Wednesday 20 April 2011

Acting with guns!


Stills from a short film called "Chance Encounter". This scene was shot in Swan Hunter ship building yard a few weeks ago.


Wednesday 13 April 2011

An Attempt At Costume.

How could i forget about my attempt at costume design, for the Palace of Varieties in the Empire, all being run by Company TSU.

It ended up going nicely! I wish I had taken better photographs, but i received lots of complements about the outfits.

I walked around with the very first group to see the whole thing, and it was all rather strange and surreal. It was a bit like a non-scary version of the HospitHELL thing i saw when we did Halloween Hollow with AtmosFEARS! The way that you walked into a room and were confronted by an actor who was constantly in character, and not making much sense about anything.
There were films projected everywhere, most of them featured James Harris as Benjamin Likely, an eccentric Victorian telling you about the Palace of Varieties, and how "there are nearly....ten or eleven things in here!"
It also showed the Bee film i made jumpers and glasses for, and they all looked insane pretending to be bees.

The great film critic that is Mark Harrison, and his partner, turned up, along with actor Bill Fellows (who told me i'm now part of The Teesside Massif! Oh yes.)
The night was also being filmed by a couple of guys i've worked with before, so hopefully i'll be able to get a copy.





 

Rehearsing - Mother and daughter in 2050



Book advert

A few weeks ago i applied to a post on Starnow about someone making a trailer for a novel in Teesside, hoping that it would be a chance to work with different crew/cast in the area.
But at the weekend i was sent the production plan, and i realised that i knew and had already worked with the directer/DOP, the production assistant and two of the actors!

I got to be dressed as a doctor, and we were filming in Teesside uni where med-students practice, so we were on a mini ward, which looked rather convincing!
Altogether a fun day, and with a promise of more work to come!


The most last minute audition!

On Saturday morning i got a text from my agent telling me about an audition in Newcastle at 1pm, but by the time i read the text it was just before 11am, and it takes an hour and a half to get there on the train.
The good news is that i made it on time, and found out what it was for.

Every year a group of 15-19 year olds is taught by professional film makers, and their films are sent to film-festivals all over the place. This audition was the first time they were working with actors, but it was fun.

I had to go straight in and do a cold read of two different scripts with another actor, in front of all the 15-19 year olds, playing male roles in both of them, which was all definitely a challenge! (Which is why i think they only did this with us and two others!)
Afterwards we were meant to be rotated in groups of two to meet all the groups. But after i had worked with the first group, (a mockumentary about a cocky lifeguard who thought he was wonderful), the film-maker running the audition, Ian Fenton, pulled me to one side and said they liked what they saw, and i could go enjoy the sunshine, they would be in touch.
Sure enough, that evening i got a text from Sam about a call-back the next day in the Tyneside Cinema again.
I spent two hours turning into a zombie, every time with a different actor to lunge at. (They were testing out how people looked and acted together).

Before getting the train home, we stopped for a beer in the sun, and happened to meet up with an actor called Jimmy Hagri, and we ended up drinking until late, and making plans to do an action film.

Apparently i'm pencilled in to act for the 15-19 year olds films next week, i'll find out at the weekend!