Well, it’s been about two weeks since my last blog entry. That seems about right since it’s been about two weeks since I’ve had a chance to breathe!

For some reason, I am famous for leading a life of leisure. I don’t know anyone who works as much as I do and then, when it’s all done, still has so much free time. After all my dubbing studios, children’s theatre, web design, acting, and directing, I still have time for volleyball, computer games, maintaining a massive music and film library, impregnating my wife, traveling the world, and finding a cure for the common cold (soon to be published). I must be good at automatically defragmenting my day planner (mad props if that analogy makes sense to you). Anyway, this has all changed now that this new job is kicking my ass.

Dialogue Coach: A person who helps train an actor in diction and/or the use of inflections, so that his or her speech fits the character and situation.

And that’s basically what I’ve been doing for the past two weeks on Clean Break. Roughly half the cast is Spanish. I go through their lines with them while costume, makeup, cameras, lights, and sound are setting up and then I have to be there to listen to the performances while we shoot. If I catch anything that I think can be improved upon, I speak with the actor between takes. Plus, since the director found out that I am also an actor, there’s my newfound responsibility of reading any off-camera lines for the on-camera actor to respond to. I like this job because I get to engage my brain and do a little acting. Here’s hoping they keep me in mind when they cast their next film!

But then there are the times when I’m not needed on set – and there are plenty of these times. This is when I either investigate the catering station, chat with the makeup girls, play Monopoly on my Palm Pilot with the on-set nurse, watch the current scene being filmed, or wander around aimlessly. And this is a long day we’re talking about. They told me it’d be 12 hour days for the entire shooting schedule, but we aren’t always that lucky. The first week was mostly 7am to 7pm (with the occasional overtime), but this past week has seen us shoot from 3pm to 3am and then 6pm to 6am. We’re supposed to always get at least 12 hours off between shoots, but when you add travel time and shooting delays to the equation, that rarely happens.

Overall, it’s been a very good experience for me so far. I’ve met some great people, learned a lot about the industry, and have learned to go to bed before midnight (when necessary). Besides the entire technical crew who are all wonderful to work with, I really enjoy spending time with some of the actors. I spent a couple days with the wonderfully kind George Wendt talking about falling down at Oktoberfest, the rocky beaches of Portugal, the current state of cinema, and hidden Moroccan waterfalls. Colm Meaney is always fun to chat with. He’s constantly joking around – even with the hair and makeup girls who rarely understand what he’s saying. Colm just bought a house in Mallorca and has a new 15 month old daughter named Adelaide (or Ada for short – which I explained means “fairy” in Spanish. Very pretty). I don’t have very much in common with Tara Reid who spends most of her time partying or flying off to Valencia to party with the Valencian football team or showing up on set after having partied a bit too much. When she’s not throwing one of her patented temper tantrums about her hair or boots she’s usually well natured and mostly harmless. I haven’t gotten to know Angus Macfayden very well. Either he’s always in character or the guy’s actually a moody diva – I make no judgment. What I do know is that his distrust/disrespect for the script has him rewriting all of his scenes and this apparently excludes him from having to memorize his lines as given to him. This has not made anyone’s job easier. And finally there’s my group of Spanish actors: Lorena Bernal, Francesc Garrido, Marta Bayarri, and Mingo Ràfols. They’re all absolutely wonderful. Very sweet, down-to-Earth people and good actors, to boot.

OK, enough mindless gossip (for now). I’d best get to sleep or I’ll never survive till the end of this film. Two weeks down and two weeks to go!