I Get Mail
Most of the time my job isn't anywhere near as show-businessy as people tend to assume. Most of my days are spent in front of computer or wandering around the studio briefing other artists or in meetings with our clients. There's no red carpet, no limo and no fancy frocks. I do love it though in spite of what I may think about going on set.
Every once in a while I get reminded that films still have something magical about them. At the end of last week a letter landed on my desk at work. It was addressed to me at the right company but had been addressed to Pinewood Studios. Some kind soul at Pinewood had obviously looked up the company I work for's address and forwarded it on. It's a miracle it got to me at all, I would have thought that they'd be very intolerant of incorrectly addressed mail at Pinewood but apparently not.
I opened the envelope and another envelope, two plain postcards and a letter fell out. The letter was incredibly sweet. It was from a guy who had visited the location shoot of Wolf Man (the film I'm currently working on) and he'd got the autographs of the director and most of the cast whilst there. Whether he had won some sort of competition to visit the set I don't know. He'd subsequently decided that he was going to try and gather as many signatures of people who had worked on the film as possible and hence the letter to me. I am amazed he went as low down the credits as me and he must have written dozens of these letters. The letter was very individual and hand-written; it must have taken hours, probably days, to write to everyone involved.
So I broke out my fountain pen and scrawled my signature on one of the cards and wrote a little note back answering a couple of the questions he'd asked. It felt really bizarre. I understand the completist urge that some people have, particularly when it comes to collecting something but this was a level of commitment I hadn't banked upon. I did feel a little bit famous just for a moment too, even though I'm clearly nothing of the sort. It was rather nice actually.
Every once in a while I get reminded that films still have something magical about them. At the end of last week a letter landed on my desk at work. It was addressed to me at the right company but had been addressed to Pinewood Studios. Some kind soul at Pinewood had obviously looked up the company I work for's address and forwarded it on. It's a miracle it got to me at all, I would have thought that they'd be very intolerant of incorrectly addressed mail at Pinewood but apparently not.
I opened the envelope and another envelope, two plain postcards and a letter fell out. The letter was incredibly sweet. It was from a guy who had visited the location shoot of Wolf Man (the film I'm currently working on) and he'd got the autographs of the director and most of the cast whilst there. Whether he had won some sort of competition to visit the set I don't know. He'd subsequently decided that he was going to try and gather as many signatures of people who had worked on the film as possible and hence the letter to me. I am amazed he went as low down the credits as me and he must have written dozens of these letters. The letter was very individual and hand-written; it must have taken hours, probably days, to write to everyone involved.
So I broke out my fountain pen and scrawled my signature on one of the cards and wrote a little note back answering a couple of the questions he'd asked. It felt really bizarre. I understand the completist urge that some people have, particularly when it comes to collecting something but this was a level of commitment I hadn't banked upon. I did feel a little bit famous just for a moment too, even though I'm clearly nothing of the sort. It was rather nice actually.
Labels: "gob struck"
scribbled hastily by Mr Atrocity at 8:00 pm
2 Comments:
It was nice of you to write a note back to him. I bet he'll really appreciate that.
Oh, my gosh. That was so sweet. All day long, I've been writing about 'the magical' - we send out these truly lovely letters to the email list and they take several days to concoct; this one was about hand made ornaments that really are magical.
But it makes me hope that you know that it is a precious connection people feel when they can share a few words with someone who creates so much. That's the part that's magical, that you create and share so much with us.
(Ooh. I feel like a big fat fan. Because I am.)
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