Tony Lawson Side 1
Linda Wood 0:00
Tony Lawson, film editor, being interviewed by Linda Wood on the fifth of December. 2000 tape interview for can you say where you were born?
Tony Lawson 0:16
Yes, I was born in London, in Paddington. My mother was a nurse. My father worked in the camera department as a cameraman, and I grew up in North London. I went to a co- educational school called King Alfreds in Hampstead. Didn't do very well academically. And at the age of 16, I thought I was going to become,I thought I'd like to become an engineer. So I started looking around and found one or two places to go as an apprentice, and one of them was Handley Page in Cricklewood
Tony Lawson 1:04
A motor car company, or made parts for motorcars in North London.
Linda Wood 1:13
Were you not interested in sort of film?
Tony Lawson 1:17
I'd always been to the cinema with my grandmother. She used to take me to the local Odeon every week to see whatever, literally, whatever, was on. But I can't say that I was ever interested in film as a young person beyond enjoying going to the cinema, not really knowing anything about it. And as I grew up, my father had left the film business as such, and joined the BBC. And although that sounded quite a nice job, I wasn't overly interested in it. And I think like most, maybe not like most. But anyway, I felt I needed to rebel against my father, and so I more or less said, I don't do anything you've done. So I say, I thought I'd become an engineer, and unfortunately, as I wasn't very academic, and so the qualifications I came to at 16 weren't very good. And so consequently, jobs that I was offered in engineering or the apprenticeships weren't very interesting either, and I turned them down, partly through shock, because I went for one interview that was so deeply embarrassing and unpleasant.A boardroom with 12 executives on one side of a giant table and me on the other, realising that half them weren't even listening to what I was saying. So I didn't know what to do, and my father, at that time, was in charge of, one of his responsibilities anyway, was to commission outside companies to make films within BBC, documentaries, whatever. And one of the companies he was using, he either persuaded or they actually wanted a tea boy. And my father said, look, you've got to do something just to get out of the house for the summer, while you think about what you want to do. So I went to join a documentary film company called Marcus Coopers in St John's Wood.
Tony Lawson 3:36
So yeah, so I joined them. I joined Marcus Coopers as a tea boy, cable monkey, really. And I think I probably, I don't know how long I stayed there, it must have been, certainly more than the summer, anyway. And several rude shocks. I mean, I was told my dress wasn't appropriate and my hair was too long and things like that, which quite shocking, having been free at school and and they had, they had a very small sound department where they had a recording room with just one or two channels, and they had one editing room, and they used to employ people, just on a kind of freelance basis, apart from the very few people that were there permanently. But one of them, anyway, was an editor, and I cannot remember her name, but I wish I could remember her name. Anyway, I used to when I wasn't busy, I used to go and hang about in her room with her, and she was very friendly and very welcoming, and
Linda Wood 4:50
Was that because she was sort of interested, or just that, it was a nice
Tony Lawson 4:54
I think she was such a nice person, and it's quite a daunting prospect at the age of 17 or whatever, to be thrown into this kind of commercial business, you know, the business of making money, as it were, and all the things, all the restrictions imposed upon you, as they like. For instance, being told to get my hair cut, but she was very welcoming and friendly, and so it was sort of natural, if I wasn't particularly busy or anything, I'd go and chat to her if she wasn't busy. And I think she partly because it was such a pleasant place to be, and she was so such a pleasant person, I kind of enjoyed it. And I suppose if I was thinking about, you know, a career that's probably where it started to come together. Do I just keep following on chronological order?
Linda Wood 5:58
Did you start at all wanting looking at sort of how to put films together ?
Tony Lawson 6:03
At that stage. No, no, because I didn't really have any particular idea about staying in that necessary, that discipline, even if even staying in that business. I don't think. I don't remember having any strong feelings, apart from being confused. And so it was only then I think they realised that I wasn't. There wasn't really a job for me, actually, and it was a government funded. No, right? Sorry, it wasn't government funded. It was they used to make documentaries for government agencies, and one of them was they used to make films about the bomb tests. And I wasn't clear. They tried to clear me government clearance, and I wasn't cleared. I suspect that's partly to do with the fact that I was so young, but I'm sure the fact that my father had been a communist and fully paid up didn't help either. So I left, and actually, now that I think about it, that was, that was the reason they couldn't keep me there, because of the sensitivity of the films they were making, not that they knew see those kind of things now, and there's nothing sensitive whatsoever. But anyway, so I left and I went to join Athos films, and that's really where I started to get interested in films, because I was given a job again as a kind of trainee, without any particular discipline. I just do anything. And I remember one instance where I was the clapper loader, the driver, the carrying the electrical equipment, the assistant editor for what was then the BOAC on a documentary that Athos films was making about about BOAC and the aircraft, the passenger airline, and so I literally did everything.
Linda Wood 8:18
What was the size of the people working on the documentaries,
Tony Lawson 8:21
Very small. There was the cameraman, whose name was Ron, I can't remember his other name. There was the director. There was myself. There was the BOAC representative. I don't remember there being a sound man, but there might have been, and I don't remember an electrician, but there might have been. I certainly remember driving up and down the a four between SOHO and London Airport with a van full of people or lights and things like that. And I've got a photograph from that period me with clapperboard, so it was a very small crew, and I quite enjoyed working on the location that I liked, but I didn't have a particular interest in photography. And I think as as I started to sort of become more aware of what I was really doing, I started to think about becoming an assistant editor at that time. And so I followed that film through all the processes and then, and then stayed with an editor called David painter, who who worked at Atos films for a long time prior to my arrival, and also after I left. So and that, I think, is where I started to get interested in films. And we made, apart from documentaries, we made also films with television for BBC, one of which was a. Film programme. So we used to get films to think about what we do now thinking about what we did. Then to copies, black and white, copies, which have been priceless, I'm sure would be priceless. Now, we used to cut them up, and it's just horrible get them ready for transmission into programmes, but, and that's when I also started to sort of look at films, I suppose, apart from thinking about film business, yes, and I stayed there for about four years. I think I'm just looking at my brief thing is, it was something like four years and there met.
Linda Wood 10:45
Did you move from just sort of doing this, assisting other people, to actually being allowed to put together your
Tony Lawson 10:51
own No, no, I was never allowed to put anything together. I'm still very young, really.
Linda Wood 10:58
At that time, they seem to have people who worked for the documentary companies that were the
Tony Lawson 11:04
year dark. Yes, that's right, it was a much more of a structured business, a secure business, if you like, in the documentary field. There was Atos films, there was worldwide films, which who I also worked for after I left the Athos and they had, they had crews. There was at Athos. There were certainly three other cutting rooms, fairly permanently staffed worldwide. There were many, many more. There was something like six documentary cutting rooms, and they had a commercials division as well. So it was much more of a steady job, as it were. But also it had its drawbacks. I remember at worldwide, I worked with an editor called Ken Morgan, who who was one of the, I think he'd been at worldwide for a long time, and quite well respected, but they used to give him more than he could cope with. And often we would get a panic from a producer, saying, You got to put away that film and get out this film, because the bridge, you know, the clients are coming in today, so we'd suddenly have to empty the cutting room of one film and fill it with another. Consequently, you know, we hardly ever had lunch, and I seem to remember working all sorts of long hours, although not necessarily weekends, but they made us work hard in those days. Probably still do one
Linda Wood 12:42
question, sister, sort of, what were the working hours
Tony Lawson 12:44
it was. They were long, definitely long. Yeah. I mean, I used to get in at eight or 830 and not leave before six or seven.
Linda Wood 12:52
And we also asked, sort of, were you still living at home, and what was your journey like?
Tony Lawson 12:57
Yes, I was living Yes, I was living at home, and I bought a motor scooter. So as I either used to ride my motor scooter, or prior to owning a motor scooter, I had a bicycle. So I used to cycle, for instance, from North London into Soho. I'm back again, which is all right in the summer wasn't quite so much fun in the winter. Well,
Linda Wood 13:21
I'm surprised. You sort of survived to sort of do this interview, cycling into central London and back again.
Tony Lawson 13:28
Oh, no, no, that's I still have. I have friends now who still do it.
Tony Lawson 13:38
Yeah. So, anyway, so,
Linda Wood 13:40
oh and what were you paint, please, when you were, gosh,
Tony Lawson 13:46
almost nothing. I know I seem to remember it was eight pounds, but I can't believe that one of the early jobs, I mean, I would have to, I don't think I could even find that out now, but my memory has eight pounds somewhere in it from being an assistant in the documentary company, and it climbing slowly. I do remember much later, earning 80 pounds a week as an assistant in the features, and thinking I'd really made it. Can you list what the
Linda Wood 14:27
duties of an
Tony Lawson 14:30
assistant were in the documentaries? It was really a filing job, because certainly you needed to be able to get things very quickly, you know, find trims, find shots very quickly. And because of the schedules, nothing ever was filed or what. You know, we never had a chance to file the film, put it in a can and write a number on it, or anything like that. It was all go. You know. Film came off the bench, out of the editors, hands into a bin, and that's where it stayed until the production was finished. Then it all got junked or something. I think we used to put it in tins, actually, but so really it was, was remembering where you put something was a big part of part of the job. And I think, I mean, certainly with the people I worked with, we used to talk to some extent about the work. And I suppose, you know that's always helpful for an assistant, because at least then you start to feel engaged, you know, and start to feel that you're part of the process, as opposed to just, you know, someone that does as they're told and gets coffee when they're told to and things like that.
Linda Wood 15:56
Yeah, and you were definitely had decided at this point that it was going to be editing sort of, rather than just sort of
Tony Lawson 16:03
in as much your time until you
Linda Wood 16:05
decided what your
Tony Lawson 16:06
career Yes, I'm in as much as I made any decision in my life. Yes, I don't think I woke up one day and said, This is it. This is what I'm going to do for the rest of my life. But it was certainly something that I was enjoying doing and and I had a feeling that I wanted to carry on at least on that level for a while. Yeah. So what was the next? Well, I suppose, when I was working at Athos films, there was an editor called Teddy davas, who who was working there. And he, he, we got on quite well. And he, he had an opportunity to edit in a kind of freelance sense. He wasn't tied to Atos films, and he came, he'd come and go, and he introduced me to a sound editor called John Pointer, who worked, who he worked with. And I got out of documentaries, which I have to say, was getting quite tired of being involved with mainly because it was so frenetic. You know, one day they'd be doing one thing, the next day we're doing another thing. There's never feeling, never really any satisfaction. One or two films I think we worked on in when I was in that area, were good, actually, and I was quite pleased to see the results, but I never really had any involvement in them. It was all, as I say, like a fire being like a filing clock in a way. And I'd pretty much had enough of the hours, and particularly working at worldwide pictures. The editing room that we ended up in was in the basement, and the only window opened out onto the shaft, the air shaft. So it was just, it was hell in many ways, and to walk through the boiler room to get to it even, you know, it was just terrible. So the conditions were pretty unpleasant. So I'd had enough, really, and the idea of working on a feature film, you know, was like, suddenly pavements are going to be paved with gold, you know, both financially and also from a sort of interest point of view. So I went to work anyway, with John Pointer on a film that Charles Crichton was directing called he who rides a tiger. And we will I went to work with John Pointer, the dubbing editor, Sound Editor, on that film, which was being made at Twickenham studios. And so that was my first sort of out into into the you explain what it did, being edited? Does? I could try. It's when the picture is finished, when, when the editing is picture editing is finished. It's the track. In those days was film. It would be given to the dubbing editor, and it would be his job, or a dialogue editor's job, to clean up the dialogue tracks. In other words, take out the clunks and bonks, any cues that might be left, any creaking floorboards that shouldn't be creaking, and if it's necessary, if the soundtrack was so bad that it was necessary to re record the dialogue, then he'd be in charge of that aspect of things. And then also it would be his job to recreate any sound effects that might be missing. In, people opening doors, drawers, you know, scissors, things like that. And also supply atmosphere tracks like, you know, if it's, am I supposed to be in a wood and the crows crowing, you know, things like that. And so that sound of this job really is to make the soundtrack into an item of it on its own, or not on its own, but into an item that that supports the film.
Linda Wood 20:32
Did you know sufficient at that time to be able to convincingly, sort of do that?
Tony Lawson 20:37
Oh, I was only an assistant. I wasn't the sound editor. I was astounded, as his assistant. So, so your dance, your question is, no, although I'm sure if I'd actually had to do it, I would have been able to do something, but, but no, so I was, I was John's assistant, and was very enjoyable experience. I remember we had an ADR session where Edwina Ronald, who was an actress in the film, was slapped about by Tom Bell. I think it was Tom Bell. Can't remember who it was now anyway in the film, and it had all been shot without sound. And so Edwina Ronald came into the ADR theatre, and she's trying to do this sort of whimpering and sound of someone being beaten up, and couldn't get it. And she asked that somebody come in, into the recording box and to just push her about make it harder for her, give her something to fight against. So John went into the recording box, and so all we could see, of course, in the control room was the screen and the Hear the sounds. And we did a take, and it was fantastic. And it was literally looked really good. It fitted very well. And and then John reappeared from out of the recording booth, and his hair was all over the place. His eyes were wild. He's obviously got very physical with this rather voluptuous actress, good introduction for a young man.
Linda Wood 22:36
What worse at all the cutting rooms
Tony Lawson 22:39
lagged, as you said in those days? Yes. Well, cutting rooms, traditionally, it's not quite so now, although still, there are places that aren't particularly pleasant to be in. But traditionally, cutting rooms have always been in the cellar or in a room without with no windows, or the windows are so high up that you can't see out of them, or their frosted glass with wire reinforcement in them. And these were pretty much like that. You couldn't see out of the windows. It was dark and hard floors, oak benches. I remember my father showing me an act journal from the 1930s that advertised editing bays, and it was a curtain in a bay in like a long corridor that had kind of Bays off it, and you drew back the curtain, although it was, was a an Oak bench, some Rewinders and a rather antiquated looking movie earlier, and that was it. And when, I don't think they progressed that much since then, certainly when back in 1960s anyway. So it was pretty they were pretty grim, really. And certainly the equipment was oily. And for instance, the Moy numbering machine had this incredibly damaging to your clothes and to your fingers, ink or ink solvent, which is even worse, used to stink and just used to make an awful mess. Often end up with it on your clothes and just have to throw them away. It was pretty hard work. No, that's not true. It was not. It was hard work, but it was they were they aren't. The surroundings weren't very pleasant. I must say,
Linda Wood 24:32
I think you're right. All these editing places I've seen, as you say, well, they work in the dark. So
Tony Lawson 24:40
yeah, and chairs and almost non existent. They didn't have chairs. Everybody stood up. Seemed
Linda Wood 24:49
what you stood up when you were
Tony Lawson 24:50
Yes, almost Yes, okay. I mean, people, that's not true, of course, that because people did have seats, but they were you couldn't. You know? If you think about an office chair now, it's quite a comfortable piece of equipment. Well, in those days, it was probably a wooden stool, if you were lucky, and if it was at the right height, you were probably lucky as well. So
Linda Wood 25:12
did you wear an overall?
Tony Lawson 25:13
No, I never wore an overall. I don't, don't remember anybody wearing overalls. People used to wear white gloves. I never quite understood whether that was to protect their hands or to protect the film, but I do, I mean your clothes. It was remarkable. Now looking back and remembering that a lot of people used to wear a suit and tie that was not unusual in the slightest, and quite smartly dressed, I often wondered whether that was because they wanted to give the impression that They had a better job than it apparently was.
Linda Wood 26:02
So what did you do next at all? Was it an employment or,
Tony Lawson 26:07
I think, Well, generally, that was at Twickenham studios that we made that there and then, then with the same sound as Sir John Pointer. I'm still as his assistant. I worked on a film by the Boulding brothers called rotten to the core, and that was in 1965 and that was at Shepperton Studios. How
Linda Wood 26:40
did you do because you've worked on the previous Yes, and I'm now moving
Tony Lawson 26:44
on to Yes, yes, that's right, yes. He asked John, asked me to carry on with him. I mean, just,
Tony Lawson 26:57
well, yeah, we just kept, you know, we got on very well together. And so he was obviously, I think I don't remember being out of work for very long, and happily, it's been lucky. I've been lucky that way. Most of my working life, I haven't really had vast periods of unemployment. So it's been quite good to me in that respect,
Linda Wood 27:17
because when you started the studio systems, that God was just breaking down formal one is in the States,
Tony Lawson 27:27
yes, oh, absolutely, permanently employed. Yes, although they weren't editors, none of the editing department were permanently employed. They were always, certainly, apart from documentaries where people did seem to be permanently employed. Everybody was freelance. I think I don't remember any permanent editing departments at all, yeah. So it was all freelance. So anyway, we went to Shepperton for the boltings and uh, that was quite amusing, I suppose, because it was kind of notch up. He who rides a Tiger had been quite although a very good film, and working with Charles Crichton was very interesting, as he was. He'd been an editor and and gone on to direct, and so he had a very, very strong input, I'd say, into the editing, and in fact, to the point where he actually edited some, certainly one or two of the sequences in the film, very nicely, very in a very natural editor, very intuitive, and you know how to achieve things, and it's good. So the boltings are a different kettle of fish altogether. Much, much bigger. Production funded rather better and at that time, if I might be wrong, but I believe that they owned British lion, which owned the studio. I might be wrong on that. Maybe that might have come later. They certainly Swan around the studio as if they owned it, even if they didn't. And that had Charlotte Rampling in it, actually, as I remember now, I think it must have been one of her first films, and Anton Rogers was where I realised that the making films was much more of a profession. There were people that had specific jobs, as opposed to doing everything, and that I'd sort of become used to in many ways. And I remember John reacting badly to some dialogue at some ADR, not ADR. It was called post sync in those days, reacting badly to some post sync. And. That somebody had recorded for a newspaper seller, and he re recorded it himself, and in the mistaken belief that he could make it better, very arrogant man he was, he didn't make it back. No, he didn't.
Linda Wood 30:26
Did you sort of tend to stay in the editing room at all. Were you allowed to wander around?
Tony Lawson 30:33
Well, I think at a studio atmosphere, you do tend to wander about, just because, I mean, if you've been to Shepperton, you'll know it's, it's, it's, it's a very, I'm disorganised in kind of, architecturally, as it were, you know, there are bits and bits of it all over the place. And back in those days, I just think it's probably, I remember it being even worse. They used to have to walk everywhere to get, you know, to the offices or to the mixing theatre or to the canteen or to the music recording stage or whatever the transfer bays. They're all a good walk. So used to get out quite legitimately, as it were, to sort of wander about. And it was nice. It was, it was a very pleasant atmosphere to be in a studio where there seems to be a lot of work going on and
Linda Wood 31:29
technically, were you picking up a lot? Was there a difference in the kind of
Tony Lawson 31:34
equipment that you were using? No, was all fairly standard. I mean, editing equipment hasn't didn't really change until electronics came along. It was basically the same. Obviously, it was perfected in some things, joiners. We used to work on joiners. That was where you join the film with film cement, as opposed to sellotape. And so the sellotape joiners made a difference and things like that. But essentially, they were still the same, still the same principle. So did I, I suppose I started to understand, you know, how to make films better. You know what the technical requirements? Yeah, yes, that's right. Yes, that's right, yes, yeah. I mean, actually, I did learn one of the, one of the lessons that stayed, and it's, it's fairly obvious lesson. Actually, we had a sequence in the film where that took place in a bedroom, in a studio set bedroom, and it was quite long. It was like five minutes long. And sound editor was John was scratching his head, trying to think, what, what can you put on a scene like that, at an atmosphere? You know, the answer is very little. But nevertheless, tried to manufacture something. And he he decided he'd have a pub. The sound of people leaving a pub. Well, I mean, in principle, that's quite an interesting might be quite fun, but because the net result of it is that you start to listen to the sound effects, rather than listening to the dialogue to is on the screen. So you have to decide, what are you trying to do? You know you're trying to trying to listen to the dialogue. Are you trying to tell a story that's irrelevant outside the window? And that was one of the early lessons where you know you don't, you don't put on something that's going to distract the audience, unless you want to distract the audience,
Linda Wood 33:46
to what extent were decisions like that made by the sound editor? Well, I sounded the director saying, I want something here. Yes,
Tony Lawson 33:59
sound of the job, in a sense, to think about things like that and to come up with some thoughts that will add atmosphere without being distracting. And so you know, that's what he'd be thinking about all the time. And of course, you know, when you get to mixing theatre, a director may see that and either like it or dislike it or want something else. But that's really what sound editors job is, to be imaginative and thoughtful about his work and how it's going to contribute to the film. You
Linda Wood 34:36
didn't think of staying into
Tony Lawson 34:39
sound editing? No, not really because, because I realised that wasn't where it was at I mean, at least for me, that's that, you know, there are some extremely good sound editors who do an enormous amount of work and contribute an enormous amount to the final result of the film. I wasn't particularly interested in it. I. Of myself, I've far more attracted to the picture side. I was becoming more attracted to the picture side, and also in those days, and probably still true is that sounds kind of thing that everyone leaves until the last and so you constantly end up scrambling to get things together. The your schedule gets shorter and shorter and shorter, and you're expected to pull, you know, miracles out of a bag. And it felt, always felt to me like you were, we were playing catch up, you know, just trying to keep get, just to keep up with what was coming at us. So I didn't really feel it was a particularly I wasn't particularly interested in, in that or, or actually the creative side of it, although I've come to realise that sound is a very, very important element in film Making that we came later the time
Linda Wood 36:02
social view just think, what's up? Then,
Tony Lawson 36:05
what happened? Well, then, then I got a I got a break. First of all, I got married. Actually, after that I got married. And so I'm sure most filmmakers, certainly technicians, would probably tell you, and the job comes first in many ways, and
Linda Wood 36:27
face appears,
Tony Lawson 36:32
I'm bringing it in because it's quite amused. It's not It's amusing, but it's also true, I got married and on, drove to the honeymoon, which is in a in Sussex, and walked into the hotel and checked in at the desk and said who we were. And the receptionist said, Oh, you must ring this number. And so I rang this number, and it was a job offer to start on Monday, and this was Saturday, so I said, I can't start on Monday. I'm on my honeymoon. I'll start on Tuesday.
Tony Lawson 37:17
And it was a job as a first assistant. I was, I was amazing, lucky. I can't really remember how it how it came about with Anne Chegg wood, and who was going to cut a film called Daleks invade Earth. And I must have met her. I just don't know how it came about. I just don't remember the chain of events that brought me to her all that job, but again, that was at Shepperton Studios. Now maybe it was because that I just, I just really can't remember. So anyway, I curtailed my honeymoon and went to work on Tuesday as Ann cheggs, first assistant, and just had a great time. First job as a pictures picture assistant, and was wonderful tutor. Very inclusive. I mean, if I think about it now, I used to sit behind her and and feed the film to her into the movie Ella, and she'd talk about the egg cuts and make the cuts, and we'd look at them. And so it was really, really exciting to be part of that and see really how editing was done, hands on, as it were. I mean, I wasn't operating any of the machinery, but nevertheless, being there as it was being edited and being part of the process was really great. And so that's my first job in the picture department.
Linda Wood 38:58
What kind of thing did she explain to you? I You,
Tony Lawson 39:04
I suppose she Oh, gosh, I can't remember. I mean, I don't really remember the instances I think it was, you know, you start to understand things about choice. You know, why one would choose one thing as one take over another, or why one would choose to cut here or instead of there, or why one would cut something out completely and go to some, you know, make a jump as it will move the move the story along. So I think it was, you know, things like that. I don't know that she necessarily explained everything that, you know, she wasn't saying, I'm going to cut here because CERN so and so and so, but it's the sort of thing that you pick up. So it was more, it was more like that, you know, just learning by watching, rather than anything else. And but she was, she still is, I imagine. I haven't seen her for a while, but. I don't think she's still alive. She was really a very, very pleasant, sociable person to work with. We used to go out for dinner and things like that, and
Linda Wood 40:13
working really long hours.
Tony Lawson 40:15
Well, yes, when the film was shooting, I mean, it would be, have to be at Shepperton by 830 Well, I mean, from London, that's quite a journey. And if the unit was shooting, if they saw rushes at lunch time, there was no lunch. And I don't remember working too many late evenings, but we certainly must have worked some weekends, I expect, sort of British films in those days were fairly strictly budgeted, and they didn't like you working overtime unless you really had to. So I don't remember working overly long hours, but you know, from door to door, from home in the morning, back to home at night. It's probably sort of eight or nine o'clock at night before I got home. Oh yes, yes, yeah. I
Linda Wood 41:24
were you sort of going to see a lot of other people's films at this time? Were you being influenced by any sort of culture trends in
Tony Lawson 41:35
filmmaking? No, no, I was still. It was all still exploding for me. It was all I was still, you know, receiving enormous amounts of information, really, and and enjoying it tremendously. I had several friends in the business. I remember when I was working on the film with Anne, a friend of mine was working along the corridor with an old European editor called Ozzie haffenrechter. So I suppose you know I was just going along with the absorbing is going along with the whatever was happening. Wasn't thinking too much about the future. Still, I don't think.
Tony Lawson 42:26
And anyway, after that finished, I then had my first introduction to working at Pinewood Studios on a film that John s Smith cut called manutara, which I was directed by. Can't remember it was directed now, somebody happened. No, that was, anyway, it was a, it was a sort of cheap horror film, because it wasn't horror at all. It was very funny. Akim tamarod was the actor who had to be had to turn into a vulture at night, because he was quite a large chap and not very tall, so he ended up looking rather more like a chicken than a vulture. Don't really remember too much about the film, to be honest, but it was at Pinewood Studios, again, cutting rooms in the back of nowhere, you know, hard to see out the windows and strange working practices, because Pinewood, in those days, was a studio that had a lot of its labour on permanent labour. And I remember, you know, coming from a documentary background where you everybody did everything, you know, you got in and got on with it, to suddenly being confronted by people who were very fixed in their ways. And this is what I do, and I don't do that somebody else does that. Sort of attitude was quite shocking, and sort of pulled me up short quite quickly, I think. But it was a nice it was a very pleasant studio to work in everything seemed to work well. Had a
Linda Wood 44:26
reputation of being well organised, yes, much
Tony Lawson 44:31
expensive. Could pay for the organisation, quite possibly, as a fairly unremarkable film. Anyway, I think we all thought it was quite funny. And Lawrence Huntington, that's the man that directed it. I think his name
Linda Wood 44:48
was, I recognise the name. I think he was
Tony Lawson 44:50
making such a quote film, yes, yeah. And after that, I. I, I got into something that that I was looking at my list of things here, and it was a film that was made by Billy Wilder's brother, who's also called William, William Wilder, and made in the Philippines, and it was obviously made for absolutely no money. Had everybody's girlfriend for.
End of Side 1
