Day 4, day 4.....what the hell happened on day 4? Oh, yeah. Day 4 was the day the wonderful Kirsten Gronfield came to Santa Barbara to shoot the scenes we had together. Kirsten plays my wife Jennifer in the film. I was excited and nervous about this day. I had only met Kirsten once before, and had never acted with her. It was the first day that I really got to do some acting. Working with the kids was great, but I was looking forward to working opposite another actor. This was also the first time I would work with Kate as director and actor, and really dig into a scene. And for that matter, working with our DP Sheba Legend. So you get the idea. First, big day on many levels. Anyway, Kirsten is a very funny, talented actor. Take a look.
I thought our scenes went well together. We practiced our lines while the crew set up the shots, we talked a little between shots to get to know each other better, and we shot the scene a few times. You'll have to ask her, but I thought it went well. I think the thing about actors is that you really don't have personal walls up with other actors when your working on a project together. You sort of automatically become best friends. There's a trust thing that happens almost instantly because it has to in order to make the relationship your seeing in the finished product feel real. It's actually one of the best things about acting. Being real with people right from the get go is a pretty amazing thing. It makes life easier and interesting. That and red wine. The scene we shot, I think, is the most important scene in the film. The night before, my daughter helped me memorize my lines. I had to take my producer hat off and work on the script. I wasn't about to show up the next day, and not have my lines memorized. Kate would have kicked my ass, Sheba would start to wonder why she flew across the country to work on this project and Kirsten would have thought I was a hack!
a lot of pressure.
So Logan had to help me. Memorizing lines isn't hard. When I do a play I work on them for months. They have time to germinate in my mind. As I keep working on film, I'll have to not take for granted that I'm only working with a few lines for that particular scene. While working with Logan, I kept forgetting one of the sentences in a chunk of dialogue I had to say. "What am I supposed to be doing?" is the line. That's the question the whole story is asking! I wrote it down and pinned it to my wall. Once I had that to anchor the rest of the words around, I had it pretty well ingrained in my mind. Thanks Logan!!!
Working with Kate has been a great experience. Working on film is much different than working on stage. I normally use my hands a lot when I talk. I feel like I'm just normally very animated when I'm trying to make a point or telling a story. It's my opinion, that is a useful visual for the stage when you need the audience to see what you're feeling cause they really can't see your face. On film, the opposite is true. I can't tell you how many times I've heard Kate tell me, "You're over gesturing". On film, you never want to be caught "acting". That's the kiss of death. Being aware you're doing it and practice is really the only remedy. Kate doesn't let me get away with any of that nonsense, so I can tweak it when I have to as we go along. Don't ever feel you've learned everything about your chosen art. I would like to think that is impossible. That sounds unchallenging and boring. That sounds like hell. Art has no end! Boom that just happened. I'm trademarking "Art Has No End". I just blew my own mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment