Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 781.
Filming a TV show or movie.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 781.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
Go there, become a member, download a learning guide. improve your life and your English.
This episode is about making a television show or movie.
Sounds exciting.
Let's get started.
Okay, quiet on the set.
What are the extras doing over there?
They're not in the scene.
Sorry, I'll get them off the set.
Is this the lighting you wanted for this scene?
If not, I can tell the lighting crew.
The lighting is fine, but this staging is all wrong.
And can somebody turn off those sound effects?
We're not using them in this scene.
I'll get right on that.
Where is the cast?
They're on break because they thought we wouldn't resume shooting until two o'clock.
That's great.
I have no cast.
The sets are all wrong.
I have extras milling around where they shouldn't be.
And where is my script?
It's right here on your chair.
Are you sure you don't want to call it a day and start again in the morning?
I wish I had that luxury.
Our dialogue begins with Martin saying, Okay, quiet on the set.
The set, S-E-T, is the area where you are making a video or a film or a television show.
It's the area where the actors are standing, what you're actually filming.
Quiet on the set is a common expression.
The director of the film or the TV show, the person who is in charge of actually making it, says so that everyone is quiet when they start filming, so that you don't hear other people talking when you're not supposed to.
Martin says, what are the extras doing over there?
An extra E-X-T-R-A is a person who appears in a movie or a TV show but doesn't say anything.
Usually doesn't have any what we would call speaking parts.
They don't actually say anything.
They're just there perhaps as part of a crowd of people.
Here in Los Angeles there are lots of companies that have extras and you can sign up and work as an extra in a movie.
It's very boring work, I've been told, and it doesn't pay very well.
I know a few people who have done that because they needed the money.
Well, a lot of actors try to get their start, their beginning in acting by being an extra.
One of these people that just appear on the screen, that is, in the movie or in the TV show, even though they don't say anything and you don't even know who they are.
Martin says that the extras are not in the scene.
The scene S-C-E-N-E is the part of the movie.
It could also be talking about a play that shows action in a single place.
So a movie usually has several different scenes, several different places that you see the actors and the actresses.
Well, most movies have several scenes.
Stephanie says sorry, I'll get them.
I'll get the extras off the set, meaning so that they are no longer where the cameras are filming.
She says, is this the lighting you wanted for this scene?
If not, I can tell the lighting crew.
The lighting is the arrangement of the lights on a stage or on a set that allows you, of course, to see the actors, especially if you are inside.
You need to be able to have lighting so that you can see what's going on.
The word crew C-R-E-W is a general term for a group of people who are working together, usually doing some sort of physical work.
In a movie or a TV show.
A crew is a group of people who do all of the technical things, not the actors, not the director.
Martin says the lighting is fine, but this staging is all wrong.
Staging S-T-A-G-I-N-G is the plan for where the actors are going to stand, how they should move around in a particular scene.
By the way, I should mention the word crew, which we just talked about, has some additional meanings as well.
Those can be found in our learning guide.
Martin says When we record one of our podcasts and you hear a telephone ringing at the beginning of the dialogue, that's a sound effect.
I don't actually have a telephone here that I make ring.
I have a recording of a telephone and I use that.
That's a sound effect.
Martin says that they're not using sound effects in this scene, in this part of the movie.
Stephanie says, I'll get right on that.
To get right on something means to do it immediately, to do it right away.
Martin then says, where is the cast?
The cast, C A S T, is the group of actors in the movie.
Everyone who is supposed to be in the movie or in the television show is.
They are the people who are the main actors, not the extras.
Typically, we talk about the cast.
We're talking about the people who are actually speaking in the movies unless, of course, it's a silent movie.
Stephanie says the cast is on break.
They're taking some time to relax because they thought we wouldn't resume shooting until 2 o'clock.
To shoot S-H-O-O-T here means to use a camera to record images, to record something with a camera, usually a movie camera.
Sometimes we'll talk about a shoot related to taking photographs especially, for example, for a magazine.
If they are models, we might have a shoot.
But here we're talking about filming the TV show or the movie.
Martin says that's great, but he is not happy when he says that's great.
He's being sarcastic.
He's saying one thing and meaning another.
He says, I have no cast.
The sets are all wrong.
I have extras milling around where they shouldn't be.
And where is my script?
Martin says he has extras milling around.
To mill M-I-L-L around is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to sort of walk around slowly in an area without any reason or without any particular purpose.
You're just waiting for something.
So you're sort of standing.
We might say standing around, milling around, moving back and forth because you don't have anything else to do.
Martin asks where his script is.
The script S-C-R-I-P-T is the written plan for the play, the TV show or the movie that tells you what all the actors say and what they do.
Stephanie says, it's right here on your chair.
Are you sure you don't want to call it a day and start again in the morning?
To call it a day means to stop doing something, to stop working for that day and not to work again until the next day.
So maybe you've been working very hard in your office and at four o'clock in the afternoon you say I'm going to call it a day.
I'm going to stop working now. and resume or continue working tomorrow.
Martin says, I wish I had that luxury, the luxury to call it a day.
Luxury.
L-U-X-U-R-Y here means something very nice, something pleasant, something good and pleasurable.
But Martin says he does not have that luxury.
He cannot afford, he doesn't have the ability to just stop working for the day.
He says time is money.
This is an old expression.
Time is money means that you can't waste your time.
We have to be productive.
If we sit around and do nothing, we'll be losing money because we're not taking advantage of the time we have.
Time is money, Martin says, and we're already way over budget.
To be way over means to have spent too much money or to be more than something.
In this case they are over budget.
Budget, B-U-D-G-E-T, is the plan for the amount of money you are going to spend on something.
If you are over budget, you're spending more than you planned.
If you are under budget, you are spending less than you planned.
Martin says, The expression, the shirt on my back, doesn't mean the actual shirt you are wearing.
It's a phrase referring to the most that you can lose, the maximum amount of money that you might lose.
Of course, if you lose all of your money, you may actually lose your clothes.
You may have to sell your clothes to pay the money that you owe someone else.
That's kind of what Martin is saying here.
A production.
P-R-O-D-U-C-T-I-O-N is usually the word we use to describe the entire action of making a movie, a play or a television show.
The whole activity, the whole thing is called a production.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Okay, quiet on the set.
What are the extras doing over there?
They're not in this scene.
Sorry, I'll get them off the set.
Is this the lighting you wanted for the scene?
If not, I can tell the lighting crew.
The lighting is fine, but this staging is all wrong.
And can somebody turn off those sound effects?
We're not using them in this scene.
I'll get right on that.
Where's the cast?
They're on break because they thought we wouldn't resume shooting until two o'clock.
That's great.
I have no cast, the sets are all wrong, I have extras milling around where they shouldn't be, and where's my script?
It's right here on your chair.
Are you sure you don't want to call it a day and start again in the morning?
I wish I had that luxury.
Time is money, and we're already way over budget.
I'll be lucky if I still have this shirt on my back when this production is over.
She's not an extra.
She's not part of the crew.
She's the person who writes our scripts. the wonderful Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2012 by the Center for Educational Development.
