One of the great mysteries of directing and directors, at least for me, is what they say to their actors before a scene or after a scene. What kinds of directions does a director give? Here are few things that have been uttered by our director, Alex.
Wig out.
Beam.
Go crazy.
The way to play this is with no expression whatsoever. Don't do anything.
You'd be surprised how well some of these directions work.
Day 9 - A close second in the contest for best set in the film is the classroom. Yesterday, in response to a question about the differences between a short and feature for FWW, Alex answered, "Well, we're not used to having production design. So that's different." In this case, different means good, very, very good. Ample props(in joke for the crew!) goes out to Katie, who plays Denise is the film, and who procured numerous dressings for the classroom and really helped bring it to life. She is a teacher herself.
You can tell the shoot is nearing a close, because only a few crew members are left who have not been featured yet.
About 7-8 kids showed up today to play the students in Archie's classroom. I must confess it is a complete joy to play opposite the kids, even during scenes when Archie is just reading to them and they are quiet and attentive. I was sorry to see them go. Of all the parts of the classroom, the centerpiece was the blackboard, which is actually green not black; and each continuity day presented the art crew and myself with a tabula rosa in which to let our imaginations run wild.
Our lunch conversation today raised some prickling questions about what makes a man a man and a half-man a half-man. According to Katherine, who plays Danny, only if you have kids are you a man. If not, you guessed it, you're a half-man. But for some reason, if you're a woman, you don't have to have kids to in fact be a woman. She may have been speaking extemporaneously, but I sensed a strong conviction. Unfortunately, it's a double standard. I do not want to digress too much, so I'll end things here.
Besides, I'm about to fall asleep.
Arbitrary note: I was told my Stephanie, our costumer, and Gretchen, our key hair/make-up, that I would make a good drag queen.
