2:05 pm - Thurs 8.04.2011
My Second \"Shameless\" Shoot

Where to start...?

I'm kidding of course - Where else would I start but with Monday's Shameless shoot?

My call time was 10:30 am. I got there early, having to fight myself not to leave my apartment even earlier (Getting to the set early is good; getting to the set ridiculously early is...well, ridiculous).

(One nice thing, if I end up going back sometime, which I hope I do? Once I'm on the 101 N, it's a pretty short jog from my place to the Warner lot.)

I got into wardrobe, and filled out my contract stuff, then just hung out for a bit, till I was called to the set around 11:30.

I was on the set for a time, maybe 15 or 20 minutes, before I saw my scene partner - who I will now call "Bill", since we're good buddies at this point - and had a quick handshake (He remembered me from last time, which I thought was nice) before we went to work.

The shoot wasn't quite as "short and sweet" as I'd imagined...but it was, in relative terms, still pretty short and sweet - We started some time after 11:30, rehearsed a couple times, took an hour for lunch, came back, and wrapped shortly before 4:30.

One thing I'd ignorantly assumed was that the scene would be just the two of us sitting at the bar, so when the director came out and started giving me blocking for the scene, I was ever-so-slightly nervous (It wasn't terribly elaborate stuff, but enough that it made me think, "THIS is why you get your lines down so you know them backwards-and-forwards - So they don't skitter away from you when you add blocking...").

"So how did it go?", you're wondering?

Well, he was really good, I thought. I enjoyed watching him do what he was doing, noting different things he did on different takes.

The director, early on, expressed his happiness with what I was doing, but that didn't completely stop me from at least a few moments of doubt and worry during the shoot.

I still feel like something of a neophyte, in terms of understanding how to perform on camera (And wasn't completely happy with myself over how challenging it still is for me to consistently hit marks).

But really, by and large, in between a moment or too of giddiness over where I was and what I was doing, and moments of anxiety over whether I was doing it well, it was kind of about just doing it.

There wasn't a lot of chit-chat between Bill and myself, which I'm going to take the "glass half-full" view on - We didn't need to hash-out how to do the scene, so we didn't.

A few times, I did comment on how I liked this or that thing he did on a given take, which I thought was a little "cheeky" of me - Cause really, who cares what I think? - and we shared a laugh when, after having some difficulty remembering one of his lines involving a woman's name, I then forgot my line involving a woman's name ("It's catching!", he said, laughing).

When we wrapped the scene, I'd half-hoped to say something to him - I don't know, "Thanks" or something equally memorable - but that didn't work out (Again, the "Worrier" in me worried that he wasn't happy with how it'd gone. But probably, it was more about his just needing to move on to this next scene - He is the star of the show, after all - and not feeling like any "you did a good job" hand-holding was needed).

Basically, I think the same "rule of thumb" applies as with any other thing I've done out here so far - If you get good feedback early on, then no one really tells you anything after that, you're doing fine.

So anyway, that was that.

Now it's just about waiting for the episode to air, hoping it's a good scene, and hoping they'll ask me back again sometime (One of the actors I talked to at length during lunch, was on four episodes last year and the episode we were shooting - #3 for the new season - was his second appearance so far this year. So...cross your fingers for me to enjoy similar success).

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