3 (contract) shooting days to go and a cameo

my, time flies. day 16 coming up tomorrow.
the last project before this was done in 24 days, i think. for project RR, god-willing, we're officially calling it a wrap on saturday.

for the american director and cast, at least. we're all guessing that once the boss direk is up and well enough to view the first cut of what we've shot, he'll call for additional shoots/reshoots. which will be approximately a month from now. give or take a week.

(figures-wise though, that, folks, should be another story.)

imagine finishing an action film of epic scale in 18 days? mehn. these two are the fastest directors i've EVER worked with. i mean really.

* * *

yesterday i was temporarily pulled out of my scripty job to do a cameo. the american director and his lead actor (who's also doubling as associate director. go figure) cast me for the role of a kid. there were no other kid-looking persons around so they picked me, and i was supposed to go up running to the lead actor to plead for help.

just for kicks, the exact lines were:

KID: Please Mr. Slade, you gotta help me. they're shooting my brothers for stealing water and they didn't do it!
SLADE: Sorry.
KID: (teary-eyed) PLEASE!

i've done bitplayer roles before in the movies i'd worked on but this one has got to top everything else, experience-wise. haha. on take one the director told me to "push" the hysteria (with rolling eyes, and i could almost hear him silently say "what can i expect, she's no pro"), so on take two, i wanted to do a better job (karirin ba? haha!). i remembered those acting classes we had in school and i just...winged it. pushed the hysterics. did the bit to the hilt. with near-tears!

when the director yelled "cut!", everyone clapped. it was the applause of co-workers cheering for their co-worker (sinu-sino pa ba ang magsusuportahan kundi kami-kami na rin lang), but i felt so embarrassed i literally hid behind my co-actor the whole time they were clapping. the director went to the set and quipped, "Saffron, YOU'RE HIRED!". for a director who doesn't mince words, that felt really uplifting.

the DOP said, "ume-3ric m0rris ha!" and i almost laughed aloud, because i WAS doing some halfhearted 3ric m0rris the whole time (a legacy of the old school). up until today my co-workers were still congratulating me for my bit performance yesterday (hehe, feel na feel ko naman). bigla ko na tuloy uli naisip yung naisip ko several months ago, nung nasa acting class pa ko: in deep, what i really want to do is act. haha.