This Week in Film
Well, on Monday, I was on the set of a certain giant robot sequel film as background, mostly because they pay fairly well.
I went in for a fitting on Sunday because our group was doing scenes set in the 1960's, and the people making a film care about perfect accuracy about a million times more than the average moviegoer does.
Anyway, I do one scene first thing in the morning where we (60's men in suits and military brass) pull up in these sweet 1960's black Pontiac sedans and hurriedly get out of them and hustle up the stairs to the American Red Cross building because they could pass for the White House, which is where I think we were pretending we were. After that it was back to holding.
Then we got pulled out of holding to wait around outside the DAR building, for what we didn't know. We were told to line up, which is usually a precursor to getting pulled in to be background for the next shot. Then the production manager asks the experienced actors to raise their hands, which can only mean one thing - they are considering giving out a speaking part. I raised my hand along with some of the others, then {Director} actually walks over and starts looking us over, and even asks me what I did last. I'm pretty sure he didn't expect to recognize my answer - he was just checking to see if a _had_ a ready answer.
They then pulled me and one other actor out, and {Director} auditioned each of us separately by telling us the character he wanted us to play and the sorts of things he wanted him to say. He then picked me to go up to the set, but no one had said anything about giving me the part (because if they say they are, they have to pay me even if they don't). Then I stood around while he was directing other shots, and once he looked back at me and said he wanted me in different glasses, so they dragged me over to props to get another pair of glasses. Then when he had another couple of free moments, he took me aside and worked with me on the character.
Needless to say, I was way nervous, though I like to think that I atleast appeared calm and professional. I was trying my darnedest to find this character, and he did laugh once or twice (it was supposed to be funny), but when it came time to shoot the scene he decided to just have me come in and visually go through the motions without lines. And just like that my chances of a speaking part in that movie were over. It was so close, I could taste it, or maybe that was the acid from my stomach.
Well, despite not holding on to this huge opportunity, some good things did come out of it. I got to share the frame with {Star of Film} so it will be damned hard to edit me out without losing the whole scene (which conceivably could happen). But more importantly I had {Director}'s undivided attention for several minutes and managed to entertain him, so hopefully he will remember me favorably if he sees me in a lineup again.
Sure, once the scope of the opportunity I'd missed hit me later that evening, part of my brain wanted to throw myself in front of a yellow Camaro. Another part of my brain is, even now, running through all the things I could have done that might have gotten me the part. It's gonna do that, I can't stop it. But most of my brain recognizes the good stuff that might come out of this, and the next time (oh there _will_ be a next time) I will hopefully have more presence of mind to seal the deal because of this time.
BTW, {Director} was very nice to me, and gave me every opportunity to make that character work. He called all of the background actors that he gave direction to "Sir" or "Ma'am." And he seemed to have a good sense of humor despite being near the end of a very hectic filming schedule. I don't care what people may think of the movies he makes, this other stuff is more important to me.
NOTE: I have used indirect references because, while I have no problem with anyone reading this, I don't want some random bot search to find it and make it into something stupid.
I went in for a fitting on Sunday because our group was doing scenes set in the 1960's, and the people making a film care about perfect accuracy about a million times more than the average moviegoer does.
Anyway, I do one scene first thing in the morning where we (60's men in suits and military brass) pull up in these sweet 1960's black Pontiac sedans and hurriedly get out of them and hustle up the stairs to the American Red Cross building because they could pass for the White House, which is where I think we were pretending we were. After that it was back to holding.
Then we got pulled out of holding to wait around outside the DAR building, for what we didn't know. We were told to line up, which is usually a precursor to getting pulled in to be background for the next shot. Then the production manager asks the experienced actors to raise their hands, which can only mean one thing - they are considering giving out a speaking part. I raised my hand along with some of the others, then {Director} actually walks over and starts looking us over, and even asks me what I did last. I'm pretty sure he didn't expect to recognize my answer - he was just checking to see if a _had_ a ready answer.
They then pulled me and one other actor out, and {Director} auditioned each of us separately by telling us the character he wanted us to play and the sorts of things he wanted him to say. He then picked me to go up to the set, but no one had said anything about giving me the part (because if they say they are, they have to pay me even if they don't). Then I stood around while he was directing other shots, and once he looked back at me and said he wanted me in different glasses, so they dragged me over to props to get another pair of glasses. Then when he had another couple of free moments, he took me aside and worked with me on the character.
Needless to say, I was way nervous, though I like to think that I atleast appeared calm and professional. I was trying my darnedest to find this character, and he did laugh once or twice (it was supposed to be funny), but when it came time to shoot the scene he decided to just have me come in and visually go through the motions without lines. And just like that my chances of a speaking part in that movie were over. It was so close, I could taste it, or maybe that was the acid from my stomach.
Well, despite not holding on to this huge opportunity, some good things did come out of it. I got to share the frame with {Star of Film} so it will be damned hard to edit me out without losing the whole scene (which conceivably could happen). But more importantly I had {Director}'s undivided attention for several minutes and managed to entertain him, so hopefully he will remember me favorably if he sees me in a lineup again.
Sure, once the scope of the opportunity I'd missed hit me later that evening, part of my brain wanted to throw myself in front of a yellow Camaro. Another part of my brain is, even now, running through all the things I could have done that might have gotten me the part. It's gonna do that, I can't stop it. But most of my brain recognizes the good stuff that might come out of this, and the next time (oh there _will_ be a next time) I will hopefully have more presence of mind to seal the deal because of this time.
BTW, {Director} was very nice to me, and gave me every opportunity to make that character work. He called all of the background actors that he gave direction to "Sir" or "Ma'am." And he seemed to have a good sense of humor despite being near the end of a very hectic filming schedule. I don't care what people may think of the movies he makes, this other stuff is more important to me.
NOTE: I have used indirect references because, while I have no problem with anyone reading this, I don't want some random bot search to find it and make it into something stupid.