pavlovsdog

There is this independent film being shot here called Don't Fade Away. It boasts the impressive acting chops of legendary performers like, Mischa Barton, Ja Rule, Beau Bridges, and Ryan Kwanten, some Australian soap actor looking to break into the American market. Needless to say don't look for it at your local multiplexes anytime in the near or distant future, but it is pretty exciting for the Asheville area. Yesterday my superior talents were called on to provide extra work for said cinematic masterpiece. I spent six hours in a small fluorescent lit break room at the Hendersonville Times-News offices, playing movie pictionary with a small heard of similarly bored day playing comrades. They called this the "Holding Room" That term always made me think of livestock. We were to be extras in a office location they were filming that day. For those of you that don't already know this, movie sets are wrist slitingly boring. It's no wonder why the stars hang out in their trailers all day and drink. Unfortunately we didn't have the luxury of a trailer, or alcohol for that matter, but we did have craft services. However there are only so much cheese and craisins one can eat before one starts to feel like a hog ready for the slaughter. There is also only so much mindless blather form that annoying extra who has been at every shoot, and knows the ins and outs of the "business", before you want to grab a sword from props and in one fell swoop permanently detach his cerebral cortex from his mouth. Unfortunately there were no swords either. So we sat and waited. That's what movies are about; waiting. You wait for the lights, you wait for the camera, you wait for the sound, you wait for the actors, you wait for paint to dry. That's why I like the theater, ones it begins, barring some major catastrophe, it barrels on right to the end. There is action. Unfortunately that's word I never heard yesterday. They called us in a few times, but they always managed to take me out of the shot. Either my shoes were too bright, or there were too many people in the shot, or I didn't look reporterly enough. So I pretty much sat around all day, and didn't get to be in one shot. Oh well there goes my chance at national exposure, but I will get paid about $60 for my services, so I guess it wasn't all pointless.

Now I'm off to see Joan Jett at The Orange Peel which should be decidedly more exciting.