So I'm An Actor Now

I'm holding an audition for a promo I'm doing the other day and some buddies are holding an audition for their Thesis film. Oh, actors suck by the way. They don't show up to their auditions for non paying gigs. Fine. Give me a call then, just let me know. But no, these precious thespians can't be bothered. Bite me actors.

Anyway, I'm waiting for some guy who isn't going to show up. I go chat with the boys and their actor isn't showing up. I ask about the project and they're tell me about it, they're casting a bad guy. Then one guy looks at me and goes "You'd be a good bad guy!!" They hand me the script and tell me to get back to them. Just like that.

Script is good, I sign on as "DARK FIGURE". You always capitalize the important things in a script. Thats me in this instance. First rehersal I'm a half hour late (Told you actors suck didn't I?) They're cool with it though. Really first rate guys. I go through the lines with the other actor, who's a good guy too, the director's happy, producer's happy, it's on.

5:30 cast call on Thursday. Running on 3 hours and fighting a cold. No problem. I'm not supposed to look good. I'm the bad guy. We hit a servo (Australian for service station) and get brekky (Australian for breakfast) Meat pies. They love meat pies.

We then drive out to the country to this national park. Its gorgeous out there. We get onto this old deserted road. The whole scene is there, on this deserted road. We started shooting early, sun barely cracking the treeline. These guys are great to work with. Couple of takes and we're out of every scene! 

Late in the day, I'm giving a long speech to my victim. The camera is on him for the take. But he's not feeling it. So he asks me to slap him. Slap him. Cool. So, I slap him. Not too hard, apparently I don't know my own strength...Ive knocked a few people over in the halls here by accident (they guys here are kind of feeble for criminal stock) But the guy is black. So now i'm worried I've committed a hate crime. But then I'm like, its Australia, I think I get a parade now! Kidding. Sydney is a wonderfully diverse melting pot.

The next day I'm hanging out and it turns out the sound machine we were using didn't work. I was doing sound on a guy's movie and the part of the psychologist was played buy a teacher from the school, just a voice over. The VO got ruined. So the teachers no longer available, and the guy is scurrying around getting people to say the lines. Actually he was just standing asking people who went by. I happened to come out of the edit suite and he said, "How did she say the line?" I said it and his buddy was like. Get Luke to do it. Now I'm a voice actor.

Isn't life funny!

(ok i'm not like a real actor, but I've acted in 2 student films...thats cool right??)

The things you learn

My most recent project was a documentary about Sufism . Click the link, I won't attempt to explain it in detail. Basically its a kind of religion with roots in Islam and many paralells to Buddhism. Its about being in the moment and understanding that the moment changes.

Anyway, dude in the Blue Mountains is a teacher of Sufism. Cool guy too. American from Cali. Grew up just after the Height Ashbury days.  We chatted about all the cool spots there are to visit in California as I told him about the bike trip I did there a few years ago. He told me about all the hippy rockers hes met, including Jerry Garcia.  Speaking of which, this guy is also a composer, and a fairly talented one at that, as well as having an interest in film and is piloting a TV series.

Last weekend he and, I'm assuming his wife, or 'partner' at any rate, invited us to stay and film "Sufi-night", a non denominational evening where people could come and learn about Sufism. Much of the teaching was parables, and the poetry of a guy names Remi, a 13th century intellectual. It was a long day, we filmed till about 9 and then hung out for a few hours. I was the camera guy, which is alot of fun. I tried to be creative and film all sorts of things to jump to during the interviews. Its harder than it looks.

Everyone went to bed at about 11, so 2 of the guys and I went outside and smoked a joint on the deck. I've never smoked a joint on a holy man's deck before, but I think we were in the moment, so it should be ok. At anyrate we didn't do it to be disrespectful, it just seemed like a damn good idea at the time.

The next day we shot some interviews of people who study Sufism, the girlfriend of one of the students who is not involved, and the Shake (leader). He then took us downstairs and played some music for us. It was excellent.

We then drove home. The ride back was quiet. I jumped out downtown as we were passing a park close to my house.I walked home feeling tired but pretty ok. I needed a shower, and I was covered in bug bites from being out in the country. Mosquitos are rampant there. 

I walked through the door and dropped my kit and turned the shower on. Just as I stepped in  the phone rang. It was my buddy Sam calling to ask if I wanted to work on an Indian action movie with a Bollywood dance scene.

Ok then....

Diary of a Film School Student - Producing a Short film

I've been having brutal insomnia. I don't know why. Had a long day yesterday, went for a run with the girl next door, should have slept like a drunk baby. Ended up watching Mork and Mindy, the Dukes of Hazard and The Love Boat reruns till almost 5am.  Slept through 'an audition' which isn't a big deal because I'm not an actor and they had just asked if I wanted to try to fill in for a single scene in a student production. One of the guys is really pissed but to be honest I'm not here to make friends and I really don't care. Wow, thats callous! Ok I do care a little but really....

Had a meeting with my mentor today for my Producer's role. I thought I had everything together. Nope. Need to find a make up person, figure out catering and lock down my locations. I need to get my DoP to figure out our film stock, book the gear and get her crew together to practice. Need to get my Director and Production Designer talking. Need to get crew agreements signed. Need to decide on the cast so I have to book the applicants and then book a room and the film gear to do screen tests. It never ends. I don't think producing is for me. Maybe I should have gone to that audition. Hm.

So after the meeting I booked another meeting with my department heads for Friday and spent the next hour making notes about everything I need to do. Then I sat and chatted with a director from one of the other productions. I actually didn't think I'd like her (because I generally dislike everyone at first) but she turned out to be very cool and easy to get along with.

Fortunately I have a really good camera crew, for students anyway. They know their way around the camera and are excited about using it. My DoP is trying to figure stuff out already without being told so thats cool too. My Director and 1AD are a couple which is nice because they're both heavily invested.  My 1AD is also one of 2 people in the school who seems to want to actually do that when he's done.

Well, 19 days to go....we'll see what happens next.