Sunday, October 15, 2006
Updates coming
I will be putting up my experiences of last weekend soon. I'm typing them out when I get the chance (or inclination). Fairly soon it'll be up. In other good news I'll be doing another Emerson film, The Hop, this weekend. And now tht I have a reliable car to drive, it won't be such a pain in the...
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Last weekend's shoot
9/29
Well, Friday was the first day of shooting Threads, and I couldn’t have been more excited. I really liked the script from the start, and the more I got the chance to interact with Keto and learn more of the story, the more I came to love the idea. The shoot was for 5:30, and I planned a nice lazy day around the house, and wonderfully lazy it was. I finished watching V for Vendetta and lazed around doing laundry and putzing around on my computer.
So 3:30 comes, and I hop in the Jeep for the Boston drive. Now, I hate the Boston drive to start with, but when I hit rock solid traffic at Natick I REALLY began to hate traffic. Of course, I only have one contact number, and can’t get through. So I’m stuck. For an hour. Then I start getting the phone calls. I was completely pissed and there was nothing to be done about it. I kept thinking, “we should be shooting the death scene tonight, cause I am ready to KILL someone.”
I end up an hour late for the 5:30 call and of course nothing could get shot until I was there, so I was whisked through costume and makeup and plopped in front of a typewriter for the first shot. I give huge credit to this crew, they were totally prepared and didn’t blame me a bit for the time crunch.
Tonight’s shoot is an office scene. Basically, me at a typewriter, and my nemesis comes in and ruins my night.
This first shot was a very new experience for me. All of the movies I’ve been a part of up to this moment have been pretty much all DV. There was one day with film, but it was Robert Rodriguez low budget. I mean, these guys were a CREW. As soon as my butt hit that chair lights were focused, meters are hovering around my head, measurements are being taken. They actually have production and continuity shots! I found it very humbling to be that guy that everyone was focusing on. I mean, these folks are WORKING, and I can foul their whole shoot if I’m not up to par. I wouldn’t want to spend all that effort on a crappy actor, why would they?
So the first set of shots goes with minimal fuss, at least as far as I can tell. No one’s glaring at me, anyway. It seems like I always think I can do better on the next take, but Keto keeps telling me we’re okay. So in order to make myself completely silly for at least once that evening I say, “Keto, if it sucks, tell me. Don’t pretty it up for me.”
She looks me dead in the eye and says, “Don’t worry, you’d know.”
I love good directors.
Now that I’ve shaken off some of my self-doubt we trudge on. Todd (plays Lloyd) was great, which was entirely expected. The typewriter didn’t like me too much, but with some coaxing I managed to get it moving. I was assured that the camera couldn’t pick up anything I was actually typing, which was good because I was writing very awful things about Newton, the town that caused the traffic backup. There was a great “passage of time” shot that involved dolly moves and lighting changes that was really neat. The more I see how Keto and her crew are visualizing the movie the more I find myself getting into the character.
The shoot wrapped just barely on time. I wish I’d had more time in the beginning to meet everyone, but everybody was extremely cool and very nice to this mostly hapless actor. Still slightly unsure of how I really did, one of the guys made a point to say how nice it was to work with cool actors who don’t have a huge head that can really do their stuff. That felt really nice. The next shoot is the death scene. That’s gonna be heavy.
10/1
Now today’s Sunday, and since I had Saturday off from the shoot and had already taken a day off I figured why not work? So I called the other job and they said sure, come work the overnight.
Dumb.
Sunday morning I get home and I’m toast, and I really have no idea when or where I’m supposed to be but I know it’s at night, so I shouldn’t have to leave until two or three. Maybe I’ll just lay down for three or four hours.
I wake up at one and my phone is blinking. Slept right through it. Niko the AD had called about twenty minutes earlier. We lost our location, and they’re scrambling to find another, so if I’m already on the way give him a call. Already on the way? I still have bed head! A mad dash through the shower and an insanely fast packing job and I’m almost out the door. I get Keto on the phone and she says I won’t be needed til six. Phew. I sit down on the couch. I’ll leave at three-thirty, that gives me a good hour and a half.
The phone rings. Niko again. Could I be there at four? Maaaybe. It’s tight. Hop in the Jeep and roll.
Remember what I said about the traffic having me ready to kill? Ten times worse today. It takes me three and a half hours to do a ninety minute drive, but it’s ok, they’re still frantically dressing a new set.
The first couple hours goes fairly smooth, at least to my completely untrained eyes. I like these people. The more questions I ask the more they’re willing to educate me. I just want to make it easier on them. It seems the more I know, the more I can be out of their way.
It’s very funny, I definitely feel a sense of, inadequacy, clumsiness. This is the second film role I’ve done where I was selected to be one of the lead characters, and based on the auditions it seemed like I was the only person who showed up who fit the age bracket. Hearing that the folks who are filming are down with what I’m doing makes it a lot easier. Todd’s a good support as well. He’s part of the unions, my first experience working with a “true” professional, and he’s a heluva guy. He wants me to audition for a movie he’s casting, so I can’t suck that bad, can I?
As things progress, it’s obvious that the crew is really stressed out. Elliot, the DP, basically scrapped any kind of mounting and shot the entire scene on his shoulder. This camera is h-e-a-v-y and you could tell he was exhausted by the end of the night. My throat got increasingly sore from all the screaming, and it turns out that trying to nail a shot in one take is really difficult, and they were trying to use as little stock as possible.
There were some light moments, though. The prosthetics for my death were wonderfully done, and looked really gross. My shirt had to be smeared with blood from the beginning, and every time I walked in a room people jumped for a second when they looked at me.
My death was fantastically gross. The blood they use is a lot like syrup, and has a super sweet minty flavor. For the last few shots I got GROSS. Blood on my neck, blood in my mouth, blood in my cupped hand, it got all over the place. This was a bad thing. The pants they gave me could not get blood on them. Well, by the time the shot was over it was dripping all over the place. Sooo, I dropped trou and lost the pants. Hey, I’m a team player. One last shot that was to be done in the reflection of sunglasses, and Keto took over for this last one. I can’t wait to see the finished product, and I can tell everyone, “You won’t be able to see it, but I’m actually wearing no pants in this shot.”
All in all, we wrapped around 12:30. Late night, considering I have a two hour drive home and have to work at eight in the morning. Hey, that’s the biz. I’m really looking forward to next weekend. We’ll all be camped out in VT working the whole time.
Well, Friday was the first day of shooting Threads, and I couldn’t have been more excited. I really liked the script from the start, and the more I got the chance to interact with Keto and learn more of the story, the more I came to love the idea. The shoot was for 5:30, and I planned a nice lazy day around the house, and wonderfully lazy it was. I finished watching V for Vendetta and lazed around doing laundry and putzing around on my computer.
So 3:30 comes, and I hop in the Jeep for the Boston drive. Now, I hate the Boston drive to start with, but when I hit rock solid traffic at Natick I REALLY began to hate traffic. Of course, I only have one contact number, and can’t get through. So I’m stuck. For an hour. Then I start getting the phone calls. I was completely pissed and there was nothing to be done about it. I kept thinking, “we should be shooting the death scene tonight, cause I am ready to KILL someone.”
I end up an hour late for the 5:30 call and of course nothing could get shot until I was there, so I was whisked through costume and makeup and plopped in front of a typewriter for the first shot. I give huge credit to this crew, they were totally prepared and didn’t blame me a bit for the time crunch.
Tonight’s shoot is an office scene. Basically, me at a typewriter, and my nemesis comes in and ruins my night.
This first shot was a very new experience for me. All of the movies I’ve been a part of up to this moment have been pretty much all DV. There was one day with film, but it was Robert Rodriguez low budget. I mean, these guys were a CREW. As soon as my butt hit that chair lights were focused, meters are hovering around my head, measurements are being taken. They actually have production and continuity shots! I found it very humbling to be that guy that everyone was focusing on. I mean, these folks are WORKING, and I can foul their whole shoot if I’m not up to par. I wouldn’t want to spend all that effort on a crappy actor, why would they?
So the first set of shots goes with minimal fuss, at least as far as I can tell. No one’s glaring at me, anyway. It seems like I always think I can do better on the next take, but Keto keeps telling me we’re okay. So in order to make myself completely silly for at least once that evening I say, “Keto, if it sucks, tell me. Don’t pretty it up for me.”
She looks me dead in the eye and says, “Don’t worry, you’d know.”
I love good directors.
Now that I’ve shaken off some of my self-doubt we trudge on. Todd (plays Lloyd) was great, which was entirely expected. The typewriter didn’t like me too much, but with some coaxing I managed to get it moving. I was assured that the camera couldn’t pick up anything I was actually typing, which was good because I was writing very awful things about Newton, the town that caused the traffic backup. There was a great “passage of time” shot that involved dolly moves and lighting changes that was really neat. The more I see how Keto and her crew are visualizing the movie the more I find myself getting into the character.
The shoot wrapped just barely on time. I wish I’d had more time in the beginning to meet everyone, but everybody was extremely cool and very nice to this mostly hapless actor. Still slightly unsure of how I really did, one of the guys made a point to say how nice it was to work with cool actors who don’t have a huge head that can really do their stuff. That felt really nice. The next shoot is the death scene. That’s gonna be heavy.
10/1
Now today’s Sunday, and since I had Saturday off from the shoot and had already taken a day off I figured why not work? So I called the other job and they said sure, come work the overnight.
Dumb.
Sunday morning I get home and I’m toast, and I really have no idea when or where I’m supposed to be but I know it’s at night, so I shouldn’t have to leave until two or three. Maybe I’ll just lay down for three or four hours.
I wake up at one and my phone is blinking. Slept right through it. Niko the AD had called about twenty minutes earlier. We lost our location, and they’re scrambling to find another, so if I’m already on the way give him a call. Already on the way? I still have bed head! A mad dash through the shower and an insanely fast packing job and I’m almost out the door. I get Keto on the phone and she says I won’t be needed til six. Phew. I sit down on the couch. I’ll leave at three-thirty, that gives me a good hour and a half.
The phone rings. Niko again. Could I be there at four? Maaaybe. It’s tight. Hop in the Jeep and roll.
Remember what I said about the traffic having me ready to kill? Ten times worse today. It takes me three and a half hours to do a ninety minute drive, but it’s ok, they’re still frantically dressing a new set.
The first couple hours goes fairly smooth, at least to my completely untrained eyes. I like these people. The more questions I ask the more they’re willing to educate me. I just want to make it easier on them. It seems the more I know, the more I can be out of their way.
It’s very funny, I definitely feel a sense of, inadequacy, clumsiness. This is the second film role I’ve done where I was selected to be one of the lead characters, and based on the auditions it seemed like I was the only person who showed up who fit the age bracket. Hearing that the folks who are filming are down with what I’m doing makes it a lot easier. Todd’s a good support as well. He’s part of the unions, my first experience working with a “true” professional, and he’s a heluva guy. He wants me to audition for a movie he’s casting, so I can’t suck that bad, can I?
As things progress, it’s obvious that the crew is really stressed out. Elliot, the DP, basically scrapped any kind of mounting and shot the entire scene on his shoulder. This camera is h-e-a-v-y and you could tell he was exhausted by the end of the night. My throat got increasingly sore from all the screaming, and it turns out that trying to nail a shot in one take is really difficult, and they were trying to use as little stock as possible.
There were some light moments, though. The prosthetics for my death were wonderfully done, and looked really gross. My shirt had to be smeared with blood from the beginning, and every time I walked in a room people jumped for a second when they looked at me.
My death was fantastically gross. The blood they use is a lot like syrup, and has a super sweet minty flavor. For the last few shots I got GROSS. Blood on my neck, blood in my mouth, blood in my cupped hand, it got all over the place. This was a bad thing. The pants they gave me could not get blood on them. Well, by the time the shot was over it was dripping all over the place. Sooo, I dropped trou and lost the pants. Hey, I’m a team player. One last shot that was to be done in the reflection of sunglasses, and Keto took over for this last one. I can’t wait to see the finished product, and I can tell everyone, “You won’t be able to see it, but I’m actually wearing no pants in this shot.”
All in all, we wrapped around 12:30. Late night, considering I have a two hour drive home and have to work at eight in the morning. Hey, that’s the biz. I’m really looking forward to next weekend. We’ll all be camped out in VT working the whole time.
Ah, the beginning
Hello Future Readers,
I'm calling you future readers because at the moment I'm keeping this blog a bit in the dark. I'm not really sure where this will go and I don't want it to see the light of other monitors until I think it's worth someone else's reading.
As I've stated in my description, this blog is basically to chronicle my experiences as an actor. Why bother, you ask? Well, it seems to really be taking up a lot more of my time lately, and the more I do the more I seem to actually be...well...good at it. I've gone from doing community theater for years to being in several student and low budget films in the last year. It almost seems like I might be able to make the leap to professional acting, but I'll hold the pipe dreams down for a while. I think it might be fun to put some of these experiences down, both for me to remember and you to experience, at least vicariously.
As I write this I am gearing up for the second half of shooting the movie Threads: Valentine's Day a film by Keto Shimizu, of Theorem Films. It's a very deep script, and a very compressed shoot, and I love the challenge. I have written some about the first half of the shoot, and will post that later on. It's actually this shoot that seems to have inspired me to start this blog.
What you won't find in this blog is very much about my personal or professional life. I've seen how badly the former can go, and I've experienced how badly the latter can be when you blog without inhibitions. (That falls under one of the many "woops!" moments in my life.)
I hope you enjoy the read, I hope I enjoy the ride.
I'm calling you future readers because at the moment I'm keeping this blog a bit in the dark. I'm not really sure where this will go and I don't want it to see the light of other monitors until I think it's worth someone else's reading.
As I've stated in my description, this blog is basically to chronicle my experiences as an actor. Why bother, you ask? Well, it seems to really be taking up a lot more of my time lately, and the more I do the more I seem to actually be...well...good at it. I've gone from doing community theater for years to being in several student and low budget films in the last year. It almost seems like I might be able to make the leap to professional acting, but I'll hold the pipe dreams down for a while. I think it might be fun to put some of these experiences down, both for me to remember and you to experience, at least vicariously.
As I write this I am gearing up for the second half of shooting the movie Threads: Valentine's Day a film by Keto Shimizu, of Theorem Films. It's a very deep script, and a very compressed shoot, and I love the challenge. I have written some about the first half of the shoot, and will post that later on. It's actually this shoot that seems to have inspired me to start this blog.
What you won't find in this blog is very much about my personal or professional life. I've seen how badly the former can go, and I've experienced how badly the latter can be when you blog without inhibitions. (That falls under one of the many "woops!" moments in my life.)
I hope you enjoy the read, I hope I enjoy the ride.
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