chicus.com

And...Action!
Sep 20, 2009
I was able to take part in a video shoot this morning. A co-worker was shooting a 7 minute film for a film production class and when she needed to cast the role of a bad date she thought of me...how kind. The plot was that Veronica's father makes her go out on some dates rather than follow her dream (helping pandas with developmental disabilities). She goes through a series of bad dates and then meets the right guy only to for an unexpected circumstance to ruin that date and send her father back to provide her the money from her trust so she can pursue her dream.

I've been through the process of video shoots but never in front of the camera. My job has provided the opportunity to be a bona fide video producer...of math videos. It was great to see the behind-the-scenes stuff again--the audio and lighting tests, the long delay of the first take as small details are fixed, how gaffers tape can fix nearly any problem that arises, and the struggle to keep it cool through blazing hot lights and the inability to run the AC (noise).

When I arrived at the nutrition store which would serve as our set the crew was putting the finishing touches on blacking out the street-facing windows. If you've ever seen Zack and Miri you will know what I mean, it was the first thing I thought of. I actually almost mentioned that to the assembled group but in a rare moment of self-filtering I decided that comparing our shoot of three men and a woman to a movie in which they make a porno was less than favorable greeting.

After some introductions to the crew and rest of the cast I changed into my khakis and a polo, the dress of a "young kid" which I will be credited as. I guess it's my boyishly good looks that sealed the deal. I emerged and after some debate they had me deep-six the khaki's in favor of the (khaki) shorts I biked over in.

"The stoner" date was shot before my scene. The basic plot was that the man had the munchies and was cramming spaghetti down his throat as fast as he could, to Veronica's disgust. I mentioned to the crew a story of watching a certain former college quarterback roommate hold a fork laden with a fist-sized mound of spaghetti over his head as he ate at it from the bottom. How I wish I could say he was doing it as a parody of himself. They loved the idea and incorporated it.

When it was my turn they made a game-time decision that I should be texting (in addition to just being young). I will save the details for when I get a copy of the finished video and hopefully get permission to post it to YouTube. It was shot a few different times from different angles, the final of which proved to be most difficult for me. It was shot from over my shoulder so the camera was catching the screen of the phone. It no longer looked realistic when I just moved my thumbs around aimlessly, I had to hit some real letters, add spaces, etc. By no means difficult but if you've ever text messaged while driving...admit it, you have...you know one suffers (texting, I hope). Since it was important to keep a flow to the texting my lines took a turn downward. The final scene took four takes, though one was screwed up both by me and the fire truck that came racing by outside.

I'm not going to say I have a career in acting but I would love to do this again. We had a great cast and crew and had a ton of fun between takes. I offered my services for future films and really hope I was decent enough to get a call-back.