I was cast in a principle role in a North Carolina School of the Arts short. This was to be a new experience for me, as I'm rarely just an actor and I don't often get the chance to work with film. This project was being shot on 16mm. Lucky NCSA kids and their film cameras.
Day 1:
I arrived on set at 5:50 am, 5 minutes late and aching with exhaustion. It was cold, and I was told that my nice warm leather jackets wouldn't work because the color was too dark. I was wearing a windbreaker and a hoodie underneath. I was hungry, I had planned to stop for something to eat on the way, but no where was open at 5 am. I wasn't worried though, I assumed that a production that promised meals would not neglect breakfast.
I walked up the hill to the call area and was greeted by the director. The director, Sergey, was nice enough, but his cadence, volume and use of language made me wonder if he only had a very vague grasp of English or if he was very stoned. I shook off his greeting and retreated to the closest building. It was filled with about 20 people I didn't know.
I briefly looked about for the other actors, I hadn't met them yet and wanted to start bonding before we were charged with acting like lifelong friends. As it happened, though, the actors forgot to wear their name tags, or carry an entourage. As I stood awkwardly inside, I looked out at the campus. Someone had once told me that the film portion of the school was decked out for filmmaking but I had never seen the campus myself. As I stared out at the fo-theater and shops I again cursed the privilege of NCSA students with bitter envy.
After a few minutes of waiting I heard someone say behind me:
"Are you an actor? Come with me, I'll show you to the dressing room."
They weren't talking to me. They were talking to a tall, impeccably groomed actor who had just walked in. I followed the two up a staircase and into the dressing room. I introduced myself to Woody, the lead actor who I had followed into the dressing room. I was a little intimidated, Woody was a good 3 inches taller than me and looked more like a model than an actor. I was a little worried that someone like me, who was a very part time actor, would not cut it in this sort of production.
Woody and I started to talk, he was a student at Chapel Hill and he was also into production. I had been told that both of the other principle actors were coming from a few hours a way, but it didn't fail to surprise me anyway. Before either of us had said much, the two make up ladies showed up. I had expected to be made up for every scene, but apparently Woody was the only one who was to get makeup at all, for his scarring do to an earlier scene where he gets beaten up.
As we were talking Sergey appeared with the script supervisor in tow. He informed us that the 3rd principle actor was not going to make it to the first scene we were to shoot that day (which, incidentally, was the last scene in the film.) It was only a few lines, but Eric, who was the actor running late had 1 of the lines. Taking it in stride, Sergey cut the line that Eric, or 'Leo', had and gave one to Woody, explaining why Leo wasn't there. I thought it was overdoing it, giving an explanation for his absence, but I said nothing. In truth, I wasn't that huge of a fan of the script, specifically the title, but it was miles ahead of the other scripts I had read from NCSA.
Sergey then picked out wardrobe with us, which was only a jacket, and decided on the light windbreaker I had brought. He directed us both downstairs where the producer was waiting to take us to the location. We hopped in the car with the producer, Erin, and the art director, and took off for the downtown location.
The scene we were shooting took place on a rooftop. They had garnered what had to be the 3rd tallest building in winston to shoot on. We walked into the extremely nice lobby and passed about 3 residents with dogs. I immediately decided that if I could get an apartment in the building for under 2 grand a month that I was moving when my lease was up. The overly helpful security guard led us into the elevator and up to the 18th floor. We exited, only to enter another elevator that took us all the way to the roof entrance.
They put out the food and I was heartily disappointed. It was a few crafties but no meal. So as I fought my gurgle in my stomach I went to check out the space. It was freezing and windy, of course, 20 floors up. The director noted that the first shot was going to have us standing on a heating vent and looking out at the city as the sun rose. It seemed easy, no dialogue, except that we had to stay as still as possible. Since wearing the hoody under my windbreaker gave me hunchback, and standing on a tall building at 6 am in February was about as warm as the arctic circle, not shivering became an issue, as did my red, red ears. Woody had it just as bad, he was wearing what he referred to as a "Canadian tuxedo", a denim jacket over a t-shirt.
We went back inside as they continued to prep the shot, and for the first time, I truly realized just how boring it was to be an actor on a film. Previously on sets, even if I acted I always did something else as well. There was never any down time for me. I hung out and talked to Woody and the makeup girls as Woody was having his scar applied but I was painfully bored. I suddenly realized why actors never hung around after they were done for the day or helped clean up.
Thankfully, it wasn't too long before we were ready to go on the first shot. By the time the first take was over I had heard at least 4 words that I did not know. The curriculum at the school must mold these kids so they can be injected right into hollywood, because they used nicknames for everything and they had more crew at one location (a small b-unit was at the second location preparing to shoot there) than I usually had cast and crew for the entire production. For the duration of the production I was to learn exactly how that affected their methods.
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