Tonight I saw the finished product that is Crooked Arrows, the completion of my first journey into professional acting and feature films. Where to begin? It was an incredible stroke of luck combined with the actor's only true ally, preparedness, with which I found myself in this role. Filming it was kind of grueling, but also a growing experience where I met a lot of people and made friendships I hope to carry with me for the rest of my life. And at the end of the day, here is the document of that experience.
How is it as a film? Well, if you read most of the reviews, they're pretty much accurate. Formulaic, yes, but highly entertaining and with some really interesting original elements and a meaningful introduction to the culture and lifestyle of contemporary Native Americans, that isn't blanketed by tragedy or in the shadow of genocide. In the context of the film, they're a vibrant people, and it tackles the issue of reservation casinos with surprising depth... right up until Brandon's character tells Tom Kemp's evil developer that he can't sue because they're a soveregin nation... which I don't think would really hold up in court but WHO CARES THE CROOKED ARROWS WIN THE BIG GAME!
In case you couldn't tell, that was in my Chad Bryan voice. How was it watching Chad up on the big screen? Pretty surreal. Anytime I was on screen, I was basically counting the seconds thinking "OK that's about ten seconds of reel material right there..." To be honest, I'd been coming face to face in the last few weeks with the film actor's ultimate dilemenna, that being an utter lack of control of what of you gets up on screen, the opposite of theatre where you have nothing but control at the end of the day, because your in the room doing it from moment to moment.
So you can have someone in the editing room use only your worst takes, or you can be cut from the film completely. Much of my anxiety had been caught up in the latter possibility, from a conversation I had with the producers, it had crossed their minds. But thankfully, I wasn't. Not all of the lines I recorded made it in, in fact maybe half, but I recorded a lot of lines so that's a pretty good ratio. And most importantly, some really fun moments made it into the final cut which will then be making it onto my reel which will then be the basis from which I'll hopefully begin to develop my screen acting career.
Before I can do that, I have to do a lot of other things first. Like get the footage from all the other projects I've shot in the past three years or so, or as much of it as I can. And begin to strategize, where can I get representation, and how will I go about it? Which market do I want to go for, New York? Los Angeles? Do I stay in Boston? At the very least, this summer and fall I'll be doing theatre. Then this winter is pilot season (which is when there are the most auditions happening for all the upcoming TV shows being shot as pilots, etc you know that scene from Pulp Fiction), and if I'm going to make a move it has to be then. And you know I'm going to be blogging about it when I do!
How is it as a film? Well, if you read most of the reviews, they're pretty much accurate. Formulaic, yes, but highly entertaining and with some really interesting original elements and a meaningful introduction to the culture and lifestyle of contemporary Native Americans, that isn't blanketed by tragedy or in the shadow of genocide. In the context of the film, they're a vibrant people, and it tackles the issue of reservation casinos with surprising depth... right up until Brandon's character tells Tom Kemp's evil developer that he can't sue because they're a soveregin nation... which I don't think would really hold up in court but WHO CARES THE CROOKED ARROWS WIN THE BIG GAME!
In case you couldn't tell, that was in my Chad Bryan voice. How was it watching Chad up on the big screen? Pretty surreal. Anytime I was on screen, I was basically counting the seconds thinking "OK that's about ten seconds of reel material right there..." To be honest, I'd been coming face to face in the last few weeks with the film actor's ultimate dilemenna, that being an utter lack of control of what of you gets up on screen, the opposite of theatre where you have nothing but control at the end of the day, because your in the room doing it from moment to moment.
So you can have someone in the editing room use only your worst takes, or you can be cut from the film completely. Much of my anxiety had been caught up in the latter possibility, from a conversation I had with the producers, it had crossed their minds. But thankfully, I wasn't. Not all of the lines I recorded made it in, in fact maybe half, but I recorded a lot of lines so that's a pretty good ratio. And most importantly, some really fun moments made it into the final cut which will then be making it onto my reel which will then be the basis from which I'll hopefully begin to develop my screen acting career.
Before I can do that, I have to do a lot of other things first. Like get the footage from all the other projects I've shot in the past three years or so, or as much of it as I can. And begin to strategize, where can I get representation, and how will I go about it? Which market do I want to go for, New York? Los Angeles? Do I stay in Boston? At the very least, this summer and fall I'll be doing theatre. Then this winter is pilot season (which is when there are the most auditions happening for all the upcoming TV shows being shot as pilots, etc you know that scene from Pulp Fiction), and if I'm going to make a move it has to be then. And you know I'm going to be blogging about it when I do!
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