In the late 1990s, inbetween freelance web jobs, I spent a day as an extra, being a Singaporean stock trader in the film Rogue Trader, a film about how stocktrader Nick Leeson managed to bring down the United Kingdom's oldest investment bank. The film starred Ewan McGregor and Anna Friel.
Alas, any glamorous notions I had about finally being part of the film industry were somewhat thwarted by the sheer tedium of waiting around on film sets waiting for filming to start, with nothing to do except talk to equally disillusioned Chinese extras, who were mostly Filipino actors/actresses who'd come to London with dreams of treading the stage or doing some good acting, as opposed to ending up with a bunch of extras. Although I did manage to walk around the Pinewood Studios shop and buy a jacket.
After one day of work, being on/off set for about 10 hours and with three hours being shuttled between central London and Pinewood for £80 (and they were very keen to get people back for more extras shooting, but I'd rather sit in front of a computer pumping out webcode!), the net result is the picture you see. If you watch the film itself, I'm about 40 minutes into the film, just after Nick Leeson is celebrating Christmas with his girlfriend (Friel).
The only other time I saw it was when slightly drunk and waiting in eager anticipation to see The Matrix. One of the trailers that featured before it was for Rogue Trader, and I yelped in surprise when I saw a strangely familiar moon-shaped face staring at me on the screen before I realised it was me.
I kept meaning to track down the DVD but then to my surprise, when I stumbled in after a hard day at a works do summer party (football, softball, Pimms, quizzes and the odd bit of chat) to find the film showing on ITV4. And finally, I manage to capture my moment of fame alongside Ewan McGregor.
To come ... how I had dinner with Frank Skinner and was in Stephen Fry's bedroom...
These are the Twitters I sent over the last 24 hours...
- 06:48 New blog: Links for 2008-07-22 [del.icio.us] tinyurl.com/5wqggb #
- 11:44 is wondering whether this update will make it onto Facebook #
- 17:54 Is feeling slightly guilty that i would rather hide from the world on a sunny day like this #
These are the Twitters I sent over the last 24 hours...
- 06:48 New blog: Links for 2008-07-21 [del.icio.us] tinyurl.com/5fub58 #
- 10:23 is wondering what is reposting his del.icio.us links to Twitter. Damn my slutty Web 2.0 ways! #
- 10:23 is wondering what is reposting my del.icio.us links to Twitter. Damn my slutty Web 2.0 ways! #
These are the Twitters I sent over the last 24 hours...
- 18:37 is in a london grocery hearing one person exclaim that they have never had prawn before #
These are the Twitters I sent over the last 24 hours...
- 10:08 impressed that I'm apparently in Beijing covering the Olympics for the BBC. #
- 12:48 New blog: Links for 2008-07-14 [del.icio.us] tinyurl.com/5kypuy #
- 14:26 is pondering if it's 'twittering' or 'twittring' #
These are the Twitters I sent over the last 24 hours...
- 09:40 is stalking identikit lesbians and american school groups and wrestling with oversized luggage at gatwick. #
- 18:48 is listening to Cockney-accented British-Chinese people. Cor blimey, guv'nor! #
Due to members of my party now being unavailable, here's an exclusive chance to come and sit with my socially-acceptable Whovian friends and I for two hours. And possibly drink afterwards.
Oh, and see some actors called David Tennant and Patrick Stewart strutting their stuff doing Hamlet at the Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon on 2 August. They'll need all the encouragement you can get...
If you're interested in tickets, look at the eBay auction
I've travelled around the world, and met Chinese Americans, Chinese French and Chinese Danes. But nothing has surprised me - and I'm not too sure why - as watching this film about the Chinese Cockneys of the 1920s.
If you watch the video of Connie and Leslie Hoe, they sound soooo ... Cockney. An accent and voice that's unique to London, and that I hear around me all the time - but coming from a biologically Chinese couple, who have seen a lot over the last 80 years. It makes my posh English accent sound incredibly dull. I wish I could do accents.
These are the Twitters I sent over the last 24 hours...
- 18:32 is craving rice. and food. #
- 20:58 is wondering what I should do if I have a cool web2.0 idea but can't find a developer or a biz-dev dude... #
I've only been back in the States for a week, and despite my failure to indulge in things that I normally do in America (Best Buy and buffets), I get the feeling that their infectious sense of optimism has started to hit me. Which is amazing, given half of America is panicing over rising gas prices, a credit crunch - oh and global warming.
One of the guys in the place I'm currently staying at asked what I do for a living. I made the fatal mistake of revealing that I build websites - which isn't technically true, but usually does for civilians. He immediately started pitching me a website idea he had - don't they all, but despite my constant "No, but ...." refrains - mostly around small little things like financing, selling and the current state of the advertising market - he kept persisting with the idea. Even though the website part of it was an important part of the whole idea, there was so much more work to do with it than just building a website and having them come.
Then the conversation did a left-turn and became about ways of getting his brother into an American university. Now I thought it all came down to how much you could afford to pay for tuition, but apparently it's also about finding the right person, and badgering him/her to get you a teaching assistant position or something. I'd assume, in my "No, but ... " British way that such places would be overfilled to bursting with applicants, but apparently it's actually a very viable prospect of getting in in some areas.
Consequentally, this afternoon has been mostly spent mentally going over my old ideas, and wondering just how feasible they are to do or not do. Sure, they're not going to be Facebook v3, but is it better to spend ages trying to craft an idea and watch it fail in terms of commercial success, or decide that the idea is not going to work, and go back to working for Da Man? (just when I find a job too!)
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