On The Set - Day 1

I'm typing from the set of the major movie I'm on right now (I'll divulge details about the movie after they've wrapped up shooting). Yesterday was the first day of actually shooting me in scene! I've "worked" two other days getting fitted and photos taken for employee of the month. But yesterday was the time I actually got to do something - after sitting around for approximately 10 hours through out the day!

I got to push various shopping carts outside in the background of a geven scene. I felt good about my 10-12 takes. In some take,s the carts wouldn't roll correctly and I stood outside fighting them to get them to go which I'm sure will translate to comedic gold. On other takes, I didn't reset my carts in time so I had to improvise my reason for being out there. The whole time, it was raining on me! Good times!

The theme of our banter between takes (or while waiting to actually do something) was Snakes on a Plane. I won't go into the ridiculousness of SOAP but it sure made for a lot of comedy. We rewrote lyrics to reference SOAP (Baby Got Snakes, 867-5309 (SNAKES!), I Will Always Love - SNAKES!), we used SOAP to justify our actions, .e.g, "Why did you take that prop away from me?" Answer:"Snakes on a plane, bro". So, after hours of talking about it and making jokes, we convinced ourselves to go see the film! Excellent! 1 year's worth of studio marketing paid off!

We also played improv games while waiting like "1001". If you don't know how this game is played, it's very simple. Pick any ordinary object like a stapler. Then use that object to create a punchline following the format of:

"A thousand and one (objects) walk into a bar
The bartender says, 'Hey! We don't server your kind here!'
The thousand and one (objects) reply, 'Hey, why not?!'
And the bartender replies, (punchline)"

For example:
"A thousand and one staplers walk into a bar
The bartender says, 'Hey! We don't server your kind here!'
The thousand and one staplers reply, 'Hey, why not?!'
And the bartender replies, 'If you ever ask me that question again, I'ma punch two holes in ya!'"

Yes, good, geeky actor fun going on here!

It's Day 2 and we're hoping we're getting more camera time. We have almost the entire staff here for our fictional company showing up so chances are good. I've only been here 2.5 hours and I've got some new comedic ramblings to share! Stay tuned.

Currently listening : Snakes on a Plane: The Album By Original Soundtrack Release date: By 15 August, 2006

Note: this was originally posted on Myspace with comments at:

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&FriendID=16074757&blogMonth=8&blogDay=18&blogYear=2006