OUR TV ADVENTURE, so far-part 2

up to the moment I was having a beer with the two tv producers, and leaving out random video taped interviews, and a couple of short super-8s I made when I was a kid, I had never been practically involved in any film project. Except for once when I found myself in front of a camera in September 2006, for a shoestring budget movie and I don't know if it ever was, or ever will be, completed. It was for a fellow who likes my books and thought it would be a hoot if I took a walk-on cameo part in his movie. So I was a wealthy art buyer scrutinizing some antique paintings in an actual gallery which was closed for refurbishing but to which they had acquired access for a day. I was unnamed but when the young lady, playing the manager of the gallery, comes in and addresses me, I suggested that I ought to be named. What name? How about 'Mr Campbell' I offered, and so it was. I wasn't required to speak, just look contemplative, walk the length of the gallery, then answer my mobile phone before leaving in a hurry. Never having owned one, I kept squidging that part of the performance. If nothing else, I've got a still of me imagining I'm in some old film noir classic.


(more next time)