Working as a runner

I got the chance to be runner on the production of the workshop film “Mallorca” by Danish director Marianne Blicher. During pre production I helped finding the location for the film. We had to find an apartment complex from the 70’ies and the challenge was to find and lend two apartments in the same stairway which we could use for a little more than a week. We succeeded – to my surprise!

I was asked if I would like to be assistent director and of course I agreed! My job was to participate in scene rehearsals, during which was filming and also preparing lunch for the crew. In addition to that it was my responsibility to go through (and rehearse) the scenes with our youngest actor since these needed som extra attention.

As a runner on set I had to prepare breakfast and lunch. I stayed as close to the shoots as I possibly could both to help out whenever they needed me to, but also (and mostly) to watch how they worked. We only used one shoot (or setup) per scene, which made the arrangement before each scene extremely important. It also led to some delay and a lot of waiting time. This was sometimes annoying but since I had been up since 04.45 in the morning most days (to pick up actors, prepare breakfast etc.) it was actually nice to have some breaks where I could rest!

It was very nice to work as a runner in this crew and because I had such a pleasant experience working on this production I’m even more eager to try out other runner jobs now.