First day of filming!

It was the first day of filming today.

Erik's going tomorrow.. *crys*

I can't get into any of it right now... *burps*

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.

Where is my mind..

I had so much to say about the rehearsals I had on the weekend, the one for the film I'm actually acting in, but I forgot all the interesting stuff. Oh well it was just interesting to me anyway.. something like the difficulty of having to hit the spot while acting simultaneously curious, scared but not that scared, kind of aloof and some other things.. but that's acting for you, it's good that I'm finally getting a bit of practice at this whole so called "skill" :). And it's turning out a positive that we're rehearsing in the actual space.. it takes me that long to get the movements right, without even thinking of being in character.. ah to be a professional..

I saw duckies! Nothing to do with what I was just saying, but I went for a walk and saw baby duckies.. awwww.. you know it's spring now. I also saw a rather cute member of the parrot family, or whatever family birds that are sort of parrot-esque belong to, a colleague of my boyfriend's moved into the flat that used be my "office" after the previous occupant had to leave suddenly so we went to see it, it was interesting seeing a place that was so familiar to me done up so differently.. well anyway, she has a bird.

And speaking of colleague's and boyfriend's and work stuff that other people do, he's leaving for Singapore soon, for a month. It's cool I suppose, for him. I was kinda looking forward to May but whatev.. people have lives I suppose. Other people.

That's pretty much all.

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

.. and I am to have tumbling locks of cascading golden curls..

Seriously, I am.

In the movie I'm doing. The director is very particular about what he wants re the look of his characters. It's a bit different from the others I've been in which were with directors doing the one month summer course, it was all much more haphazard, this guy is doing the year course and by any comparison I'm in a position to give, he is downright professional. We're having rehearsals and discussing character, and no doubt he's having serious conversations with his technical staff (other students in his class) about stuff.

It's early days yet, something that didn't exist in any other film I did, seeing as it was mostly about a week from the casting to the one day of shooting, and we're still finding our characters and the feel of the script or however the real thespians call it, so I get to feel all lofty and stuff. It's satisfying :).

So he asked me if I'm ok with him changing the colour of my hair, and I said it depends what.. he laughed and assured me it wouldn't be purple or anything, which strangely enough I wouldn't mind so much, but he wants it "gold". That's not so far from whatever colour my hair is, so a bit of mild bleaching colouring should do it. I hope. And I'm hoping the curling, the other thing he wants will be a temporary thing. I don't know if they even still do "perms" these days but no one who does is getting there hands on my mop. There's such a thing as too far.

And I'm being a ghost in another film. I get to wear a really cool old fashioned black frock in that one, which pleases me tremendously.

I feel empty.

Inside. Just in case you were wondering. Something is just.. not there.

I have these things I'm supposed to do but I'm putting it to the back of my mind, just far enough back so I don't have to articulate exactly what it is that needs to be done, it helps with not having to think about it. A little, but there's still the anxiety that resides somewhere near where I've pushed the aforementioned things, that is just clear enough for me to know what it is. It's annoying but I just can't do anything about it right now, I mean, you'd think employing myself somehow would help alleviate the emptiness somewhat and take care of the whatever it is that needs to be done as well, 2 birds one stone like, but no.

If I figure out what it is that's bothering me I might be able to get on with it. I dunno, eventually the time will come when I can face it, but not right now. Tomorrow's a possibility.

Postponed..

Well, I finally heard back from the guy about the film, not the ghost film where I'm not really an actor but an extra, which should be this week, or the other thing that I might be doing which isn't a film, and I haven't spoken about it yet so you wouldn't be thinking about it anyway, but the film where I play a real role. Maybe I mentioned it. Possibly I didn't.. well anyway I'm going to be in a PCFE film and the director has been postponing starting rehearsals for one reason or another and finally got back to me yesterday. First he called while I was in a quite charming new bar/cafe we were hanging out in and I didn't hear the phone until too late.. and he didn't call back. But luckily he emailed. I had meeting for 8 this evening but it's been put off again until tomorrow.

Yes I am only writing to keep the blog updated.. Sad isn't it.

You should watch this, it's funny. Fucking funny.