Trailer Park #6

This past weekend was my last full weekend on the film…I have 2 days left of shooting, March 21, and then mid April. And then this boy is done.

 

Saturday night’s shoot was late, extremely late. My call was 6pm, and when shooting wrapped for the day I made it to my dad’s house at 5am (he lives about 75 seconds from Lake Snowden, so I was crashing at his place this weekend). Of course, DST kicked in during the shoot, so it was really only 4am, so that was OK. I have always heard of pre-dawn calls for film shoots,  but very rarely pre-dawn wraps. But this may be due to all the prep work the crew puts into the location since they only shoot on weekends. I suspect that’s 90% of the reason. I think the other 10% is that college-aged people do nothing at 6am, except crawl home from parties. Actually, this is fine by me, as I am not a morning guy myself.

 

Saturday night was full of scenes of dialogue, which was fairly new for me on this shoot. There are lots of scenes where I stare out windows, or glare at people, but not much of me talking. So it was nice to do some scene-work. Nate Bigger, who plays Leon, was the only other actor called, and we filmed 4 scenes together—one in my trailer, 3 in his. It felt a little odd being the only actors there, as before I have been called with most of the cast…

 

The weather has been terrible on all the other shoots, but Saturday was a radical difference. Mid 70s temps made it a pleasure to be on set. Plus, I was actually able to see what the crew looked like, since now no one was wearing hoodies and socks caps and mufflers and huge coats. I’m not sure they didn’t look better with all that stuff on, though…

 

Actor douchebag alert: the night had drug on so long that I ran out of cigs, and during a break was gonna zip off to a carryout and pick some up, but they didn’t want me leaving the location—no doubt concerned that I would head into Athens, morph into Frank the Tank, and lead a bunch of students streaking through the quad. Which I had thought about doing—but with Plan A being kiboshed,  plan B was put into effect (note: never say Plan B on an indie set—too many bad associations with Ed Wood). Plan B was sending an innocent young student into town to pick up my fags for me. Which I did.  I told him I’d buy a few packs for him, if he was interested in picking up the habit. ( Fun Fact: I get a commission from the tobacco people for every young person I can hook on the demon weed). I also asked him if he could score me some heroin, and some hookers, for later in the evening.

 

One of the scenes involved me coming in out of the rain into Leon’s trailer, so there was a guy sitting on a ladder beside the door, with a garden hose, creating a rain effect on the windows and doors. I was wearing a rain coat with a hood, and Lauren, of the art direction squadron, kept me spritzed. I tried to keep her from wetting my hair too much. I am using this sort of powdery stuff that clings to your hair and thickens it, making the need for toupees less urgent. I have had it in my makeup kit for a few years, since a show at CATCO in which I had to play a guy with a lot more hair than I have (I hate toupees). It helps fill in the gaps, and makes it thicker. Usually I don’t bother with it if I don’t have to—haven’t needed it for the last 3 or 4 shows, but in this film, I am playing a retired military man, and I am basing my look on a guy I worked with back in the 90s, who was a 30 year man in the military. His hair was cut high and tight above the ears, with a bald spot, and enough hair spray to withstand a hurricane. I have developed something more than a bald spot these last few years—more like a zone, or maybe a hectare. But I wanted that severe looking style. So I sprinkled this stuff on, combed it through, and sprayed it down till it was helmut-like. And left a decent bald spot. Problem is, I don’t think it can withstand too much wetting. I didn’t want brown streaks running down my face from the rain. It would look like Victor Mature in After the Fox. Lauren kept coming up and tying to adjust my hair, but I kept swatting her away—there was nothing to adjust—the whole structure would come down with too much fussing. I told her I had a lot of this goop there, and that combing it would do no good. Plus, I have always preferred doing my own hair and makeup for plays, and am uncomfortable having someone else do it for me. I know my face and hair better than anyone else, and know what needs to be done to it. And, frankly, I am pretty good at it after all these years, though maybe not enough for film close-ups. I don’t even let barbers comb my hair. They cut it, and I stop em there. I will handle it from there. Vanity, I am sure, but also time saving, because I am just gonna change it as soon as I get home anyway.

 

Sunday’s shoot was just me. Five scenes of me eating and looking at the window with binoculars through various moments of the film. I was called at 3:30pm, and after the late night was hoping to sleep in a little, but woke up at dad’s house around 10:30. About noon, my step-mother had made a massive breakfast of omelets, sausage, toast, and hash browns, and I ate like a starved man. Spent a pleasant few hours chatting with the aged Ps on their screened-in back patio, and then headed to the set. And discovered my first scene was to wolf down a plate of bacon and eggs. Several plates.

 

Later, we broke for dinner, and it was pizza—very thick crusted pizza. I had to be wheeled out of there on a handtruck. What’s that you say? Why didn’t I just not eat the pizza? O silly reader! Don’t you know me by now?

 

Our brief good luck with the weather ended, as a big rain storm moved through, with lightening and thunder and wind. We had one scene to go, and I asked Patrick, one of the directors, if we’d have to shut down, as there were lots of tall metal poles standing around, with expensive lights on them, and freshmen and sophomores holding them steady. He said no, if lightening struck, it would probably hit a nearby tree before it would hit a pole with a freshman attached to it. Probably. And anyway, there were lots of freshmen to spare.

 

In my last post, I noticed that one of the crews had some contention between the DP and his director. Well, that was solved. The DP was fired. As was explained to me, it is a professional production, and sometimes people get fired. Happens everyday. Creative differences. The result was, however, a completely smooth and drama free experience—except where drama was called for, in FRONT of the cameras.

 

My last shot of the day was an extreme close-up of my face as I eat nuts and make a phone call. We did several takes, serious and goofy, and one in which I crammed a fistful of cashews in my mouth, made an unintelligible phone call, then tossed a nut into the air, out of the frame, and then caught it in my mouth. When Jonny yelled cut, the crew erupted in laughter. And I was still picking nuts out of my teeth an hour later.

 

So anyway, I have only 2 days left on this shoot. I’ll be sad to see it end—its been a lot of fun, and I’ve learned a lot as well, always nice when you’re beginning your second half-century.