The final panel at Cosford comprised of director Alan Perry
and focus puller Robin McDonald being joined by studio production manager Ken
Holt.
The theme of the panel tended to deal with the day to day
running of the Slough studio.
Ken kicked off proceeding when he was asked about his role
in the studio as production manager. One of his duties was dealing with Union
problems. Because of the unique nature
of the puppet studio at Century 21 a lot of jobs just didn’t exist as Union recognised
positions, so it was up to Ken and the Union to create them.
One job was visual effects assistant. Ken had been working
in visual effects and special effects for years but no one had ever been called
a ‘Visual Effects Assistant’. In the past if the effects department had been
working with water they’d call the plumbers in, if it was electrics, the sparks were
called in. Another title created by the studio was Lip-Sync Operator, which no
one had ever heard of until Century 21 created it.
So it was down to Ken and the Union to sort things out and
create these full Union grade positions.
Although the downside was everything in the Studio had to be
covered. For example, there were three special effects units and one smaller
unit covering the ‘Rolling Road’. On top of that, there were two puppet units.
Because they were shooting in 35mm they would have to have a full crew associated
with shooting a feature film – a Grip, a Clapper Loader, Focus Puller, Camera
Operator and Director of Photography.
Ken did used to have the odd chat with Unions about why they
had to cover everything, when they weren’t even shooting sound, but that was
the way it was, and by and large the Studio had good relationships with all the
Unions.
They were all asked what changes were felt when the Century
21 moved into live action. Again Ken started by saying he considered it an exciting
time for the studio , but as the special effects were still filmed at Slough
nothing really changed, apart from losing one of the units as the budget was
higher for the live actors.
It did change for Century 21’s Film Directors, of course.
Alan Perry recalled that Gerry Anderson had teamed up with A.B.P.C. Studios
opposite MGM were the live action would eventually be filmed.
Alan and the others were invited to spend a fortnight
watching A.B.P.C.s people direct live
action, to get the feel for it. Alan finished by saying, they were really
helpful and gave them a good crash course.
Robin was reminded of some of the actors’ screen tests for
UFO, and in particular, Mike Billington.
The test took place on the set of Straker’s office. Mike had
done his lines and walked to the sliding doors of the office. These were pulled
and pushed open, out of shot by a couple of prop men, who couldn’t actually see
what was going on. They would open the doors, count five and shut them. Mike
Billington wasn’t aware of this and instead of walking through the doors, he
paused for dramatic effect. The trouble was he took a bit too long and prop men
slammed the door, nearly taking his nose off!
So that was the last guest panel at Cosford. Very
entertaining and a taste of those great
days at Century 21.
Everybody clapped and the guests got up to move of stage –
apart from Ken who got up and looked straight at me, pointed a finger and
shouted, ‘Scoop!’
I was knocked out. Good old Ken had remembered me from a
couple of lines we’d exchanged for the briefest of moments at the recent
Andercon convention. We had another brief chat, and this time I managed to get
a photo with him.
You can hear me reflect on this talk and lots of other things that went on at the Cosford event on this months Celtica Radio Swordcast.
