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Sunday November 13, 2011
Room for improv'ment
While it is likely I somehow submitted to this, I submit to so many project, I really should keep track.
Saturday morning came an email from
Mike Dusi
from the production:
Thank you for your interest in our feature film!
After reviewing your submission, we would like to cast you in the role of STUDENT.
In this scene we will be filming a screening of our hilarious mock student film DEATH BY PIZZA.
Your role will be to watch the movie as a film student and give commentary if and when asked by our director.
We are filming SUNDAY NOVEMBER 13, 2011 at 2pm at Loyola Marymount University (Communications Building Room 100).
Filming should last until 5pm.
This is an unpaid background role that includes the possibility of improv lines AND comes with an IMDB CREDIT (see below) for everyone!
It seemed pretty straight forward, and I acknowledge before realizing that Loyola is not the college at Vermont and Santa Monica Boulevard...
it's the one in Playa Del Rey: quite a distance.
I checked and with a 5pm wrap, I had two options to make sure I could get home.
One was if we wrapped before 5pm and I made it to the bus stop by just past 5:00 or 5:25pm; the other would be departing around 6:25 or so.
I'd later learn that at 12:46pm Sunday another email was sent out with the campus map.
However, to get there by 1:30pm for my 2pm calltime, I had to leave just past 11am.
Once on the sprawling yet beautiful campus, I couldn't help but wonder why no map had been sent, unaware it was impotently waiting for me to get back home.
It took me a while to find the right building, as they're not exactly well marked, and the bus stop I chose was actually farther that the one I used with which to return.
I finally found it, with about ten minutes before 2pm.
Those of us already there were ushered into the college theatre: a small screening room compared to USC's Norris Theatre, but considering the scene being shot, this one's size fit the bill quite nicely.
We were signed in by
Rose,,
and after a bit we met
the project's producer
Christina
a Floridian transplant, as it were,
and 1st A.D.
Ethan,
who explained they were running "a bit behind," but would get to us as soon as possible.
Christina
kept us entertained by having us do a few improv games.
Mistakenly volunteering first, my stage partner and I had little to nothing with which to work, being already on the Disney Space Mountain roller coaster.
The one redeeming aspect was, as the ride ended, my partner's flustered character confessing to peeing her pants.
"Guess we should have done 'Splash Mountain' then..." I replied.
Christina had Rose place a star on the paperwork of those interested in returning for other scene/s on future dates; I volunteered, in case such dates are on dates on which I'm available.
We were also encouraged to
LIKE
the movie project's
[at the time]
official Facebook page,
(since taken down),
through which Christina would be able to keep in touch with us, and we could be kept abreast of the project's progress.
At one point Christina asked if anyone could do an Irish accent.
"An' how thick an Irish accent would y'be needin' then?" I asked, and apparently it was Just Right.
The project director
Chris Berkenkamp
came in, apologizing for the delay, and some pick-up shots with Mike in drag were shot.
It was here we learned that the film was loosely narrative improv; no actual script as such.
He told us this project had been in the works for two and a half years, and they are struggling to get the last shots done by Thanksgiving
(this year).
They headed out for some daylight time-sensitive shots were done.
Inside the small auditorium, several more improv games were done, and finally the scene to be shot with us was ready to begin... close to 5pm.
This was not a good sign.
Mike's actual parents were in the film
(based on results, this nested mockumentary is of people mostly playing
[versions of]
themselves),
as Chris consistently referred to Mike's dad respectfully as Mr. Dusi.
Eventually it was clear I was no longer in frame, but it turned out there was another entire different scene Elsewhere on campus to be shot, and my safety net was already snapped, being past 6:30pm.
My travel home would be on the fly, so to speak.
I notified Christina, who understood, and at least I'd been able to help as much as I could.
I gave her my card, indicating my
Event Calendar page
on which my availability could be checked.
As the rest of the audience members went to their next scene, I learned how to get to the other bus stop, and managed to arrive there spot on at 7pm, and thankfully a bus scheduled for 6:58pm was a hiccough late.
As I anticipated, it was later enough that it took me just over three hours to get home as opposed to about two and a half.
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