Movie Magic & More
Well, Tappies, I’m on the back-end of a loooong 3 day movie shoot and I gotta tell you, this acting business isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Here’s a quick recap of the days.
Day 1: Took place in what looked like a haunted parking garage in St. Paul. It was my character’s BIG SCENE. What does that mean? My dorky character gets pushed to the brink and unleashes the hurt on the zombie hordes that infest the parking garage. I was put in charge of coming up with 6 different ways to vanquish my foes. Hilarious. One scene had my throwing a gun across the parking garage, running 100 yards and catching it on the other end. Got camp? We do. We got it in spades. Later that night, my dog ran away from home, but my friend Nick found him 45 minutes later. Went to bed at 2am, absolutely exhausted.
Day 2: Filming took place in a bleak (and I mean BLEAK) office building. Things went really slowly and I’m not sure we used our time as wisely as I would if I were directing, but that’s the life of an actor (I guess?). Regardless, we had to cut a lot of scenes, including one where I got headbutted in the groin and end up vomiting vegetable soup. I’m thinking that’s a good thing.
Day 3: We were at the same apartment where we filmed the D&D movie (check out the 100 Things about TKT post for links to that flick). There were only 4 actors required, but even so it took a long time. We spent a good portion of it firing little yellow pellets out of our replica pistols we used for the movie. Also, Susan (who plays Valerie) made some crazy-delicious hamburgers for us to eat. We shot some scenes in a car parked in a garage. It was supposed to look like we were driving, but I don’t think it’s going to work.
All in all, it was a fun weekend albeit a somewhat disorganized one. Now, more than ever, I want to get my short little movie off the ground. Not to be a jerk and show these guys how-it’s-done, but because I found myself really wanting to jump to the behind-the-scenes side of things and fix the problems this movie had. I kept telling myself “It’s not my movie. It’s not my movie.”
Still…
On the writing front, I didn’t get much written because of my dedication to the flick, but I did get a bit of good news and a bit of bad news. Bad news first? Yeah, why not.
Bad News: I sent a full manuscript to an agent (BookStop Literary Agency if you must know) and I got a letter back that said they enjoyed reading my manuscript and said I created a believable voice for my main character. Somehow, she didn’t feel a strong connection to Mitch and that the story was predictable. She said he seems like a nice kid, but he wasn’t compelling or distinctive enough to keep readers involved in the story and rooting for him.
Huh? That’s a first. I’ve never had anyone say my book was predictable or that Mitch (my MC) wasn’t compelling. It sort of makes me think she didn’t read the whole thing.
On a better note, she did invite me to send anything else I’ve written. We’ll see…
Good News: Literary agent Kathy Green sent me an e-mail yesterday, inviting me to send the first 3 chapters (or what I like to call the first 30 pages) of THE SHORT BUS JOURNAL to her. Done and done, Kathy. Hopefully she’ll ‘get it.’
That’s all I’ve got for now. Did I mention how sore I was? Oh. Well, I am.
What short of yours did you want to finish filming? Oh Zombie? Hint hint.
What’s The Short Bus Journal about again? If you said it, I can’t remember.
Yep. I think it’s time to dust off the zombie/sitcom/musical. It just…feels right. Of course, it is FAR AND AWAY unlike anything the kiddies should see, but that’s another story.
The Short Bus Journal? Well, if you’re curious enough, I could send you a copy to read.
Well, is it short? I’m not huge on reading, but knowing your sense of humor, I’m intrigued.
It’s not too long and it’s written like a diary so you could digest it in little bite-sized nuggets. The thing to remember is that it’s a book for 8-12 year olds. Not sure that’d be your cup of tea.
You’d definitely like ‘Goodhalo’ though. It’s going to be awesome…and by awesome I mean totally cool.
Yeah, the term “short bus” just grabs you, but I think I’ll pass. Goodhalo is a go though. I’ll give it a pass. Any chance you could read it aloud and record it to audio CD for me? Yeah, I’m joking. I’ll just read it like the rest of the populus. When it’s done that is. Hopefully it gets published like your Super Socks book so I can be one of the first with a signed copy.