BEDA 16: Filming Day 1

So much going on, so little time to blog about it all. Yesterday we had our first full session of shooting for the Secret Buffy project. I headed up to a local community college about twenty minutes from my house where I was meeting with the rest of the production team and the three guys we cast as vampires for the shoot. It was amazing how professional everything was. I've been filming a behind the scenes video that I'll be posting when the actual video goes up so you can see what I am talking about, but Forest really went above and beyond with the prep work for this.

We had a UHaul for transporting the lights and other equipment, one of those event tents for all the technical stuff (in case it rained) a craft services table with food for the actors and a makeup station. We had to get another two guys in full vampire makeup before we could do any real shooting, so I spent the wait time rehearsing the fight scene over and over. Then the guys were ready and we began shooting. We were doing this outside in a little alleyway-looking area, and I was wearing a tanktop (thanks, Buffy, for being set in Southern California) so there was always one person on coat duty when I was filming. I felt kind of bad that they had to keep running back and forth with my jacket between shots, but it was SO COLD.

It took about an hour to an hour and a half to get everything filmed in all the different angles we wanted and everything, but I can't even begin to tell you how much fun I had. Everyone we cast was super nice and great to work with, and even though I got kicked in the arm once on accident, I walked away from the shoot at 10pm with minimal injuries and bruises. Mostly I'm just sore from learning this stuff. Fake martial arts uses muscles I didn't even know I had.

Forest and the camera guys seemed pretty happy with the footage we got last night. It's amazing that again, it took upwards of three hours to film a scene that will probably make up 20-30 seconds of a much larger video, and I'm continually astonished realizing how long it must take to film a whole episode of Buffy for real (or any show really). The only real acting I had ever done before this was live theatre, which is a whole different animal, so I am gaining miles of respect for TV actors this weekend. Do you measure respect in miles? I'm sticking with that.

Oh, I guess I did some TV acting when I was in Ireland for ApartmentRed, but even that seemed easier than this. Memorizing lines is a cynch; it's memorizing fight choreography and making it look the same each time you shoot it that's hard.

Anyway, I'm just killing time before the fight choreographer gets to my house - he should be here any minute to rehearse for tonight's shoot. Last night was the big vampire scene; tonight we're shooting a slightly different demon scene outside "the Bronze". My feet are killing me from the square-heeled boots I'm wearing with every single Buffy outfit, so today I am rehearsing in running shoes. Haha.

We have some easier, non-fight scenes to film here in my bedroom before the big one tonight anyway, so my feet get a little bit of a break. Thankfully.

I know I am pretty much giving everything away with these blog posts, but I am too excited to keep everything under wraps. I am SO anxious for this video to come out. I think people are going to really like it. That's all for today, I'll be sure to have many, many more exciting details for you tomorrow!

Flights taken: 8
Gym badges in Pokemon: 8
Samurott level: 45