Behind Closed Doors Screening

Last night was the first screening of Behind Closed Doors, the film I worked on in the Spring.   All I had seen of the product were the trailers, and so I had no idea what I was going to see.  Its one thing to shoot a film, that’s a process in itself, but the finished product can be very different from what you imagined.  Additionally, I’m one of those actors that does not enjoy watching myself, and in the past I’ve been somewhat tortured by watching video or film of my performances.

So, lets just say that I was a bit uncertain about what I might see when I viewed the film and how I might react to watching myself.

I needn’t have worried.  The film was well edited, and looked great.  The first shot was what’s called a jib shot, and it looked so amazing that I sat forward in my seat.   When I finally made my entrance on screen, I didn’t wince or flinch (a good sign).  I can say that I was relatively pleased with my performance.

One funny thing about watching a film that you were acting in (I suppose its the same if you directed it or had any other role) is remembering what it was like to shoot it, compared with how it looks on screen.  Or more specifically, how quickly it goes by in the film.  For example, I can remember the first night of shooting, in a very cold alley in London, Ontario, from sundown till 3am…and how that scene lasted less than 2 minutes in the film.  Many scenes were like that: it took far longer to film than they took to watch.  I suppose that’s the nature of film.

I do think I have a bit farther to go with my pursuit of the film acting technique.  I think I’m getting better, but I’m not quite there yet.  This is the kind of thing you can learn only by doing, so…I’ll keep doing it.  I think I need to work on my specificity.  At least, that’s what I identify as an issue when watching myself.

I think that’s enough self-criticism today.

But on the whole, I have to reiterate that I am happy with the film.  It looks great, and the cast, crew, director and producers were great.   At the screening I was given a little swag back, containing a couple of small posters for the film, a production still (I gotta get that framed and on my wall), and a DVD of the film.  Afterwards, a small party at a nearby bar, and some great compliments from people involved in the film, as well as from some perfect strangers.

Overall, a good night.

Behind Closed Doors Trailer

I just learned about that trailer for Behind Closed Doors, a film I shot in the spring of this year, over three weekends.

Take a gander:

DragonQuest: First Look

I’m happy to be able to share with you a first look at Dragonquest, the film I shot back in October.  With the permission of the director, I’m able to share the Opening sequence of the film with you here.
Enjoy!

ADR: Late Night

Well, my part is done. I managed to get through all my lines.

This is really tedious work. There’s a lot of concentration involved in trying to hit exactly your rhythm from the shoot day. And if I gave the impression that it was merely a matter of repeating the performance from the day of shooting, that’s not an accurate representation. Some times, we need to just recreate it, but in other cases we have the opportunity to punch up the performance, and make it better than before, which we were able to do in a few places.

Its interesting to me that this whole ADR thing is an important skill. And yet, its not something that’s ever taught in theatre school. I’ve never actually heard of a course that included ADR. So, most actors only ever learn the skill when they actually have to do it. Its definitely a skill that probably should be taught, because learning on the go is really difficult, We were really lucky. The engineer we had was really good with actors, and good at giving us some coaching. Eventually i got it, and managed to get through my lines, and once Melisssa Morris finishes hers, we’ll all be able to head home. Melissa is probably catching on to this whole ADR thing faster than the rest of us (certainly faster than I did), and I think we’ll get out of here soon, because she’s knocking it out of the park.

Looks like the Ontario Legislature is meeting tomorrow for a special session tomorrow, and that they will order the TTC back to work. This strike may have pooched the weekend, but at the very least they’ll be back to work in time for us to go to work on Monday, so that’s good.

So, here’s to going home to bed soon-ish.

ADR: Evening

We’re still here. We’re going to be here a while (just like I thought), however, my energy is stil high, so that’s good. I’m not tired yet.

One good thing is that I’ve been able to reunite with each of the cast members, which is good, considering that we haven’t seen each other for a very long time. That was great. We’ve been able to reconnect, and so far no one’s flagging.

I still haven’t gone in for my second half, but that’s alright. We’ve got to get this done today. We’re having dinner soon, and after Adam Bradley is done his part, I’ll get back in the booth to do the rest of my lines, and then…I’ll be done.

At some point I’ll get a ride back home, and then I’ll sleep.

But not for a while.

ADR: Mid-afternoon

This shit is hard. You don’t think about it. I’ve heard about ADR, even seen how it looks in movies, but its never occurred to me how difficult it would be in real life. Partially, this is because we filmed Dragon Quest over 6 months ago, and that was a long time ago, to remember all the intracacies of what was going on in the scene. So, with ADR, we’re presented with a line from the film, and the audio as we shot it, from the final cut. And now, we have to match our timing, and try to recreate what we were doing acting-wise.

But I’ve found that its not enough to just duplicate what we were doing. Its a matter of acting the scene again. But without having the people we were acting with there. Basically, we’re acting with our memory of the scene. But more, we’re trying to add new nuances and punch up the scenes we did.

I’ve been at it since 9:45AM, and its now almost 3. We’re going to be here a while. I’m taking a break (because this work is headache inducing), and another actor had to go because they have a show tonight. The rest of us will be here pretty late I think.

The TTC did us no favours today. I woke up this morning to find out that not only did the union vote AGAINST the contract that was negotiated, but instead of giving 48 hours notice, they walked off the job at midnight last night, so I ended up having to make an emergency call to the Film Friday fellas to see if they could pick me up on the way to the studio, which they fortunately could do.

I’ll write more later.

So close…

…its like waiting outside the theatre 5 days before the movie opens.

Yesterday, I went to shoot a couple of pickups for the opening sequence of Dragon Quest V.  I was prepared to be at it for an hour or two, but I was done in a few minutes. 

While I was there, I was able to watch a little bit of the finished edit.  The film looks so awesome.  In two weeks, I’ll be in a studio doing ADR on the film, and then, hopefully I’ll be able to tell you about where and when you can see it, sometime in May.

My focus is…krocused

Some Script Frenzy participant I am!  I’ve fallen way behind on my word count, and we’re heading towards the half-way point.  I just haven’t been able to focus.  I think that might be because of the way the film shoot of the last 3 weeks prevented me from having any real downtime.  Now that its over, my brain (which hasn’t had a rest in a while) just can’t seem to focus.  I’m hoping that after I’ve had a break I will be able to focus on the play at hand.

I suppose it would be easier if I wasn’t constantly getting other ideas for things to write.  But they keep popping into my head. Normally, that wouldn’t be so bad, but the problem right now, is that these new ideas are crowding out the existing one.  And I suppose that can really only be fixed with focus, which (as mentioned just a moment ago) I lack at the moment.

In other news, Dragon Quest.  Later this month, we’ll be doing ADR for the film. This weekend, I’ll get shooting the opening sequence.  I think that no one will notice I’ve gained a bit of weight, since…well, for the rest of the film I’m wearing a dragon costume.

Looks like the finished product will be ready in May.  And the truth is, I can’t wait.  I’ve wanted to show off this film since October.  When I know dates and such, you’d better believe you’ll hear about them here.

Last days of the Dragon

Over the last couple of days, I’ve been been back in the dragon costume with the folks at Film Friday, to grab some pickups for Dragonquest V.

One of the things we were unable to get during the actual film shoot were shots of my character on his way to the theatre in his costume.  And so, on Saturday, we were out at the crack of dawn, to get those shots.

Its a pretty cool experience running around town in a van, with a steady cam, and a small crew, setting up to grab a shot and then getting back in the car to drive to a different location. From what I’m told we got a bunch of great shots. 

As the end of the day approached, things got a bit rushed.  After all, we only had natural light available to us, and after 5 it would be too dark to shoot.  And so, although wearing the head got more and more excruciating as time wore on, there just wasn’t time to take it off, set up and put it on again.  I ended up in the head for about 45 minutes, while we shot some walking up stairs, and walking down some stairs, and across a bridge.  In general, all really great stuff.  But I wasn’t enjoying it.  I couldn’t.  I was in too much pain.  I’ll be honest: at one point, in the midst of waiting for a shot, as I tried to take some of the weight off my neck by supporting the head with my hands, it occurred to me that I should just tear the head off and walk away.  Naturally, I didn’t do that - not only would it have soured my relationship with the guys, and prevented them from getting the shots they needed, but more…it would have been an incredibly unprofessional thing to do.  Besides, its not something I seriously considered. It just flashed into my brain as a result of the hurting.

But when it was all over, and I got to see a couple of seconds of the footage (and saw how awesome it looked), once again, that made all of it worthwhile.

Today, we were out for about an hour and a half getting some other shots that we needed.  And that was the last time I will wear the costume again. And strangely, I’ll miss it.  There’s this strange love/hate relationship I have with the costume: it looks so incredible, and works perfectly for this character and this movie.  And I loved the film. Loved working with the people, and loved doing it.  And yet the head of the dragon hurt too much to make it something that I would ever want to wear again.

And now that we’ve actually finished shooting all the footage we’re going to film, I’m sad again. Almost as sad as after the initial 3 day shoot.

I suppose the good news, is that soon enough, we’ll be doing ADR on the film, and then…we’ll be watching the premier of the film.  And the thought of that excites me.

Dragonquest: Images

I thought I’d take a moment and share with you a few more detailed moments from the Dragonquest shoot.  This is going to be long, and with lots of pictures, so I’m going to put the bulk of it behind a cut.

Here’s a detailed view of the dragon head itself.  Let’s not beat around the bush here: the head was the bane of my existence for this shoot.  It was pretty light to hold, but put it on top of your head for a little while, and it gets to be a bit much.  After wearing it the first time for about 10 minutes, I realized what this shoot was going to do to me: hurt.  Fortunately we were able to avoid having the head on until it was absolutely necessary.  It does look really great though, doesn’t it?

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