在跑龙套中体会电影的魅力

Extra Movie Glamour

By Darren Snow

I was sleeping. Someone was shouting.

"Darren - You awake?!"

"Now, yeah."

"Can we use your computer?"

A new Chinese movie needed extras. I dragged myself out of bed and next door to Richard and Alan's house, so they could e-mail photos and CVs.

"You might as well throw in a CV while we're at it, eh?"

Thus a very ragged photo of myself, bestubbled and far too recently out of bed - backed up by a glittering CV of imagined movie experience - was sent off with those of my two actor friends for approval. That evening Richard got a call. We were in. 8 am at the Hyatt.

I went to bed late that night. How hard could standing around in the background really be? At 7.30 am we trundled, hungover, into a Xaili and headed to the hotel. A girl met us at the lobby and directed us to a room on the eleventh floor. Inside was a makeshift office. There was an enormous map of Beijing with locations marked, a flurry of Chinese people shifting between Mandarin, Cantonese and English and a small table with two bewildered looking foreigners eating breakfast. It was explained that four of us were a band. The other foreigner was to be a sleazy producer who seduces the heroine of the film with promises of stardom. Always fun reaffirming clichés of the foreign devil.

We had been told to dress in 80s' style, but it quickly emerged that Chinese ideas of western dress at that time were rather different to ours. The Costume coordinator arrived with a nervous young assistant, who appeared to have absolutely no function whatsoever. We were hurried in and out of the bathroom trying on ①a succession of huge woolly jumpers and absurdly tight polo necked sweaters. Alan was given a massive leather jacket straight out of Shaft. We looked wonderful, we looked absolutely ridiculous. We couldn't look at each other without laughing. Costumes were complete.

We were ushered back down to the lobby, then out to a bus where we joined the Chinese extras.The bus crossed the city to another hotel. The camera was being set up outside. A crew of thirty was watching this happen, apparently with no discernable tasks of their own. A succession of people - the girl organising us, the assistant director, the art director, unidentified hangers on -explained to us in slightly different ways that we had to walk out the door of the hotel. A man with a rake of wavy black hair emerged from behind the camera. It was 9 am. He took a sip from his Carlsberg.

"Hi, I'm Steve. I'll be your cameraman today. Just relax and walk out of the hotel."

"What shall we say?"

"Whatever you like. Talk about football."

"Ok."

"Great. But talk about proper football not that American nonsense."

As we laughed together I noticed that this was one of the most famous cinematographers in Asia. He took another sip from his Carlsberg.

We entered and exited the building in a variety of ways, chatting away about proper football and the long term problems of rock megastardom. We did it again with feeling. And again. And again. The star of the film arrived and we exited while ignoring her, like the scurrilous laowai does. We were hurried to the next location.

We arrived at a park on the outskirts of town where our band were supposed to be playing a huge concert. Some food was brought out and we ate with the large crew (still with no discernable tasks) in the freezing cold. As we ate two large black cars arrived. The real producers emerged. White, middle aged and dressed entirely in black, production stayed down while they wandered around enjoying their little movie. We did some more waiting in the freezing cold.

"Are we needed yet?"

"We're not sure. Could you just ②stay close by until we know?"

The glamour of movie stardom was becoming clear. Everyone waited as the producers admired their set over lunch. Still, at least our silly costumes were warm. Finally after hours of waiting somebody worked out what was to happen. We were on. Our producer met the girl by the stage and made her promises of love and stardom. With all the acting savvy we could we walked around in the background pretending to discuss our set list. Really we were discussing Alan's need to go to the toilet, but this is the magic of film.

extra /`ekstr9/ n.(电影)临时演员

ragged /`r2Gid/ adj.粗糙的

bestubbled /b1`st7bld/ adj.脸部留有胡子茬的

glitter /`Glit9/ vi.闪闪发光

hungover /`h7G`.v9(r)/ adj.因余醉未醒感到难受的

lobby /`l4bi/ n.大厅

flurry /`fl7ri/ n.慌张；激动

mandarin /`m2nd9rin/ n.普通话

bewilder /bi`wild9/ vt.使迷惑

sleazy /`sl1zi/ adj.肮脏的；污秽的

seduce /si`d(s/ v.勾引；

heroine /`her9uin/ n.女英雄；女主人公

stardom /`st3d9m/ n.明星的地位

clich?/`kl1Hei/ n.陈词滥调

jumper /`_7mp9/ n.套头衫

usher /`7H9/ vt.引导；领引

discernable /di`s/n9bl/ adj.可辨别的；可认识的

sip /sip/ n.呷一口

cinematographer /,sinim9`t4Gr9f9/ n.电影摄影技师

scurrilous /`sk7ril9s/ adj.下流的

savvy /`s2vi/ n.实用技能；见识

① a succession of 一连串

② stay close by 呆在附近

在跑龙套中体会电影的魅力

戴润・斯诺

我正在睡觉。就有人在喊。

“戴润，你醒了吗？！”

“现在，是醒了。”

“我们可以用一下你的电脑吗？”

一部中国电影需要临时演员了。我勉强从床上起身，来到邻门的理查德和艾伦的家，这样，他们就可以过来用电子邮件发照片和简历了。

“在我们投简历的时候，你也可以投一份，嗯？”

就这样，我那张极其差劲的留着胡子茬、刚刚起床的照片――外加一份编有从影经验的动人简历――和我这两个演员朋友的一起发了出去，等待录用。那天晚上，理查德接到了电话。我们被录用了。约在（第二天）上午8点去东方君悦酒店见面。

那夜，我睡得很晚。在背景里干站着究竟能有多难呢？早上7:30，在我们还没醒过酒劲儿的时候，我们就跌撞着坐进了一辆“夏利”，前往那家酒店。一个女孩在大厅接待了我们，并把我们领进了11层的一个房间里。里面是一间临时办公室。在那里，挂着一张巨大的北京地图，上面对一些地点进行了标注；中国人混杂着普通话、广东话和英语，乱哄哄地交流着；两个面带疑容的外国人，在一张小桌上吃着早餐。经解释得知，我们四个人演一个乐队。而另一个外国人要演一个用成名的许诺来勾引影片女主角的龌龊制片人。能再次印证洋人就是鬼子的说法总是很有意思的。我们被告知要换上80年代的服装，但很快就发现，中国人对西方那个时代的服饰认知与我们是有相当大的区别的。服装调配师带着一名战战兢兢的年轻助手来了，而后者似乎就绝对没什么作用可言。我们被催促着来回到洗手间里试穿一系列肥大的羊毛套头衫以及紧得都显得滑稽的马球领毛衣。艾伦分配到一件大号皮夹克，样式就是《铁杆神探》中出现的那种。我们看起来棒极了，我们看起来绝对滑稽可笑。一看到对方，我们就忍不住要笑。服装算是试完了。

我们被带回了大厅，随后又被带到停在外面的客车里，与中国的临时演员们坐到了一起。客车穿越市区后来到了另一家酒店。外面正在架设摄像机。30名工作人员，各个都明显是毫无事情可做，正在旁边观看着。陆续有人――管理我们的那个女孩、副导演、美术指导、不明身份的闲人――用差不多的方式向我们解释说，我们要从酒店的大门走出来。之后一个梳着一头波浪发型的黑发男子从摄像机后面冒了出来。那时是上午9点。他呷了一口嘉士伯啤酒。

“嗨，我叫史蒂夫。我是你们今天的摄影师。要放松，然后从酒店里走出来。”

“我们要说什么呢？”

“自己想说什么都可以。那就谈谈足球吧。”

“好。”

“太好了。不过，要谈真正的足球，而不是美国人胡来的那一套。”

就在我们相互一笑的时候，我认出这个人是亚洲最知名的电影摄影技师之一。而他又呷了一口嘉士伯啤酒。

我们以不同的方式在大楼内进出，大聊着真正的足球和成为摇滚巨星后要面对的长期问题。我们满怀情感地又做了一遍。又一遍。又一遍。影片的明星来了，可我们，就像粗俗的老外那样，对她置之不理，走了出去。我们被催促着赶往下一个地点。

我们来到了城郊的一个公园，在这里我们的乐队根据安排要演一场盛大的音乐会。一些饭菜送来了，我们就和一大堆工作人员（仍旧是毫无事情可做）在冰冷的天气中吃了起来。就在我们吃饭的时候，两辆黑色的大轿车开了过来。真正的制片人来了。他们是白人、中等年纪、一身黑衣，四处闲逛，欣赏着他们的小电影，而此间的拍摄就停了下来。我们在冰冷的天气中继续等待着。

“我们现在可以了吗？”

“我们不清楚。你们可以在我们得到消息前就呆在附近吗？”

电影明星的魅力正在变得清晰起来。整个午饭时间，制片人就在赏玩着他们的摄影棚，而大家却都在等待着。不过，我们的蠢笨服装至少还是暖和的。最后，在等待了数个小时之后，有人想出该演什么了。我们上场了。我们的制片人在舞台上遇到了女主角，并向她做出了用爱情换成名的承诺。我们运用我们所掌握的全部表演才能，在背景中瞎溜达，假装讨论着我们的曲目安排。而实际上，我们是在讨论艾伦的如厕之需，不过，这就是电影的魔力所在。

Links

stand around 作者在文中前半部分中提到了一句话“How hard could standing around in the background really be?”，而其中用到了一个词组“stand around”。猛一看，可能不解其意――既然是站着了（stand），怎么还能搭配“around”呢？其实，这时的意思就发生了一点变化，它们合起来是指“光站着，无事可做”。类似的词组还有后文提到的“walk around”（溜溜达达，无事可做）。

rake 作者在形容那个电影摄影师时，用到了一个词组“a rake of hair”。其实，它是俚语用法，“a rake of hair”就是“a head of hair”。而且，这个俚语还有一层含义，即被形容的那个人的头发很多，稍微有点乱。