No film or stage production is complete without some huge production happening.
Take the short film I’ve been performing in for a film festival. It finally wrapped after extending an extra month and being rescheduled countless times.
What will be about a half-hour film has required over 40 hours of filming and multiple trips to Jackson and Hattiesburg.
When this production started, no one knew much about it or how it would work out. It’s a big production for a first-time director, Raju Aundre Branson.
As if the cost of gas weren’t enough, on two of the four days of shooting we had no crew to run the sound, the lights or the camera; it was just the director and the actors. We did what we could. So, if you see it, be lenient.
They also extended the shooting for conflicting scheduling purposes, weather and lack of crew, interrupting previous committents of mine, one of them being the Greenwood Little Theatre’s “Fox on the Fairway.”
When they tried to have me drive to Jackson on Sunday and on Monday, when I had another practice, I put my foot down. Enough was enough, so I drove up on Wednesday.
Since the start, I have had to wear a thin dress in freezing weather, wear heels for 16-hour days and throw a Frisbee when my accuracy is horrid.
However, it would have been nice before I agreed to the production to know that I would have to pretend to sing and play piano in front of extras when I have no musical talent to speak of, except in my shower.
But a production isn’t a real production without something or someone making it a bigger production than need be. So, needless to say, they got serenaded with the wrong-pitch Disney songs and “Amazing Grace,” and they had better like it.
As my actor friend Quincy says, “I’m channelling my inner diva.”
On the bright side, the experience introduced me to a new side of acting — one that I enjoyed, but hopefully one that will become more organized as I get involved with more experienced filmmakers.
•Contact Laura Kay Prosser at 581-7233 or lprosser@gwcommonwealth.com
