Monday, January 10, 2011

Shooting: “THE MENTALIST” @ Polsa Rosa Movie Ranch in Acton, CA – 46 miles from West Hollywood. It’s 6:45am Monday morning. I got off of work at the restaurant a little over an hour ago. I feel pretty good considering my workload of late. I’m taking a deep breath to focus on the day ahead…and the night too, because I’m scheduled at the restaurant tonight as well.

Oh yeah, I have two commercial auditions scheduled too.

Last night one of my fellow employees was telling me that I need to take time off when I book an acting job. I partially agree with him, but I largely believe that a tremendous part of my success comes from the fact that I’m willing to show up earlier than most, stay later than most and stand longer than most. It’s not the first time I’ve worked all night and travelled straight to the set for an acting job. It’s not easy and I don’t recommend it, but the entertainment business in general isn’t easy and I don’t really recommend it.

The drive to the location was beautiful with light traffic; it was also quite a bit colder than it was when I left WeHo (West Hollywood). I was prepared with layers of clothing to wear under my wardrobe to prevent frombeing a freezing mess. As soon as I arrived at crew parking a van drove me to base camp. I was shown to my small trailer that, thankfully, was warm & toasty and then headed right to make-up/hair. That, of course, only took a moment. I then headed back to my trailer to fill out my contract and was called to set for rehearsal.

Production equipment was everywhere! This was a really big scene that I had a very small part in and right after the first rehearsal things got…interesting. At least in my head they did. The star, $30 million dollar man, Simon Baker had a few opinions about a certain part of the scene. That part of the scene happened to be the part of the scene that my dialogue was in. I listened intently to his POV and understood where he was coming from and knew that if he got his way there would be no reason for me to say and/or do what I drove 46 miles after working all night to say and/or do…in the freezing cold. Yeah.

I wasn’t freaked out or anything because I really didn’t think they would change it. I felt, at minimum, they would shoot it as scripted and deal with it later. At any rate, it was cool to see how he felt about the work. After a while all that seemed to blow over and everything was back to normal.

The set was pretty cool; I was playing the part of a gold prospector. That felt a little weird at first, especially when I saw my fellow prospectors who were all background players. But I’m glad they chose me! Anyway, some of the background talent were real people that really prospect for gold! I learned a few things and they said that there was gold in the stream we were shooting at. For some reason that really got me excited.

Usually when I work I hang out with the background actors. I’m not sure why, but I’ve always done that. It was weird and a little embarrassing when I was told that I didn’t have to stand in between camera set ups…I had a stand-in that could/would do that for me. I just kind of laughed it off and introduced my self to him. I’m sure that will change when I start getting larger parts on a regular basis.

Around 11am I was released for lunch. That set up was at a slightly higher elevation where I hoped I could get cell phone reception. I was able to get a little bit of service and get the message that my commercial agency had successfully rescheduled my appointments for later in the day. At that point I felt there was a still a chance I’d be able to get there in time.

Back from lunch and my part of the big scenewas up. Up to this point I hadn’t spoken to the director, he had a zillion things going on, but he came over said “hello” and thanked me for being a part of it. Early on, when I first started doing this professionally, I always felt that they director should “say something” to me as an actor. I’ve learned that if they aren’t saying anything to me than it probably means I’m on the right track.

One tricky part was when I was dealing with a stuntwoman in the scene. I guess I expected a safety meeting or something because I had to push her into, what I thought, was a potentially dangerous situation. But, I guess they trusted me because I got nothing so I just used my best judgment and gave her a big hug after pushing her in the water both times.

After that I was finished for the day and, yes, I missed both of my commercial appointments. No, I wasn’t happy about it, but I can’t think of a better reason to miss them. After all I missed an audition for this very show just several weeks ago and got another crack at it.

Before leaving set I got to witness one of the real prospectors panning for gold AND he found some. I saw it with my own two eyes. It was very small; like very course black pepper, but gold in color of course. Simon was watching too and the gentleman said he was going to put in a vial and give it to him as a gift…just what the $30 million dollar man needs right!

Back to the trailer, out of wardrobe, sign out, inthe van, down the hill to my car and back to WeHo I go. For the life of me I can’t figure out where the energy comes from to keep me going sometimes, but I have to say that I made it through like a champ. I rushed home to try to get 2-2½ hours of sleep before going to work at the restaurant. Whew!

http://www.stephonfuller.com

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