Saving the Blessed for Last...

Greetings all! I know, I know... you're only one person. I called you "all"... as you can see, I set up a "house of mirrors" type thing inside the blog lobby here, so you're reflected about 2 dozen times. That way it seems like this place is a'hoppin'!

So, anyway, thanks and all that...

The days.... they... they blend into one.... repeating... merging... swirling together... until I can't tell what time it is... there's sleep and food involved... but the whirlwind... so much happening, but nothing happening... Work, church, food, reading, playing, sleeping, acting class...

BUT! I did actually get to do some filming a few days ago. A full day on set, doing a test run for our 48 Hour Film Festival Team. The actual event is this weekend, but the director got us together to see how well the cast and crew worked together. They pulled a random genre on Thursday night, secured two locations, wrote a script, then the next day, we filmed it. Saturday was editing day. Haven't seen the results yet...

It was cool to experience the full day on set. Two sets, actually. I was the lead role, and we started out filming at a pizza parlor downtown. I played an employee who finds a lost driver's license while cleaning up. I decide to deliver it to the owner myself. I drive over, and end up in the middle of a wild, dysfunctional family type situation. At one point, the dad punched me, knocking me out, and I wake up tied to a chair... lol... I eventually extricate myself from the situation. It's sort of a weird, absurdist comedy-slash-thriller.

Here's the only photo I took all day...

That's make-up, by the way. Obviously, for when I'd been knocked out. Man, I really have to get used to taking pictures during these things. They'd make blogging about it all so much more interesting...

Anyway, I'm nervous about seeing the results. It must be what all actors go through, eh? Will it suck? Will it be passable? Will it be great? Honestly, for a test film, it doesn't much matter... the real important one will be next weekend's film. Still, if there are good moments that I can capture for my "demo reel", then it will have been worth it. Well, there were plenty of other reasons it was worth it, regardless of the final results. The experience was great. Met some cool people. Worked well together with a team. Didn't tinker with the script - which is a big one for me... being a writer, the strong urge is there to want to improve every script I see, lol... I honestly wasn't sure if I could comfortably just be the actor... just take the script that's given, and do my best to bring it to life. Know my place, in other words. And I'd say, it was a success on that end.

This weekend, I'll take more pictures, I promise.

And when I see the test film, if I'm allowed to, and I think it's worth your time, I'll link it or embed it here...

So I volunteered to be the person to go to the gathering on this upcoming Friday, to be the team representative who pulls the genre out of the hat for our team (Team Viva). I'll then phone it in to the director and the writing team, and they'll start the script. And then when the announcement is made, telling everyone the list of things all the films have to have in them (line of dialog, a certain prop, a character type and character name), then I phone that in as well.

Knowing that info will be useful for me, too, in a way... I'm not on the writing team for Team Viva, but I hope to go home that night and write a script anyways. As a fun exercise, sure, but also *just in case*... you know, Plan B type thing.

Anyways, then Saturday early, we'll meet and film again. Then Sunday is spent editing, and the final film turned in by 7pm Sunday.

More BTI meetings in the next week or two as well, as we begin filming for the web series. I tell ya, I cannot WAIT to start filming that! This project is going to be amazing. Although we lost an actress for one of the main roles today. She was schedule to appear starting with Episode 2. We'll have to find a new female for that one... I'm bummed, since she was a great actress.

It'll work out, I'm sure.

That dog... would infuriate me... no way I'd keep that one...

So what else?

Oh! I dropped my second-highest-scoring play of all time in Scrabble... I mean, my own personal second-best. Here, check it out...

My apologies to Cathy, upon whom I dropped this 185-point bomb... That won't happen again any time soon...

So I saw the movie Godzilla recently. It was a disappointing turd. It managed to make Pacific Rim look great in comparison... and you all know how little I thought of Pacific Rim... I guess doing a giant monster movie must be harder than it looks. The script was a mess. Perhaps when you're talking about a movie with a budget this substantial ($160 million!!!), you probably have many different people trying to add and subtract and tweak the script, until it becomes a mish-mash. Except it had casting problems as well...

I'm just a movie snob. I try not to be, but I can't help it...

What else?

I may start video recording myself doing monologues. More for my own training purposes. But if they seem entertaining enough, I may post them here. Especially the ones with accents. I have a Russian one, two Irish monologues, and a couple British ones so far. I think my monologue folder has maybe 25 monologues in it at the moment. I know about half of them by heart. It's unnecessary, I'm sure... but I just enjoying learning them and performing them. I'll "perform" them one after the other in the car as I drive sometimes...

Yeah, I'm an odd bird like that.

All that to say, here's one last photo, and I'm calling this post done...

That's an awesome way to end.

Man, I have lots of great photos waiting to make their appearance. I may have to write a new post again soon!

Dave the Goof