Spotlight

Pat Rambaut

What was your background before you got into the industry?
I worked in Ardmore Studios as the studio manager’s secretary. During a quiet time, a production company needed someone to take notes on a 2nd unit shoot and asked did we know anyone. I suggested to the studio manager I could do it, and they hired me out to the company. I took to it like a duck to water. The film was Rocket to the Moon. After that another producer needed someone to help him while he was writing a script. I had good shorthand and he dictated the script, which I took down and typed out. Harry Allan Towers was the producer!

How did you get into the industry?
Soon after this, the same producer asked if I would come to London for a month, which I did and did the same job of taking down & typing out his script. Soon after this I got a job as assistant Continuity on a Michael Winner film. A horrendous man. The Continuity Girl (as we were known at the time) became ill and left the film. I gritted my teeth and stayed on despite him. I think he took a dislike to me, but I wanted that job to get some experience. At the time in the UK, to work in the industry you had to have a union ticket and to get a union ticket you had to have a job. Catch 22. The loophole was to hang out till you got the job no-one else wanted or everyone was busy! And that’s what happened. However, I got a job as a production secretary (now production assistant) and stayed in that job for several years.

What film did you enjoy the most and why?
This is quite a hard question. I am going to choose two films. The first has to be The Mission (1986), filmed in Columbia and Argentina, the director was Roland Joffé. Main actor Robert DeNiro. Why? Mostly I think because of the director, Roland. I loved working with him and was lucky to work with him on four films. He was a wonderful filmmaker. He was quite demanding, but very appreciative of one’s help. It took me quite a time to make my mark with him. The location for the actual mission set, was up in the mountains of Santa Marta in a rainforest. The days we shot there started off with a 5 minute canoe ride - highlight of the day - the days were hard and long, the weather was extremely hot and the mosquitos very active! But it was a magical experience.

The other film I enjoyed working on a lot has to be Michael Collins (1996), with Neil Jordan. Neil is a very interesting filmmaker, albeit very different to Roland in his approach but equally demands a lot of one. Michael Collins was a wonderful film to be part of, a great mix of actors and certainly challenging from a point of view of continuity! I loved too the production design - especially the set of the GPO, in O’Connell Street, which was a set built by the art & construction department! Even the trams were brought in!

What advice would you pass on?
The most important thing on a film is an actor’s performance. I learned never to speak directly to an actor on set while shooting a scene. Always pass any comments you might have, in terms of continuity, to the director. Actors accept and expect a director to guide them in their performance.

Preparation for working on a film is of prime importance, as it allows one to really learn the story and over the years I found systems to help me do that. A good Script Supervisor is a very valuable asset to an actor. To give you an idea of what I am talking about - the film City of Joy (again a Roland Joffé film) was shot in the centre of Calcutta. We had a lot of problems and demonstrations which caused the production company to change the scheduled scenes mostly on arrival on set. I can remember Patrick Swayze on a number of occasions asking me to take him through where his character was when such a change happened. This is where my detailed story synopsis helped me hugely.

I think another thing that is of great help, is to know camera lenses - i.e. the difference of what might be in a shot, between say a 25mm lens and a 75mm lens. It can be useful when you can’t look through camera and especially helpful if camera team are either stressed or not very helpful!

Pat Rambaut,
June, 2020.
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Check out Pat's IMDb page here.

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