It was lights, camera, action on Queen Street yesterday as shooting for next year's Bermuda Shorts campaign got under way in Hamilton.

Filming for the ads, which will have a "lighter, livelier'' look to them when they appear on North American TV screens in the spring, has been going on at various Island locations since the beginning of the week.

Among the areas that have or will be featured in the four new spots were Horseshoe and Chaplin Bays on Monday, Somerset yesterday afternoon and various sites in St. George's today.

"We will be shooting until the end of the week -- weather permitting,'' Tourism communications manager Ms Pat Phillips-Bassett said from her perch on the sidelines of yesterday's shoot.

"We want to show off Bermuda and Bermudians. Basically we'll be shooting all over the Island.'' Yesterday, however, the focus was on Hamilton as crews from Los Angeles-based HKM Productions and local production company Panatel scurried about the bottom half of Queen Street in an effort to shoot the required street scenes by mid-afternoon. The director, American Mr. Marcus Stevens, had apparently settled on Perot Post Office and the Front Street facades of Smith's and Gosling's as his primary locations.

At first, a half dozen or so colourfully attired actors were arranged in mock business attire around a long line of bikes.

While their "role'' was to represent typical Bermudian businessmen, the entirely local ensemble mainly just stood around and looked bored.

"I did a similar shoot for the Department of Tourism in St. George's,'' said Mr. David M. Skinner during one of the many lulls in filming. "I was the father of the bride on that occasion.'' Added Mr. Robert Chandler, another veteran of the Bermuda Shorts campaign: "We've been here since 9.00 a.m., ripping off clothes and changing in the (public) washroom (behind the Post Office).'' At around 10.30, however, Mr. Chandler and his colleagues were finally doing their stuff, making mock conversation for the camera and pulling their mock cycle helmets on and off, on and off. At the same time, pedestrian traffic around the Post Office came to a standstill.

"When we're locked up, nobody walks,'' assistant director Mr. Bill Tyler warned the various "PAs'' ("production assistants'' in laymen's terms). That meant that no one could walk into, out of or around the Post Office until the cameras had stopped rolling.

Filming new ad Despite the throng of onlookers that crowded the sidewalks, no one did.

A few minutes later -- hours of preparation went into a few minutes of film -- cast and crew moved over to the refreshment cooler to juice up for their big finale on Front Street: an exclusive street-level panning of the assorted actors' knees.

"We're trying to inject a little bit more fun,'' Ms Phillip-Bassett explained, adding: "It'll all make sense when the ads come together.'' Before he joined the parade of flesh, however, an apparently exasperated extra was seen pawing the soda cans and Evian bottles in the production crew's cooler.

"You don't have any red wine, do you?'' he asked one of the staff. Alas, they did not.

Streets to be affected by the shooting of Bermuda Shorts ads in St. George's today include Chapel Lane, Needle and Thread Alley, Duke of Clarence Street, Printer's Alley and the corner of King and Princess Streets.

The Department of Tourism warns that motorists may be inconvenienced any time between 6.30 a.m. and 6.00 p.m.