Monday, July 2, 2012

Scene Stealer


A conversation is not a hard thing. Person One talks while Person Two listens. Then Person Two talks while Person One listens. Both people are talking and reacting. Simple, right? Well, for normal people. And, I assume that most of you reading this are normal people. Actors, more specifically EXTRAS, are NOT normal people. On a shoot last week, I was in a scene with the man in the picture above. We were right behind the main actors in the commercial and could be seen very well. We are having a real conversation before the cameras were rolling. THEN, when the director yelled, "ACTION", he literally turned into a dummy. He was flailing his arms around and just moving his mouth up and down, ya-ya-ya, not pausing for any reaction, just a wild lunatic. He didn't even look at me. On the second take, the director came over to our table. I knew right away what he was going to say. "Whoa. You are certainly animated. Can you not wave your arms around so much, you are right behind the lead actor and it's a bit distracting." I think everything is taken care of and the next take will be much better. Third take, forth take...the EXACT same thing. The whole time I'm just acting like I'm having a conversation with him. All I can do is laugh. Before the sixth take, I see the director slowly shift the camera over, cutting him out of the frame. Luckily, I was on the other side of the table. So, I say, thank you, sir! More screen time for me.