So there I was, planning my day and how I had to go back to Boston because of load in tomorrow (theater-lingo for building the set in essentially twelve hours) when the beautiful and lovely internet/text updates from Boston Casting alerted me to extras needed this evening for an upcoming Mark Wahlberg film. Seth MacFarlane wrote/is directing the comedy, so obviously I wanted to go check this out. A free concert at the Charles Esplanade? Why thank you kindly, I think I shall partake. Here was my experience of this wonderful evening where I spent my first time on a real movie set....
Lights, cameras ...and not a whole lot of action. This is the speed of movie sets. You move a light, you move a lens, you see how that looks. You have someone "stand-in" (they're called stand-ins) for who knows how long so they can see exactly how it'll show up on the camera, and basically everything is sitting and waiting, sitting and waiting, and then it's lights, camera... three takes of about 30 seconds to 2 minutes apiece. This is all trivial stuff I learned in film school, but interesting to see nonetheless. I figured we'd be sitting for a while and be bored out of our skulls until Norah Jones would come out to do her thing with Marky Mark.
THEN I saw him!! And I don't mean Mark Wahlberg, because let's be honest here people, it's Boston. He's from here, I'm not wetting my pants over it, granted he is pretty fucking cool with his "I'm a Bostonian and we invented laid back Nor-east cool" swag, but I'm talking about someone that I truly would die to sit down for lunch with and pick his brain: Seth MacFarlane. (aside from brain picking, he's just so darn cute) I looked over to my right, and felt my stomach turn in knots as I realized I would be within fifty feet or so from him for the remainder of the evening. I could literally see right into his station with the monitors and his posse, and I thought I may either vomit or die of happiness.
That's right ladies and gentlemen, I wasn't drooling over the underwear model, because my knees were turning to mush as Seth did his cartoon voices to entertain the extras and give directions over the V.O.G. mic. My life was made complete, and I never wanted to leave. I wish I could've worked on this film every flippin day this week, I was so giddy like a freakin 16 year old girl just being able to stand there! You know how those freaks in the movies would scream and faint when Elvis came onstage? Yeah that was a little close to me, except my gut reminded me that if I want to get into this business I have to get over star-struck-lights-camera-action-oh-my-gawd-I'm-really-on-a-movie-set fever QUICK. Hey, I want to be a comedian, right? Famiy Guy is part of American pop culture and he's a smart and hilarious dude. So why shouldn't I be impressed by the fact that I got to watch the guy at work??
And this also hit me during my pangs of excitement:
If I don't make it as an actor/comedian/whatever, I will never be able to look at myself in the mirror ten years down the road. I've said this a million times when I'm feeling down and whathaveyou, but tonight was so motivating. The energy and realization of that "ah-hah!" moment was astounding. In the thick of it all, as I edged closer to the crew and gawked at their lingo I had that moment that not everyone has in their lives that said, "I WANT TO DO THIS AND I WILL DIE IF I DON'T!" Do you know how many people think of themselves as empty human beings because nothing ever moves them to the point of an innate inner need to take part? That's how you know where you belong, man!!! My five-year-old self was screaming at the top of her lungs, "I want to be in movies!" louder than I've ever heard her scream before.
...now if I could just figure out how the HELL I'm gonna do that, there's my first step.
(only shitty part is public transit ends at 12:30 so I had to leave farrrrrr too early *tear*)
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