It was the second Saturday in June when I got up excruciatingly early (0530) to catch a train to London where I was to do the first acting I’ve done since I left drama school at about 14 and had my first ever experience on a film set. It was my day on set at Superman: Requiem, a film I’d become involved with through my friend Daniella.
I thought I knew film making. I’d seen plenty of “making-of” documentaries on TV.
Now, for the first time I was able to see the kind of effort that goes into making a movie, first hand: the planning and perfectionism that goes into each and every second of film. Each and every shot is thought out and set up, mainly because the lighting of the shot has to be right, or the film will not look good. As a stand in for Perry (the editor at the Daily Planet), I got to stand around in front of the camera for a while and watch the lighting crew get busy with various different kinds of lights trying to make me look great on camera so that when Julian, who played Perry, came from rehearsals, the crew could begin concentrating on other factors like acting.
The goal of Superman: Requiem is an admirable one. The idea is to create a film with high production values on a very small budget. As one of the executive producers of the film, I know what the overall budget was, and it was low.
As well as being Perry’s stand in I also had the opportunity to do what I actually went for – to be an extra. Extras form part of what’s called background action. When you see a film with those scenes shot in an office building and there are people running around in the background on telephones and shuffling paper to make the scene look realistic, that’s what I was doing.
Being a scene in an office – the offices of The Daily Planet – I spent a good deal of time sitting at a computer. I also played “man with envelope”, “man who walks across room” and “man who looks at computer screen”. It was a fun and interesting day.
I'm 3rd from the left. Would actually give a full list of names if I knew them all.
I guess the only question is whether or not I’ll make the cut. And I won’t know that until September when I attend the film premier and the after party, which should guarantee another lifetime first and another interesting and unusual day.
