| Pedro the Fisherman |
04-30-2008 08:19 AM |
Still no news on those pubes, but this is a nice report from a member of the Spencer Tunick forum....
Quote:
Being an ITV production, the logistics were organised to fine detail - the entire staff knew exactly what was happening at every second of the day, and the timetable was rigidly adhered to. Considering there were well over 150 crew there: camera crews, journalists, producers, directors, admins, team leaders, catering, security, drivers, runners, the helicopter crew, and of course, Trinny and Susannah themselves (to whom I will refer to as T & S from this point) with all their PAs and whatever; watching the day unfold was quite an impressive experience. Bear in mind of course, that Spencer could probably only dream of the budget that was thrown at this project.
Catering was provided in full inside a huge marquee: three meals + hot and cold drinks (no alcohol though), there were a row of portable VIP toilets onsite - not the cheap green chemical portaloos, but serious plush ones.
The volunteers came from a wide range of people: firstly, there were a significant number of people who had participated in The Great British Body roadshow with T & S leading up to this installation. Aside from them, The Guild of Erotic Arts had around 15 volunteers, there were a number of volunteers from dance schools, some burlesque dancers, aspiring actors, and other people on the ITV mailing list, a few people came from the World Naked Bike Ride list, some naturist groups and from this forum, of course. I think there were around 200 people to start with, but more people appeared during the course of the day - I think the total was closer to 300.
On registration we were assigned a number which indicated our position in the installation - images of a male and female body, a dark green boiler suit and a thermal foil blanket. I was assigned to the left chest area.
There was a fully clothed rehearsal in the morning, and contrary to my expectation - no one stripped off for it. During the rehearsal we rehearsed our positions and the switch between them a few times. For the male image, I became one of the chest hairs, but for the female image, I moved to the head and became a part of the hair. At one point, everyone who was head hair was instructed to stand up and walk away from the head area in formation. The reason for this became evident a little later.
After lunch we were instructed to disrobe and put on our boiler suits. Men's and women's changing areas were provided, but contrary to the assumption that people would get a bit of privacy while changing, the camera crews rushed into the changing areas as the word was given, so no privacy there. A bunch of us (men and women) stayed out in the general marquee and changed there, free from the hassle of camera crews.
After everyone emerged (wearing nothing but the boiler suit and shoes, we all went outside to a small stage where T & S (also in their boiler suits) revealed the two people on which the two images were based. The man's name evades me at the moment, but the woman was Michelle Chapman, who has suffered from Alopecia (hair loss) since the age of 5, and normally wears a wig (hence the hair walking away in the rehearsal).
Following this, we were led back up the hill to the installation site, assembled on both sides of the image and disrobed. T & S turned up wrapped in their thermal foil blankets, and a rumour started to spread that they were wearing flesh coloured underwear. A couple of rather outspoken girls who were sitting close to me and together formed the male nipple, started to jeer at Trinny and repeating this rumour to her, at which point Trinny lifted up her foil blanket to reveal that she was not wearing anything underneath. The woman who was on my other side - and was filling the sternum/cleavage position, expressed her joy at seeing that both T & S have a fair amount of celulite each.
Once we were in position, it was time for T & S to disrobe and take up their position as the belly button. Watching the two of them fumble with their foil blankets to "protect their modesty" was hilarious, and of course that got the whole crowd chanting for them to "take it off", which they eventually did.
The actual filming took close to an hour, with a switch from male to female form taking place after around 40 minutes. At the right moment, the head hair people all got up and started moving away from the head. To me it seemed a bit messy, but they didn't ask us to do it again, so it probably looked better from the air.
And that was that. We all put our boiler suits back on again, went back down to the marquee, had some more food, and gave more interviews, and eventually started dispersing back to the coaches.
I was aware during the course of the afternoon, that a few people were continuously uncomfortable with being naked. With Spencer, somehow, everyone seems to get into a very liberated state of being, and I felt with some people in this installation, that they did not reach that state. Maybe it's something about Spencer's charisma that T & S obviously lack.
We did, at some point make a suggestion to Susannah (I think it was Cywol who came up with it), that prints be made as souvenirs for the participants, I think that would be a nice gesture on their part and hopefully they'll remember that we asked.
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