Don and Claudine would be happy to look after you.
Monday, January 12, 2009
I'm in the new Hibernian Avivia Insurance TV ad
Friday, June 06, 2008
Mr Lee and me
When I was young, he scared the bejaysus out of me as Dracula
and again later
He was convincingly mad in The Wicker Man
Villainous in James Bond's Man With The Golden Gun
Completely insane in Star Wars II and III
Evil in Lord of the Rings
Death in the recent Discworld films
and last night, on the set of Triage, I met Mr Christopher Lee
An impressive 6'4½, Christopher Lee is an imposing figure. Hard to believe the man is 86 years old and still making movies. His imdb page lists 261 movies to his credit, 30 of those since 2000.
And what great movies - the iconic ones above, plus Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Corpse Bride; he was in The Golden Compass with Nicole Kidman, Sherlock Holmes movies and, erm, Police Academy 7 and Gremlins 2, as well as many more.
He's been in Ireland shooting Triage, a new Danis Tanovic movie also starring Paz Vega (Spanglish) and Ireland's own Colin Farrell. Last night saw his final scenes in the movie as Joaquin Morales meeting his daughter Elena (played by Vega) at Dublin Airport, duplicated for the screen at Dun Laoighre.
He is a professional. That's pretty much all that can be said. He works with the director and crew to ensure he's on mark for each shot, that his Spanish is perfect for the few lines he speaks and that the continuity works. When not acting he sits and chats with colleagues, here reviewing photos of the film which has some remarkable scenes:
He receives my request to meet graciously. I don't gush (as much as I want to) but tell him how much I admire his acting and how I remember being up late on Hallowe'en nights and watching him in Dracula and being very scared.
He returns a long look and says in that wonderfully deep and very recognisable English accent "You're too young. Far too young sir". I accept the compliment.
"My daughter - well I never let her watch the movies. Until once we sat down and I allowed her to watch The Mummy with me. I said to her "Now remember, that is not me on the screen. I am here with you. That is father in make-up. It's not real. It's just an illusion." but she was still quite scared. I could see it in her eyes. These movies were not for children."He knows a lot about Ireland and the Irish language, enquiring about the Gaeltachts, the correct pronunciation of different words and phrases and then, as suddenly as the break to move the camera started, it's over and he's Joaquin Morales again.
Triage, being filmed in Ireland and Spain, tells the story of Elena Morales, the girlfriend of a photojournalist (Farrell) who sets out to discover why he came home from a recent assignment without his colleague. It is a dark tale on the psychological effects of war with Lee playing a psychologist trying to help his daughter uncover the truth.
As he speaks his final dialogue for the microphone, stopping to ensure his pronunciation is perfect, the crowd breaks into a long and well-deserved ovation. He smiles, stands and says "As you know I'm a man of few words. Thank you. For the Irish I'd like to say "Céad míle fáilte and for the Spaniards Hasta Luego". And with that he's gone to another round of applause.
The crew readies the set for the final scenes of the night, the continuity shots at the Airport. The camera pans the crowd a few times as we, the movie extras mime conversation, laugh, carry bags from arrivals and reset over and over again.
Triage, with Christopher Lee, Colin Farrell, Paz Vega and if I'm lucky, Darragh Doyle's hand or something is out in 2009.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Getting back into movies
The last film I saw in the cinema, would you believe, was the Movies.ie Preview of Iron Man.
Which by the way was excellent. Darren's review is here. Thumbs up from me too:
Cheesy as anything, me :-P
That's been ages ago.
I love film. I love the medium, I love reading about them, talking about them and the extras on DVDs - happily sit down and go through the entire extras of the extended Lord of the Rings movies.
I registered with MovieExtras ages ago to see what happens on a film set. I collect the monthly Movies Plus magazine, I'm a member of the IFI, I'll check out FilmReviews.ie when I get the chance, worked on the Cinemagic and Darklight Festivals, am a Filmbase member and I have more DVDs than books - and that's saying something!
And yet it's been April 30 since I was in the cinema.
That has to change. I've been over on the wonderful Movies.ie site today and from now on this is going to be my first stop for deciding what I'm going to see. I'm really impressed by how much work has gone into this - the guys behind it obviously know movies and know what they're up to.
They've got competitions, reviews, preview screenings, trailers, interviews, forums ... it's a site I could get lost in for days. They've also got quirky ads:
I'm going to have to start with the coming soon page - and there's a number of ones I want to see:
- Priceless (Hors de prix) - out June 13 with Audrey Tautou
- The Incredible Hulk - out the same day with Edward Norton as Bruce Banner.
- Prince Caspian - from the Chronicles of Narnia - out June 26. Getting rave reviews apparently.
- Wanted - out June 27 - with Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman. Has one of my favourite movie quotes of the last while, and delivered in Freeman's voice which makes it all the more powerful:
"It a choice, Wesley, that each of us must face: to remain ordinary, pathetic, beat-down, coasting through a miserable existence, like sheep herded by fate, or you can take control of your own destiny and join us, releasing the caged wolf you have inside. ... This is the decision that lies before you now: the sheep, or the wolf. The choice is yours."
- The Visitor - out June 27 is also one with a great tagline, making me think it might be worth a watch:
In a world of six billion people, it only takes one to change your life.Then there's the ones I'm REALLY looking forward to:
- Wall-E - the new one from Pixar. Cannot wait for 18 July.
Filmreviews.ie have the official posters here where I got this from:
Roll on July 25!
Of course I'll have to do a review at some stage of it. Won't be as good as Darren, but then again, he was never interviewed on RTE News now, was he?
(You'll need Realplayer for this unfortunately - blink and you'll miss me)
(Thanks to Jazzbiscuit for the embed code!)
