My film shoot last Sunday was a blast.
The film itself will be an animated (VFX) sci-fi romance. It takes place in a futuristic world where women build battle bots to fight space wars. One girl starts to lust after a certain robot and a chase ensues.
What I did on Sunday was a test shoot. This means I spent the day hanging out with a green screen doing most of the fast paced action shots so that the directors and producers could get down the right camera angles, speeds, frames, and marks for the real movie. This way, when they go into production they won't have to take up time figuring all of this out, and can instead get right down to filming.
We filmed my first scene in an underground parking garage at the Microsoft building. We figured out the best way for a 'robot' to chase me, I was giving some marks along 35 yards of the parking garage and then told I had to run it in under 15 seconds. I ran it in 7. I was surprised I could still run that fast since running isn't a huge part of my exercise regimen. We ended up doing this take for a little over an hour. It was a lot of sprinting, but that was great because it was so cold down there and I was the only person on set who could stay warm!
The second shot was a chase scene. They loaded a camera into the back of a truck, and rigged it up. This time I was sprinting a good 60 yards, and was told to race the truck as fast as I could. The first take I ended up beating the truck, and the director fell out of the back. Needless to say, this was a difficult shot to do, because the driver had to try and keep their pace even with me, but I had to try to go faster than the truck.. There were some shots we blew because I started too much in frame, or couldn't make it into frame where they wanted. I ended up sprinting this take about 10 times. By that time, I was finally getting tired.
We wrapped the running scenes, and I got to take a break by driving to the next location. We ended up in our producer's basement with another huge greenscreen. The coolest thing about the day was that every time I tried to help carry something or move something, I would get told, "Stop that! You're the talent. Talent gets to sit and prepare for the scene." I suppose that would have made more sense to me if I had had anything to prepare--like lines. None the less, it was fun to sit and watch the magic happen, and I was lucky to not have to wait for long periods of time. Plus, I got free food all day--yum.
The next scene I finally got to pantomime actions. They put colored dots all over the greenscreen to help them create the robot later, and to give me markers to look at. I did some over the shoulder (OTS) shots, and some wider frame shots. I spent this portion of the day up on a ladder, which will later be turned into some metal rigging of some sort. The robot is supposed to be 11 feet tall. I played with some tech devices in the scene, and then we spent a good portion of the afternoon with me jumping off a ladder onto a mark. I got to try a bunch of different ways to land, and learned a lot about walking out of frame all the way. My last shot was just me walking towards the green screen to effectively go off into the distance.
It was a lot of fun to spend the day using my imagination. I was able to give the greenscreen many different properties and forms in my mind, and got in a wonderful workout for the day.
The best parts? I got paid, and I got an offer to audition for the role! All in all, it was definitely a success. The crew were very nice people who were all really passionate about their work. I'm so lucky to have had the good experiences I've been given here.
Two nights ago, I got an impromptu call from a director I had applied to audition for. Apparently, I fit the bill and they were desperate. I went to rehearsal that night, signed a contract, received a script, threw in a crazy accent, and now will be performing in a murder mystery for Valentine's Day! It's my first paid theatre gig, and it's working with some very talented and experienced people. I'm excited to the max. I'll get to interact with audiences and improv situations. I love that I'm being given the opportunity to do so many different forms of theatre. Dinner/Mystery theatre is one I was never particularly interested in, but now that I've been given the chance, I'm so stoked to be able to try so many different things!
It's a full length script, and a quick turn around. Luckily for me I'm experienced in this art, and know that I'll be able to do it just fine.
Today, I'll be picking up my headshots! I can't wait to see them.
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