Many years ago, somebody told me about a movie that a friend of his was working on. It sounded like a disaster waiting to happen. There was no way it would amount to anything, so I didn't tell anybody about it before it was released. I expected never to hear about it, or, if I did, I knew that it would soon sink into obscurity.
Here was the story line:
- The movie was about a bunch of drag queens/transexuals (so naturally the movie would never be mainstream)
- Who had to travel into the outback for an obscure reason (contrived plot)
- They met all sorts of odd characters along the way (ditto)
- And they travelled in a bus
- Which they painted
- And they climbed up on top of it
- And (naturally?) they found themselves singing from a giant shoe placed on top of the bus, complete with streamers (just plain weird)
- Oh, and the bus was called Priscilla
Given how successful it was, I'm never going to be relucant to mention a future movie ever again, just in case it's a runaway success that garners Academy Awards.
This afternoon I left the apartment in my daggiest shorts and a non-matching shirt carrying two 'green' bags to pop down to pick up some stuff from the supermarket. Only to find Flinders Lane at the corner of Centre Place filled with a film crew. The security people instructed a few of us random pedestrians to simply "walk through, but don't look at the camera". Which I did, only to discover a 'crowd' of extras walking through just after me as part of a background scene for a movie. I'll be eternally embarrassed if they decide to leave me in a shot.
We got a flyer for this movie, so I'll give you a description:
The film is called Centre Place. It's a 'character based Australian film with a high calibre case including Alison Whyte, John Waters and introducing Julia Markowski as "Lizzie"'.
'The film takes its name from the street in which it is filmed. Centre Place is the story of Lizzie a young woman and her journey to rebuild her life and recapture her dreams when they are dashed away, with the help of her family, friends and community.
'Much thought has been given to the way we film in the street. It is a beautiful lane... we want to see it the way it is, i.e. its signs, the shops and the atmosphere in the street, in the most romantic way possible.'
Here's a photo of the film crew taken from above (there's a camera on rails on the left, a light on the top right and the pot plants on the bottom right are from some of the balconies).
And here's a photo taken as a screenshot from the security camera at our front door. The person sitting across the laneway with a white top and black pants seems to be an extra. I think the two people walking down the lane are crew rather than cast.
Comments (1)
Anthony Holmes January 5th, 2009 09:11:47 PM
1) Movie: Centre Place
Guess what - I am actually working on captioning this film right now! I stumbled across your blog while looking for information on the film. I don't know what you look like, but will keep an eye out for a group of extras!