Actor Growth

This week has been extremely daunting so far schedule wise. I found myself having to struggle through making decisions on whether to sacrifice the opportunities that I committed to in order to attend some sudden family matters. If this wasn’t film related opportunities that I didn’t already commit to awhile ago then it would be simple for me to just throw it aside. Basically, it would be more like say working at a 9-5 job where if you need to take a day off of work then that should be no problem.

But the fact that this is the film business where the production heavily revolves everything around your commitment can create an immense amount of chaos if you decide to drop your commitment in the last minute. At the same time, I don’t exactly consider myself in a position where I can drop opportunities so sudden while still maintaining a good reputation.

This week we actually did the exact same scenes as last week due to a technical difficulty where we were unable to watch our scenes and the fact that the camera wasn’t functional anymore. In many ways, I guess you can consider this like a callback audition. So, I basically did it with the notes I was given last time.

For the first take the mood definitely was more focused on the lady while trying to get a baby out of her. I was actually surprised at how realistic the frantic it looked on film as I was literally just improvising the whole thing on a bare floor. Although, the factor this time around was that because I didn’t look at the paramedic enough it appeared like I was simply shouting all the time and basically getting them to cooperate through fear.

It took me a few tries to get this right as I basically had to find the balance between being crazy-mad and frantic while still trying to convince the people around me that the character was sane, so to speak, where he was in control and could be trusted to perform this on the fly operation. In the end I was able to do that.

That is a hard thing to do many times. I know for myself I often have a habit of either going too big or too mellow. It’s finding that balance to make it perfect. There was an interesting comment too as the coach was saying in reality if he saw me yelling and all where I wasn’t paying attention to the paramedics that he would believe me. For the sake of film though, it just works a lot better for me to pop my head up. So many little unnatural details you have to keep in mind too. balance

I got an interesting call from the agency saying that the production Fringe was looking for people to do a shoot that involves the performer having to go though some things that can be physically demanding where it can take a toll on one’s body. While this is technically classified as background work still, unless for some reason it is going to be integral to the scene, the pay scale is going to be pretty decent to accommodate the demand.

It just made me think a bit on whether or not things like these are worth it at times. Actually, I would be more enthusiastic about this if it was classified as a principal or stunt role as in many ways it’s almost like a stunt considering what you may have to potentially do. For me it is definitely not about the money but rather thinking if the opportunity will help me to get further ahead in my career.

Although, I must admit that one way I have gained opportunities is that I did things that no one else wanted to do and so that naturally opened up more doors for other projects. Another reason I was thinking on whether or not I wanted to do it is that the next day after I have to act in a film as the lead which is supposed to start in the morning. I was told that this work on Fringe could potentially be an all nighter.

For the time being I said that I will be willing to do it as I don’t know if this is a sure thing anyways.

So this week there has been a lot of season premieres starting on TV. The show Fringe and The Good Wife were actually shot here in Vancouver for a lot of the scenes and as a result a lot of local talent were cast to act in them. I knew that two local acting coaches were in them too which made me curious to IMDB them. In both of the shows I noticed that the actor’s character names were simply using the actor’s real names. That was odd I thought.

At the same time, I guess it can be funny where you would see say a badge or plague specifically made for the show where you are like a doctor or FBI agent. The only similarities I saw on why there weren’t original character names is because the roles were simply a small principal role. Example, I guess in the script it would be something like “Doctor #1”. So, I guess that is just a fast way of doing it since they don’t think it is important enough to come up with a name. Although, I usually do see people get credited as just “Doctor #1” many times though.

I only worked as a background on those shows, so I know that would definitely not matter in terms of having to attach a name to the character. Speaking of which, I was then informed that I was spotted on the good wife. Guess I didn’t hide good enough. lol. Errr, then again….I remembered that they placed me right behind the girl that was being accused of murder and I was like the only Asian guy on set. Looked at the online video on the network site and sure enough that is the case. Won’t see me debating about character names for things like that.

I was just looking at the call sheet for the film I am acting in and it indicated that they needed me this week at a location that requires a good 4 hour drive to get there. Put in the fact that I would have to travel back too and you are looking at an 8 hour day just sitting in a vehicle for what will probably be just two hours of shooting for my character.

Fortunately they will be providing the transportation, but I wasn’t expecting this before as I thought all of my scenes were going to be down mostly around the area. I guess this is just a reminder on how killer of a schedule it can be in the film business.

So this week all of the guys were given a pretty crazy scene where the character was literally mad and yelling pretty much through the whole piece. Basically, he was a guy that was going to do a C section on a lady to get a baby out and has a lot of complicated issues personally.

Beforehand I made a choice where I was going to play this guy with a very angry and annoyed direction where during the scene near the end I would stand up as he was being confrontational with a couple of medics. Now keep in mind in the scene there was a dying lady who he cared about right in-front of him and my choice was to start off by kneeling on the ground as the character was contemplating how to get the baby out.

From I read, he needed a knife and the medic was spending way too long going through this kit which aggravates the character. Therefore, my decision was to stand up that time. Now I brought that up as usually in the audition you have to warn the camera person on your movement intents so that they can prepare for it.

Right when I said that the coach told me not to do that. He was basically saying how in real life if you were trying to get a baby out of a women like that there is no way you would leave her side. Regardless of how angry you are you will want to stay there and it would be more powerful for the scene.

That was kind of a throw off for me as I know in a normal audition a casting director wouldn’t give you that benefit of providing direction. So, that was kind of odd. But, I went with the direction and did everything kneeling down and never got up. It was kind of funny as last week’s advice was counter productive for this week’s scene.

Essentially, last week the takeaway note was to face the camera more and not staring at the object. So, for this scene a subconsciously decided to look up at the reader as I knew if I looked down to much you would only see the top of my head. But, funny enough that is what I should have done for this scene where I would be more focused on staring at the dying lady.

The coach did mention though that he should have informed us ahead of time about the camera. At the same time he said that in an audition you can request the camera guy to say lower the camera if that was the direction you chose to do your piece. That was an interesting note I thought. Was a crazy scene though.