James Bond & Siena!!

So for those of you who don't know, they're filming a large portion of the next James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, in several parts of Italy.  The closest they are to Viterbo, is Siena.  This is also the site of the biggest sequence they are filming over here.  ANYWAY, this past Thursday & Friday, I went up to see if I could see anything.  Well, I'm happy to say that I got to see several things.  I got to see two stunts filmed - part of a rooftop chase where Bond chases a guy across a roof while shooting, and then they jump to another building.  Pretty sweet.  The crew has 5 cranes set up around the edges of the area they're filming in, for "flying" the camera for overhead shots, as well as for safety purposes for the stunts.  Boy, they are tall.  Big, and tall.

So whilst I was hanging around at the edges of the set/area they had blocked off, I ended up talking to the Head Rigger (the crew that runs the cranes they use for cameras and flying stuntmen from one roof to the other) several times over the two days that I was there. He's a British guy who's very nice.  We talked for about 10-15 minutes the last time I saw him, and well, over the course of our conversation, I let it slip that I am a film major who's about to be done with college and that I one day hope to be able to work on a set like this.  I mentioned other things that let him get the idea that I was someone who knew a little bit about the movie industry (including knowing who the stunt coordinator is - no one knows them, unless you're a nerd like me), and that I wasn't just some gawky, star-struck tourist.  That I was there to see anything and everything I could, and I was simply in awe of the scope of what I was witnessing.  So after all this, he motioned to a guy standing about 20 feet away, who turned out to be the Production Manager for the Italy section of the filming.  

The guy I'd been talking to (Peter Graphum by the way) asked the Prod Mgr if, when they return to Siena next month to finish the sequence in another part of town, I could possibly come on set and "help out"!!!!  Without hesitation, the other guy (Gianlucca?) said "Yeah, we'll give him one of the necklace crew tags and everything." (!!!!!)  At this point, I nearly fainted.  Peter then turned back to me and said "well there you are mate.  Just come and find me - I'll be near one of the cranes - we'll get you all set up.  You can spend the day on set, helping out, and you can get a good idea for everything else that's going on, not just the rigging."  

I thanked him profusely, and told them both to expect me back on at least one of those days - May 13-17th.  My mom, step-dad & Sarah will all be in Italy at that time, but they all understand the scope and magnitude of this opportunity, and are showing full support.  Now of course, it could end up raining the day that I go back, and so nothing could happen, or it could end up being the door opening to get my foot in and never look back.  Or it could end up being somewhere in the middle.  But how cool would that be if I got to help out in some capacity, and therefore be able to say that the first movie I ever worked on was a bloody JAMES BOND movie!!!????