Don submitted for a gig and got invited to submit a video audition. Luckily on this one, we had a whole week to produce this. But due to other commitments on other days of the week, we needed to get our part of the submission produced in about a day and a half.
Our friend Mark Klein has a really nice place. It occurred to me to ask if he might allow us permission to film at his place. There would be minimal setup on our part, and we’d have room to move around and work. Mark, bless him, said yes.
Mark has worked on moviemaking in the past, so that’s why I took the chance and asked him this time. He told me stories of when he and his friends were shooting movies on 8mm. You had to send the film off to be developed. And wait for it to come back. You didn’t even know what you had till days after the shoot.
This is digital filmmaking. Each format has its strengths and weaknesses. But for us to be able to shoot a scene, then look at it and make adjustments immediately – for that aspect, I am grateful.
Don did all the setup and planning and math and figuring and angles, blocking, scene setting. Everything. It is a dinner table scene, and he needed to play against people, even if they were not interacting in the scene. Mark agreed to help, sitting in the scene, and giving Don something to act off of.
What’s my role in this gig? Cinematography.
Oh yeah. Someone needs to read the other actor’s lines off camera. And time them to the scene. I did not do a good job.
Don did. With minimal information, he turned this scene into a SCENE. He found ways to act that I never would have thought of.
It’s pretty amazing to watch.
This is Don. On so many of the headshots we take and submit, he is stoic. This is the real him. He is always laughing and smiling.
livingforcreativity 