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Geoffrey Gould
Reports from the set/s...

Mama's Boy

Saturday, July 01, 2006
Heder off at the pass
Last night I worked a night shoot for the movie Mama's Boy which stars Jon Heder (he's getting a lot of work, yet I cannot imagine his ever getting rid of being referred to as Napoleon Dynamite, as even our PA did as she described to us the film's storyline).
We started with a 3:30pm calltime and wrapped at 2:30am (90 minutes overtime and one meal penalty).
There was a bit of a problem at first, with crew communication and location/s. For one thing, I arrived at crew parking at 2:40pm, and two girls arrived as we headed over to set, one of the two girls being Cillico (aka Cat, which amused one of the higher DAs on set, when getting our names, her calling herself Cat and I suggesting being called Badger...). She and I first met when she and I worked on Accepted. At set we quickly learned we should have been taken to holding where catering was set up. We waited around until 3:15pm when another transport van took us over there (we could have walked it).
While waiting, however, I noticed the easily recognizable Louis from Strictly Background. "It's about time we worked on a project together!" I said as he approached. As it was, later in the day we discovered we had both worked on a same project (at the same time for the same scene): for the three weeks on Inherit the Wind.
For Mama's Boy I wasn't sure exactly how visible I would be (portraying a shopper browsing in a computer store), but considering after the fourth or fifth take the AD had me shift the end of my action to move around the aisle corner so I wouldn't appear too static, it's probable I (or maybe my blurred-body movements) could be visible. I could not see where they had secreted the camera; the foreground action is Heder (wearing a yellow "Burn in Hell" t-shirt), talking with a computer-store employee in the back of the store, just beyond the door's threshold. Heder exclaims "This is ridiculous!" or such, and exits.
With the probability that the camera was between them, albeit farther back and in the shadows, I figured I could be visible right between them.

Saturday, June 07, 2008
Three weeks shy of two years later...
Having learned Mama's Boy had gone direct to DVD, I'd set it in my NetFlix queue the moment the title was available (even prior to its known DVD release date). It arrived and I viewed the relatively amusing film, and sure enough, there was the top of my head in the computer store, just as Heder exits the back room.
It wasn't a bad film, but probably not really the type that would attract a lot of movie goers. Jon Heder is great in it, and considering the rest of the talented cast, I actually surprised it didn't get a theatrical release, even if limited.