Pet Project
Once again: sorry for the lack of updates. The past few weeks have seen a whirlwind of activity which has led to a shortage of time for blogging. But I hope to get back on track this week, so here's the first of a flurry of new posts:
At a get-together several months back, I met Nick Simon and Tony Fleecs, a couple of guys Michael and Mark had met when they performed Star Wars in 30 Minutes at the last Star Wars Celebration in Indianapolis. Both had recently moved out here, Nick having been accepted at AFI, and Tony with a recently published comic book. Both are Strictly Nerdcore, so we got along quite well. Anyhow, a few months later Nick helped me get into the SAG Conservatory program, and a couple months after that (two weeks back), I'm in his short, Pete and Mary's Pet Store and shooting for three days around AFI and Koreatown.What an awesome set - everyone was very cool and profession
al. The crew always set up a place for us actors to lounge in, and made sure we were always well fed and watered, and basically pampered us way above and beyond. We all got along great - actress Amelia Mulkey and I particularly liked hearing the make-up lady tell us ghost stories which were supposedly true, but which I swear I've heard before as urban legends. I half expected each story to end with "And then he woke up in a bathtub filled with ice and his kidney was missing." Amelia also had a tendency to accidentally(?) poke my nipples before each take with the acrylic nails she had done for her character. I also had mock lightsaber battles in the parking lot with a precocious young actor whom I shall call "Stephen" because I can't remember his name (that might be it, though). "Stephen" and I had extensive conversations about the Star Wars Lego videogames and Pokemon, which was just straight-up rad. Equally rad was introducing the Nintendo DS rhythm-action game, Elite Beat Agents to Amelia and Mike (my other co-star) which was just hilarious because that game is just crazy. Like, Japanese-crazy. Especially to non-videogamers. In other videogame sightings on set, Tony (who did storyboards and some art direction for the production) and I got a little Yoshi's Island (the GBA ver.) action on, too. Good times.
The script by Anna was great. Really tight and a bit twisted. On the surface, it seems to be a simple story about a young guy named Jim (me) who has some bizarre adventures in a pet store. But beyond that, it's really about Jim's (metaphoric) descent into hell, and corruption by dark forces which threaten to destroy his sense of self and notion of love. Nick, as the director, was really great at guiding me along that line between pure innocence and ultimate despair. I didn't really have much time with the script (I was brought on the evening shooting began), so it was great to be able to rely on him to let me know where I could go with the character at any given time.Wow, thinking back has made me totally miss hanging with all these people. Being on a set is always such a pressure box of emotion, time and human beings that it's no wonder you always hear of people getting involved with each other during movie shoots. I mean, this was only 3-4 days of shooting and I feel like we all went through high school together. Or maybe junior high. At least a semester in college. Point is, I hope we all continue to hang - at The Coronet, The Bigfoot Lodge, or at the fantasy barbecue Amelia conjures up when intoxicated. Mmmmm... fantasy bbq.
1 Comments:
Wow! Sounds like you had a lot of fun! Awesome stuff. Can't wait to see the film.
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