Student Directing Exercise at the LA Film School

I was a film major at UC Santa Cruz, and I was gypped*. I acted in a student production at LA Film School and I was absolutely blown away by their facilities. The shoot for this project took place in a sound stage, a SOUND STAGE with sound-deadening material on the walls and a proper power grid for lighting and everything. As I walked into the building I saw their ADR mixing studio, a huge glass-walled room lousy with expensive-looking machines that went beep, blip, and blop. While in Santa Cruz, we worked with crappy MiniDV cameras using the dorms and friends’ cluttered apartments as locations; LAFS is a world of difference (assuming you want to do production, not theory & criticism).

The actual shoot went pretty well. I had one line in an interrogation scene “I don’t bargain with murderers” which I delivered to a man in a wheel chair** after being punched by a large directing student named Lex. The Fitzmaurice work was helpful; I went through the destructuring series as a warm-up before the shoot began. Of course the destructuring series can feel like torture, so it lessened the amount of acting I had to do for the scene.

When the AD invited us to enter the set, I came in guns-a-blazin’. I was emotionally connected, focused, and in-the-moment… for about an hour. And then the shoot began. It went well (my goal was not to push) but I had blown my emotional wad during the camera rehearsal, so I was a semi-dead.

I brought this up in my acting class tonight, and my instructor Richard Seyd said “Never do that. Focus on learning the blocking and the mechanics of the shot during the rehearsals, save the emotion for the actual shooting.” Well, I suppose you live and you learn.

TIP: After a shoot is over, individually thank *every* member of the crew. It’s the right thing to do, they have helped you quite a bit after all.

*Apologies to any Gypsies or descendants thereof for the use of “gypped”.

**Ask me in person for a story about a teenage boy who wants to swim the great lakes and is a fan of truck drivers.

Actors Are Crazy

Ask anyone who works in technical theater, it's cold hard fact that "actors are crazy." It's not just acting that they're discussing - let's be honest: dressing up in a costume, putting on makeup, and pretending that you're someone else is a little crazy. Then whilst pretending you're someone else you end up murdering someone else who's pretending to be another someone else in front of 1000 audience members who can't see this magical "4th wall" you keep talking about. Nope, that's not even the beginning of the certifiable behavior that most actors willingly engage in.

A lot of actors can pass as "normals" until you see them doing their warm-ups. I spent an entire weekend at a Fitzmaurice Voice Technique Workshop taught by Saul Katsubei. It was phenomenal and I've grown quite a bit as an artist (I've tripled the size of house I can easily play to) - but we did some wacky ass shit to get to the end result.

Some highlights:
Ass Tag - Wherein you attempt to bop others on their bottoms while keeping both your biscuits safe.
Destructuring - Wherein you place your body in such an awkward position that it begins to shudder involuntarily while you hyperventilate and moan loudly.
Breathing Buddy - Wherein 15 strangers lay on the ground in a giant puppy pile trying to feel each other breathe through at least two contact points.


There's a lot more that transpired, and a lot that was learned - but looking back on the weekend I question my ability to turn down the Kool-aid if it is ever offered to me.