Chapter 4: On Set

W WALKER’S FIRST WORKING day, as the latest technical advisor appointed to the “High Street” set, was actually a Saturday, when no filming was taking place. He had a little trouble getting through the gate as they did not have the normal weekday security staff on and everything was solidly chained up. He flashed his newly-issued pass and someone must’ve phoned Julie, because he was soon, and very apologetically, waved through. Bill had already told him where all the mains switches for the workshop were, as some of the machinery needed three-phase power. Plus he was now in possession of all the keys to the workshop and stores.

Walker had the whole two days of the weekend to himself. He wanted to check and log where each piece of the required furniture was and at what stage each was up to. He had a check list and running schedule of all the pieces that were needed. First thing he did before the inventory check was to top up the gelatine glue pot and its water jacket and heat it up to get the traditional flexible animal glue ready for use. He finally worked through the list and satisfied himself as to the quality of the covering cloth and padding for the upholstery, before starting to glue up the frames for the remaining chairs and clamping them overnight until they dried.

He cheerfully whistled a jolly tune as he worked, putting a solvent-thinned layer of shellac on the already made unsealed chairs with bare wood and rubbing down the other chairs with an abrasive fad. He was able to apply a second coat on the new chairs and a softer layer of pure shellac on the already polished chairs. He left these chairs to dry off overnight, checked off his progress on the production list and locked up satisfied with a productive day’s work.

The next morning, it really wasn’t necessary for Walker to have to walk past the make-up department, as it was a little out of his direct way to the workshop. For some reason, Walker wanted to go that way just to check out exactly where it was and how far away it was from his temporary workshop. He had the good grace to shake his head at his actions as he walked by the locked-up department. He knew he was heading for a raft of heartache, feeling as he did about this girl, but he simply couldn’t help himself. He felt he needed Abi to put him straight, even if it broke his heart. If she didn’t, he knew he was obliged to stay close to her and cultivate a deep but platonic friendship and forever keep his true feelings for her buried out of her sight. That way he could enjoy being near her without her being offended by showing anything deeper than being plain friendly to a friend of mutual friends in the shape of Bill and Doreen. He was certain now that Abi was a family friend rather than actually related to Bill and Doreen.

He returned on the Sunday and carried on with alternative layers of shellac and abrasive coatings, before he made a start on upholstering the chair frames. He worked quickly and steadily, finishing in time to start cutting the inlays for the dining table and additional fold out leaves. As he worked, he wondered if he should call on Bill and see if he could find out if Abi had a serious boyfriend or not.

And these were the thoughts of a man twice her age, thinking he had any chance with a beautiful girl, who clearly spent several hours a day in close intimate company painting the skin of famous TV soap stars, and maybe even international stars in Los Angeles. Anyway, he thought, how does an old man broach asking such a beautiful young girl out on a date without making a complete idiot of himself?

Monday morning was a day Walker spent setting up and shooting scenes, including a short one in the open workshop set, which, according to the illusion of television, was supposed to be immediately behind the furniture showroom shop. For this scene, Walker had to brief a couple of extras, who came in already made up and prepped in working aprons. He organised one neat-fingered old chap in cutting dovetail joints that Walker had already marked and cut extremely thin guide cuts to follow. The other chap, much younger than the other, Walker soon ascertained was quite cack-handed, so he had him rubbing down some waste wood with some worn-out glass paper. These two guys were only going to be seen, unobtrusively and slightly out of focus, in the background of the scenes to be shot.

The main star of the scene was a handsome but quite arrogant young man, whose age Walker guessed to be about mid 30s. Apparently, he had been working on the show as the workshop foreman and son of the shop owner, for a number of years and thought he had picked up enough woodworking skills to not need Walker’s ‘interference’. The actor had long hair, which kept flopping in his eyes while he worked. Walker suggested that if he was supposed to be doing this job every working day, he would habitually have his hair tied up in some way.

A pretty young girl from the make-up department, that Walker had seen a couple of times before, came and quickly brushed and secured Gavin’s hair up in a neat top knot, before disappearing again. Walker didn’t have a chance to quiz the girl whether Abi was back from her trip yet. Walker again tried to prepare the actor for the scene, doing a simple task of glueing up a tiny inlay and then inserting it into one of the prop chairs that was destined to be broken up in a later shot. This was what the director wanted. However, the encounter with the clumsy actor did not go well.

“Look, son,” Walker said to the actor, involving the young assistant director in charge of the shoot, after two awful takes, “Just paint the hot glue on this piece in shot, then put the brush back in the pot in shot. When the camera pans to the glue pot, simply drop the glued piece, pick up this dry section and just push that piece in place and wipe with a cloth. If you do it quickly and smoothly, no-one will notice that it is still dry.”