Dirty Trick, a short film directed by Academy Award winning director Malcolm Clarke (Prisoner of Paradise), was shot in a bank in Old Montreal in one long, arduous, fun, day. My role was to assist Mr. Clarke and also act as his Script Supervisor. Let me go back a bit so I can paint a picture of that day.
I had received a phone call one Friday in October as I was packing up so that I could accompany my husband to France. Our flight was scheduled for Sunday evening and I was very much looking forward to the break after having a) written a book and b) gotten a new pitch off to a network for review.
The phone rang. The caller was someone I had met a year before at a CBC cocktail party. Without much of a preamble she asked me if I was interested in doing a job for two producer friends of hers.
“I’m leaving for France on Sunday.” I replied.
“Ok,” she said, “but what are you doing on Saturday?”
Like all Indies, I never say no to work that falls into my lap. Thus I found myself at 5:30 a.m. that Saturday standing in front of a bank on St-Jacques Street in Old Montreal. The crew was already unloading their equipment and the craft table was being set up inside. The producers, Susan and Michael, were clearly nervous about the two things that always make producers nervous; efficient use of time and efficient use of budget. I assured them that I would keep the director (reputed to be somewhat difficult) on the straight and narrow.
I went over my sketchy notes, met the cast, had a brief chat with the Director of Photography. By the time Mr. Clarke walked into the bank shortly before 8:00 I had gotten my bearings and was ready to go. Turns out Mr. Clarke is not difficult, he is exacting and knows his stuff.
The script was about a bumbling man coming into the bank to cash a cheque and a series of events that lead him to believe he is about to be arrested. The plot thickens around a surly bank teller, a ditzy senior citizen and a guard who never takes his eyes off our happy-go-lucky hero.
Each scene took a long time to set up and the lady playing the role of the whacky senior missed her cue several times. Mr. Clarke, somewhat frustrated, had to give her very explicit directions and then nudged her with one of his….all right, darling?
We worked non stop until lunch and then moved outside for the shot where our hapless hero almost gets hit by a car while crossing the street. This took a lot of coordination and needed to be rehearsed. Unfortunately, nobody had thought that there wouldn’t be much pedestrian traffic on a Saturday afternoon so everyone, from the makeup girl to the producers, myself included, ended up in the film as extras. We wrapped at 9 o'clock in the evening, having spent an entire day making a film that is literally five minutes long.
View
DIRTY TRICK online.
