The Snowstorm of L.A. August '07

Yesterday we were shooting our opening scenes to the movie. We're on a New York street side, with a newspaper stand, hurried pedestrians, and a headline for the ages. Our newspaper salesman was a big black guy who had a great deep voice. As soon as we were back at the hotel, I turned the TV on and there he was, a featured extra on Malcolm in the Middle. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
I was working with the grips. I learned this: I don't ever want to be a grip. It's skilled manual labor, but manual labor all the same. Sandbags, C-stands, reflectors, dollies and tracks, all the "etc." equipment it seems, is what the grips handle. I can't believe there are people who are career grips. It's a beating on the body, requires training and expertise, and seems largely thankless. I can't imagine grips make a huge fortune. But I'm glad somebody does it, they need it. Just not the place I want to be.
We got to try our hands at acting yesterday, too. Our scene is a busy NY street, so we all played busy New Yorkers. The shots were mostly of our legs and feet (pretty hard to mess that up). We walked back and forth, back and forth, in front of the newsstand, wearing winter jackets. There's a good chance you'll see me in the finished product, but almost unrecognizably.
It was a shorter shoot, and the next location was in a small room, so no space for lots of teachers and students. Three students went to the second shoot of the day while the rest of us hit up the town. We walked down Hollywood Blvd., watched a street performer who was dancing and popping and pulling people out of the audience to dance with him. He pulled a me and a few other people from our group into dance with him. He wanted to show people what white boys dance like. It was a pretty good street performance, but I've seen better. In Europe.
Still can't believe I forgot my video camera. I'll show you all the still pictures when I get back.
Also, another thought. When we went to the shooting of the new Will Smith movie, we just got a glimpse of him across the street. I was thinking about the idea of being star-struck the whole day thereafter, but really started to think about it when Cheryl, who was the one that got us there to begin with, stuck around for a bit afterwards with her finance. I guess after we left, Will Smith came across the street, and took pictures with fans. She was so glad to report to us that she got to "touch his sleeve". It was a big deal I guess. I'm sure I would have said the same thing if I had been there. But it reminded me of a certain biblical passage. Just something to think about in your own analyzation of the "star-struck" phenomenon.