Heres a couple of quick videos from the local news channels on the Public Enemies premiere in Chicago last night.  They had old cars out in front of the theater and some people were waiting since 4 AM to get a glimpse of Johnny Depp.  The huge after party was held at a art center tied to the building the theater was in.

 

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=6871557

 

http://cbs2chicago.com/video

Hey everyone.   I thought this week was going to be kind of slow but that has not been the case.  I got called into the studio where Nightmare on Elm Street is filming for a casting session.   I am now up for the role of a bookstore clerk.  They took a bunch of new photos of me looking like a much younger clerk you would see in a chain bookstore.  The director has to approve me.  It looks like I maybe up for doing a few lines with the girl playing Nancy if I get it.  Filming would be next Monday.
 

After casting I went to the premiere of Year One with Jack Black and Michael Cera.  The only main person there was Harold Ramis who some of you may remember from Ghostbusters.


Tomorrow is the big premiere of Public Enemies in Chicago.   I am seriously tired this week despite how fun it has been!!!  

Hey everyone.   I am resting up a bit after my long weekend.  I spent 2 days working on my first real indie movie.  We filmed some concert scenes and I had a blast.  It was cool to see how they can achieve shots and things on such a short budget.  I worked on a few @$200 million US dollar budget films so going to a micro budget and seeing how they achieve it was cool.   It definitely gave me insight for filming future projects of my own one day.  I have a few pics to put up from there later. 

A few other tidbits:

Near the shoot was a Japanese culture festival and a Japanese food festival going on.  I stopped by for a while after wrapping instead of sleeping.  I maybe able to take a class on taiko drumming in August.  I have loved those since the Gion Matsuri in Kyoto in 2002.


I am trying to get on a zombie movie that is filming in Indiana.  I got to work on my audition cause now I have a scheduling conflict.

The premiere for Public Enemies in Chicago is end of the week!!!

Also just got called just an hour ago about filming another scene for Nightmare on Elm Street next week.  Long story with that one coming!!

Have a great week everyone!!! 

Thanks for the feedback so far on the Public Enemies blogs.  It is going to run many more parts with some days maybe split into several entries.   I warn you in advance but I will tell many of the details of scenes I was in so spoilers will abound.   I know everyone is looking forward to this one, Public Enemies Day 2 Bank Robbery w/ Johnny Depp!


I just found out earlier I am going to work on a indie film on Saturday and Sunday.  I get to play a farmer-hillbilly type character at a barn on Saturday.  Sunday is more a concert at a club scene at a local nightclub after they close.   I don't know who alot of the cast is, one guy hosts shows on VH1, the other guy had a small cameo in You Don't Mess With The Zohan w/ Adam Sandler.  I'll update more about it with pics and whatever I can tell about after the weekend.

Well I did get the call back for being in Public Enemies about a week later.   I was going to be in the Aragon Ballroom dance scene.   About a week before the shoot I would have to come into the wardrobe office and get fitted for a period piece suit and haircut.  At the time I still had the mustache even though Formosa Betrayed was long gone. 

I arrived at the office which looked kind of a mess.  There were racks of clothing everywhere.  Shoes stacked up over the edges of the boxes they were put into.  Hats everywhere.   I mean the place was a disaster.   It wasn't as big as the wardrobe location for Dark Knight.  They had a warehouse full of clothing and uniforms plus several semi trailers full of clothing racks outside the warehouse.  In the building, I filled out more paper work before going to the back area where they had a makeshift hair salon.  The guy looked at several old photos in a book and compared them to my head.   Then he went to work on my head.  It felt good to get the sideburns gone as they were getting bushy, plus I really dont like long hair on myself.   Then he got stuck on the mustache.  

There were no notes from the casting office or Mr. Mann about if it needed to be shaved off or not.  The 3 people in the area couldn't make up there mind about it.  Finally one of the head costumers  said to leave it and if it needed to be, it could be shaved off on the set.  They actually didn't have many people with facial hair at all so they thought it might be great if I keep it.  I didn't care but I was hoping to get rid of it soon because I hate having facial hair,

After my cut, I met with one of the wardrobe people.  She took my on a whirlwind tour of the racks going through shirts and suits.  I tried on about 7 different shirts and about 20 different suits.  Once we had the colour of the shirt and suit combination, it was time to work on the tie.   That went easy.  We had it on the second tie.  After she had me dressed in the combination, I was in another dressing room and she was working on hemming my pants.  She told me stories about situations while working on other films such as Planet of the Apes, Mission Impossible 3 and Sweeney Todd.   She has become something of an pro working on peiod piece films.  She had to run but had an assistant finish up on me.

I was making some small talk with the assistant.  I was explaining how I was shocked that the woman dressing me worked on such big films.  This was the assistants first gig too, she was just out of school and wound up interning on it.  She was also excitied to work with her.  It turns out the lady'd name was Collen Atwood.   The 2003 Oscar winner for Chicago and 2006 winner for Memoirs of a Geshia both in costume design!!!   And here she is designing my costume for this movie!!!!!  I was floored to say the least.

She returned a little while later to finish picking out my coat and hat.  Even though we are shooting in May -June it is winter in the movie.  I wound up talking to her about the costumes in Memoirs and talking about how cool Kyoto was when I lived there.  We only went through 3 coats and 5 hats.  She took me to another section of the office to take some Poloroid pics for them when I get on set.   Upon taking the pics, she though a different colour coat would work better and we went back and picked out another coat and then back again for the photos.




After nearly 5 hours in there, I came out looking something like this.



After it was finalized, I had to go back to the dressing room which was a sheet hanging over some pipes in the cieling and had an chair and racks in there.   I was given a stack of hangers and some plastic bags to put my outfit into.  Then a guy came in and gave me a sheet of numbered tickets and a stapler to attach tickets to the bags to keep my outfit together.  On my way out of the offce I had to stop and confirm everything with one of the desk girls.

The shoot would be next week on Thursday and Friday night.  It was an all night shoot.  I would  maybe have to go in on Tuesday night for a dance practice with the choreographer from LA.  It was just waltzing and tango.  Wednesday night I would get my call time and they would see me Thursday.  The scene was a big club outting with Johnny Depp and all of his gang.  They were celebrating and having dinner.  This was also the night he met his girlfriend played by French actress Marion Cotillard.

One week to go.........