The Helicopter Shot

It all started with an interview which was going on in the local channels. The interviewee was a new (film) director; So being an aspiring director myself I felt it was my duty to watch this interview !!! He was talking about his 15 core film, which was an interesting thing as being a newcomer, I wondered in awe, how did he manage to convince a producer to invest this much money for his first film! Throughout the interview the director kept on impressing me more; Coming from a non-filmy background the guy succeeded in convincing the Superstar for his first film! But the interviewer didn't seem as impressed as me as he wanted to know how is he going to spend the 15 core. For which our director calmly replied that he was using lots of Helicopter Shots, as it was an action film. That made me wonder who his cinematographer was. Again he would have convinced some big shot cinematographers with his script and stuffs I thought. Because throughout the interview he was telling how much he had worked hard on the Pre- production of the film.
By now the news of this film got flashed in all the (regional) film magazines.
The shooting started, and one of my friend was the assistant cameraman for the film. I called up my best friend, who was again an aspiring director (!) and said, "why don't we go and see the shoot, after all it is happening in our neighbouring town?"
We reached the shooting spot..., chaos every where... but thats how a film unit will be, we told ourselves. Suddenly all went quite, the shot is ready... the director is in his chair, viewing the monitor... then he screams through the microphone, the golden word which he would have been dying to scream out (& definitely rehearsed in front of the mirror too) since the day he dreamt of being a film director- ACTION! The Superstar is motionless... Martin Scorsese once told, 'its not a must to start doing something, every time I call Action!'... but here that was not the reason for the Superstar's motionless reaction. The cinematographer turns to the director and whispers, " you are supposed to give command to the sound and camera first, then only to the artist." Lesson no. 1 drilled in the head, you might think! but the director kept on calling Action first, for every retake.
Finally when the shot is taken, the Superstar comes to the director and asks him, "Son, how many more shots are remaining for me today?" The director takes a seat next to the Superstar and in a very slow pace starts narrating the story. ''No, no no...., interrupts the Superstar, i meant how many shots are remaining for me today?" The director flips through the filed paper in his hand and again continues with the story. The frustrated Superstar without loosing his patience in front of all his fans who have come to have a glance of him, explains to the director calmy, "What is a shot and what is a scene!" Finding the Director getting nervous the Superstar asks him," Then, what pre-prodution did you tell me, you guys did before the shoot??!?" "We finished designing the poster, sir" replies the director very sincerely.
Almost understanding the situation by now, we decided to leave. But we came all this way and leaving without seeing the Helicopter Shot was not right. We caught hold of our assistant cameraman friend, who also joined this film, to be part of the challenging Helicopter shot. As soon as he heard, we are here to see the Helicopter shot he was more than happy to take us to the chopper! I know, I should have read his devilish smile, hiding in the corner of his lips, before he took us to a room... filled with small white balls running on the floors. To our shock, the unit photographer was standing in front of "a Helicopter Cut-out from Thermocol" and taking its Shots! We looked at our friend who has passed our current state of mind long before and by now was at the verge of insanity for joining this work as he suddenly started laughing loudly seeing our expression. Asking him to hang in there, we ran home from there before we lose our sanity!