A Working Actor's Lament (Chapter 57)
"Life" Sentence I Can Deal With
Today is my thirty-ninth birthday. One more year until I am officially thirty-ten. And, although spending it with my wife would have been the best thing I could have done, I got to do the second best thing...shoot a film.
I am not sure if you remember from my past blogs, but I had an audition on January 14th for a short film called "Life Bingo". Well, I ended up getting the role I auditioned for and had to shoot it this morning. I was really stoked to finally be on a set where I was not producing or directing. However, once I got there the drama started. The film was being shot by Jackie Sollitto, who was super at the audition and great on the set. However, I could see the veins in her head as she approached me on the set. She informed me that the 16 year old actor who was one of the 5 leads in her film had not renewed his workers permit and, per SAG rules, needed this to work. To had fuel to the fire, he also needed a guardian on the set, who dropped him off and left. Since they had already shot the following Friday (his permit expired the next day), she was in a pickle. As she walked away, one of the AD's came up to me and Dale, another actress on the shoot, to see if we would be the guardian of this actor. We both said we would do it. Then the AD pulled out a 5 page contract stipulating what we were agreeing to:
You are responsible for any equipment falling on him
You are responsible for any wiring that might electrocute him
You are responsible for any injury resulting from the director body slamming his unprofessional body to the ground
And that was just page one!!!
Dale and I looked at each other and decided the stakes were too high to sign. The AD said "I wrote this up and if the kid wasn't mine, I wouldn't sign it." So, why did you ask us?
Well, the scene was an African American gang approaching me in a parking lot because I just cheated at the game of Life Bingo, so the director went up to one of the extras from the gang and asked them if they would like to take over the role. Talk about being at the right place at the right time. A great new-comer named Sebastian Velmont stepped up to the plate and knocked it out of the park. From the point he said he would do it, the shoot turned into one big party. I have to admit, it has been one of the more fun sets (if not the most funest) I have been in a while.
One thing that I would have complained about (if not for all the fun we were having) would have been the additional extras in the gang. There were three of us who had scripted lines, myself, Sebastian and Gang Member #1; other than that, there was supposed to be ad-libbing from the rest of the gang. Well, it turned into a 'free for all' as to who could get the most lines in. After a couple of takes with the extras stepping on the scripted lines, Gangster #01 went up to the director and asked if she had a "clean" take with the scripted dialogue. She said she did and that she should be able to edit the film without a problem. I have to admit, the extras were really good and made the scene that much more threatening and believable, but I also heard one of them (obviously another actor) tell another "You have to get yourself scene so you can get film on yourself, especially in these short films." I don't think it will affect anything and it was still a fun day.
I just need more days like this out here.
Today is my thirty-ninth birthday. One more year until I am officially thirty-ten. And, although spending it with my wife would have been the best thing I could have done, I got to do the second best thing...shoot a film.
I am not sure if you remember from my past blogs, but I had an audition on January 14th for a short film called "Life Bingo". Well, I ended up getting the role I auditioned for and had to shoot it this morning. I was really stoked to finally be on a set where I was not producing or directing. However, once I got there the drama started. The film was being shot by Jackie Sollitto, who was super at the audition and great on the set. However, I could see the veins in her head as she approached me on the set. She informed me that the 16 year old actor who was one of the 5 leads in her film had not renewed his workers permit and, per SAG rules, needed this to work. To had fuel to the fire, he also needed a guardian on the set, who dropped him off and left. Since they had already shot the following Friday (his permit expired the next day), she was in a pickle. As she walked away, one of the AD's came up to me and Dale, another actress on the shoot, to see if we would be the guardian of this actor. We both said we would do it. Then the AD pulled out a 5 page contract stipulating what we were agreeing to:
You are responsible for any equipment falling on him
You are responsible for any wiring that might electrocute him
You are responsible for any injury resulting from the director body slamming his unprofessional body to the ground
And that was just page one!!!
Dale and I looked at each other and decided the stakes were too high to sign. The AD said "I wrote this up and if the kid wasn't mine, I wouldn't sign it." So, why did you ask us?
Well, the scene was an African American gang approaching me in a parking lot because I just cheated at the game of Life Bingo, so the director went up to one of the extras from the gang and asked them if they would like to take over the role. Talk about being at the right place at the right time. A great new-comer named Sebastian Velmont stepped up to the plate and knocked it out of the park. From the point he said he would do it, the shoot turned into one big party. I have to admit, it has been one of the more fun sets (if not the most funest) I have been in a while.
One thing that I would have complained about (if not for all the fun we were having) would have been the additional extras in the gang. There were three of us who had scripted lines, myself, Sebastian and Gang Member #1; other than that, there was supposed to be ad-libbing from the rest of the gang. Well, it turned into a 'free for all' as to who could get the most lines in. After a couple of takes with the extras stepping on the scripted lines, Gangster #01 went up to the director and asked if she had a "clean" take with the scripted dialogue. She said she did and that she should be able to edit the film without a problem. I have to admit, the extras were really good and made the scene that much more threatening and believable, but I also heard one of them (obviously another actor) tell another "You have to get yourself scene so you can get film on yourself, especially in these short films." I don't think it will affect anything and it was still a fun day.
I just need more days like this out here.
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