Group Dynamics and Popping the Acting Cherry

Hey Kim! Glad you're reading this! Send me a text to let me know you ARE reading this ;)

So last week I crewed on a 480 project. Thats the final project that production majors do their senior year. The first semester you take the class, you have to crew someone else's 480. Then, if you're selected by the staff of the cinema school you get to direct your own project the next semester. My project is called "No Time for Holiday." Its about a girl named Riley who is adopted by this family and then ends up corrupting their daughter, Jaden. This weekend we shot a scene with two different actresses for the main character. The scene was closer to the end of the film when Riley is taking Jaden home from a party where she has become massively drunk.

It was me and some friends of mine in production who were PA's for the shoot. I ran backlighting for the car and I also shook the car to make it look like it was moving. It was so fun. Everyone had their jobs and were contributing in their own way to the shoot. Everyone was trying to make everyone else's job easier and putting in their two cents. I love that kind of group dynamic. Everyone is interested in getting one very complicated thing done. Its one of my favorite parts of production. Its why I'm sure I'm never going to ONLY write. Because then you're never on set, which is where I feel I need to be. Then again, editors aren't usually on set either. We'll see what happens.

Anyway, its an interesting relationship we have with these people because we are so excited to help them and feel like its an opportunity that we're being given. And the real crew appreciates the volunteer work we are giving to them. Its a total win win but in such a way that its confusing as to who has the power in the relationship. They're trying to make us feel welcome because they really do need our help and we're trying to make them feel like we really want to be there because we really do.

So after the shoot is over all the production majors I know come together for a meeting for the 48 hour film festival taking place this weekend. They announce the rules and what is going to be required and then let us go to make groups. Here is where things get interesting.

The groups are capped at five people per group and we have about 17 people committed to participating. At first we try to make everything civilized and do things randomly (which no one wants to do) and then we try to create groups that have assigned directors and writers (which also doesn't work because no one knows what they want to do yet or what they're good at). The problem is that in this group there is a sub-group that all went to Disneyland together and are really close with each other. They all want to be in a group together but everyone wants to be in their groups as well. No one knows each other well enough to say what they're really thinking and no one is willing to take the first step and say they do or don't want to be in anyone else's group. We tried doing it in the most juvenile way possible which is to have everyone slowly coalesce into whatever groups they want. This worked except that some people were so against this that they refused to even stand up and join a group. This ruined the process completely and we were back to square one.

What transpired was some of the strangest and most interesting group dynamics I've ever seen. Everyone had preferences but no one was willing to be honest and vulnerable and say who they wanted to be with or not be with. No one was sure whether the person they wanted to be with wanted to be with them. In the end (after literally two and half hours of discussing) we just sort of moved people around until two groups had what they wanted and everyone who wasn't there to say what they wanted were placed in a separate group. I'm happy with my group but I'm not sure how happy anyone else is because no one will say anything.

After that grueling process was over a friend and I went back to PA more on the set. When we got there they were shooting the same scene in the car from before but using the new actress for Riley's character. They weren't going to use anything they shot that day in the final movie but they needed to test the two actresses for Riley in the same scene.

As civilians, we never see the process of casting. We always see a movie when the actors have been chosen and the character has been rewritten for them. As a result we can never think of the movie as what it would have been with a different cast. For example the first choice for Indiana Jones' character was Tom Sellack. Try to imagine THAT Indiana Jones movie. You can't because it would have been a completely different movie. Keanu Reeves' character in the Matrix was originally cast as Will Smith. The Will Smith Neo would have been a completely different character, completely different movie.

That is the strange feeling I got when I saw the new Riley. It just didn't seem right that she was playing the character because she looked so different. I had connected the first girl with the character and couldn't get that norm out of my head. At the end of the day they asked us our opinions on the two actresses because they were still undecided. The first girl was a better actress and easier to work with but the second girl looked the part much more. This is an interesting decision. You would think you should choose the better actress every time but they only have 15 minutes to communicate what they want about this character. It becomes more work for the editor and director to establish the character if she doesn't look the part. They may not have enough material to create the character that would be there from the beginning with an actress who looks the part. I'll let you know what they decide.

When Matt and I got there they had just realized that they didn't have a stand-in for the character of Frank, the drunk guy in the back of the car hitting on Jaden. All of the crew had their own jobs and so the choices came down to me or Matt. Matt is an interesting guy. He has horrible hearing, he can't really see in the dark because of an eye disease, and he's not the kind of guy who would be able to act (especially if his character is drunk and hitting on some girl). This is not to say that I AM the kind of guy who'd be able to do those things, but I would be willing to if absolutely necessary. Matt would not. He looked at me and I knew who was going to be playing the part.

The character had no written lines in this scene, it was all improvisation. My motivation was that I was piss drunk, and that I was REALLY into Jaden.

This was not a hard character to play.

The actress who played Jaden was 15 so that was a little awkward. But besides that it was really fun. The best part was Jaden's character was very drunk at this point too, and totally into me. This was a new feeling for me. Everything I said was funny to her and she responded exactly how I would want a girl to respond to me in real life. It was strange because I had just met this girl. She was way too young for me. And yet here I am with my arm around her trying to kiss her. I have no idea how the professional actors do sex scenes. Or make-out scenes. Or any-sort-of-intimate-interaction scenes. Acting like we were really attracted to each other was awkward enough.

Its weird because it didn't actually happen, but it did. Its not real, and everyone knows that...but it still actually happens. I still had my arm around some girl I had met ten minutes earlier. I totally understand why actors who work on movies together get so close. They have to skip passed all that introduction and getting-to0-know-you stuff and go straight to kissing and having sex. Its all very strange and interesting.

I have no idea how I did, I couldn't watch myself on the TV because it was way too awkward and embarrassing. But I was told that they would hire me as the character if they could (no crew members can act in the film). So thats something right? We'll see how much acting I do here, maybe I'll take a class or something. Just to get to know the craft. Seems like a good idea to me. I love being a part of all this stuff. This weekend will be my own piece for the 48-hour film fest. I'll probably post the final on here when I get a chance. Then its back to their set for next weekend. I'm glad I'm getting so much on-set experience here. Its so important and fun. Lovin' it. Talk to you soon.