Blog: The Hardest Job In The World

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I was back at SCHOOL on Thursday night, not for BOOK LEARNING but for some Actual Filming, for LO! I was in to do ACTING in an episode of our web series, The Christmas Party. I was a bit nervous, so arrived early to meet everyone in the University foyer. Unfortunately I was in the WRONG FOYER so ended up arriving when everyone else was in full swing, PLANNING.

There were only two of us ACTING, but there were FIVE other people - Madicken (writer/director), Don (cameraman), Dave (Don's mate, sound and lights), Lars (assistant directing and editing) and Tamara (wig technician!) - and while they discussed how they were going to DO filming me and Nikki (ACTING) went and sat and had a runthrough. I'd been diligently learning lines but hadn't otherwise considered what we were actually going to DO until this moment, and FEAR started to seep in!

We're doing EXTRAS for all the episodes, so we did an INTERVIEW bit which was good fun (I like this sort of thing,it is licensed SHOWING OFF) and which hopefully you can see by CLICKING HERE.

That done we headed upstairs to the room we were using. A floor grille plays a VITAL part in the story, and we all stood around impressed by how easy this was to simulate using a grill lid TAPED to the floor over black paper. MOVIE MAGIC! The rest of the evening seemed to mostly be me and Nikki having to shuffle around into the right place while cameras were set up for ages, then doing sudden tiny bits of THE ACTING. You read about FILM ACTORS doing this sort of thing but I'd never really DONE it before, and they are right when they say it is WEIRD. Whenever I've done LIVE acting/titting around stuff it's mostly been about lairing around and making people LARF, but this was mostly about getting the right things in FRAME and doing it the same from take to take. You can see why STAGE actors look a bit HAMMY on screen, and also why people like Keanu Reeves get so much work - he's ALWAYS the same!

The main thing I took away from the experience is that film acting hurts your BACK, as I had to do a LOT of stooping and then HOLDING the position to get camera positions right! I also got to listen to people SAYING things between takes, which was very handy - we're filming MY episode on Friday, so I am intending to pretend I know all about the Clever Stuff ALREADY and will try and Pass It Off Lightly. Nobody reads these blogs, right?

posted 5/11/2013 by MJ Hibbett

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Comments:

Nope, no one reads them at all... :)
posted 5/11/2013 by Chris Abbott

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