random thoughts from a random mind

I have quite possible the worst headache I have had so far this year right now. Can’t I just curl up in a ball in a dark room?

• Yay for naps! #

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• Yay for naps! #

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So, as with all other musicals I have went to, I will now be writing about seeing Annie this last Saturday.  I got tickets for the show at Christmas and was eagerly anticipating getting to see the show live. I had seen an amateur production in the past, but it can’t compare to a professional tour of the show.

We got to the theatre and went and found out seats. I had a really good seat – the orchestra pit took out rows AA-CC. They left in rows DD-FF and then started at row A. I was in row A, so only four rows back from the pit. It was great and being able to be that close to the stage is great.  Anyways, I digress.   The show started out with a great overture performance and as the curtain came up, the amazing and talented cast of children began the show.  They quickly went from “Maybe” to “It’s The Hard Knock Life”. Seeing “It’s The Hard Knock Life” performed live is so much better than hearing it performed. The only thing that seemed to be wrong with the song was that, other than Annie, their microphones didn’t seem to be working properly. More on that soon.

Anyways, the songs were relaly good and of course we were all waiting for “Tomorrow”, seeing as it is the best known song from the show.  When Sandy (the dog) came out the entire audience was basically a big “Ahhhh”. Anyways, once Annie got taken in by Daddy Warbucks, the show kept on going in songs that people know pretty well (so I thought). Anyways, they eventually got to “N.Y.C.” and that is where the sound problems began. The review in the paper described it like this:

“The only negative of the night occurred late in Act One when a problem with the speakers resulted in a heavy buzzing noise bombarding the theatre during the “N.Y.C.” song-and-dance number. While a technician scrambled backstage to fix the problem, the actors didn’t miss a beat, continuing the number to its scripted end.

It was one minor faux pas in an otherwise outstanding evening.” (Jeff Dedekker, Leader-PostMarch 2, 2009).

The one thing that was really interesting about that was the wonderful buzzing right in my ears. But they managed to finish up the first act and it was time for intermission. For the audience, it was a time to get a drink of water, stretch, or get some merchandise; for the technicians, it was time to fix the problems and get everything ready for the second act.

The second act was just as good. The technical problems had been fixed and everything seemed to more or less be working properly. There was a few times when it still sounded like the microphones were not working right, but all in all, itwent off without any more major problems.

Near the end of the act, the curtain dropped to create the outside of the Warbuck mansion and when it came back up, they had a full staircase on the stage – it was an amazing visual thing to see. The show went great for the whole show overall and I really enjoyed seeing it. I am always up to see musicals and I’m really liking the fact that more and more shows have been coming here lately.

I don’t yet know what will be coming next – but I am hoping to see some more soon. I kind of wish that I could have went to Chicago (it will be here next week) but I unfortunately can’t. Oh well….I’ll hopefully find out what comes next shortly.

So, I really don’t have that much to say (as can be seen by the fact that the last 3 posts were automatic updates by Twitter for the day), but I am working on another Crime Stories. Maybe I will talk more about the oddness of filming once we are all wrapped. All I’m going to say right now is….”stripping expedition to northern Ontario”….yup….who knew you could have a stripping expedition? And for that matter…what is it exactly?

I’ve been looking into getting some accreditation for being able to work on film sets as something other than the actor (funny thing to note – actors do the dangerous stuff and yet we’re not required to have any extra training….I find that…kind of disturbing actually) and while doing so, began to think of some of the interesting/dangerous stuff I have done on set before, so I thought I’d share it with the internet:

Jump off of a building

I was filming a show about an avalanche. My character was on top of a building when the avalanche came, shoveling snow off of said roof (aside: doing that for like 30 takes was the most boring shoveling of my life…). I had to pretend to be thrown off the roof by the snow, so they said jump. I did. Into a pile of snow. Ouch. And…Reset.

Get Buried Alive

By…a snowblower. How weird is that. But I did it. Because like any good actor, when the director says “Now let’s bury you with snow” you just say “Okay” and wonder in your head if he fell on his head as a child. This happened for like half an hour straight…then they let me warm up for five minutes and we did it again.

Get a revolver pointed in your face

That was interesting. Of course, the character does get shot in the face…so it was also sort of a necessity. But…have you ever had one pointed so close to your face that you could almost taste the metal? I think not. It’s illegal to do that anywhere but on a film set. And there are a lot of regulations about doing so. It was kinda neat and I can say I’ve had one pointed at me now.

Anyways, that is a few of the dangerous things that have happened to me. Maybe in a later post I’ll tell you about pyro going off in your face or having to put your life in the hands of strangers as the push you across the snow on a stretcher.

So I just woke up not that long ago after falling asleep while watching TV. And I had a really creepy dream that I can remember everything from – the taste of salt water, the blowing wind, everything. I had been in an airplane and we crashed into the ocean. Anyways, I found my cell phone and managed to get a text message out to my family trying to tell them what was going on and that I loved them all. That’s what I woke up with an increased heart rate. All I know is that dreams that vivid can be creepy and possibly not good for your health. Anybody else out there ever have dreams like that?

I saw a post talking about how when you live in Los Angeles, it is nothing unusual to see a whole slew of movie production trucks, trailers for the actors, and signs randomly directing the cast and crew to where the location of the day is. Well, that doesn’t seem too odd to me – but I get the same sort of thing where I live. We have a pretty big production house here and quite a few movies and television shows are filmed here, so it is nothing odd to see, oh I don’t know, a random coffee shop downtown be closed to the public and have all the big TV/movie equipment just sort of on the sidewalk, while the actors lounge about (and get paid to do so, I might add) or even just to see those same sort of signs directing them to where they are supposed to go. Sure, it is fun to try and figure out what it being shot and where (and then if you see the show, to figure out if you’ve ever been there before), but it isn’t like I get all excited when something happens around here. Because it is happening every single day. If I run into someone who is involved with the show (actor or otherwise), I don’t get all giddy and find I can’t talk to them. They are just normal people like the rest of us. I used to work at a place where a character from a well-known show came to eat all the time. He was just like any other customer, and got treated as such.

So, this is a part of my life. Of course, seeing as I am an actor myself, my life is kinda odd. I have to go out and go to “church” for a fake funeral all morning tomorrow and than Wednesday night I am going to get shot. It seems exiting and I think it will be pretty interesting to do.

Well, I should have written this on Thursday night…but I had other stuff to do. The day for me didn’t start until 3 pm, but as the location was kinda down some random grid road in the country (interested?) I decided to leave kinda early. And looking back, it was a good thing that I did. I was driving along, trying to follow a kinda bad map (but it was all that was available, so can’t really blame the production people for that) and I missed the turn. So, I went a little further, hoping to find a place to turn around. I found it, but I managed to slide into a snowbank in the process of trying to turn around. I was stuck. SO I had to call a tow truck and wait for it.  It got there at around 2:50 pm and as it got there, I was on the phone with the location manager to try and let them know that I might be late. However, we got my car out at 2:55 pm and so I quickly took off down the road and got to the set at 2:59 pm. After that, I got to….sit around for a while as other scenes were being shot. Someone was being murdered (well…actually, a pillow was being murdered) when I got there. When we got to my stuff, I got to go outside and have a fake conversation with the guy who had masterminded my murder over and over again.  It’s all about getting a whole bunch of different shots with the video camera. And then….you have to do promo stills and so we start acting, they yell “Freeze” and we stop what we are doing and become statues. It’s an interesting life. I have a few days off but have to be back on set in February. I know at least one of them is a night shoot. Those are exciting.
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