It was a normal day at work when co-worker Joe Leto told me about the auditions happening for an independent film in NE Iowa. He forwarded me the casting notice, which said that Deb Copeland of Copeland Creative and Ann Wilkinson of PMS Casting, were going to be holding auditions for the SAG modified low-budget feature film the upcoming weekend. I sent in a resume and a headshot (from my book) and received a reply that I was supposed to arrive at 10:30am on Saturday. I went to the home-office of Deb Copland, stood on the taped line, and read two separate “one-liners into the camera. That was that. It took longer to drive to Des Moines than it took for the audition.

They said it would be a week or two before I heard anything – if anything – and so I continued directing the play and tried to keep myself busy. Filming was to begin on a Sunday, and I finally got the news that I had acquired the part of a “Religious Husband” in the film while I was at the Saturday performance of my play. The next evening, during a board meeting, the production office called and told me my call time would be on Monday at 1:30 PM.

Monday was drizzly and dreary, and the weather report showed no signs of it letting up. I arrived at the location at around 11:30, and found it strange that nobody was around to even greet me or give me directions or anything. I then learned everybody was at the local contracted eatery, so first I went and had lunch at a small mexican place, then went to find the other place, The Twisted Chicken. I was supposed to check in with Christian, but when I opened the door, it was packed and I didn’t want to interrupt anybody’s lunch. So I wandered back to the “hotel” which was set up as a production office, and just waited.

After a while, the hair and makeup people arrived, and even though I was early, they got me through the process and off to wardrobe where I was given a “one way” sweatshirt and t-shirt to wear. Finally I met up with Christian who had me sign all the SAG paperwork and start work forms (just like starting a new job) and then he told me my shot was the last one of the day. Great.

I had one line to memorize. One. That’s it. “Would you like eternal life?” So for the next 5 1/2 hours I sat in the production office “green room” and went over and over my line. I woke up from dozing a couple of times. Finally Christian got a page from Frank who said they were ready on set.

We walked down to the set where I was introduced to everybody. Contrary to what I thought, there were only two other actors coming in from out of town, besides the 3 leads who were there for the whole shoot. I was one of them. They got me situated just as the sun was starting to set.

I then met my co-star for the scene and the star of the film, Hallee Hirsh who wore a pink waitress uniform that really brought out the blue in her eyes. We blocked the scene a couple of times, and then they asked me if I would be available to come back the next day and reshoot if necessary. I was told it was OK to say no, and so I told them no and that I had to go back to work. They said ok, and then I thought I heard them say they would just recast the part tomorrow.

I was devastated. You dont tell an actor you are recasting the part BEFORE you shoot! I was in a state of complete disbelief. The crew continued to get the set ready, and there was some discussion whether or not the Pepsi cups could be in the shot or not. Then as we were ready to start, they realized that while I was a “Religious Husband”, I didn’t have a family. They quickly scooped a kid off the street, made his mom sign a form, and put him on an apple box so he could see inside the window of the ice-cream stand set.

The kid wasn’t really interested.

We blocked the scene a couple of times and Hallee tried to get the kid to take the french fries from her when she pushed them out, but again the kid wanted nothing of it. My blocking was to yell towards an imaginary kid playing near the water, turn around, deliver my line, react to hers, and then go off with 2 things of fries and 2 pepsi’s – and of course the kid. Well, I managed to get the 2 drinks and most of the fries, but the kid just stood there when we were supposed to walk off.

We were finally ready to do the scene for real. I was expecting these giant lights with white “diffusers” over them (that look like giant white boxes) like I was used to when I was on 7th Heaven. What they had instead was this tiny flat panel of hundreds of little LEDs on it that could change its brightness by simply moving a lever up and down. I looked at the light and was immediately impressed. These were far lighter, and brighter, and probably more energy efficient than the giant klieg lights that the crews used to haul around.

Finally everything was set and the director, Becky, yelled action. I waited a couple of seconds, yelled at the imaginary kid, turned around, looked into Hallee’s eyes and said “How would you like everlasting life?” CUT! From the back of the crew, the script supervisor yelled “the line is ‘would you like eternal life?” Crap, I messed up my one line that I had been practicing for 5 hours.

So we do it again. And again. And again. Each times as I turned around, I almost lost the words. But we did about 5 takes, and then it was really getting dark, so they called a wrap and everybody thanked me and applauded, which felt nice. I was escorted back to the green room and signed my last form. I asked Christian about the recasting thing I heard and he said I had misheard, they were talking about the kid.

Im still not sure if I was recasted or not.

At any rate, that is pretty much my day “on location” filming Duck Farm No. 13.

Be looking for it at the festival circuit next Spring/Summer.

[TAGS]Duck Farm No. 13, Troy Rutter, Becky Smith, Hallee Hirsh, filmmaking, movie making[/TAGS]