“I didn’t expect all this.” Says Ibrahim , owner of Village Stores in Levenshulme.
The MYVP team has taken over the shop floor for the morning, and for some time now Maria, Jack and Claire have been kept busy moving boxes of free-range eggs and organic lemons around in preparation for the day’s shoot.
Village Stores perfectly embodies the eco-friendly movement towards local, organic and fair-trade produce. In addition to fruit, vegetables, groceries and washing-up powders and detergents that do minimal damage to the environment, Ibrahim also sells a great variety of flowering and fruit-bearing plants.
In the window, a certificate from Manchester city council declares that substantial efforts have been made to stock and sell organic and fair-trade produce.
The difficulty for today’s filming arises in making the shop look uneconomical and wasteful, to contrast with its later transformation. Props brought in by the MYVP team include value-sized bottles of bleach, and a lot of lightbulbs.
In reality, Village Stores is as eco-friendly as you can imagine. Plants of every colour and variety have been relocated to the pavement for the duration of the shoot, temporarily creating a virgin forest in Levenshulme.
As the morning progresses, new faces arrive. I recognise Justine Adams from her actor’s profile that was passed around the Littlestar studio on Tuesday. She auditioned in Manchester for her role in the short, and as she waits while the serious business of readying cameras and checking the white balance goes on within Village Stores, I quiz her about the proceedings.
“I’m a bit in the dark about it,” she confesses amiably. We start to chat, when Jack emerges from the shop, looking somewhat confused.
“Excuse me, coul
d you tell us how to work the till?” he asks Ibrahim. More serious business is attended to, before filming is eventually under way.
The till crisis over, I get talking to Ibrahim and discover that he has “a dream”. He recently renovated the basement of his shop, complete with an entrance accessible from the outside. He describes to me how he’d like to use it for something ‘arty-farty’ – an art café, or a printing press for a budding comic artist. He’s appreciative of the alternative cultural scene. I learn that he was something of a regular at the Cambridge music festivals and folk gatherings at Stonehenge.
While filming is going on, Ibrahim does his best to maintain business as usual. He waters and tends to his plants, vulnerable in the unexpected heat, and recommends a trailing begonia to a customer as the hustle and bustle of on-set activity goes on around him.
“They’re just filming,” he reassures his customers, as he potters back and forth to keep things running as smoothly as possible.
At the end of the morning, as the MYVP team packs up to move to the shoot’s next locale, Ibrahim is free to return to his post behind the till. It is now, around midday, that the shop’s regulars begin to flood the store. They’re all intrigued by the presence of cameras, and as they chat amongst themselves I realise that this place is something of a hub for local residents. And it’s something that I hope will have been captured on camera.
The MYVP team has taken over the shop floor for the morning, and for some time now Maria, Jack and Claire have been kept busy moving boxes of free-range eggs and organic lemons around in preparation for the day’s shoot.
Village Stores perfectly embodies the eco-friendly movement towards local, organic and fair-trade produce. In addition to fruit, vegetables, groceries and washing-up powders and detergents that do minimal damage to the environment, Ibrahim also sells a great variety of flowering and fruit-bearing plants.
In the window, a certificate from Manchester city council declares that substantial efforts have been made to stock and sell organic and fair-trade produce.
The difficulty for today’s filming arises in making the shop look uneconomical and wasteful, to contrast with its later transformation. Props brought in by the MYVP team include value-sized bottles of bleach, and a lot of lightbulbs.
In reality, Village Stores is as eco-friendly as you can imagine. Plants of every colour and variety have been relocated to the pavement for the duration of the shoot, temporarily creating a virgin forest in Levenshulme.
As the morning progresses, new faces arrive. I recognise Justine Adams from her actor’s profile that was passed around the Littlestar studio on Tuesday. She auditioned in Manchester for her role in the short, and as she waits while the serious business of readying cameras and checking the white balance goes on within Village Stores, I quiz her about the proceedings.
“I’m a bit in the dark about it,” she confesses amiably. We start to chat, when Jack emerges from the shop, looking somewhat confused.
“Excuse me, coul
d you tell us how to work the till?” he asks Ibrahim. More serious business is attended to, before filming is eventually under way.The till crisis over, I get talking to Ibrahim and discover that he has “a dream”. He recently renovated the basement of his shop, complete with an entrance accessible from the outside. He describes to me how he’d like to use it for something ‘arty-farty’ – an art café, or a printing press for a budding comic artist. He’s appreciative of the alternative cultural scene. I learn that he was something of a regular at the Cambridge music festivals and folk gatherings at Stonehenge.
While filming is going on, Ibrahim does his best to maintain business as usual. He waters and tends to his plants, vulnerable in the unexpected heat, and recommends a trailing begonia to a customer as the hustle and bustle of on-set activity goes on around him.
“They’re just filming,” he reassures his customers, as he potters back and forth to keep things running as smoothly as possible.
At the end of the morning, as the MYVP team packs up to move to the shoot’s next locale, Ibrahim is free to return to his post behind the till. It is now, around midday, that the shop’s regulars begin to flood the store. They’re all intrigued by the presence of cameras, and as they chat amongst themselves I realise that this place is something of a hub for local residents. And it’s something that I hope will have been captured on camera.
Back soon, cheerio
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