Just dropping by..

Thought I'd mention to you all (um.. you singular?) that I'm off for another casting today because as the tradition goes I'm supposed to tell everyone so then nothing comes of it. No biggie really. Bit annoying that they have it on a Sunday which is not only a day, particularly today because it's rainy and gloomy and the trams which go to the spot I need to go don't run on weekends but that's about the most interesting thing I have to write.

See, it's not just laziness that keeps me from keeping up the blog. Well anyway, um. That's all.

Not a bad day n a bit's..

Finished filming. Went rather quick really, and overall was quite relaxing and easy, sans mishaps. Well not entirely free of them, not at all free of them.. they just weren't the negative, screwing with one's art, holding everyone up, pissing people off sort of mishaps. Not to me anyway.

Started yesterday, I met them at the director's flat. It's a street I know well and have walked up for this very purpose before. I wondered if perhaps just I'd been to this exact flat before and lo and behold it's the same flat I shot a film in last August. One where I didn't say anything and gave a lot of spooked out looks. You know.. that one..

Right away we shot in the bedroom, it was dressed up as a doctor's office.. that went pretty quick and then we went out for a coffee and moving on. The coffee was good. We walked on and stopped halfway down some steps to shoot a scene. I managed to get some "stills" in this spot, so you might just get to see me recreating one of the famous looks from the film some time soon.

And on, to some sports centre which has a statue in front that we used. My job was to stare wistfully at it, regretting my lost youth and health. And we moved on.

The next scene was on a street, a couple of tram stops up. I look into the mirror in an art store window eating and ice cream and look at myself. I had a Magnum. Quite a good choice as they don't melt so quick.. and I did have to hold on to it for some time. I had to keep the licks small.

And we moved on up the street a bit, to Zelevskeho where there's a big reflecting building and I continued eating the ice cream there. All of it took some time, with the walk and the setting up and when we finally went to film all went well until my ice cream fell apart all over my skirt. There was a slight mishap as we waited for them to get a napkin so I could clean myself up a bit, but I got some good ice cream mess shots, as well as some reflection ones. There was more to shoot so they had to get me a new ice cream.

Then we went to the "square" where we met the other actress who was playing the ice cream lady. No, I'm not the ice cream lady.. I didn't get the idea until I saw her, we just shot that scene earlier.

So, they g0t her an ice cream and she ate ice cream and I watched her, with looks. We shot both from different angles and it started to rain. It continued a little in the rain but alas it neither stopped nor abated so we sought shelter in the metro.

A bit later we went back out, got a new ice cream for ICL and filmed more. She dropped the ice cream which for her was part of the script. Our director went off to get her a new ice cream, which her character does, and we hung about, I took a bunch of photos of the splat on the ground, and she started cleaning it up... which was a boo boo as the mess was needed for the next scene. So another needed to be got. They shot the scene and ice cream lady was done.

Next we did the tram scene. I sit on a tram, making faces and flipping through but not reading a book, and that's it. Went pretty smoothly, the exact time it takes to get to the destination we were going anyway, so pretty convenient. That was it for yesterday.

Today was the bath scene. I arrived at the flat.. another one. No one was there and I didn't recognize any of the names on the buzzer, so I waited, this is quite typical for film students, they never give you proper instructions for meeting them so you find yourself outside strange flats with no idea what to do. They need to sort this out!

After about 10 mins my director came out saying she'd burnt her hair. I didn't ask. Well I did when we were up about the 3rd floor and she said it she was lighting a candle. I think I said "oh".

I went in and they were lighting candles all around the bath.. I remember skimming over this bit in the script. They set it up, I came in to draw a bath and then found myself trapped in there because the camera was set up right in front of the door. This sucked because I wanted to get photos of the setup, but one can't always have everything how one wants.

The candles around the bath were melting like ice cream that's been made to wait on a delayed film set, wax was dripping and making shapes around the bath, and eventually getting into the water.

The bath was full and we shot. I sat, looked at the candles, looked at my toes, pretended to cry and this was the fun bit, submerged myself under water several times. It kind of sucked because my nose got full of water and well.. that just sucks.. and when you do it a few times..

It was full of wax, it didn't bother me, it was just strange. Some did drip down onto my toes as we were shooting a scene that featured them. She waited until last to film my toes by the way so you get to see them in all their shrivelly, wrinkly splendour. I did just cut my toenails though, of which I was glad.

We finished and I got out of the bath. She blew out all the candles to make it easier for me to get out of there, so I didn't get my shot of the lit up bathroom, though I got some of the aftermath, as well as some typical dorky in the mirror shots.

And we were done. I thought we were doing another scene by the river but for some reason it's not happening. So I came home.

THE END

That's it, I'm putting together resume.

For acting. A little bit about what I've done. A very little bit, because it's not much, and under skills I'll put "very good at making anxious, inquisitive, scared and thoughtful faces. Experiences in bath scenes. Doesn't have much experience with dialogue but knows some English."

I might need to fill it out a bit.

Well, actually...

Someone did email me, but she got my name wrong and I thought she had meant to email someone else, so I replied saying my name's not Melanie bla bla bla.. and no answer. I figured she had meant the real Melanie and hadn't bothered to write and say "no, I actually wanted someone young and pretty who can act" or something.

Oh by the way I'm talking about film students.. I went to the casting last week, didn't hear anything for a few days etc etc etc.

Anyway, I got another email and she did mean me so I'm shooting on Monday and Tuesday. I'm playing a woman with cancer so it should be deep and let me exercise those skills I'm supposed to have. Any luck I actually have some and they're gonna show themselves one of these days. Preferably tomorrow.

You know how they thought me?

Well I went to the casting, went ok it seemed, caught up with some people and had a drink with one guy I hadn't seen for a while in a bar I hadn't previously known which is quite near and Erik would really like so we're totally going there but..

no one's called me!

*cries*

yet.. oh well.

Hey they thought of me..

Here I was the other day, thinking about stuff. And I remembered how I was looking forward to the summer upon completion of my last film, anticipating the month courses in which I traditionally participate to some degree, and thinking how last month nothing of the sort happened, and castings for this month should be coming up around now and I've gotten no phone calls and no emails or nothing of the sort. I was even thinking specifically today that it would be cool if I got a phone call, out of nowhere. And when I got a phone call from an unknown number I thought yes this is it but it turned out to be the fixit guy from yesterday who came back to get the money I didn't have on me yesterday. And then.. well the typical stuff.

Then she called me, said the castings are tonight oh thank you for the notice but what the hell I don't have anything else to do so I said yeah I'll be there. Then I remembered that my parents made a vague date for tonight though they haven't called yet. Oh well.

So I might just be in something else this year yet. Then again maybe I won't. I should spend all that spare time learning how to write proper grammatically and stuff. Maybe I won't bother.

What a good idea!

That's what I thought yesterday when I was invited to go meet a friend in a beergarden, seeing as I've been on my own most of the month, haven't been socializing much and that hanging out in beergardens is generally considered a pleasant thing.

And it was. Lovely evening, hung out with this friend and some other guy I'd never met before, we talked, we laughed, we drank beer. It was pleasant but mostly uneventful, except for the incident at the pub we went to afterwards when it got dark where I knocked my glass over and broke it.

You can probably guess from the aforementioned incident that I got pretty drunk. Which also led to me having something of a hangover when I woke up today. And it sucked. It sucked for the obvious reasons that hangovers suck, and also because I had things to do today. I had to go to the film school to dub over some scenes in which the sound didn't come out right. Luckily it got put back 2 hours, giving me some much needed time to recover a little, but I still felt quite shit by the time I had to go. Not too shit to be puking on the way however, I just about passed being ok to go out.

Once I was out, I figured no biggie.. it'll just be sitting and talking. Well it was partly. I was in a tiny little sound booth going over some words that were either said wrong, according to the director, which were drowned out by the other actor coughing in the scene.

First I had to say "yes" over and over again a bunch of times. This was ok, but then I had to do the other scenes, which were the louder, shouting scenes, and I needed to stand up so the sound would be right. Of course they needed to be done over and over again.. I did a bunch one way, then he gave me a different direction... then I needed to do it the particular way it sounded on the video, and then he changed his mind and wanted me to do it differently.. After saying these words 20 times it made my head spin, but I didn't get sick in that dark claustrophobic little room, which is a positive.

It was actually done pretty quickly, luckily, and I was able to leave. I did need to puke when I went out on the street though, but I went around what seemed like a secluded corner, though there were still windows from the film school in view. I did try to do it discreetly, so perhaps no one saw.

Anyway I'm much better now, thanks for asking.. and now I'm done with the film. He doesn't need me anymore. Unless of course what we did today wasn't sufficient and it needs to be done again.

And that's..

...a wrap, to use the parlance of our times.

I'm back and the reshoot is done. Well it wasn't actually a reshoot but new scenes that weren't shot before, and it wasn't one scene it was 3, and each scene needed 2 shots each, meaning 3 for one, 2 for one and one for the other. Or something like that, well anyway in total it was how many it was. And of course each scene needed at least 8 takes, and 4 to 6 rehearsals and there were some aborted starts and we had to wait for a battery to charge again.

Still, it's still Thursday, and I've made it home with a stop to pick up some junk food, which means we finished before 11:00, which means it took just under 3 hours which is slightly less than was estimated, so kudos to us.

Scenes were pretty simple, just walking, looking and standing. I had to look through a peephole which sounds simple and was except for the closeup of my eye through the door, where I had to stand very still slightly hunched with my body twisted and eyes wide open with a light stuck right up to my face while he gave directions through the door. We had to do that scene more than a few times. Without blinking of course.

Got it done though, and he seemed happy with it all, and that's it for me. There might be some voice work to do still, but he didn't say anything about it when I left so I'm assuming I'm done with this acting lark until I get another gig, which despite all my whining throughout this saga I hope isn't too long.

Right, I'm off again.

To do the reshoot. Those who read regular will know what I talk of. Those who don't won't care, so I'll leave it at that.

It was supposed to take about an hour, but now it seems like the estimate is 3 hours, so I'm going to look forward to being safe back here by midnight. And I mean here, in my comfy slacks and on the comp (stuffing my face, watching something amusing etc) with the shoot done and past me, none of this.. well I'm back cos we didn't do it after all and have to reschedule again sort of thing. Here, in the evening, with everything done. That's what I'm aiming for.

Oh shit, I shouldn't have said it, now it's going to take 18 fucking hours. Fuck, I shouldn't have even thought it.

Ok, this evening.

At 20:30. Shouldn't take more than 3 hours.

And then I'm done.

*whistles*

Fuck.

Fuck!

Well, I'm back. And it's before 5pm, that went quick, I hear you say.

Ha! As if.

So, a few hours ago I left to shoot more scenes, or rather reshoot a scene that wasn't good enough the first time we did it. Whatever, I got there at 3, the scheduled time. I sent an sms but no answer. A few minutes later I got a message from director dude saying he was running late, be there soon.

Ok, whatev.. I went to get myself a snack. I returned and Jarka the makeup artist was there. She wasn't so pleased to to hear he was running late, seeing as she needed to go somewhere else afterwards, and this was the reason why we'd changed the time from 5:00 to 3:00, and why I'd been quite particular about being there on time. We waited. No one showed up, but about 15 past I got a phone call, he said he was on the way.

We waited and waited and waited. She made some phone calls saying she'd be late, or wouldn't be able to make it. I got a phone call again, he was stuck in traffic but I could just buzz the flat and they'd let me up. Why he didn't suggest that before I don't know, nor why I'd been smsing before every time I went there before I don't know. I went to press the name he told me and before I could the door made that "you can open me now, sign".

So we went up. Got comfy and she did my makeup. As soon as she finished he got here. Good timing! I thought.. no. Turns out he didn't have the lenses, or something and we couldn't shoot today at all.

After all that.

He did give me some money though, a fair bit which is as it should be considering everything. We have to reschedule again, he said probably Saturday, which sucks because I was hoping to have a relaxing, post film weekend, but on the other hand it's good because it's not a work day and it won't clash with all the other things I need to do which I'm further behind in because I didn't get any of it done today... of course if I'd known there'd be no shoot today I probably would have.

Doesn't really matter. I'm glad to be home now, mostly.

Blu-di-hell!

Fuck!

Ok, so this time yesterday I was tired, having finished shooting at 4am though we were supposed to go until midnight, not that it made any difference because a certain furry feline wouldn't let me sleep, and I had to get up to be there to shoot again at 1pm.

That turned to 2pm, then he was late so we got in at about 2:30, then he fiddled around setting up. The makeup woman came and had to wait around, I waited around... finally started shooting at I don't know what time, but I'll guess 4:00. We did the "bathroom" scene, which was a little nervy for me, but not as much as I thought it would be.. then I had to wait around again, dripping wet and in a towel... got the makeup done so our m-a artist could get on her way...

waited for him to set up... then more crew members showed up.

..........

12 hours later I'm still in the flat and we've 2 scenes left to shoot, that was before he remembered the other scene, the final eye opening scene that tells us what the story was all about.. so we have 3 left to do. Of course that means something like 14 shots..

and the camera battery dies.

Director goes to get food and stuff and we wait around. I feel like sleeping. He comes back.. they set up and we rehearse a bit... now.. I'm bad enough at this acting while rehearsing (much like my acting while the camera's going) but when I'm as ready to sleep as I was at this time, it's not what I want to do most in the world.

We finally got another scene going. I walked back and forth through the hallway a few times. It took me a while to know what the fuck scene he was talking about before we even got started, but that happens at what was probably 4am.

And it died again. So we waited. Rehearse the phone scene and went back in the kitchen to set up. Day was coming in slowly through the windows, so of course they took particularly long to set up.

We shot. Didn't shoot as many takes as on average, but more because we had limited battery power, than because it was so late and we were tired, though the late and tired did play into it some. The take being actually any good didn't have much to do with the decision. We had to take the scene from 3 different angles (3,4, 6?) of course, so that took time. The last scene was simple and fast, just one take, so we took 3. And we were done. The good thing about it was I could walk home in daylight. It was 5:50 when I left.

And that was it! Now we only have to reshoot a scene that was crap or too dark or whatever at the other flat, so I have to be there at 3pm. I don't even want to be out of bed yet! And I have all of this other stuff to do, which I stupidly thought, I'd have time to do today. Today's shoot was originally supposed to be at 5, so considering (as I thought) I'd be done by midnight yesterday, (a conservative estimate, seeing as the original start was at 1) that I'd get plenty of sleep, and be up early not feeling like total shit, but no.

Today's shoot is supposed to take an hour, after makeup that is, so I'm expecting to be home by daylight tonight. I just want to go to sleep.

Just stopping by..

I'm tired. We shot more scenes for the movie yesterday. I got there 16:30 and the goal was to finish at midnight. I got there on time, the other actor was about half an hour late, and the crew were fiddling around with lights. At about 9:30 we started doing something, we began rehearsing the scenes we were shooting at just before midnight and I left at about 4am.

We're shooting again today, starting 1pm because, we finished at midnight you see, and that's plenty of time to get some sleep :Z

If I'd actually come home a bit after 4, slept pretty much until just now I'd be fine, but someone decided to be hyper and jump on the bed and meow at me at regular intervals throughout the night/morning.

I'm so fucking tired. I'll probably be shooting until about midnight again (meaning well after that of course) and I don't know if I'm up for it. I have a semi nude scene today, and hopefully being out of it will make it easier, if anything. Still not quite sure how that will be. I just want to go back to sleep.

Right that's it! Maybe..

Acting. I'm done with it, once and for all! Ok, not really but I thought that earlier today, for about a minute. Maybe about 30 minutes. I was rehearsing some scenes for the short film I'm doing. We're filming again on Monday and Tuesday and there are still some scenes that need to be rehearsed.

I was first humbled by the mention in a during rehearsal chat about last weekend's filming. Some scenes just didn't come out good enough and had to be cut out or dubbed over, because my lines were said shit, basically. Something like that. I was feeling alright about everything up to that, but that brought back the whole not good enough and feeling like the director is way regretting that he chose me for the role feelings.

The rehearsal itself was full of me saying everything flat and wrong and not being able to get simple stuff right. Ok maybe that's just me exaggerating, but he picked on some very specific stuff, the inflections of my words for instance. It was kind of... well it just seemed like I couldn't do anything any good. For a while. Then he spoke more about the scenes he didn't like so much from last week and it wasn't just me, but everything at the time so I felt a little less shit about that, but then there were more specific problems with everything I was doing.. really simple shit that shouldn't be a problem for someone who considers themselves an amateur but at least moderately adequate thespian... or so I think. Maybe he's just a nitpicker. Maybe I'm just being expected to do shit that doesn't make sense in way that doesn't work. Maybe I just don't have enough experience, maybe I'm lazy, maybe I just suck.

Anyway, I've got this one to finish. Rehearsal tomorrow, then Sunday again. Filming on Monday, Tuesday, probably a bit of Wednesday and then we might still have more scenes to do. We'll see.

Oh and I have my nude/semi-not so sure how-nude scene to do. I get out of the bath and put a towel on, he asked if it would be a problem and I said it should be ok but watch me freak out when I have to do it. I don't know.. I wanna be professional and whatnot but.. well, again, we'll see.

Overall it was ok actually. I don't want to give the impression that today was bad at all :)

Ok, this will be the last one of these for a while..

We did another shoot last night. I started off in the same costume, with the same uncomfortable shoes and ridiculous fake groceries, did some scenes walking out the front, then walking into the hall, and then walking up stairs. We had to shoot all of these from different angles and of course many takes were needed. Apart from the pain it went ok, I guess :)

Then I got to change into "something more comfortable" and yes, the director did describe it like that.. I was playing the middle of the night scenes, so it was night stuff with night gown and slippers, which sounds really comfy right, but it was kinda weird with some little nightie thing that didn't fit me (of course) which I wore with pajama pants and a dressing gown that looked more like some kind of secret agent coat. And slippers which had little heels and were too small for me :Z.
It was a lot more comfortable than the other costume though.

It did go pretty well though, I was more pleased with the scenes I did than I was yesterday, and I remember thinking, around say... 2 something that the shoot was going much smoother than yesterday's.. night's the previous shoot :Z The director seemed to feel that way too.

This feeling continued until about 4ish when he mentioned the scenes we had to do tonight and would probably be shooting until about 6. It went downhill from there.

A scene had to be adjusted because it involved shouting and running and making a lot of noise, and by the time we got to it it was 5 something so we changed it to me shouting not so loudly and doing stage whispers, running and making a lot of noise.. and then doing it from another angle. You can tell where it goes from here, and yes, the cable remains unfixed.

At about 6:30 we were doing the "last" scene, which was the last one before the one after that, which had to be shot from at least 2 angles. That one took a long time for some reason. The light was a problem, being full daylight and all so some time had to be taken out from the usual time consuming things to black out a window.

The crew were falling asleep. By then we were doing first takes which were "just fine". I'm under no allusions that either my or the other actor's acting, the sound, the lighting or anything else involved were that great, it's just that.. *snore* where was I???

oh yeah. We finally got out at 7:30.. I think we did finish all the scenes we needed to though, with a few necessary adjustments.

Next shoot is on the 11th, so I get to sleep now.

*falls asleep*

Actually I wish I could, I could use some sleep from now until about 5pm. Last night we shot from 22:00 (that was the time I showed up anyway) to 5am. I got there at 8, the dude was there earlier because his beaten up looking homeless guy makeup takes a long time. It was about 10 before we shot anything because of the setup of all the lights and everything. It was probably midnight before I was needed for anything.

The night was long. I had to wear that uncomfortable outfit and those damn shoes again. First I had a simple scene to do where I walk up the stairs and then notice something and look at it... it was terrible.. I just couldn't make it seem natural. First I was walking too clumsily in the shoes... wonder why, and the director gave me all these specific instructions on how to move my hands or where to stop and turn and then was dissatisfied with it.. it looked unnatural, gee wonder why. I went through it many times and after a while I was completely unable to do any character thing whatsoever.. and was getting tired and feeling pressured. I tried to do it "my own way" meaning I walk how I walk but that was utterly flat and devoid of any spark as well.. partly because I'd done it so many times and party because.. well maybe I'm just no good at this stuff, in fact I'm certain of it. Anyway.. finally I did it slightly different, very simple, just stopped and turned a different way and he liked it. It felt just as unnatural to me as all the other versions, but whatevs. Then we set up to film.. everyone came out, the sound dude, the light dude, and the other actor and we went through it once... and then again because that's what you do, again because there was a bit of sound that wasn't meant to be in one, so again, and all the lights went out. It was all hooked up to the electric in the flat and there was like 4 lights and a camera and whatsits so it was too much for it..

so we had a break and waited for the lights to cool down and be usable again.

So we set up again, and did it once, did it again because that's what you do, did it again for safety, and then a few more times for one reason or another. Then we filmed the same scene but from a different angle... after they'd reset everything.

We filmed more scenes, a sequence that we rehearsed in one was cut up into about 4 scenes and we filmed them from about 3 different angles each.. it was difficult to stay in character and be natural when it was all so cut up, so my acting pretty much sucked in all the filmed scenes, I don't mind most of it except for the one where I say a line.. and all the takes that seemed "good" from the other side of the camera's point of view sounded terrible to me.

I spent hours, on and off in those bloody shoes and had to carry a paper bag the old fashioned way, under my left arm, but of course no one uses those sorts of bags here so we got one that looks like that sort of bag if you cover up the handles and my hand aches from holding it in that weird position so much.

The electricity went out twice more during the night. We meant to film about 9 scenes, I think we got 4 done. We were supposed to go until 3 at the latest and finished at 5. By that time I didn't mind so much, at least I could walk home in daylight.

I came in to a hungry cat screaming for food.. or possibly she was saying "where's my daddy???" and give me some food :). I slept a bit earlier but I can't really sleep in the day. And I ache. Back, feet and left arm. I could complain more and probably will at a later time, but that's enough for now :)

Shoot

Shot the first day's footage of my other film, the one I'm actually acting in, yesterday.

It was daytime, in the park, and the shoot was mostly of me walking, stopping and looking around. My costume was the favourite part, a word of advice for filmmakers, if you're a dude, or otherwise a person who doesn't really know much about women's clothing and women's stuff due to not doing them/wearing them, don't have really specific ideas on what you want, unless you have a huge budget and professionals who can sort that stuff out for you. Mine had these sorts of ideas. Of course, my costume was lovely. I had a sort of flowy but not really long skirt, a black shirt which he forgot to bring so I just kept on the one I was wearing, and a green jacket too small for me. The best were the shoes, very high heeled and pointy, and too small for me. He said bring tights, and as I only have black ones I brought those. The shoes were tan coloured. I also had a scarf around me, some dangly earrings and necklace. It mightn't sound like anything in particular but it looked like a combination of hippy, girly and trying but not succeeding to be professional.. and as it happens my character was described (in our early rehearsals) as curious, childlike, confident, and someone who's unremarkable so perhaps it fits.

My hair was done by me. He called up 2 days before and asked if I could do something myself, it didn't mater, as long as it curled and had volume. Kay.. so I got some mousse and some curly brush thing and succeeded in creating nothing. Then I just scrunched it up so it was sorta curly but mostly messy and that was what I was stuck with. And he wanted me to wear these hideous glasses too, but I deliberately forgot to wear them when we were shooting. And the makeup made me look.. combined with this outfit.. absolutely middle aged and horrible.. he wanted pale, so she made me pale and then regular makeup but no eyeliner, and I don't look good without eyeliner.. but nevermind.

So we shot.. we redid takes again and again, the shoes hurt like hell, but there was always a problem with sound or something.

After the park we shot some scenes by the river, on this little jutting out thing that was completely unstable and wonky, and he wanted me to go out there with those shoes on, but I felt too uncomfortable, so he had to shoot those scenes without the feet visible.

It was a nice day.. shooting went ok I guess. I think my acting sucked in the scenes I did because I was concentrating too much on getting the actions right... so complicated to walk, stop, pretend something is on your shoe and look up and around :) but that's how it always is.. I'm just not a professional.

We went late.. and probably would have gone later if it hadn't started raining near the end of the shoot... just as well it did, I got to go off to Al Capone's for a night before Singapore cocktail with Erik..

oh Erik left today.. did I mention that? I'm off to shoot number 2 in a few minutes, the night shoot.

Dear diary, journal, whatever the kids call em..

And time for another installment of details-of-the-last-day-I-did-something-interesting-or-different.

Yesterday I extrad on the "WWII film". I met the dude, director's assistant or whatever at a tram stop I was not previously familiar with, it's by the train tracks in an area full of abandoned stuff, and I waited. There was a sign telling us extras to wait here for a while, so I waited for a while, and took lots of photographs. Obviously he was late, and it was particularly windy yesterday, dusty even.

This is starting off really boring.. sorry, bear with me, rest will not focus so much on trivialities. Or it might, I haven't gotten to that bit yet.

He showed up, then we had to wait for the other extras, who were late. Then they showed up on a tram. They all seemed to know each other so I was kind of hanging out on my own, occasionally saying a word to someone. We went to a place called, what I thought when he first told me was a meat factory. But there was no meet there, just a huge graffiti dude on the side and some cars at the front. Actually the name is "Meet Factory" and it's a place where artists and whatnot do stuff. Apparently.

A vaguely related but not all that interesting point is that I saw this from the train when I went to Karlštein few weeks ago. I'd actually first recognized a church I photographed from the train, and then when I walked up to this building, I remembered seeing this place with cars on the walls and thinking it must be some car yard or something, how wrong I was!

So, we went in and changed. We were to be Jews, concentration camp, er inmates to be more precise.. yes, particularly cheerful. He alerted us to a bunch of uniforms and dresses and said take what you want. I let the other girls pick whatever and then took the dress that was left over. Pretty normal looking, not like the striped uniforms some of the others were wearing. We waited around, then some guy came and gave us armbands with stars on them, they were white, not yellow but whatevs.

We waited around more. I took lots of photos of myself, posing.

After some time we went out to where the one scene we were in was taking place. Everyone went down without any stuff, so I didn't take my bag, phone, camera.. it looked cool down there, and the actors had cool costumes, but that's the way it goes.

Come to think of it, it's looking like this is going to be long and drawn out, go ahead and quit reading if that's your tendency, it's not going to get any quicker from here.

The scene was set up, we got in a line, the actors got in their places and we stood around like that for ages. The dude came and put tape on the ground to mark our spots so we could rest a bit. Then we needed to adjust positions so he changed it, this happened a few times and took quite long. Most of the time we were standing there, in position. We amuses ourselves a bit waving to people on the trains going past. Some of them were perplexed, or at least interested enough to gawk.

After about an hour, or so it seemed, we rehearsed a few times. This was mostly for the actors, but we had to be in position. This took about 20 minutes, maybe 35.

Then we adjusted ourselves again, the director, dp and other film people discussed stuff.. and then we could shoot. Finally!

We shot one, it was ok. Shot it again, had to change things a little, went through 3 for times and they had the basic scene down. Went through it a few more times, some with a train going by, or police sirens drowning everything out, and others where there was a slight problem for some other reason. All this time, standing in position.

And again.
7824 comes with me
But the number is on the list?
Well the list is wrong

and cut..

Let's do it just once more.

So we did it once more. There was a problem with the dolly or whatever, it was bumpy. The next one was ok but a plane or train or something was causing noise. Then they realize that Daniel (line #1) who I know from Meisner class 2 years ago, not that it's relevant, was in the scene waiting to walk in at the beginning, so he had to go further back. Then a few times he came in too quick because he was too far back to get his cue. Finally he got it right, but there were problems with bumpiness or something. So a few times more. Then he got it right, at last! But of course it's good to do a few more.. all the time, we're standing there, in line, in position.

I had the wrong shoes on by the way, but I don't think it mattered.

So a few times more and then we were done. It was much later than I'd expected it to go, but we couldn't go back yet because they might want us for another scene, but at least we could relax and have some refreshments. Drinks and ham sandwiches, yay :)

We sat, ate and stretched our aching whatevers. They told us they weren't going to use us for another scene so thank you, we're done, but I still had to wait for the guy who could unlock the door to the meet place so I could get my stuff, so I hung around more. After a bit he led us back up there, let us in and we changed... he asked us to wait so he could get our names, so we did that. I was done and ready to go, so I walked down on my own, everyone else was hanging around chatting.. no hurry at all.. and the door was locked, so I had to go back up, wait for everyone else to be ready and the dude to unlock the door and be let out.

And then I was done.. and that's it. I mean, I did then have to go and pick up diet cat food from the vet, and it took me 4 trams to get there because of a combination of the places not being compatible tram lines, me not knowing either place so well, a few adjustments in the system recently and my lack of bearings when I'm on the other side of the river which I was, and then after that I had to walk part of the way back to the pub I met Erik in afterwards... but none of that is the point of the story so I won't go into that.

Busy busy busy!

So I was a ghost yesterday. I wore a 19th century black widow's type frock that didn't fit me, and I had a red wig, bonnet and parasol. And lots of deathly ghost makeup.. the skirt was big and flouncy and I kept knocking things over with it.. and stepping on it but I didn't have any huge accidents.

A lot of waiting around with the other ghosts, so many opportunities for photography, of myself and others, there were a lot of cool costumes there. My role consisted of walking back and forth across the room in front of a green screen and looking gloomy. Sounds easy but as I mentioned before, the skirt was longer than I'm used to and I had to talk at the right angle so my face could be seen so I did that rather clumsily.. I guess it looked ok though. I also had to stand in 4 different positions twirling the parasol, and the first time my wig got tangled up in it because I had to co-ordinate that while holding up the "shawl" a piece of black cloth that was pinned to me to cover up the fact that I couldn't do up the back, and keep the bonnet from falling off the wig so that wasn't so easy either. I did manage after the small mishap however.

And that was it.. it was a relief to get that garb off and back to my regular clothes. I then had another appointment with the director of the other film, in which I have a proper role, at his flat.. somewhere quite close if you walk directly there, but not so close if you walk around the block up and down every street a few times because you don't know where the street is and you forgot to bring the map you printed out. I got there about on time, just to wait around to see if the other actors would come... but I did some rehearsal, opening the door and acting tired, and I was done.

I got to relax in a nice pub for a bit then, which was nice after all that.. when I had a meeting with someone for business that should have been done days ago but for once in my life I'm busy so I have to run around meeting people at metro stations in the evening to get things done.

Another rehearsal for my main film again today, which should be shooting the end of next week.. and I'm an extra in another film about WWII.. so there'll be costumes and reports on that too.

Yes, I was right!

I don't know what I'm doing. I might have mentioned that. About this "acting" thing. The director, as I recently mused might also be putting on airs about knowing what he's doing, actually seems to have a pretty firm grasp on that very thing..

I had a meeting/rehearsal today, went through some scenes, was asked to play them with different things in mind and every time said the words with a slightly different emphasis not necessarily related what one would do in those imaginary situations. Then I walked around a bit miming stuff, which felt and probably looked ridiculous, but that's what you do, that's what the pros do except they do it properly.

I remember him saying something that perfectly encapsulated his demonstration of being really serious about this stuff as well as knowledgeable, combined with my response to it, which was to feel completely bogus*, but I don't remember what it was. Perhaps it will come to me later. Something to do with being far away and close.

Maybe it was looking in the mirror and seeing something intimate in myself. That's part of it.

Well it didn't go badly, I'll get better as the rehearsals go along, and when I'm on the actual set and I have other actors to react to. It usually does.

I have another rehearsal tomorrow, after acting in another film.. now I feel all lofty, funny it's been ages since I've done any acting at all, I'd almost forgotten I even do it, and now I've got all these things going on. Well two, and one of them is just something that anyone who wants to show up can do, but for me it's something.

* not in a colloquial c. 1990 way but in the sense of feeling like a fraud.. a pretender to the thespian title, a pseudo-actor etc