Sunday’s call sheet was small. Two actors, the director, and the producer/cinematographer, et al, who took off his acting role to be behind the camera.
We had one scripted scene to shoot with me and the other actor and few short shots of just me. One was to be ad-libbed. Even though improved stuff terrifies me, I’ve started to feel comfortable with the cast and the overall process so it makes it a bit less daunting.
One thing I have learned, however, is that with this cast, my pun game has to be on point from the moment I walk in. My scene-partner, Tim, is a pun master…I’m talking groan inducing puns, so it’s a mental challenge to try and keep up. I feel bad for the poor director who takes it all in stride but secretly would probably like to pelt us with olives. (10 points if you know what movie I vaguely referenced.)
After the scripted dialogue, we moved to my character’s bedroom to shoot a few scenes of me tossing my horrid hat, and talking to myself in the mirror. As one does. Mercifully, we only had to do this take twice because this thinking on the spot thing is for the birds!
Because it was a small group called for the shoot and there was only one page of dialogue we were able to wrap by 6:30 even though we started at 4:00. Not too shabby. I was home by 7:30. My wine barely had time to miss me.
Until next time…
Danielle Bannister, author, and ad-libber
Danielle Bannister, Author 