24/7
Hagia Charisma's independent short subject

Tuesday 13 June 2009
Day One
A few days earlier, longtime friend Rhoda Pell recommended me to writer/director Hagia Charisma for her indie short 24/7.
It turned out to be a paying gig, a rarity for an indie short. Hagia sent me the thirty page script, which I perused. The formatting was... unorthodox, to say the least. As an actor and as an award-winning scriptwriter, I was a little lost in the weeds as to the project's vision. I had been made aware it was somewhat autobiographical.
Hagia and I spoke via a Zoom meeting, gojng over the scenes, and I clarified it was an Actual Paying Gig (making sure it would not be Deferred Payment, considering it was a several day shoot).
One aspect with which I had issue was a cigarette being smoked; I had enough with previously having to spoke a cigar for a scene so as to be the lead in an independent feature film.
This eventually got resolved to be more virtual than having to endure tobacco stench.
Rhoda and I arranged for her to retrieve me to drive down to the Day One in Long Beach to Dale's Diner.
The shoot for the day was scheduled from 7am to 10am. Rhoda and I arrived around 6:40am; Hagia and her cinematographer Dmitry Litvnov arrived around a quarter past seven. Relatively new actor Zach Halen-Miller arrived around the same time; Rhoda and I chatted with the affable fellow on a little walk as Hagia and Dmitry set up.
Once they were ready for us, Rhoda and I met demure co-star Lorena Gonzalez.

I suspect due to budget constraints only two lav mics were acquired, despite each scene involving three characters. We had to keep swapping out the mics depending on who had the next line.
Almost surprisngly, we were done shortly after 10am. Not sure of the actual arrangements with the diner apart from production was to Purchase Something at some point. As the script called for my having a milkshake, during the brief time my character was away from the table, I ordered one, which I consumed on camera.
Rhoda and I had a dance at the end of the scene, and we simply were turning until we realized we were both getting ourselves massively dizzy. I had us reverse direction to unwind.
We filmed our arrival and departure, and we were done just past 10am.

Wednesday 13 June 2009
Day Two
Rhoda and I arrived at Bruno Street in Chinatown for the first of two scenes. Finding parking was a little tricky but we found a good spot a block over. From the location, the only cobblestone street in all of Los Angeles, and even then it was only a few yards.
Rhoda and I were filmed walking across the cobblestones, which was interesting as a) it was a working street so there were cars now and then of which we had to keep out of the way, b) Dimitry was concerned the background was so industrial looking (the Gold Line train also could be seen traversing back and forth; the next day I returned from a Pasadena dental appointment on the Gold Line and could see that same street from the train).
From there we went to downtown Los Angeles proper, to a small side "dead end" street called St. Vincent Court. Both sides lined with small restaurants and eateries, as well as a tall building filled with jewelry establishments. Technically it was also a working street; at the far end was the exit to a public parking lot, the one in which Rhoda parked, so we'd have to get out of their way. This was full on a guerilla shoot, and Rhoda and I were becoming slightly concerned no paperwork had been provided as yet.