Who missed me, baby? I didn't think so.

Here's the latest excuse for me not hanging out with Icrontic: I've been filming a movie.

Well... not FILMING... actually acting in. I landed a lead role in 'The Party Record,' a short (not feature length) coming-of-age film about irresponsible high schoolers trying to get drunk. It's being produced by Paper Monkey productions - I think they're a division of Rrell entertainment... neither company seems to have a website, although the owner of Rrell has been doing special effects work for big-name films for a long time (the only one I can remember at the moment is Pirates of the Caribbean).

...Alright. That description makes it sound like a glorified YouTube production. In reality, it's going off to a film festival in Los Angeles this... uh, March, is it?

I'd like to give you guys a little insight. I mean, as a Materials Engineer(ing student), this was brand new and positively incredible to me.

I was pretty apprehensive about the script at first, to be honest. I'm not really a big partygoer, and 'filming in a small town in iowa' sounded a little sketchy; but I gotta admit, they had their ducks in a row. The crew - hardest damn workers I've ever seen - put in up-to-fourteen-hour days of SOLID WORK, and clearly knew their stuff. Tons of professional-grade equipment, a highly skilled camera crew and assistant director/2nd AD pair, and the son of Rrell's owner acting as director really ironed out what I thought was going to be a bumpy ride.

It's interesting seeing how actors work. The first day was cake - arrive at one PM, listen to the director for about five minutes, shoot a scene seven or eight times for ten or fifteen minutes, then sit back and relax; the crew takes anywhere from ten minutes to an hour and a half to set up the next scene (THEY work nonstop). And unlike that damn desk job I had at Rockwell Collins, I can read, eat, play video games, and do anything except drink between when I'm doing actual work.

The next few days were a little more difficult - there was one point with only eight hours between the wrap (dismantling the set) and the next call (coming to work the next morning). Between commute, teardown, and the morning routine, this sort of thing could have had the potential to hurt the sleep schedule. Speaking of sleep schedule, switching from a regular 11:00 to 7:00 to a 3:00-4:00 AM to 11:00 AM really takes a toll on a guy. And, of course, shooting a film about high school means you get to deal with - surprise - high schoolers. To be fair, most of them were pretty cool, but there were a couple obnoxious ones.

The last day found me tired, cold, sick, and positively delighted. I could do this job for reals, if they'd have me.

By the way, I'm sure you're wondering about the compensation package - because this movie was entirely out-of-pocket for a very small company, the compensation package included no pay. It did, however, include room and board, food, and transportation costs - so basically, I had a really fun, free vacation weekend.


tl;dr went from this to this.

Now then, my next excuse for not hanging out with Icrontic - I'm pretty sure I managed to catch the freaking PLAGUE in Fort Madison. Tell my wife I love her, because I don't think I'll make it out alive. *cough*