Elaboration Nation

To go into greater detail regarding the final three days of the film shoot I was a part of: Friday was my final day on the shoot as an actor, but as before, I found myself to be a PA any time I wasn't on camera during a take. I might have objected under other circumstances, but I had come on board as a PA, the shoot was under the auspices of good friends and other actors (who were also producers) were in more or less the same boat.

It can sometimes be difficult to take pleasure in one's work, even in the film industry, but such was not the case Friday. I did enjoy carrying about an attractive and sprightly blond actress who was dressed as a mermaid. The scene was your basic poolside frolicking routine, and was over far too quickly for my liking.

Saturday was all right. I spent a great deal of time guarding the equipment left outside near the street. This really meant that I was reading my book and eating snacks. It was an agreeable enough way to pass the time, but I missed being with some of the cast and crew I had become quite fond of. This would be remedied when the crew moved to a new setup on the sidewalk opposite the apartment building we were shooting at.

As I think I said, it was my suggestion for lunch that carried the day. Whatever the initial thinking of the responsible party was, it seemed unimaginative and repetitive to me, and I suggested burgers from In-N-Out. There was some resistance and need for convincing, but that's what we did, and it seemed to be successful. Unfortunately, lunch for the final day would be sub sandwiches- the third such lunch of the seven day shoot.

Now, about that last setup: We were there to get some pickup shots due to problems shooting the same scene the previous weekend. That day, we shot on the sidewalk for hours without a complaint from those in the neighborhood, who did little more than gawk at us from their cars and keep their dissatisfaction to themselves as they tried to get by on the sidewalk. Minutes after we set up on the sidewalk the second time, an ornery couple trying to get a case of beer home made trouble. It was over in a minute, but even a minute is too long for me to endure such discord.

The big day was Sunday's shoot. This was because it was a night shoot. It started at 10pm on Saturday and went on to 9am. We were fortunate, as the schedule had us out no sooner than 10am. I had gotten a good night's rest and taken an afternoon nap Sunday, but others employed less obvious strategies which seemed to work better.

It was a tough day. I was all right much of the time continuing to watch the gear and running over to the 24 hour drugstore to pick up needed supplies, but my experience got more difficult in the waning hours of the shoot as I was called upon to be an extra the restaurant scene we were shooting. There had been dedicated extras waiting for the shot in question, but they were cut loose after waiting hours for it. That left every crewmember that could be spared doing double duty in the scene. We were stressed and exhausted, and struggled to stay away and maintain our composure while we pretended to eat rapidly spoiling Mexican food while reacting to the action unfolding in the scene.

Finally we wrapped, and it was a ecstatic moment. For my part, I was walking on air as I went about my part in breaking down the set. I felt fortunate to not have responsibilities for most of the rest of the day. Other people did, including full days of work. By the time I was to meet a friend to watch a theater show and then head to our acting class, I was pretty well recovered.

The show, held in a cafe and consisting of three shorts, was appealing enough. Some of the actors seemed in this small sample to possess considerable talent, and the band whose songs bound the shorts together was excellent.

From there, my friend and I had some burgers at his place and just managed to get to class on time. The class was good. We had the usual warmups, and then performed scenes barely 30 minutes after receiving the script. In a scene of three male actors playing women, I think I managed to hold my own. None of us were 'off book', as the expression goes, but I conceived of a way to partially mask that. I was playing a little girl, and decided that when I was not delivering lines I would be drawing and coloring. This seemed to fit, as a fellow student remarked. As for the rest of my performance, I was going for the sort of precocious young girl seen in films like 'The Philadelphia Story', among others. I'm not sure of how effective that was, but I was satisfied with my effort towards that end.

It was a good stretch of four days.