These are extras being prepped before they walk on for something that is being filmed. The street is around the corner from Abbey Road, which is down to the left and around the mini roundabout and the famous zebra crossing.
The man I asked said he was an extra. and that they were filming an advertisement. I gave him an old fashioned look and commented ‘not for the thirty trucks that were lined up and a Local Authority road closure’.
We agreed that they were prepped to say that and that was more than the ‘sorry, can’t say’ that they usually said.So it is a period film, and my guess is that is about the Beatles. Big deduction, huh!
The sun was low over to the left and it has cast a slight haze or bloom across the photos. When will I ever learn to put on a lens hood?
Cameras As Recording Instruments
This morning, a day after I went to see what there was to see, I looked again through the photos I took.
I found that one of the women in the shot was holding a copy of The Silver Book by Olivia Laing. The setting is Italy in 1974 in what is described as a period of political turmoil and the height of Italian cinema. The book was written in late 2024 and published in November, 2025.
The woman holding the book is dressed for the period, so she could be one of the extras. If the film is intended to be set in the period of the clothing then I guess it depends how much attention to detail the continuity people gave the props.
But there is another shot that shows more, and here below is the full frame and a crop.
So the film could be about the Beatles, and set in the relevant period.
Or it could be a science fiction film with a woman transported to the scene from 2026.
Or it could be a thriller set today, where people in period costume besiege the Abbey Road studios in a reflection of the political turmoil of 1970s Italy.
Or….
Or fill in with your preferred plot.
At the end, I have put another photo I took a little while ago showing a scene that you can see pretty much any day on Abbey Road at the crossing.
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