Tuesday September 13, 2011
Music Video... and Ghost Hunting...
My good friend Maria Olsen had contacted me the previous day, asking after my next-day availability for another music video on which she was working, again with producer/director Kevin McVey who'd produced and directed the Abigail music video on which Maria and I had worked the previous year.
We established the calltime would be around 4pm, which quickly got shifted to 3pm, and the location was "somewhere downtown." I had a morning errand; meeting one of my best friend's sister's dogs before house- and dog-sitting them that weekend as she and my friend went to their other sister's wedding. With such a "late" afternoon calltime, I knew I'd still be able to do the morning dog meet and greet, as it were.
After waiting and waiting finally the callsheet was emailed out; in his email Kevin mentioned the address, which really I should have recognized right off, but once I opened the callsheet .pdf and saw it clarifying it as Linda Vista, I was thrilled. I've been there twice on ghost hunts, and while so far I have not caught an EVP or a wtf photo or such, I still love the place.
Having been there before, I had suspected we'd be filming in the cellar of the old psych ward building. This was fine with me, as my second time there I'd not had the chance to go back to the psych ward building, just the main hospital building. So I brought with me my camera and grid-laser and such. I knew we most likely would have some time to wander about upstairs in the psych building, as generally it's the hospital building that gets locked down.
I checked online, apparently the band We Are The In Crowd is gaining popularity, though not a lot of activity on their Facebook page. Meanwhile, unlike the [non subtitled] Motionless in White "song" Abigail (generally consisting of them screaming as though mostly competing to see how far they can go before their vocal cords shred out of their throats), at least this time with Rumor Mill I'll know what they are singing.
I arrived at Linda Vista about 2:50pm for my 3:15pm calltime. Craft services quickly and efficiently set up, seemingly an even better selection than for the Abigail shoot. Whilst waiting, I spoke with Francesco Gonzalez of the creatively named SOON (a la Something Out Of Nothing) production company. They would be doing the Behind The Scenes (BTS) aspect of the project; they'd also done the Abigail BTS. Along with Sashen Naiker, who would be playing the "Indian Man" (quite a stretch, we joked), we also discussed the old hospital's famous hauntings and such.
Kevin emerged from the building and spotted me right off, thanking me for participating in his latest project. I was shown to hair/make up to be done up as I'd be utilized first. I changed into the outfit being provided (turned out I needn't have bothered bringing along my own selections as options). At first it was suggested I would be hit with muddy water, similar to how Sarah Jessica Parker gets hit during the opening credits of Sex In The City episodes. This turned out to be inaccurate (my being the one getting hit with the water), as it was to be one of the band members.
I took some photos of Maria being made-up, as she did of me as the two ladies quickly dirtied me up. Unlike the homeless roles I've done for TV movies and student films, this outfit was more "mega homeless," as I called it, even to the rough-rope "belt."
Provided with a trash-laden shopping cart, I was led around to the side at the street. The sidewalk was shifted as the location to that the nearby wide alley of sorts; my action being coming towards the street from the uphill alley, being seen by passing band member Cameron Hurley who goes to assist me, which sends my character into a rage and ranting at him. As the startled young guitarist hastily turns away from my anger, a passing cab douses him from a puddle.
We did a few camera rehearsals, and a few takes, some coverage, Kevin encouraging me to go even bigger. As it was MOS (no audio being recorded), I could say anything I wanted. Essentially I began with "What are you doing here?" (for certain in-joke obvious reasons), and at one point I flick at him with a wash-cloth, one take in which I found being a little closer than I expected and actually struck the plastic cup he was holding, nearly knocking it from his hand (while I knocked loose its lid, thankfully he kept a good grip on it).
Then Cameron was set up for getting doused, which was to be a One Take deal, as cleaning and drying him off would be too time consuming. The result came across as "satisfactory," though as it was via two off-camera men tossing the contents of buckets, it should look even better via editing. Kevin comically added some mud directly to Cameron's face for his reaction shot.
So I was wrapped around 4:30'ish. Prior to hair and make-up I'd already gone through the main building with my video camera Just In Case I could catch something. One thing that puzzled me was some of the crew was referring to a second morgue; next time I'm out there at the haunted hospital for an investigation, I'll have to check up on that.

Friday October 28, 2011
Finished product
Maria posted that the video was online...

Rumor Mill by band We Are The In Crowd