Today we filmed a montage (there are several in the course of the film) of me wallowing in misery on the couch, staring into the abyss of my despondence. The beer bottles pile up and I don't move an inch (one wonders where the beer bottles came from). Eventually we (my roommate and I) are evicted from our apartment and the movers just pick up the couch with me on it and haul it outside where they deposit it unceremoniously on the curb. (It was a WEIRD feeling to be sitting on a couch and have it suddenly lifted into the air) I basically had no dialogue today and all I really did was stare at the wall and then get lifted on the couch. Pretty easy day of shooting...at least in the morning. We picked up a shot of me at the wishing well - which was built by a friend of Ed's. That's right - BUILT! You can't see it, but this is mostly styrofoam. Pretty incredible. Ed told me we were going to go back to the well and assume the "stance". (for this scene I pee into the well). It became a joke and for the rest of the day we were all talking about stance lessons, stance technique, and the newest hit reality craze, "Stancing with the Stars." This is probably much funnier to those of us that were there, but I wanted you to know that aside from all the boring filming of emotional drama that takes place on these movie sets, we do find time to have a good laugh. In the afternoon we went back to Mom's house to get the rest of my scenes with her. She was an hour and a half late - even though she swore she'd be on time this time around. Poor planning folks. Poor Ed was just about beside himself with frustration between her late arrival and her trouble getting her lines down. But he soldiered through and I think we got some good stuff. We rounded out our day with some more montage driving and a scene where I discover my car has been towed. Fun Fact: For the last "Mom's House" scene of the day I had to shave. My stubble had grown out during my period on the couch and it was time to get cleaned up. If you end up seeing the film, I am actually shaving my face during this scene. I can count on one hand the number of times I've used a standard razor with shaving cream. Scary! And scene! Enough rambling for today. Lunch: In-N-Out. June had a craving. Wrap Time: 2:45 ish
0 Comments
I arrived on set today to find that we were shooting a breakfast scene - on the verdant back patio - with my mom and step-dad. This included pancakes - fresh from the griddle pancakes, in fact. I'm told - by the cook, no less - that she used Bisquick, yogurt, and cinnamon in the recipe. The pancakes, it will not surprise you, I'm sure, were delicious. It all sounds quite picturesque, and I assure you it was. :)
3 important lessons learned from today's shoot: 1 - Be on time. We waited for almost an hour for one of the actors to arrive. That's just inconsiderate. All of our time is valuable, and for one person to be that late is inexcusable. "Traffic" is not an excuse. You live in LA. Plan for it. 2 - Be prepared. Mom and Dad were both actors in their late 50's, early 60's and had a bit of trouble with the dialogue. They've had the script for days, possibly weeks. If you know (and I have no doubt they do) that you have more trouble remembering lines than you used to, then you need to take it upon yourself to put in a little extra time so you don't hold everyone up. 3 - Listen. I was quite surprised by how many times Ed would give an adjustment, the actor would say, "Okay" and then fail to do what Ed had asked. Ed would re-word it, or find another way to clarify what he wanted, and the actor still wouldn't change anything. Listen people. If you don't understand, then ask for clarification. In the end Ed, in all his patience, just found a different way to get what he wanted with some creative filming. These three lessons are things I hear over and over again in this industry. They may be the only three things you'll consistently hear from professionals. The other being, "Be nice," but I didn't include that here because everyone so far pretty much has that one down. This was actually kind of a bizarre day for me because the scenes we shot were some pretty intense, emotional scenes. Following the shoot I had an audition, then a rehearsal, then a show, so I was in 4 completely different places emotionally today and that can kind of mess with you. Lunch: Fried chicken and potato salad from Ralph's (the California version of Smith's or Kroger's). This was after having eaten probably 6 pancakes. Wrap Time: 3:30ish Second homeless day. For some reason it was a little bizarre to film more stuff with Jim since we'd filmed his death scene the day before. But that's the way it goes.
Today I get discovered in the homeless tent by a pair of gang-bangin' drug dealers. (Try to be as white as possible when you read that sentence, it makes it funnier.) "Tim" and "Pete". They discover I can rhyme and we have a small, and on my part unintentional, rap battle. One of them, I forget which, is pretty hot-headed and doesn't like that I can rhyme better than he, so he pulls a gun on me. The prop gun was very realistic which surprised everyone and made acting like there was a gun pointed at my chest easier to believe. Actors have to pull things from all kinds of places to be believable. I have, in fact, had a gun pulled on me in real life. It was while I was serving as a missionary in Argentina. Oddly enough when it happened I didn't feel scared. The guy stole my coat (which had delicious American chocolate in the pocket) and left. So, the fear you'd think I'd be able to pull from, wasn't associated with that situation. I did the best I could anyway. Tim and Pete, in real life, are actually two of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. Young industry guys just trying to do what everyone else in LA is doing. Not at all the hardened criminals you might see in the film. Though honestly the not-so-hot-headed one doesn't come across as very hardened in the film either. But it's all good, he's a good balance, in terms of characters, to the other one. Fun day bein' white. Lunch: Subway again. Ed likes Subway. Probably because he has coupons. Also, he always gets the same thing - 6" cold-cut combo on white bread. I try to mix things up a bit more than that. :) Wrap Time: 11:30 a.m. SUPER early. Hooray for Ed's anal retentive planning tendencies! For a portion of the film you'll find me living on the streets of LA. I am befriended by a homeless man named "Jim" who is quirky and probably a little crazy. We filmed a lot of my scenes with him today. In real life Jim is an actor (obviously) and I don't think he does much else. He's pretty bombastic and not afraid to say what he thinks. I think he may originally be from New York. He has lots of stories - some of which I'm sure are true - about his time in LA. The big scene from today was the scene where Jim dies. I don't really consider that information a spoiler because the crazy homeless spiritual guide character always dies. Anyway, this is another one of those intense scenes Ed wanted to get out of the way at the beginning. I find Jim sprawled out in his tent dying from a drug overdose. I attempt to get help, but he tells me it's too late and then dies. I am pretty broken up about it and actually managed some tears for the scene - even though on my close-up I was acting with a spot on the ground and not Jim himself (it makes a difference, trust me.) I felt pretty good about the whole thing and hopefully Ed got some good stuff out of it too. He didn't have any complaints and seemed to be pretty satisfied. Something I learned from today that you don't really think about until you have to do it, is consistency. When acting in a film you almost have to choreograph every movement you make. I didn't necessarily think that was true. I mean, you're not going to see me say or do anything more than once, so why should it matter if I do it differently? Here's why: When you're watching a movie you don't just see a continuous scene. They're constantly cutting among different angles. If you're facing one direction in one angle and they cut and suddenly you're facing a different direction, that looks weird. (An example that comes to mind is from the movie "Valentine's Day". At the end Ashton K is talking to his lady love - the actress escapes me at the moment - they cut between to different angles. In one angle he's standing straight up, in the other he's leaning down.) So, you kind of have to plan out where you'll be and when you're moving that way it's easier for the editor to cut. It's a lot harder to do that than it sounds. I'm getting better at it, I think. At the end of the day Ed wanted to get a quick shot of me walking into Skid Row. Like, the actual Skid Row in the middle of south-central Los Angeles - where all the homeless drug-addicted people live. It was kind of scary. But it was daylight, we were across the street from the police station, and we were only there for 5 minutes (which was still enough time to see a prostitute jump on the back of some guy's motorcycle), so it wasn't too bad. Luckily Ed decided against filming all the "Jim" scenes in Skid Row - which was his original plan. Lunch: Subway. It was hilarious to me to have Jim with us because he was still in costume and looked 100% like a hobo. Plus he's kind of an odd guy anyway - which didn't help.
Wrap Tim: 4ish - which is still only an 8 hr. day. Some of these big budget films shoot for 16 hours a day or more. Livin' the dream folks. I believe, or at least would think, that most film makers would save the hardest, most intense scenes for the end of the shooting schedule to allow the actors time to really build on those kinds of things and let their characters develop. Not Ed. He wanted to get the hard stuff over with and out of the way so that we (i.e. I) were not dreading them. I kind of like that approach.
Day two was the kissing scene. There's only one in the movie and we shot it on Day 2. We also shot a somewhat scandalous scene where a girl lets herself into my apartment and invites herself into my bed. Nothing is shown, but things are vaguely implied. At this point in the story my character A - still hasn't found his backbone, and B - is pretty depressed, so he kind of just lets it happen. This scene is supposed to be at night, but it was about 9:00 in the morning, so Ed had to be a little creative with his limited resources. He made night-time happen by putting a quilt over the window. The more projects I do the more I realize you can get away with. (On a previous project we shot a night-time scene in broad daylight using shadows. Apparently that's the kind of thing you can fix in post.) The girl I was working with - "Connie" - was super nice and for some reason super interested in Mormons. She about fell out of her chair when she found out I'm Mormon. It was kind of funny. She's also very religious, musically inclined, and happens to be Ed's piano teacher. Delightful girl. Lunch: Panda Express. I got no vegetables. That was not intentional Wrap Time: 12ish Being that this is not a big-budget film, El Director (shall we just call him Ed from now on? Great.) decided to film as much as he could close to his house in Eagle Rock. It takes Phin and I about an hour every morning to get there. Which is great, especially since I'm riding into the sunrise - sarcasm. However, it is fun to do a little people watching along Alvarado street downtown. I'm surprised and delighted by how many parents walk their children to school in the morning. On a normal set you have a crew of thousands: The director, director of photography (DP), assistant director(s) (AD), artistic director, sound, lighting, makeup, grips, camera operator(s), etc. etc. etc. Because of the nature of our little project we have a crew of 2: A girl who runs sound (We'll call her June), and Ed (who is also the writer and serves as the rest of the crew.)
There are some disadvantages to a small crew. For example, should the need to move furniture arise, we just have to use whoever is available i.e. the actors. Luckily we're all pretty chill and more than happy to help out. There are several advantages to a small crew most importantly of which is speed. When working on a "professional" set (or even student/independent productions that have a larger crew) you have to wait for the lighting to get set, then the DP has to like what they see, the director needs to put in his or her two cents, actors need to be ready, sound needs to be ready and on and on and on. This often results in extremely delayed production schedules. (Small example: when I was on set for Raising Hope I was called at 2 and didn't start shooting until after 6) Because there's such a small crew here we're pretty much ready to hit the ground running as soon as we arrive and have few delays as the day goes on. It helps that Ed is sort of ridiculously organized (he had pre-printed highlighted scripts for each person during our table read - who does that?). So, day one consisted of getting some montage shots for a...well, a montage in the movie when I'm trying to break my rhyming curse by concocting a potion I found in some old book of witchcraft. No sound was needed so it was basically me and Ed cruising around town shooting in random places and getting to know each other a bit. He had me hiking through bushes, climbing trees, picking fruit, catching cats and frogs (incidentally we used an adorable kitten and I may have become a cat person, don't judge me.), and driving up and down the freeway. If you're in the LA area and looking for a good place to go walking or hang out or whatever, I suggest Griffith Park. We were going to film some stuff outside at the Public Library, but apparently they're SUPER anal about that here and some girl from the staff came outside and gave us the 3rd degree within minutes of us arriving in the parking lot. Word to the Wise, do not film at the library during business hours. So instead, we headed to the Subway for lunch. It was a super chill day (though it was pushing 100 degrees outside) and we were done by around 2 if memory serves me. (Yay small crew!) Ed is a pretty cool guy and I think we'll get along famously during the next few weeks. And so it begins. As I mentioned previously I recently auditioned for, and got cast in an un-paid feature film. (I only clarify "un-paid" lest anyone assume they'll be seeing me up on the big screen just because I'm in a "feature film." Again, "feature" just means the film is long.)
I happen to be playing the lead in this film and will be in about 98% of the scenes, therefore I will be on set every day during shooting and thought it would be fun to give you all a little look into what shooting a film is *sometimes* like. Let me start here with a little pre-production intro. The film is called "Speak to Me in Poetry". It's one of those films where the main character is stuck in a rut, goes through some sort of harrowing experience and emerges on the other side with some new trait or skill that makes them and the people around them better. My character is shy and weak - especially around girls - so he wishes - in a wishing well, no less - to be able to speak like a poet. He wakes up the next morning and can only speak in rhyme. I won't give a full run-down, but in the end he discovers what he needs and ends up a better man for it. Because this is not a big-budget film, much of the process is quite a lot different than what you might get from a main-stream studio production. For example, the director had auditions at his house to save money. Usually you would go into the studio or at least a public location specifically used for audition purposes. He was up-front about it though, so I didn't think it was too sketchy. So, I went, I auditioned, got called back, and landed the role. So, there's the set-up. I'm going to try and write a post for each day on set - about 20 - and let you in on some secrets of the trade, some things I've learned as an actor/filmmaker, and some funny stories as there are bound to be plenty. And...Action! Some helpful definitions and background information for the next series of posts:
Feature Film: (noun) Depends on who you talk to. Basically in the industry there are two lengths of films - short films, and feature films. There are varying definitions as to time length, but basically a feature film is a longer film (60 mins. is a general starting point). Crew: (noun) All the people involved in a movie who you don't see on screen. They're all those names in the credits you don't look at unless you're one of those die-hard people who sticks it out til the end of the movie. Even then you only read them to find interesting-sounding names. Audition: (noun or verb) A necessary evil in the life of every actor. That too-short time period when you are completely at the mercy of, most likely, someone you've never met. You put your entire soul on the line and hope they like it enough to give you a job. If they don't, you pick your trampled soul off the floor, brush it off, give a good spit polish, put it back in the hardened case of your cynical exterior and head to the next audition to do it all over again. Living the Dream: (phrase) Pursuing one's ambitions whether or not for any discernable monetary advantage. When living the dream you will often encounter phrases such as "non-paying", "un-paid", "no", and the like. Living the dream is often synonymous with "being poor." Copy, credit, meals: (joke) Another phrase encountered while "Living the dream." Technically it means you will be given a copy of the project you work on, credit for your role in that project (remember those names no one sees?), and meals during production. In reality it's just another way of saying "un-paid." Also, the "copy" part is generally held to be a myth. Example: While living my dream I auditioned for - and got cast in! - what turned out to be a feature film with a small crew. I was promised copy, credit, and meals. The previous statement is true. More to come. Here's a little short film I was in recently called "Hats Off to You". I'm supposed to be a high schooler and I think it's kind of obvious that I'm a little too old to pull that off, but I think the film turned out really well regardless. It's a cute little story and there are some mad special effects happening, plus I do my own stunts. Enjoy. It's a corporate boardroom. Corporate types sit around talking about this gum. The head honcho takes a piece and begins to chew. They discuss how the flavor lasts sooo long. Cue brainstorming for ideas on how they're going to get people to spit out the gum and chew another piece.
Corporate goon #1 : "I got it!" In walks a teenaged yeti wearing a track suit with headband, carrying a skateboard, rockin' out to the ipod. Walks up to the gum chewer and punches him in the stomach, thus causing him to spit out his gum. Problem solved. Yeti grabs a donut and peaces out. I'm standing in the audition room about to begin my short-lived run as a teenaged yeti and the casting director says, "Oh hey, lose the glasses, I mean, you're a yeti." (Implying, of course, that yeti's don't wear glasses.) Really? REALLY?! |
I am...Pursuing my dreams, living on faith, and I don't think Crocs are ugly. Archives
January 2012
|