No animals were harmed in the making of this blog

I always read the credits to films. Sometimes I am thwarted in this mission – physically dragged out of the cinema or, on rare occasions, Rob simply turns the dvd off – and it seems too much effort to start it again, fast-forwarding all the way to the end.

If you don’t read the credits then I highly recommend it – I say this both as an aspiring writer (who cannot wait to be credited with something) and also a converted credit-reader (they are very interesting and there is no end of things you can learn about the film by reading the credits). Take caterers
– there were no caterers on some (I’ve not watched them all) of the Shrek films – I guess the cast had to take a packed lunch. And in Hereafter, they didn’t bother with a catering team for the Parisian scenes (I like to think that Clint Eastwood treated everyone to some great French lunches instead).

Some films have on-set doctors and even full medical teams (I’m never sure if this is in an advisory capacity or if the filming process is just very dangerous).

            We watched True Grit last week (the new version) and very enjoyable it was too. The credits revealed that along with the obligatory ‘assistant to’, Mr Damon had an ‘abs-double’ but I cannot remember a scene when I saw his abs (clothed or otherwise) – I guess I’ll have to watch it again.

            Then there are locations. Last night my suspicions were confirmed when I read at the end of West is West that it was filmed in India despite being set in Pakistan; interestingly I failed to recognise that the moors scenes in American Werewolf in London were not filmed in Yorkshire; and I am sure you are all waiting avidly for the forthcoming Brad Pitt zombie film – not least for the fact that the Philadelphia street scenes were filmed in Glasgow. It would seem it was easier to recreate a typical morning in downtown Philadelphia here in the UK than back on US soil.

            I also find it comforting to be reminded that a film is fiction and any relation to people living or dead is coincidental (unless of course it is a true story though even then any relation to people living or dead can be dubious). In a similar vein I like to be reassured that no animals have been harmed in the making of the films I watch  (to this avail I will have to re-watch True Grit as Rob turned the credits off) and so I was a little perturbed by this video footage from Thursday morning (relayed via an informative report from the BBC).

            Apparently researchers have discovered that at least six different types of fish are able to launch themselves from dry-land in amazing leaps such as the above. This discovery gives an insight into our evolutionary past from aquatic animal to complex mammal. But I can’t help worrying if any fish were harmed in the making of this film.

            Your comments please.