Monday, April 28, 2008

My last Paper Cuts ever

This morning, around 9:30am, I officially wrapped my time on the first (and so-far only) season of "Paper Cuts" with UArts. I filmed my last scene for the series finale today, and I was lucky that it was a large group scene that featured just about every actor in the show. The scene was a large and complicated one, featuring a lot of business happening and a whole lot of acting going on. So while it was frustrating to see the shoot going over schedule, it wasn't exactly surprising either. Basically we only had two hours to do the shoot, but our director spent an hour of the time on a blocking rehearsal and some run-throughs of the scene before we started filming the actual takes. A lot of time was then spent working actor by actor, running through all their different setups for the scene. Perhaps it would have been faster to separate the setups, and then film out of order but grouped by shot. It's the way the pros do it, and it makes for much shorter shoots, but it's also the kind of thoughts that can easily get mixed up when you're working quickly on your own at 7am. Without the proper storyboards and shot lists, I think it would be easy to forget important shots or provided too much coverage. One of the things that often strikes me about professional work is how calmly and cleanly they can move between different camera positions, acting moments, and sometimes even entire movies. But I'm also not the production manager for this TV show, and I learned long ago to sit back and relax as an actor. I had nowhere else to be this morning, so I had the time to devote to the shoot. I also have patience, and I don't mind waiting around to work on the sets. I'm never annoyed by honest hard work on a project that goes a little over schedule; my own shoot for "Changing Lane" went three hours over schedule, so I can't exactly point fingers. It feels nice to be done the show, but it's strange that I'm not going to have these shoots to look forward to. We still have a grand premiere coming up in a few weeks, so I'll get to see everyone and have a grand red carpet affair. The cast and crew still have another day of shooting tomorrow, and then that should finish out the production for the series. The student crew will still have post-production work to do, but the whole series should be complete soon. Episode Five is online now, and so is that CW-esque promo that we shot a few months ago. Episode Six should follow soon after, and then Thursday May 15th will mark the big screen premiere of Episode Seven. We will be screening the entire series on that night, and it is open admission. I'll post information about the screening, since it is open to the public and all are invited. And so we'll say goodbye to the on-set antics of "Paper Cuts," and we'll move on to the next project.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is a good example of the "sadness" involved in your profession. It seems all too easy to get emotionally involved in a project and then one day it's all over; then you have to repeat the process again and again with each new project. Hey, maybe they'll have a reunion show!