Nostalgia: Day 6 of 6 (10/20/05)

October 28, 2005 by dennisbaker 

7:30pm: Walking into work tonight, there was the sense of routine and also the sense that tonight would be the last night. We had worked enough days that it felt like tomorrow would be much of the same. We were handed the schedule. There were five scenes to be shoot. All in the breakroom. The first scene was with Peter (Seth) and all the writers. The following scenes were one on one scenes and each of the other writers. That means I had one scene, that was going to be shot first. Might I get out early, I was not going to count on it, and part of me did want to stay as long as possible and make the last night count.

9pm: We are finishing make-up and it is confirmed that they are shooting through the scenes tonight. I will be done early.

10pm: We finish blocking the scene and I hang out on set while the crew light is and finished last minute tweaks. I want to soak it all up. I see Marty, the first A.D. standing by himself and I go up to thank him. He is on set the whole time and as an actor we never really get to talk to him, as we are only on set to shoot. The first AD is the glue that keep the “monster” moving. He is in charge of everything running smoothly and on time. This is stressful, and as a true professional Marty ran everything smoothly and was very caring to the actors. Each time he we would arrive to set to shoot a scene he would address us by name and ask how we were doing. He was a class act.

12pm: We shoot three different angles and I hear from Marty, “That is a picture wrap for Dennis Baker.” The crew applaud (which feels wierd) and I shake everyone’s hand and thank them for a great work experience. We take pictures of the cast and with the director and producer. It does not feel over, but I know it is. I agree with the cast, that this is one of the best sets I have worked on. I am no longer a night owl.

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Nostalgia: Day 5 of 6 (10/19/05)

October 24, 2005 by dennisbaker 

6:15pm: I arrive on set early. I like to get in, relax for awhile and take my time in makeup. Makeup is a fun place to chat and a good pick me up as the girls are really nice and usually have high energy, so I usually don’t like to be in and out.

8pm: Tonight is all the scenes in the conference room. It is a small up stairs room. The first two scenes is with all the writers, Peter, and Arlen (the magazine owner). Between the six of us, and the crew we are tight. First looking at the schedule the writers are only in the first two scenes, so I am thinking we might get out early. I thought wrong. Due to the size of the space they decided to not to shoot through the scenes. (Shooting through is when you shoot all the shots for one scene before moving on to the next scene). They decided to shoot all the scenes from one angle, then move the camera, and shoot all the scenes over from the new angle. We had six scenes to go through.

10pm: We shot the master and two close ups for both scenes. Things went fine. I actually don’t talk in the first scene and say one line in the second scene. So my job was pretty easy.

11pm-4am: We sat and waited till the shot the other scenes. Dinner consisted of Taco Bell, the only other place than Denny’s open at midnight. Taco Bell at midnight is not a good think. Many of the actors were not feeling well by 2am. I had a great chat with Carey Rothman. He was the Art Director for the movie. The pictures you see are drawing he did of us at rehearsal. He also paints pictures and does interior design for clubs. He showed us some of his work. It was amazing! He had a vibe that I dug. He had long hair that went over his eyes, tall, and had a calm, appealing voice. The conversation and art made the night for me.

5am: We are back to shoot the two scenes over again. It takes a little longer than the first round as the actors are a little loopy and the crew tired, but we get through it. I don’t think I will be able to watch this movie with any sense of imagination, because I will have known what really happened before each scene and remembering nights where we shot one scene at 8pm one night and 5am the next day. When you see it, don’t tell anyone. It will be our secret.

6:30am: It is daylight. It is not fun when you come into work and it is daylight and you leave work and it is daylight. It is weird to drive home ending a day, when you see everyone beginning their day. It makes you want to go to the gym, to breakfast, to return all the calls and emails that have piled up…but all that will have to wait.

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Nostalgia: Day 4 of 6 (10/18/05)

October 21, 2005 by dennisbaker 

6:30pm: Call time was moved back because actors are to get a twelve hour turnaround per SAG rules. An actor’s call time can not be less then twelve hours than the wrap time from the day prior. Today was going to be a busy day. We are scheduled to shoot 9 scenes.

8pm: We block the scene where the writer’s play mini basketball in the office and get scolded by Arlen, the owner of the magazine. The blocking goes well. It is a technical scene, with certain timing issues. We seem to get it squared away, and hve fun shooting some hoops. Other than Kyle (Jason Frost) getting his eye scratched there were no injuries. You hae to be careful when you play ball with girls.

10pm: With the basketball scene in the can we move on to a small scene where we leave the office while Peter (Seth Macari) staying late in the office. It is a simple scene that is blocked, re-lit, and shot in two hours.

Midnight: Denny’s is on the menu tonight. The caterer was fired and Denny’s was the only restaurant that was open. The sad thing was that it was a step up from the food we were eating.

1am: The writer’s are on hold as we are scheduled for a scene at the end of the schedule. We are wondering if we are going to get to it. It would be great to go home early, but they want to keep us in case they do get to it.

3am: We are wrapped!! The problem is I can’t go to sleep at this hour or I will be all screwed up for the next night. So I call up Karen, as she is working, and I bring her breakfast. I am in bed by 5am, that is a good night!!

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Nostalgia: Day 3 of 6 (10/17/05)

October 19, 2005 by dennisbaker 

6:30pm: I arrive a half an hour late. I am frazzled as I hate to be late. I was driving down the 110 with major traffic. I thought if I cut through downtown it might be faster. It was not. There is no real worries as actors were still in make-up.

10pm: Shot is up for a group scene of the writers in the pit discussing why Peter is leaving work early so often. Pretty simple, we get it in two-three takes and we are out.

11pm-2am: This is down time for us as they are shooting other scenes with Peter and various lawyers. It is hard to do anything of worth at 1am, so it is alot of sitting around and talking. There is usually so much down time on a set that you get into some great conversations with other cast and crew. So much so that friendships feel like they are being built. The problem lies in that once the shoot is over you will probably never see these people again.

3am: It was looking like we were not going to get to the two group scenes that were scheduled for the end of the night so the three others writers were wrapped, but I have to stay to shoot a small scene I have with Peter. No rest for me yet.

4am: All the writers are gone as well as the three extras we had for today. So our holding room became so quite. I was zoning out and trying not to fall asleep.

5am: I am called to set for my scene. It is me returning to work late at night, gathering some of my personal things thinking that we might be fired due to downsizing. I discover Peter is still at work and he tries to reassure me that the writers will still have there jobs. The scene goes well and we are done in two takes.

6am: Busy day, and we did not get to two scenes, but I am wrapped for the night and ready for bed.

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Nostalgia: Day 2 of 6 (10/16/05)

October 18, 2005 by dennisbaker 

6pm: Call time. I arrive with hardly any sleep preparation. I tried to stay up the night before but crashed at 12:30am. Tried to get a nap and only slept for about an hour. It was going to be a long twelve hours.

8pm: Jason has one of his bigger scenes today. We shoot a scene where his character puts bottles of KY Jelly all over the office for our boss to see. We shoot one angle of the shot, running it numerous times for blocking.

10pm: I have some down time. Playing the waiting game. All apart of a day of filming for an actor.

Midnight: Lunch. The one thing lacking on this shoot is the meals. We had chicken loaf. Yea it was as bad it sounds. It was like meatloaf but made of chicken.

2am: We are up for one of my other big scenes. It is where I have a fight with Val and call her some not so very nice things. We were all pretty tired to it assisted with the fact that we had to be upset. We rehearsed it a few times and then shot. I thought it went well, it got better with each take. It definitely woke me up, which I needed.

4am: Wondering if I am going to be able to make it through the night. We shoot the reverse of Jason’s shot. It is his close up, with me behind him to say a line. Nothing like having your close up at 4am. I was falling asleep at my desk before we shot the scene, but we pushed through. Not without Arianne (make-up) and Kelly (Val) laughing at me and I am zoned out waiting to shoot. That seems to be there favorite thing to do.

6am: That is a wrap for the evening (or morning) and off to sleepy…

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Nostalgia: Day 1 of 6 (10/15/05)

October 16, 2005 by dennisbaker 

Yesterday was the first day of shooting for me on the feature film “Nostalgia”. Below are some of the details.

Noon: My call time to the set. It was bummed back from 10am. I arrive to set and meet Rick Mueller, the 2nd AD. He shows me to make-up and wardrobe. There I see Kimberly Barnett, she is playing Alycine one of the four young online writers. I am told my scene will be shot next and that I have some time as they just started setting up.

1pm: After getting my make-up done, it is time to wait. Since we are on the second story I get a bird eye view of the scene they are shooting. It suppose to be at a restaurant between the lead character Peter (Seth Macari) and actress Kelli Nordhus. I get a chance to see how big the production is. It is one of good size. There are about 30-40 crew people. All of them very nice, and too many names to remember. Hopefully I will get them by Day 3 or 4.

2pm: I am in costume and downstairs. There are still finishing the previous scene, but I wanted to be ready and get a closer view of the action. I get a chance to say hi to the director and producer which I have not seen in about three weeks. I have always been a fan of behind the scene footage on movie sets, and it is fun to stand back and watch it all happen.

3pm: We are finished blocking and begin to shoot my scene. It is with Seth, after I blow up in the office and Seth tells me that I have a crush on one of the co-workers. I confess to him I do, but I think she is a lesbian and that I have no chance. He tells me that I might be wrong. I had to pace in front of Seth, while smoking, as we had our dialogue. It took me a few minutes to figure out my framing, I basically had only two steps worth of space to pace, it was tight, but we made it work. Jason Frost (playing Kyle) and Kelly Flynn (playing Val) showed up during the scene and got to watch the final couple of shots. All the actors playing the young writers were now on set. Two cigarettes, two set ups and about four takes later the scene was done. My first of the movie in the can.

6pm: Dinner. I had a break before one of my big scenes with the three other writers. It was time to run lines, over and over again.

8pm: Time to rehearse the scene. The scene consisted of me explaining what I was writing my article on. It was pretty word heavy. The rehearsal was ok. The nerves were getting a little of the best of me and I was speeding through my lines. I re-grouped as they set up for the master shot. The shooting went well as I settled into the scene and took my time. The scene worked out well.

10pm: We were wrapped and told the rest of the week would be night shoots. That means starting at 6pm and going to probably 6am. Here is to the all nighters…

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The Artist Never Arrives

October 3, 2005 by dennisbaker 

I just finished watching the second part the Martin Scorsese’s documentary “No Direction Home” on Bob Dylan. Today was one of those days for me as an actor. I got a call on Thursday for an audition today for a lead role in a feature film. I was stoked and wanted to prepare. So I schedule a private session for Friday. The session went great and I left with some clear ideas and direction. I spent the weekend memorizing my lines. The audition comes and goes and I did not nail it. This is not one where I did good and just not sure if they will call me back. I outright did not nail it. I was bummed the whole day. I had invested a good amount of time and I did not execute.

Then as I watch the movie Dylan says that an artist must never think that he has arrived. He must always be changing, growing, and moving forward. I needed his 60 some years of perspective. The artist I am now will not be the artist I will be tomorrow or 20 years from now. I will always not be there, so what does it matter to dwell on the fact. No matter what success I have as an artist there will always be a part of me that thinks I can do better, and must strive to do better. So in truth I am suppose to be where I am at. And tomorrow will be someplace different.

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