Notes from the Author: As an Actor

Notes from the Author: (As An Actor) My Movie Diary, Part One, Stepping into the Spotlight

Yes, I acted in a movie once. I was in Michael Moore’s Sicko but that wasn’t acting. That was just being myself. But while living in BC Canada, I actually acted in a movie called “The Change Agents”. My neighbor who worked at the local high school talked me into going to an audition there, just for fun. Well, just for fun, I was chosen to play “Don”, a stuffy English teacher. 

The students of the local high school with one very dedicated and talented teacher made it a school project to create a feature length film as their way of protesting Canada’s environmental record, especially in regards to the Alberta Tar Sands.

I had a ten o’clock show time for make up. I started the day by having two pretty young women pamper me and paint my face, lipstick and all. I have to say everyone on the set (except for the producer) treated me with the utmost kindness and respect. I was constantly flattered, pampered and coddled. I always left the set feeling great about myself.

The equipment was still being set up in the room where filming was to take place, so there was nothing to do. I read some and visited with some of the other actors. Briefly met with the director about my “motivation”, and then it was time for “blocking”, which is arranging the movement of the scene and coordinating it with the camera movements. Since I sat during that entire scene there wasn’t much for me to do but sit there while they measured how high my head was.

The prop guy (the Artistic Director) set a plate of food in front of me and said sternly, “Don’t touch anything on that plate!”. The way he said it led me to believe there were dire consequences for not complying. I feared that plate.

By noon we were ready to shoot. My one line in this scene is “I thought the teachers were the ones supposed to slam the doors.”, said while shaking a piece of celery at another actor. Then I was to take a bite of a rice cracker. I must have eaten at least 30 halves of a rice cracker. In fact there was a student who’s job it was to replace the cracker and remove the half eaten one after every take, poor girl. 

The pattern was to do the scene about seven times then move the camera and do seven more takes. This went on all day. We wound up doing just the one scene. It will probably be less than five minutes in the movie but it was an all day job.

This scene took place in the teacher’s break room. There were five actors and about twenty or slightly more crew. The place was packed. Anywhere that was not on screen was full of people or equipment. The floor was a tangle of cables and wires. Then when they brought in the camera dolly, more people were required (cable wranglers, dolly wrangler).

Occasionally between takes the make up girls would come up with a huge tackle box stuffed with cosmetics and re-pretty my face.

Over and over we re-did the scene. Eventually we got to doing close ups. When we did them we only did snippets of the scene. But each close up required the camera, sound and lighting being reset.

Fortunately my fellow actors are nice people because we spent the entire day sitting at a table waiting for things to be done around us. Then we would recite a quick scene and then wait a half hour or so to do the scene again.

I love watching movies, but one little thing I have always wondered is why there is so often “continuity” issues. Things moving around or disappearing on the set behind the actors during one scene. Hair being wrong from one line to the next. I have always thought “are these people stupid?” how could they get these little things messed up?

Well now I know the answer. Put 30 people in a small room all day and things move. For example the director happened to leave her glasses on our table before we started shooting so she had to leave it there all day. When she needed to read the script she had to get the glasses and remember to replace them exactly the way they were. Several water bottles were left on the set during breaks and the “continuity” person had to come in with her digital camera and check every corner of the room to see where everything belonged. We wound up moving a plant around the room for various shots to improve the BG (back ground).

The movie is out now. I haven’t seen it. Friends of mine who have say it is quite good. Most of my work wound up on the “cutting room floor”. Oh well, stardom may have to wait a bit longer. 

If you get a chance to support these kids I urge you to take it. These kids are trying to something good for the world. Check out ther facebook page, The change Agents.

Tomorrow on the Blog: Part Two, After the Glitter