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.

U.S.C. Short Film "Indirect"

Indirect dir. by Hilde Susan Jaegtnes
On Wednesday of last week, I was set to fly out of Burbank airport to Oakland airport at 4:00 PM. This meant that I had to leave my apartment in Hollywood by no later than 2:30 to get to the airport in time. At 11:00pm I received a call from a playright acquaintence of mine named Hilde wherein she explained "I have a USC film school project due tomorrow, my ballerinas fell through, and I would really like you to act in my film."

I explained my time constraints and told her that after I finished packing for my trip I'd hop into costume and drive to her apartment in South Hollywood. I arrived at her apartment at 12:10pm. She had set up the camera and set, and quickly went over the premise with me. By 1:45 we'd filmed the project, I'd watched the raw footage, was $20 richer and was driving back to my apartment to leave for my flight in time.

The short film was a lot of fun to shoot, and is essentially a 3-minute silent clowning routine like those first filmed back before editing was the thing to do. I probably won't be able to use it for my reel, but I now have my foot in the door with a USC film student and her peers. Let's not forget that my buddy Diablo Cody's current co-conspirator Steven Spielberg started as a USC Film Student.

Networking
I met Hilde up in SF while doing staged readings for a writers group called "Playwrights' Cafe", Hilde was a member of the group and had enjoyed my work. We'd kept in contact via email and she knew that I had moved down to LA to act, and I knew she had moved down to go to USC. Thus when her performers fell through - she thought to contact me.

Superman Was A No-Show

Breaking News
Superman is a No-Show!

I woke up all too early this morning to make it to the set of "The Resume". I got there a couple minutes before my 8am call (I stopped for breakfast at McDonalds) and greeted the rest of the cast. Notably absent was the gentleman playing Clark Kent - the lead. Apparently he got his AMs and PMs mixed up.

We ended up shooting all of the shots that didn't show Clark's face - including a number of over-the-shoulder shots with one of the grips standing in as his shoulder. It felt like a wacky way of working, but I suppose one must make do.

It looks like I'll be returning to shoot masters and over-the-shoulders for my scenes with Clark Kent. To aide in that, I took a photo of myself in costume so that I could maintain continuity. Casting me as Jimmy Olsen? Pure genius, I mean: look at me.

Mud People Music Video

So I drove up to the SF bay to do some contract work for my old school, and while I was there I helped my buddy Gabriel shoot a music video for his new solo album. I have a background in film making and thought I could assist in some meaningful way.

I ended up being in charge of making mud. Having spent the better part of my childhood making cat-turd pies in a sandbox this was a specialty of mine. I lost my pair of brown euro shoes to the bay - it's a shame because they cost a grip and were some of my favorites.

In addition to making mud, I shot production stills and promotional photos for the album.



Towards the end of the shoot, I also got covered in mud from head to toe so that Gabriel could have more mud-people for the final shots. It was quite disgusting - and expensive. I had forgotten to bring a change of clothes, so my friend Emily ran to Target and bought a whole new outfit for me so that I could make it to my friend Tom Orr's "iTom Shuffle" cabaret show @ 8. But it gave me some taste of what it might be like to work on a Zombie film - maintaining continuity from the master shot would be quite difficult.

Financial Update:
+$300 Contracting Work.
-$70 Replacement outfit at Target.