March 2009 Archives

When I arrived on set this week, I was horrified to be casually informed that “we’ll be doing some shots of you cooking first”. The word “cooking” fills me with dread, and I am ashamed to say that when I was told I would just be peeling potatoes and chopping carrots, the dread merely increased. Faced with some potatoes and a potato peeler, the camera pointed at me, I hear the words “rolling… speed… action”… and I proceed to attempt to peel potatoes, with what turned out to be the wrong side of the potato peeler. At this point I was forced to put my hands up and say, “okay, I have never peeled potatoes in my life”. What can I say, if I don’t cook potatoes, I don’t cook potatoes.

After I mastered the potato peeling (if hacking away at huge chunks of potato counts as “peeling”), we moved onto the carrots. One crew member casually commented, presumably for my benefit, that one tends to chop the ends off the carrots first. He also helpfully peeled them for me before the camera started rolling - perhaps the potato incident had alerted him to how depressingly inept I am in the cooking department. Unfortunately, chopping carrots did not go too smoothly either, with the first take consisting of bits of chopped carrots flying off the chopping board. And to think that before I arrived on set, I had been concerned with my character’s dialogue and whether the acting journey was dynamic enough…!

After the initial cooking scenes, the rest of the filming went smoothly, if you exclude the dilemma over the candles which had to be changed halfway through and made to be the same height as the original candles had been when we shot that part of the scene two hours earlier…! I found that I was grateful that we had experienced filming with a professional crew during training, and had been expected to assist the crew for other actors’ scenes. I felt far more comfortable on set understanding what all the terms called out from one crew member to another meant, and having had the experience of being responsible for my own character’s continuity. On stage, it is always possible to have a slightly different thought process or acting journey for each performance. But on camera, you have to remember to find the impulse to pick up the wine bottle on the exact same line of dialogue, pour it out at the same time, and screw the bottle top back on at the exact same time, even if your character and others in the scene are delivering their lines and reacting in a different way to the last take. After a dozen or so takes, I felt like I was in a piece of carefully choreographed physical theatre, desperately trying to cling on to those impulses that make the difference between a good scene and just plain bad acting.

The hardest challenge of all was turning on the tears. There is no one method for this and each actor will have a different approach. But in this case, the most challenging thing of all was to shoot this scene over and over and over, sometimes with only a three second warning. The scene required me to enter the room dry-eyed, and after one line of dialogue from another character, “sob uncontrollably”. Needless to say, having to do this scene time and again was incredibly difficult!

After filming, I turned to my copy of The Stage and found a small article by Matthew Hemley on product placement, which I had been debating earlier in the week. While it has been recognised that allowing product placement may result in very obvious advertising strategies, I doubt that any respectable production company would allow product placement to affect the integrity of their show. As Primeval writer and producer Adrian Hodges pointed out, the show often uses the same model of car, which they could potentially be profiting from. With the current climate as it is, can the government really afford to continue to ban product placement?

Hello World! Again long time no see, but times are hard when you are an unemployed actor with no internet access, but today is a one off. For one day only I come to you with good spirits and internet access. Maybe it was the Mullerice I have just eaten. It was delicious!

Anyway, let’s get on to the subject at hand: work! Not even just acting work, work in general. Now I have been fortunate enough to not have actually had a real life job since leaving drama school. This is for a number of reasons.

The first reason is because I have been a lucky little boy and had various acting jobs which have funded me through my first year out of drama school. Secondly, because I can’t find a job which will allow me most the week off for auditions. Finally the reason I can’t find a job is because I haven’t looked for one.

Now is it just me or is it our generation?

Being stuck inside all week writing up my thesis - that little assignment I’ve been doing all year to top-up my practical actor training so I get the letters “MA” after my name - is not my idea of fun. Especially when the weather has been lovely this week, and as usual when the sun comes out, I’m scared that it will be the last sunny spell of the entire year.

But this weekend, I temporarily suspended work on the thesis (not quite finished as predicted in last week’s blog, but the end is in sight!) to do some script work for the filming this week and to catch up on the news in the entertainment business. And what caught my eye in my perusals of theatrical articles this week was Ian Flintoff’s plans for a Shakespeare “jamboree”.

With the impending fees of my postgraduate course hanging over my head, it really wasn’t a good time for my boss to announce a cut back in hours this week, which means I am now technically a part-time employee.

Part-time hours are great if you need to go to auditions, classes and fit your actor’s life around paid employment, but if you are trying to accumulate and save as much money as possible it’s really not a productive situation. So the best thing to do would be to find another job with full time hours.

Easier said than done…

Although I was very grateful for my Stage Newspaper LCD clock and other such treats in my Equity Limelight party goody bag this week, I would have loved for it to contain some dark glasses for my journey home the next day. After my friend won a prize in the party raffle, a free voicereel and generous cheque from Michael Winner, we continued the party long after leaving.

The event for members between 18 and 26 was a big success and a great idea from Equity, not only do we all love a party but it has really changed my opinion of the Union for the better. Despite always knowing the many possible benefits of being a member, I have to admit to feeling a tad reluctant handing over my membership fees after graduating from drama school with no money and no job.

Listening to the speeches, hosted by Ben Miller, from the general secretary, Christine Payne, Equity’s youngest councilor, Joseph Kloska and Sir Ian McKellen, I started to want to whoop and holler in agreement and felt supported in my acting plight. Hearing two young members and part driving force behind the event, Ellie Paskell and Ryan Forde losco’s impassioned speeches really highlighted the importance of standing strong together. As Sir Ian said himself, ‘we are not solo artists’, we cannot do it on our own. Collectively we look after each other.

I vote for more get togethers, especially for the younger members, it’s always funny to expect a room full of strangers and realise you were actually partying with half of them five years ago at The National Youth Theatre or have rolled about the floor with them at some embarrassing and bizarre audition/workshop disaster or other. Whether below deck, driving or even hanging half overboard, we’re all on the same boat. Equity steers us clear of any looming great icebergs. Limelight helped me to appreciate this more so.

It sounds like the title of a hilarious romp through a week in the life of April. I would like to promise you an engaging story of a budding playwright, in which I daringly learn to fire a gun, before attending a stream of auditions with embarrassing consequences: hilarity ensues. Unfortunately, I can’t promise you that, so here’s what I’ve really been up to this week.

I have felt more like a writer than an actor in the last couple of weeks, as I decided it was about time I knuckled down and wrote my thesis. I’ve set myself a target of 1,000 words a day which I’ve been doing for the last… 15 days now. I’m a little ahead, so with any luck I might even have finished by this time next week, which leaves me some rehearsal time before I shoot for a short film next Tuesday and then leave for the Irish Sea for four weeks.

In between writing, I have been attending auditions, although the already depressing lack of work seems to be rapidly depreciating each month. On top of this, my bank blocked my accounts because of some dodgy transactions, so I was prevented from buying my train ticket to attend an audition on Saturday. I wasn’t entirely convinced that I should be attending the audition anyway - the casting director had viewed my CV and headshot and invited me to audition. But when he sent out the script, it was quite clear that the parts were written for British Asian girls… and quite clear from my headshot that I was not. I tried getting in contact to ask whether there had been a mistake, but to no avail. I sent an e-mail asking for confirmation, expressing that I “didn’t want to waste anyone’s time” - when really what I meant was, “don’t waste my time.” All in all, I had a gut feeling that the project itself was “a bit dodgy” so I’m glad I didn’t waste my time and money on it.

…or a year in Provence? This is my dilemma this week. Well, perhaps not the country and most certainly not Provence, but you get the idea. This week has mostly consisted of me harping on to my housemates about wanting to vacate this great city we call London for pastures further afield. Initially six months in France, but my father reminded me that “abroad is a large area” so Canada it is. To infinity and beyond! Well, no space suits will be involved but the sentiment is right.

My main gripe with the acting profession is the endless waiting. First waiting for auditions, then waiting to hear if you got a recall, perhaps waiting through three more recalls, then waiting around at the finals, then waiting to hear if you got the job, and of course, waiting (as in tables). But at least that brings tips, the odd phone number and a slightly cold roast if you work late on a Sunday. And so it begins…

After a relatively "dry patch" audition-wise since Christmas, I was surprised to be inundated with audition offers this week.  I was lucky that two auditions were on the same day in the same location this Wednesday - but not so lucky when another two were on the same day in the same location on Saturday, when I was in fact supposed to be travelling to London for fun times with Ant & Dec.  Faced with the decision of choosing to abandon the only auditions which have been offered to me this year, or giving up some much sought-after tickets for Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, I eventually chose both and managed to arrange auditions on alternative dates.  It seemed luck was smiling on me when both companies decided to hold auditions for their projects over two days, rather than only one!