Sony Centre

I’m obliged to have a fondness for this place… it saved my life, well… rather my film.
It was a Sunday… it was our day of shooting. Days before, I’d spoken with my camera guy about how much tape we needed.
«Do you think we need more than a couple hours of tape?» he asked.
«Yes,» I said.
«Okay,» he replied, «I’ll be sure to get some.»
So there we were, on a Sunday afternoon on Kings Road in Chelsea, setting up the shot with all of our rental equipment, when the camera guy says to me, «uh… I need to go to a store somewhere and buy some more tape.»
«What?» I asked.
«Yeah, I mean, if you think we’ll need more than an hour of tape…»
«Of course we need more than an hour! We’ll need well more than an hour…»
«Yeah, so, I need to go to a store and pick up some more tape…»
I looked at him incredulously. «This is crazy… I have no idea where in the world you think you’re going to find HD mini DV tapes anywhere near King’s Road on a Sunday at 4:30 in the afternoon…»
He looked up and down the street… then pointed to the Sony Centre, which was miraculousy a stone’s throw away… as if it had materialized out of nowhere right then and there… I’d never even noticed it there before…
«They might have some,» he said.
And what do you know? They did. We bought their last tapes.
I consider myself indebted to Sony for even contemplating setting up such a shop on King’s Road… so here’s a big public thank you to Sony for the shop’s very existence in Chelsea… and another big thank you for keeping it open till 5pm on Sundays!