WORKING on a film set is not all glitz and glamour - there's sweat, long hours, and camaraderie too, as EMMA MACKINTOSH found out.

THE South Wales Valleys may seem a million miles away from Hollywood.

In fact it's 5,343 miles from Hollywood, California, to Cwmfelinfach Workingmen's Club, where I went recently to try my hand at the craft of working on a film set.

Of course, Hollywood isn't the only place in the world where movies are being made - far from it.

Wales is the perfect setting for both the big and small screens and, as I found, the buzz of excitement and enthusiasm among young film-makers is contagious.

The film in question was a 10 to 12-minute piece about a bingo caller with Tourette's Syndrome, directed by Joe O'Hare, 30, and filmed by director of photography Andy Toovey, 29, who runs Torfaen community film company TorFilm, a not-for-profit side to 2V Studios Ltd.

Filmed over two days in the real-life bingo hall of the working men's club, complete with blacked-out windows, I arrived to find a team of 25 cast members (professional actors and a few locals) with "dobbers" in hand, and nine crew members, getting ready to film a central scene in the piece.

The piece is for Mr O'Hare's final graduate film project at the University of South Wales and the owners of the workingmen's club kindly allowed the crew to take over their upstairs for two days.

This involved Mr O'Hare, rather like a groom preparing for a church wedding, spending time there playing bingo over the last few months to introduce himself to the regulars and propose the idea of filming a bingo movie there.

Keeping track of what everyone is doing on a film set - from the actors to the lighting technicians and the caterers - is no mean feat and it became immediately apparent that you have to be focused and plan every step of what you will be doing.

But equally, you have to be quite quick, and pitch in where something needs doing.

Ellys Donovan, producing the film, explained that they start with a shot list and "sides" which is the section of script applicable to the scene you're filming on that day, rather than the whole script.

You sign in when you arrive and the crew will hold production meetings so everyone knows what they are going to be doing.

My first task was to help actor Jon Griffin apply his dramatic stage make-up before he hopped up on the raised platform to play a hapless bingo caller Danny Day in that morning's scene.

The plot of the film, explained Mr Toovey, centres around June, an aspiring bingo caller, and her relationship with her father, who was also a bingo caller.

Danny Day is brought in by new management to bring charisma to the role left absent by the recent death of June's father, Tommy Brown, but Mr Day thinks he's better than he actually is.

June has always wanted to follow in her father's footsteps and be a bingo caller at the Two Fat Ladies Bingo Club, but her Tourette's Syndrome and belief that her dad didn't really think she could do it, mean she has never expressed this desire to anyone.

In the film, her father's death sets in motion events which force her to either suppress this ambition or go for it, explained Mr Toovey.

"It has quite an emotive finale," he said.

Mr Griffin's task was made more visceral on screen by the hot lights beaming down on him, which I helped to set to the right angle - something which can change from scene to scene.

We ran through the scene several times, focusing first on Mr Griffin's performance, then a group reaction by the actors playing bingo, then individual actors' reactions.

Some of the actors had lines which needed to be recorded using just a microphone rather than the camera, and vice versa, and I soon found myself holding a heavy boom mic aloft a group of actors who, as consummate professionals, completely ignored me.

The heat from the lights on a film set is difficult to describe but needless to say whenever someone said "Cut!" people started fanning their faces.

Much to everyone's relief, first assistant director Lexx Oliver soon announced that it was lunch time, and the actors readily queued up in front of large vats of rice and vegetarian and meat curries provided by Joe's wife Roisin.

Keeping your actors and crew going during long filming days is vital, especially when you're all toiling away under hot studio lighting, so I pitched in dishing out rice and curry to the actors.

When the plates were scraped clean it was time for everyone to get back into character and run through the scene one more time, at which point I took over from Mr Toovey and hoisted the heavy camera up onto my shoulder.

I found it difficult keeping the camera steady and can imagine you develop some serious shoulder and upper arm muscles doing that job 12 hours a day!

Towards the end of the shoot I was given the most coveted job on a film set: clacking the iconic movie clapperboard.

After my very warm and frenetic shift on the film set, I can't help but walk past closed-up buildings and wonder whether it's lights, camera, action on the other side of the door.

TorFilm is open for community involvement and they would love people to get on board on a voluntary basis. Visit http://torfilm.co.uk for details.