Another sunny morning and I’m still thinking about the ‘movie
work’ and realized that last night I watched a little Netflix programming and was
concentrating on the extras and not the main characters. The extras were busy trying to mouth
conversations and look like they were actually vocalizing. It is not easy and it takes good hearing,
concentration and is not meant for those who like to push the envelope. I so wanted to start a conversation mimed ruckus
with my friend on set. This would not have gone
over well.
I remember years ago being an
extra in the movie Mr. Holland’s Opus with Richard Dreyfuss. One scene required us to all observe absolute
quiet as Mr. Holland, the band instructor, conducted his high school band in a
marching contest. Quite obviously he was
a beat behind in his conducting, the music was miserable and Mr. Holland used
curse words to berate his band of students. I was so wrapped up in the good acting that I
became aghast at his treatment of young people in front of the other youngsters
in the crowd scene that I began to clap loudly as an encouragement to his sense
of rhythm. I will never forget the steely
blue stare from Mr. Dreyfuss and my shock at my mistake. “Cut!” Nice
young woman reminds over-enthusiastic extra to remain silent. I realized it was all theatrics and Mr. Dreyfuss
did not need my help. It was a fun
excursion with my sons on a sunny day in Portland, Oregon.
In the local shooting here a young college student, earning
money as an extra, was cast on the set, to usher me, a visitor, from one place
to another. We started a brief
conversation and she told me about her University major and the fact that she
already had a job lined up in her home town Something-Something-Nui. Not having a clue what the name of her Maori christened
hometown was I asked “Where is it was located?”
“Oh, it’s on the coast, of course.”
Oh, of course ‘the coast’ I thought, that should be an obvious location,
if this wasn’t a country of two main islands with plenty of room for coast
line. Later my friend translated the
name of the town and said it was up north and considered ‘the coast’. I'm learning and laughing at my own mental processes
along the way.
Dining area |
PS What are these called?
Jeanette, those are called medallions. I googled it because we just couldn't remember the proper name. I like them.
ReplyDeleteGreat. Thanks. They make the lights look so much richer with historic value. I like them too. J
ReplyDeleteI was gonna say medallions but someone beat me to it. We did have one in our dining room that I hand painted the details with gold paint. Took me over a month off and on to finish it.
ReplyDelete