Last Week Was Heavy, Man...
Hey folks
Been a bit since my last 'blog post so I thought I'd update you on what's been happening in Trish and my life. Last week started off nice and mellow... Friday was Trish's birthday, and we went out to see her brother Pete Bolliger play a gig at our favorite local wine bar, Why Not Wine. If you folks haven't been out there, it's a lovely place... a small, intimate atmosphere and a wine stock which is 100% local (the owner, Lindy, has never steered me wrong when recommending a wine to sip).
After a nice evening of wine, music, family and friends Trish and I packed the dogs in the car and went up to Long Beach, WA where our friend Sue has a beach house. We had a wonderful relaxing time Saturday through Monday hanging at the house, walking on the beach, and generally getting away from it all. Our friend Kate even came up and stayed the night on Saturday. Everything was mellow yellow.
Then, on Tuesday, things started to get exciting. I had one of my "standardized patient" performances that morning (I play "patients" for medical clinics and schools from time-to-time; I'll learn the "character" and symptoms of a patient and then improvise a visit with a practicioner. Good practice for them, and good improv practice for me!). I was playing a heroin addict at a local drug treatment center going through the introductory visit of a clinical trial the National Institute of Health is running.
As I was driving away, I got a call from Adrienne Flagg. She and Lorraine Bahr are co-producing a new play by Dan Trujillo called Jingle Spree at the Coho Theatre in October. I'd talked to Adrienne about auditioning for the play the previous week, but the auditions were going to be held while I was in Long Beach. So, I'd pretty much written the project off... until I got her call. They thought they'd cast the show, but one of the people they'd cast dropped out. So, she asked me to come out to the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center on Saturday to read the play with the rest of the cast... and I might just have a part waiting for me. I'd read some samples of the play on Dan Trujillo's web site, and was pretty excited about the project.
When I got home and told Trish the "good news" (we were actually planning on cleaning out our garage Saturday, so she may not have considered my disappearing for a three-hour read through such "good news") the phone rang. It was Nicholas Hagen, a local film director. I'd auditioned for a new film of his, entitled The Lonely Apocolypse, in April. I didn't get the part I'd auditioned for, but they kept me in mind "for future projects." Well... the future project ended up being a different part in the same film. They had an actor slated to play a sheriff in two scenes of the film (now re-titled Dark Horizon), but a last-minute conflict popped up, and he couldn't shoot his scenes. So, they called me... to shoot a scene in Woodland Washington at 8am the next morning. EEEK! Needless to say, I hit the sack early.
I got up at around 4 on Wednesday morning so I had time to look over the script and get on the road to Woodland by 6 (as it turned out, it was only a half-hour drive, so I didn't need to get up that early... but at least I wasn't late! :) ) . I had breakfast in Woodland while I waited for the crew at our rally point and looked over my lines again. Once everyone had assembled at the Woodland Chevron we drove to the staging area, got into wardrobe and makeup, and then drove to the location of the shoot.
The sheriff I play ("Officer Warren") actually appears at the end of the film... I'm the sort of "Deus ex Machina" who explains what's been going on during the film. Even though this was only Nick's third day of filming, they were filming this scene for the end of the movie (doing things out of sequence isn't that uncommon on film shoots - the order the scenes are shot in is often determined by the availability of the players and the availability of the locations, rather than the order the scenes will end in for the finished film). The shoot took a half-day; it consisted of my driving a truck across a covered bridge, noticing someone, stopping and getting out. Well, ok, it consisted of more than that... but you'll have to see the movie when it comes out. :)
I still have one more day of shooting scheduled, on Sunday August 6. This time the shoot is in Ridgefield, WA (just off of I-5). They're blocking off a street in the center of town, so it'll be an early morning shoot - 4am - 12pm. Fun fun fun!
After the shoot, I drove back to Portland for an appointment (because of the last-minute nature of the scheduling I had to push a couple of day-job appointments around in my schedule). From there it was off to OPB for a broadcast of Oregon PM Live on the Golden Hours Network. Then, immediately after the broadcast I had to hustle to Northwest Children's Theatre to audition for their upcoming production of The Witches (from Roald Dahl's famous children's book). Given the early morning and the rush-around-nature of the day, I don't think I was at my best for the audition... If it had been a perfect world I would have had time to decompress in between projects so I was fresher.
Thursday was mostly a catch-up day for computer consulting appointments. Like I said earlier, I had to move some things around on my schedule Wednesday to make room for the Dark Horizon shoot... I spent a lot of time on the road. When I got home, however, I had another piece of good news waiting for me: I got called back for a promotional DVD I auditioned for a couple of weeks ago. Again, I hadn't heard anything so I'd written this project off... but it looks like the part hadn't been cast, and they were still looking for that "right person." Thankfully, I was still one of the choices :)
I shot on down to the casting agent's office the following morning (Friday) for my callback. Checking my email afterward, I found that I had another audition scheduled on Saturday for a film called Whiskey Marine, produced by a group of Art Institute of Portland students. The film is about surrealist artist Max Ernst and, fittingly, it's going to be very surreal. The part the director wanted me to audition for was Max's father, who will appear in the film at different periods in Max's life (I'm not sure whether he'll really "exist" in the world of the film, or whether he'll be an apparation... like I say, it's a pretty surreal film).
So, Saturday ended up being pretty full. I had the Whiskey Marine audition at noon, the read-through of Jingle Spree at 1 (it went very well... Adrienne and Lorraine were very happy and added me to the cast), we headed to Beaverton for my - achem - grandson's birthday party at 3 (actually, it's Trish's son Jesse's girlfriend's son Duncan... but he's dubbed me "G-dude" - yeah, the "G" stands for Grandpa - so now I have a "grandson" at 35), and then we went to see Pete play a show at Why Not Wine at 8:30.
Boy, was I happy not to have anything scheduled for Sunday!
Anyway... that's what's been going on my life. Or, at least, what went on last week. I'm both excited and nervous to see what this week is going to be like.
Hope you're all doing well...
-Harold
Been a bit since my last 'blog post so I thought I'd update you on what's been happening in Trish and my life. Last week started off nice and mellow... Friday was Trish's birthday, and we went out to see her brother Pete Bolliger play a gig at our favorite local wine bar, Why Not Wine. If you folks haven't been out there, it's a lovely place... a small, intimate atmosphere and a wine stock which is 100% local (the owner, Lindy, has never steered me wrong when recommending a wine to sip).
After a nice evening of wine, music, family and friends Trish and I packed the dogs in the car and went up to Long Beach, WA where our friend Sue has a beach house. We had a wonderful relaxing time Saturday through Monday hanging at the house, walking on the beach, and generally getting away from it all. Our friend Kate even came up and stayed the night on Saturday. Everything was mellow yellow.
Then, on Tuesday, things started to get exciting. I had one of my "standardized patient" performances that morning (I play "patients" for medical clinics and schools from time-to-time; I'll learn the "character" and symptoms of a patient and then improvise a visit with a practicioner. Good practice for them, and good improv practice for me!). I was playing a heroin addict at a local drug treatment center going through the introductory visit of a clinical trial the National Institute of Health is running.
As I was driving away, I got a call from Adrienne Flagg. She and Lorraine Bahr are co-producing a new play by Dan Trujillo called Jingle Spree at the Coho Theatre in October. I'd talked to Adrienne about auditioning for the play the previous week, but the auditions were going to be held while I was in Long Beach. So, I'd pretty much written the project off... until I got her call. They thought they'd cast the show, but one of the people they'd cast dropped out. So, she asked me to come out to the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center on Saturday to read the play with the rest of the cast... and I might just have a part waiting for me. I'd read some samples of the play on Dan Trujillo's web site, and was pretty excited about the project.
When I got home and told Trish the "good news" (we were actually planning on cleaning out our garage Saturday, so she may not have considered my disappearing for a three-hour read through such "good news") the phone rang. It was Nicholas Hagen, a local film director. I'd auditioned for a new film of his, entitled The Lonely Apocolypse, in April. I didn't get the part I'd auditioned for, but they kept me in mind "for future projects." Well... the future project ended up being a different part in the same film. They had an actor slated to play a sheriff in two scenes of the film (now re-titled Dark Horizon), but a last-minute conflict popped up, and he couldn't shoot his scenes. So, they called me... to shoot a scene in Woodland Washington at 8am the next morning. EEEK! Needless to say, I hit the sack early.
I got up at around 4 on Wednesday morning so I had time to look over the script and get on the road to Woodland by 6 (as it turned out, it was only a half-hour drive, so I didn't need to get up that early... but at least I wasn't late! :) ) . I had breakfast in Woodland while I waited for the crew at our rally point and looked over my lines again. Once everyone had assembled at the Woodland Chevron we drove to the staging area, got into wardrobe and makeup, and then drove to the location of the shoot.
The sheriff I play ("Officer Warren") actually appears at the end of the film... I'm the sort of "Deus ex Machina" who explains what's been going on during the film. Even though this was only Nick's third day of filming, they were filming this scene for the end of the movie (doing things out of sequence isn't that uncommon on film shoots - the order the scenes are shot in is often determined by the availability of the players and the availability of the locations, rather than the order the scenes will end in for the finished film). The shoot took a half-day; it consisted of my driving a truck across a covered bridge, noticing someone, stopping and getting out. Well, ok, it consisted of more than that... but you'll have to see the movie when it comes out. :)
I still have one more day of shooting scheduled, on Sunday August 6. This time the shoot is in Ridgefield, WA (just off of I-5). They're blocking off a street in the center of town, so it'll be an early morning shoot - 4am - 12pm. Fun fun fun!
After the shoot, I drove back to Portland for an appointment (because of the last-minute nature of the scheduling I had to push a couple of day-job appointments around in my schedule). From there it was off to OPB for a broadcast of Oregon PM Live on the Golden Hours Network. Then, immediately after the broadcast I had to hustle to Northwest Children's Theatre to audition for their upcoming production of The Witches (from Roald Dahl's famous children's book). Given the early morning and the rush-around-nature of the day, I don't think I was at my best for the audition... If it had been a perfect world I would have had time to decompress in between projects so I was fresher.
Thursday was mostly a catch-up day for computer consulting appointments. Like I said earlier, I had to move some things around on my schedule Wednesday to make room for the Dark Horizon shoot... I spent a lot of time on the road. When I got home, however, I had another piece of good news waiting for me: I got called back for a promotional DVD I auditioned for a couple of weeks ago. Again, I hadn't heard anything so I'd written this project off... but it looks like the part hadn't been cast, and they were still looking for that "right person." Thankfully, I was still one of the choices :)
I shot on down to the casting agent's office the following morning (Friday) for my callback. Checking my email afterward, I found that I had another audition scheduled on Saturday for a film called Whiskey Marine, produced by a group of Art Institute of Portland students. The film is about surrealist artist Max Ernst and, fittingly, it's going to be very surreal. The part the director wanted me to audition for was Max's father, who will appear in the film at different periods in Max's life (I'm not sure whether he'll really "exist" in the world of the film, or whether he'll be an apparation... like I say, it's a pretty surreal film).
So, Saturday ended up being pretty full. I had the Whiskey Marine audition at noon, the read-through of Jingle Spree at 1 (it went very well... Adrienne and Lorraine were very happy and added me to the cast), we headed to Beaverton for my - achem - grandson's birthday party at 3 (actually, it's Trish's son Jesse's girlfriend's son Duncan... but he's dubbed me "G-dude" - yeah, the "G" stands for Grandpa - so now I have a "grandson" at 35), and then we went to see Pete play a show at Why Not Wine at 8:30.
Boy, was I happy not to have anything scheduled for Sunday!
Anyway... that's what's been going on my life. Or, at least, what went on last week. I'm both excited and nervous to see what this week is going to be like.
Hope you're all doing well...
-Harold
posted by Harold Phillips @ 7/24/2006 08:10:00 AM
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