Why it was done   How it was done Two ways of shooting a drama set in the back of a London taxi.         EITHER Close off a street and hire some extras and some cars etc. to make it look real. Use two or three camera crews in separate vehicles to shoot the cab. Rig up powerful lights along the street so the cameras can see inside the cab. Maybe put the cab on the back of a low loader so the 'driver' doesn't have to actually drive...     OR Get the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol to adapt a London taxi for interior shooting by installing cameras in the luggage bay and the back seat, with sound recording equipment and monitors in the boot. Use lightweight DVCam digital cameras which are sensitive to low light levels, so don't need external lighting. Put tiny hidden microphones on the actors so that a sound man with a boom mike isn't needed. Drive around London in normal traffic, and shoot each film in one day...     Using all your skill and judgement, try to guess which method the producers of BLACK CAB went for.         "I loved the idea that these films are completely real," says Amelia Bullmore. "They're shot in a real cab with real London flying by. At one point, they were filming during half-term outside Hamleys. It was absolute bedlam, but the crew calmly kept filming and got everything they needed." Co-producer Jake Lushington recalls the madness of trying to shoot on the streets. "We were in Soho at four o'clock one Saturday morning surrounded by all these people who were completely wasted but who wanted to be in the movies. This guy with a huge spliff kept wandering into shot and we kept having to cut. But it's been great using real locations: the Houses of Parliament, St Thomas' Hospital, Waterloo Bridge - all in one day! It's about letting London speak for itself."             © World Productions 2000 / All rights reserved; Photographs © BBC, Channel 4 and World Productions No material from these pages may be reproduced in any form without the permission of the copyright owners.