I could easily see myself moving to this city the more I live here. I've always loved it, and it seems that my love for it and my excitement at the opportunities I can find outweigh the stark terror I have in moving to a place where the cost of living is so high.
Gulp. Leap. Soar! (right?)
I'm meeting different kinds of people here, and also have a lot of personal time away from the people I'm used to. Away from HPU and all of that crap, away from my comfort zone. Away from all things that encourage stagnation. I've come to realize that if I DO change from this trip, it's not going to be myself that notices. So I don't know, and it is probably still to premature to really call it.
In a few days it will be a full month that I have been here. Two more down! Next up I'm tackling this electrician job. Woohoo
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Sunday, June 7, 2009
10,000 Eyeballs' Production of... well, It hasn't been named yet.
Wow.
The experience I had making a film yesterday was... huge. There was so much to take it and it was so much fun, in many ways (not to be dramatic, but...) it was life changing. I've never had such a great opportunity to see the process of making a film from ANY perspective, and getting it from an actor's perspective really excites me because I could see myself doing film just as easy as I could do stage. Good news there if I ever make it in THAT avenue because the money is rediculous on that side of entertainment. Of course the downside is the loss of art in certain situations... but that same problem is on Broadway for the most part too.
I had a lot of fun experiences on this shoot. The director really pulled together an amazing effort to get this done. Take in to account that NOTHING was paid, none of the crew was paid nor talent. I was extremely impressed with how professional the endeavor was with no one being paid. The director (his name is Isaac Camner www.isaaccamner.com Most of his experience is in directing music videos, I beleive this was his first narrative film) must have some crazy contacts. The equipment was top notch, hell we even used a green screen in one of our scenes. We had some awesome cars in our shoot, too. Yours truly got to cut his teeth on a stick shift inside of a 50's Ford Falcon during a scene. They threw me in the car, told me how to do it and of course the first take of the scene I couldn't even get it to move. (It kept stalling, damnit.) So they pushed it the second time and I was able to drive the car onto the set after they did that (I really need to learn how to drive a stick shift.)
Let me rewind some. This whole project was done as a part of the 48 Hour Film Project. This event happens in other big cities, and essentially it is a contest. Film makers have 48 hours to write, shoot, and edit a film. Even better, at the beginning of this contest they have to pick their genre from a hat, and are given a prop and a single line of dialogue that must be included in their film. When I initially met with the director and a lot of the crew and talent of this, they were dead set on including music in their film. Optimally, they wanted the film to be a musical. How lucky it was that they picked the musical/western genre from the hat. As soon as they got the genre they had to begin writing, the musicians began writing music, and they wrote the script. At 6 AM I was mailed a rough screenplay and an mp3 with the rough track of the song I was to sing. (Hah! Something i'm comfortable with. The fact that it was a musical movie sort of put in my element more.) I showed up on the set in Oakland at 8 AM. The first thing I got to do was record the song I was to sing. The cool part of that is that I recorded at Fantasy Studios in Berkely. This studio was outrageous. I'm pretty sure a lot of artists that are well known have recorded there. As far as the song I was to sing goes, it was the most campy and juvenile song I've ever sang. (Me and the woman I played opposite of were these really preppy annoying characters whose purpose it was to really annoy the main character and, I assume, provide comic relief. There was a lot of fun ad libbing we were given liberty to do in our scene, baha.) I did that, then sat around. For a while. One thing that is important to note is that if you are acting in a film, be prepared for down time. Of course when my scene(s) came up I was busy and it sort of went on through the night. We filmed until 12 AM.
What a huge, fun experience. And a nice start to my reel, since I might as well begin one. I haven't seen it yet, going to a bar tonight where everyone is meeting and they are going to screen it. It goes up in the Roxie Theatre on wednesday. I don't think I will go, haha.
The experience I had making a film yesterday was... huge. There was so much to take it and it was so much fun, in many ways (not to be dramatic, but...) it was life changing. I've never had such a great opportunity to see the process of making a film from ANY perspective, and getting it from an actor's perspective really excites me because I could see myself doing film just as easy as I could do stage. Good news there if I ever make it in THAT avenue because the money is rediculous on that side of entertainment. Of course the downside is the loss of art in certain situations... but that same problem is on Broadway for the most part too.
I had a lot of fun experiences on this shoot. The director really pulled together an amazing effort to get this done. Take in to account that NOTHING was paid, none of the crew was paid nor talent. I was extremely impressed with how professional the endeavor was with no one being paid. The director (his name is Isaac Camner www.isaaccamner.com Most of his experience is in directing music videos, I beleive this was his first narrative film) must have some crazy contacts. The equipment was top notch, hell we even used a green screen in one of our scenes. We had some awesome cars in our shoot, too. Yours truly got to cut his teeth on a stick shift inside of a 50's Ford Falcon during a scene. They threw me in the car, told me how to do it and of course the first take of the scene I couldn't even get it to move. (It kept stalling, damnit.) So they pushed it the second time and I was able to drive the car onto the set after they did that (I really need to learn how to drive a stick shift.)
Let me rewind some. This whole project was done as a part of the 48 Hour Film Project. This event happens in other big cities, and essentially it is a contest. Film makers have 48 hours to write, shoot, and edit a film. Even better, at the beginning of this contest they have to pick their genre from a hat, and are given a prop and a single line of dialogue that must be included in their film. When I initially met with the director and a lot of the crew and talent of this, they were dead set on including music in their film. Optimally, they wanted the film to be a musical. How lucky it was that they picked the musical/western genre from the hat. As soon as they got the genre they had to begin writing, the musicians began writing music, and they wrote the script. At 6 AM I was mailed a rough screenplay and an mp3 with the rough track of the song I was to sing. (Hah! Something i'm comfortable with. The fact that it was a musical movie sort of put in my element more.) I showed up on the set in Oakland at 8 AM. The first thing I got to do was record the song I was to sing. The cool part of that is that I recorded at Fantasy Studios in Berkely. This studio was outrageous. I'm pretty sure a lot of artists that are well known have recorded there. As far as the song I was to sing goes, it was the most campy and juvenile song I've ever sang. (Me and the woman I played opposite of were these really preppy annoying characters whose purpose it was to really annoy the main character and, I assume, provide comic relief. There was a lot of fun ad libbing we were given liberty to do in our scene, baha.) I did that, then sat around. For a while. One thing that is important to note is that if you are acting in a film, be prepared for down time. Of course when my scene(s) came up I was busy and it sort of went on through the night. We filmed until 12 AM.
What a huge, fun experience. And a nice start to my reel, since I might as well begin one. I haven't seen it yet, going to a bar tonight where everyone is meeting and they are going to screen it. It goes up in the Roxie Theatre on wednesday. I don't think I will go, haha.
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