It's great to be back on set, after a brief hiatus. Last week I got to shoot an industrial video for Pearson's Education. The video will be used to teach students on how to take good notes in class. For those of you who do not know who Pearson is, here is a brief description from their website:
As the leading education services company, Pearson is serious about evolving how the world learns. We apply our deep education experience and research, invest in innovative technologies, and promote collaboration throughout the education ecosystem. Real change is our commitment and its results are delivered through connecting capabilities to create actionable, scalable solutions that improve access, affordability, and achievement. For more information, visit www.pearsoned.com.
In this video, I get to play a college student. I wonder what experiences I would draw on to play such a character. The best part of my role, was that I was the comic relief. Once I get the footage from shoot I'll definitely post it on my site.
The shoot was a fun but long day, as most shoots tend to be. I had to be on a 7:20AM train from Grand Central up to Ardsley Over Hudson in Westchester County. The location was Mercy College. It was nice to be shooting in Westchester, because that is where I am originally from. Our holding area was the college's dining hall which proved to be very useful when we broke for meals. As usual I got to meet new faces and do some networking. One of the girls turned 18 that day. I remember on my 19th birthday I did my first background gig for August Rush. 3 long overnight shoots. But back to Mercy College. This day was longgggggggggggg. In the first half of the day, I was literally sitting in a lecture hall watching a professor talk about acid rain and art history. The camera was behind me so you didn't see my face, which was good because if I am going to be real with you; there were points where I may have dozed off. I wasn't trying to be rude or anything. It's just that when you are sitting for a long period of time in a warm room, sometimes you tend to lull yourself to a gentle sleep. Did I mention that I was up at 5:30AM to be at Grand Central for a 7:20AM train......so yeah I was also a bit tired from that. In the second half of the day I spent the majority of it sitting in holding waiting for them to shoot the reverse of the scene I shot in the morning. This is when they have the camera on me while someone else prompts my line with the cues. I killed my time by facebooking, instagraming, tweeting, emailing, catching up on some comic books. One of the actors loaded up Netflix and we started watching Movie 43. If you haven't seen it, you totally should. It's a raunchy laugh out loud riot. Finally I get called to shoot, I bang out my lines in two takes, wrap up and bolt to the train. In the car ride to the train station, the director and I connect in the most atypical way. Over Marilyn Manson's song "The Beautiful People". He begins playing a Kanye West song and points out the drum beat as a similar tone. I catch on and the two of us began chanting "the beautiful people the beautiful people". I get on a train by 8:15 and am back in Manhattan around 9.
Of course my day doesn't end here. My theatre company TAPNYC was having it's acting career seminar followed by a company party. I was too late to go to the seminar, but I wasn't too late to PARTY! I head over to the bar and meet my friends and tell them about my day and hear their stories on what they've been working on. It's always great to share success stories and hear about your friends succeeding too.
Overall it was a great day, but a very long one. However, I wouldn't have it any other way. An actor's life for me :)