Sunday, July 13, 2008

Indie film shoot #1

Ah. Back on the Bolt Bus. It's like the past three days never even happened.

I don't know where to start here. I've gotten two hours of sleep (on the couch of the kid who stars in this indie film and who I've known since Thursday night) and my eyes are unimaginably dry. It's like blinking two sweaters made of dust. It's taken me ten minutes to write four sentences. I'm going to barf out of exhaustion.

Rehearsal for said film commenced Thursday night, in the apartment I would eventually pass out in two nights later, and it started off normally enough running lines and making awkward first introductions. As this film is about a bunch of college guys getting wasted, the rehearsal segued easily into everyone getting wasted. Rock band was played. Cast member's histories of threesomes were discussed. I commented favorably upon an animated X-men DVD box set, and others agreed (revelation of group dorkiness is always a good sign). Common friendships were discovered, and I was really excited to find that I was having a good time with these people. We raised our summer ales and coronas to cast bonding with a joyous hurrah. After getting tanked on 4 beers and no dinner, I returned with my rolly suitcase to my old apartment in east midtown, where I was welcomed by my old roommate Beth and her boyfriend Randy, and my replacement, Steve. We chatted til 2, and I crashed in my roommie's bed til 11 am.

We drove up to Stamford, CT on Friday afternoon for a 5 pm call, and proceeded to shoot in the backyard of a fancy-shmancy house till 5 am the next morning. As soon as we got there, shit started hitting all sorts of Stamford fans. A cop was wandering around with a neighbor, getting riled up about trucks and generators and noise problems, and the owner of aforementioned fancy house got equally furious about 30 crew members trampling his roses and trucking around his pretty house. We, the talent, shut up and hung out at craft services. (FYI, it's always a bad sign when you are served breakfast at 5 pm.) It's always daunting being an actor on a bustling set, because everyone has a job that is really important and busying except for you. You're the idiot standing around at craft services. No one tells you anything. You're not the important part, strangely enough. It's humbling.

And this set was certainly bustling. It's without a doubt the biggest film set I've been on (outside of the sag background work and one life to live stuff I've worked on) and it was fantastic. The quality of the film was fantastic, crisp and full and gorgeous. One of my costars (I sound so pretentious) told me that the camera they were using was so new and strong that it was much more powerful than the high-definition of blu-ray, and that's why the picture is so perfectly beautiful. Okay.

The first night was long and complicated, and there's nothing worse than fucking around at 3 am, killing time and shivering, wishing you could be in bed but knowing you're going to have to be alive and perky any minute now...It's a challenge, no doubt. I chugged two cups of coffee at 3:30 and did some dances in the grass while I waited, which turned out to be not the thing my stomach likes. I didn't have so much to do the first night on-camera anyway, so it was a little anti-climactic, but fun nonetheless. 6:30 am was when my head hit my Holiday Inn pillow, and then it was on to Saturday.

As soon as we got to set on Saturday, we were rehearsing and getting prepped to film. I was really nervous, because it was my little turn to shine. The scene starts with me telling a story, which I was totally improv-ing. (To be clear, I'm not good at that shit. I've never thought so. Everybody thought all my stories were funny at rehearsal, but that could have been a fluke. The insecurities are strong with this one...) It started out a little rough, and I really took 15 minutes to warm up into it, which sucks, especially since it was my coverage first we were taping. As soon as I realized I was choking, I kind of freaked out and didn't know what to do. So, without getting any real guidance as to what to do, I just kind of...let it go. I just started rambling. The things that poured out of my mouth were not mine. They just came out. I parted my lips and din't know what would be belched out. And it worked.

The second half of the night was a hot tub scene, which started off absolutely frigid. It then turned dizzyingly hot and then finally cooled off to a tepid temp, and we settled in. My brain is at the end of its capabilities at this point, so I can't even recall the last twelve hours so well, except to say that it went well. I felt good about it. I feel good that I'm making an effort to make film more of a priority. This was difficult, and I wasn't sure what I was doing, but I figured it out.

The only thing is...I'm sad I'm not in more of this movie. Everyone was so cool, so sweet, and so fun, and I had a fantastic time. I know I've fo sho got one more drunken party scene to film, which will be fun.

PS I'm working. I'm working!

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