Day 1 -- Tuesday March 3

This was my very first "industrial" shoot, so I wasn't sure exactly what to expect, but it all looked vaguely familiar, resembling more of the Tell Tale Tango set than Deep Impact. There was a crew, but a sparse one. We had a shooting schedule, but an over-ambitious one. And I had a trailer, but a tiny, foul-smelling one.

The day began dark & early, my alarm going off at 5:15am. I reached the location down by LAX just after 7am. I was able to catch about a ten minute return to dreamland before they called me in to make-up. Little did I know that was just about the last bit of down-time I would have all day.

After make-up and a number of wardrobe fittings and evaluations, we set about making our little movie. A quick glance down the shooting schedule showed that I was in every scene for today and tomorrow. not that my part was so big or important, but I always seemed to be hanging close, throwing in a line or two here and there. Plus, when the two leads go off on business trips, I'm left "in charge." So all day, I was almost always doing one of three things: running a scene, setting up a shot for a scene, or being asked to "stay close" because they were just about ready for me, which was more often false than true. So no rest for the weary as we plodded through twelve hours of office hi-jinx, fatigue setting in all around as we fell further and further behind schedule.

By the time 7pm and the end of the day were upon us, I felt a lot more exhausted than exhilarated. More tortured than fulfilled. And just plain tuckered out. Industrials are not exactly the seedy under-belly of acting, but they're still somewhere near the under-belly. With the tight schedules and small crews, with no stand-ins and the low-budget atmosphere, it's a constant emotional energy drain, as you try to stay up and energized for the scenes you're doing, but trying to survive all the haphazard down-time while you're always being asked to "stay close."

I finally made it back to Studio City by 7:45pm. That meant that I had contributed 14 1/2 hours of my day to this thing. Take away another 7 1/2 for sleep and that leaves two hours to grab a bite to eat and watch a little Frasier. Not much of a life.

Needless to say, I am not a big fan of the industrial.

Go on to Day 2

Day by Day | Xerox | Commercials & Industrials