Since Roy Brittan, former Bruce Springsteen pianist, and Sid McGinnis, recently on guitar with Peter Gabriel, guested on Making Movies, it's likely they might appear on the road.

What about the album title? Funny you should ask.

From New York, the group would head to London for two appointments -- a BBC documentary on the group and a date with filmmaker Lester Bookbinder.

"It's a daft idea," says Knopfler.

"Kind of an experiment," adds Illsley.

"Very expensive," they chorus.

We groaned together for a moment, thinking simultaneously of yet another rock group on two hours of videotape.

Then, Illsley hastened to explain, "It's had its day, that sort of thing. Very boring. This is a film, you know, with a plot. We considered videotape but the people using film use it with a bit more sensitivity."

They'll be acting in this "experiment," in small roles--a bartender here, a crowd scene there. It is to be based on four songs, all in the new LP: "Tunnel of Love," "Romeo and Juliet," "Skateaway," and "Expresso Love."

Because New York was then bubbling and oozing Democratic conventioneers from every access point, it seemed derelict not to inquire if they were headed toward Madison Square Garden.

Fairly hooting with laughter they declared themselves not much for American politics.

Spokesman Knopfler, however, did have one comment for American collegiates, offered after a pantomime of his tidy solution to world affairs, which was regularly scheduled one-on-one boxing bouts between international leaders.

"What we can't understand," he said, "is why your students are sitting still for the draft--complacency instead of resistance. It's almost un-American, that being like sheep."