Summer is Here!

The sun is shining and life is beautiful! There is something about the weather that makes everything seem happier and easier, although it also means another busy season of movies for Montreal has started without me, but I digress.

Wednesday night, I got my first taste of the Actor’s Fight Club. It is supposed to be a place where actors meet to work on auditions or lines or simply come to act. The rules aren’t quite the same as in the movie Fight Club, as it is an entirely different concept, but the first rule, “Leave your ego at the door”, is repeated multiple times in the list. This particular Fight Club is for the performers in the next Tom Todoroff Intensive to work on our scenes.  Lara, my scene partner and I got there early to work on our scene from Spike Heels. We hadn’t even gone through it once when the others showed up, so we stopped to say hi and catch up, which led to their asking about our scene, and to my slightly having an inner panic attack.

You see, our scenes are supposed to last 2-3 minutes, but ours is more along the lines of 5-6 minutes. We were going to try to cut things, but we can only cut from the beginning or the end, not the middle, so we kind of have to rethink our whole plan. We went up first to do our scene, to see how long it is, and where we can cut. I definitely appreciated all the help and advice we got, although the two sentences we cut won’t help much with our time. We decided we would learn our lines, so that we can try it at the next AFC at the actual speed of the discussion, which includes cutting each other off and talking at the same time. If not, we will have learnt a lot of lines for nothing, and will have 10 days to learn some new ones, without practice or the advice of others. I am really hoping we manage to make our current scene work!

On Thursday our class with Suzanna was earlier than usual, and it was the audition class, where we don’t get a scene partner, but a reader, to mimic an audition. The Stranger Than Fiction scene went good, and I tried to use what we had worked on for the smiling and not smiling thing…When Harry Met Sally, however, came with the issue of eyelines. It’s a 3 person scene, and only one reader, which means I should have established eyelines for each other person in the scene, but I decided where I would look instead of which one was which. There was a lot of confusion and I’m guessing a lack of credibility, but that is what class is for. To work on our craft, and to take risks, to make mistakes so that we won’t have to make them again in an audition room.

After class, Carolyne, Morgan and I went to the Burgundy Lion for a delicious supper, and a lot of talking. We made plans for trips we probably won’t take, but also agreed to go on a shopping trip once we have all booked a paying job, no matter how big or small. I also got this lovely bracelet, which any 12 year old will tell you, is the true testament of friendship 🙂

I met up with Carolyne again that night to enjoy Iron Man 3 with my brother and his girlfriend. I’m a sucker for those superhero action movies, and this one didn’t disappoint (unless you’re my brother, who read the comic books).

On Sunday, I had to be there for filming at 6:30 am, meaning I had to wake up before 5. I am a girl who loves my sleep, but there have always been two things that I don’t mind waking up early for. One of them is travel. If you wake me up at 3 am so we can drive to Disney, I am good to go. The other is acting. Whether it is to drive to an audition workshop in Ottawa, to be an unpaid extra on a student film, or to work on Tricaillin, if you need me there early, I will be there with a smile on my face, because there is no place I would rather be 🙂

We filmed some scenes by a deserted, run down gas station, then went back to the first place we filmed at. I was really happy to have the warm leather jacket all those other times when it was freezing, but I really regretted wearing it on Sunday.  The sun came out full force, but it was okay, until we started doing scenes where we had to run, which involved multiple mini-sprints, followed by running up a staircase. James and I were both way overdressed, and shed layers as soon as we wrapped, which was around 10 am. I loved the filming, but I was also grateful for the frozen yogurt I had afterwards, and the swim once I got to my grandmother’s.

Summer has begun, and I can’t help but believe that with it comes infinite possibilities and experiences!

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”

-Confucius