"A winner is me!"
Through a curious quirk of fate, I have discovered that sometimes it's not what you know, or even what you can fake, but it indeed is who you know. With it more or less being clinched, I am delighted, if not somewhat bewildered to say that I get to be in a feature film that's being shot locally in Kitchener-Waterloo, and parts of Mississauga.
The movie, which is still going through title changes and is currently referred to as
Regrets, is a vampire flick, and a sequel to another vampire movie that was shot in the KW area last year. Same cast and crew this time around too. This is where that whole "who you know" thing comes in. The shooting for the first movie took place in one of the bars my good friend and lovable heretic, John, frequents: Club Abstract.
They needed extras for some of the interior shots, which were all being filmed in the afternoon, so John joined in on the fun. Not to mention he's also an Abstractian regular there known by all the bouncers and staff (but in a good way). So John spent roughly 6 hours sitting at a table, drinking orange juice. Why no real alcohol? Well, John might be Irish, but even he couldn't survive 6 hours of straight beer-drinking. Since John had a very distinct look about him, especially with his very long and very naturally curly hair, the director and producers kept in contact with him. And lo and behold, when casting for the sequel was underway, they wanted him to play an Irish priest.
Now I was by no means jealous that John was in a movie and I wasn't. I was more amused that the man practically is an Irish priest, just without the whole ordained thing. But not too long ago, I get a call from him late at night. The conversation went along these lines:
John: "Phil! Sorry to call you this late at night, but I have to ask: are you free tomorrow night?"
Me: "Not doing much of anything then. Why?"
John: "Oh, thank God! The director needed some extra dancers for a scene, and asked if I knew anyone who could help out. We're in desperate need of someone, and you were all I could think of. Want to be a dancer in the movie?"
Me: "Um...what sort of dancing? You know that whenever I try to dance, people claw at their eyes and flee the room."
John: "Oh, I don't know, 17th century dancing or something. We get to fake a waltz of some kind."
Me: ^-^ "Faking a waltz? Now that I can do! Count me in!"
So, I'm a dancer who gets to be in a 17th Century European court. Somehow I've miraculously managed to get 3/4ths of all the moves down thus far and make it look good. The other 1/4th I'm faking superbly, so it's all good.
Now believe me, I was more than content to just be a dancer. I mean, come on! This is all volunteer acting work (from the leads all the way down to the extras), but it's so fun to do, and what are the odds something as unique as this will come my way ever again? (Plus I may get my own codpiece) Me being friendly, I told the director that if she needed anything else from me, I would be happy to help out.
I guess she took my friendly gesture seriously, since now I'm a vamp for the final fight scene. It does work well, since I have somy gymnastics background and can do a few tumbling acts that would otherwise take months of training for anyone else to make look as natural.
Here's the part I still find vastly amusing: I am what's being called a "Disposable Vamp". Disposable Vamps have a life expectancy of 10-15 seconds. Like one of those Red Shit guys in Stark Trek. So, I get to die. And oddly enough, that is what has me more excited than anything else. All my Disposable Vamp comrades are all, "Yeah! Cool! I get to be a vampire!" And here I am going, "Yeah! Cool! I get to have my ass kicked and then I get staked!"
*shrug!* Go figure.
Filming starts in roughly 2 weeks, and I think it kicks off with all the interior club scenes and fight choreography. So July's going to be an interesting month for me. I get to die. I get to dance. I may just get my very own codpiece. A winner is me!
Today's Discovery: for all you Jim Henson buffs out there, if you listen to the song
Trip Like I Do from Crystal Method, right at the start you can hear someone retelling the opening monologue from
The Dark Crystal.
posted by Phillip at 6:46 AM
