And....action!

I was in a movie today. You might be confused; I was—most of the day. My acting career was launched by one line as an extra in a movie that is being shot here in town. Yep. It’s true. The director needed some people for a classroom shoot. I emailed the director. The director emailed back. Ah, the wonders of craigslist.

I have no acting experience whatsoever. The most, I guess you could say, was a drama class my freshman year of high school. I have always wanted to give it a try, which may stun most of you because acting, I think, goes against the grain of my entire being. I don’t consider myself to be loud, boisterous, or one that loves cracking jokes and breaking into monologues for the entertainment of anyone within earshot. I keep to myself mostly. I am shy in large groups. I don’t speak loudly. In fact, I mumble a lot and you would not want me addressing a graduating class. Ever.

Try I did today though, to act that is. I had one line. “Why do you want to know that?” I am sure I looked the fool, but I didn’t really care. I think this movie has bigger things to worry about than my line screwing up its popularity, success, impact, or whatever you want to call it. Honestly, I loved being there. It was fascinating to see the work that goes into filming a movie. I admit it, at times it was extremely boring. There are swaths of nothingness that the actors, and especially the extras, are subjected to, but I amused myself with constant observation and a running commentary in my head.

The commentary went something like this.

God it’s early. It’s 8 am. I’ve been here an hour and haven’t done anything.

When the actors look at me do they know I am sort of scared about this? Do they know I don’t know crap about acting?

Are we really filming in this classroom? This place is a dump.

Who are these people? Who makes movies in Milwaukee?

Why did that guy just laugh…? That wasn’t funny. Wow, do all actors have a bad sense of humor?

Stop talking to me, really. I don’t know you and you aren’t very good at telling stories. Shouldn’t you be better at that because you are sort of trying to do that for a living?

What? You have a career doing shoots for Kohl’s? Crazy. I didn’t think that was possible.

That’s a nice camera. Can I ask how much that costs? No. That would be rude.

Free soda, chips, coffee, and pizza. That’s nice since I’m not getting a dollar for this and spending nine bucks on parking.

Oh my gosh. The director just gave me a line. Do I have to speak? I bet he can see my pulse from across the room. I can feel it bloating my neck out with every beat. Please calm down before you have to talk.

It went on like that most of the day. I ended up being quite impressed by the abilities of the actors around me that were in lead roles. Having been there today I know I couldn’t have delivered those lines like they did. They sounded good, but they may look horrible onscreen. I don’t really know. The crew impressed me too. The cameraman had this idea about how every line should sound and whenever he spoke up about it he was always right. The way he said it just struck a “duh” through me. The director even has a role. He had a few lines today and made each take sound different but good.

I don’t know if my experience today was what I expected it to be. It seemed to fit in perfectly at times with my imagination, but at other times, not so much. I think it kept me interested enough to try something like this again. Maybe it is too early to say such things. Well, I just did.