My clandestine rendezvous with Nelson
15th June 2010
It’s four thirty in the morning, I’m wearing a thermal shirt, a t-shirt, a normal shirt, a jumper, a light coat and a winter coat. I’m still so cold I can’t stop my teeth chattering. I’m helping out on the shoot where we are filming Lord Horatio Nelson wearing an England 2018 back the bid scarf. For a few moments I forget the cold, I’m captivated by the crane unfolding itself like a complicated puzzle trying to find the solution. The cage with the film crew emerges from the darkness and floats like some surreal flying saucer between Nelson’s Column and the National Gallery. Slowly the crane arm makes its way up to the top of Nelson’s Column and then we move to our secondary camera position onto a rooftop overlooking the square.
As the sun rises we are treated to a breath-taking view of London, as one by one the London Eye, the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace and of course Nelson’s Column are lit by the dawn’s golden glow. We’ve got four cameras trained on Nelson two on the roof and two on the crane but ironically I wish I’d bought my own cheap point and shoot to capture the moment.
