Yesterday I managed thirteen extras during a film shoot on a moving train going 100 miles an hour. It wasn’t exactly a slow experience, except that making a movie, even if it’s only five minutes long, takes more time than you think.

They shot the scene in the first class section of Germany’s fastest moving train, the ICE. I was responsible for keeping all the extras together as we moved from one train station to the next. They called me their ‘room mother’, a term I viewed with a splash of humor and astonishment (I’ve been told on several occasions that I exude a certain matronly authority when carrying a clipboard…). Nonetheless, we completed the shoot by 2 pm, only we had to get back to Munich from Stuttgart, which took another three hours. By the time I got home, it was 6 pm.

Instead of being irritated that the travel time home took longer than the actual shoot, I decided to get friendly with a few of the extras who had been in the scene. I also made friends with someone in the next train on the way home to my car. It turns out we have some mutual acquaintances, making the ride a bit more small-worldish.

Time is what you make of it ~ at any speed!