Wow, whadda couple of days. We are both dead tired, but so ecstatic about it. We couldn't have asked for a better experience. The people from the studio were so professional, the other extras we met were amazing, and Colin Farrell was such a gentleman - even when I nearly broke his nose. I'm not kidding.
Loads to tell you, and a few pictures - but we signed confidentiality agreements, so I have to keep mum on certain things. And keep certain pictures from you. It's not fair, I know, but I'd like to potentially work in this business. I'd like to keep a trustworthy presence here, y'know? *wink*
Our call time for the first day of shooting was 7:45 am. My mum was kind enough to dogsit for us and drive us closer to the city to catch public transit to Pinewood Studios. Arriving just in time, we didn't have to worry about the kufuffle happening in wardrobe, so we headed straight to hair and makeup. There was about 250 of us all getting ready for the shoot! My hair was blowdried, nothing fancy, my own makeup done with a neutral look. Lynda, a wonderful hair stylist, grabbed me and asked me how I felt about beehives. Well, let me tell you ...
Everyone's career in film starts somewhere, right? Looks like Nick and I are off to a potentially good start - with background acting work on the set of Total Recall starring Colin Farrell at Pinewood Studios in Toronto!
Nick and I had answered a Craigslist ad looking for "clubby/seedy/funky people" to fill a street scene in New Asia, where it's "always raining in this part of the world". We were asked to bring our own clothes in rust and earth green tones - about two thirds of my own wardrobe - for the costume folks to take a look at and see if there's anything to use. They liked just about everything I brought, which I'm told makes the process a whole lot easier on shoot day. Here's what we got:
:: khaki green three-quarter length sleeve jacket, H&M (gift) :: Mandarin-collar olive green button-up shirt, Alfred Sung :: rust brown dress pants, Ricki's :: paisley pashmina scarf with gold thread detail, gift :: knee-high brown 'leather' wedge-heel boots, gift (not pictured) ::
Funny enough, this is stuff I wear on the regular, so I'm just gonna look like myself!
I've been reading up on the movie itself, being it a remake of one of my favourite Arnie movies. The original concept of Total Recall came from the short story We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, written by Phillip K. Dick. The story is a mesh of reality, false memory and real memory, all in the mind of Douglas Quail, a simple and ordinary man who would one day like to visit Mars, a plausible vacation destination of the future. Since he is, however, a simple and ordinary man, he can't afford it, so he gets the next best thing - a mental vacation courtesy of Rekal Incorporated, offering "extra-factual memory" to fulfill his dream. As the "Mars memory" implantation proceeds, the staff at Rekal reveal that Quail is an actual government agent with a brain full of dangerous secrets. Frightened by what they may have stumbled across, the staff at Rekal hurry him out of the office, where Quail finds more physical evidence to support that his Mars 'memories' are actually real. The government puts a bounty on his head, but he manages to make a deal: he returns to Rekal to have his memories of Mars suppressed and replaced with "heroic wish-fulfillment" false memories as compensation. As the Rekal staff prepare to implant the memories, they uncover an older and different set of suppressed memories that reveal the unbelievable events they're about to implant to be actually true.
In Mr. Dick's story, Quail doesn't go to Mars. Arnie's "Quaid" does in the 1990 film. I don't think Colin will be going, though. From what I understand, this remake will be closer to the short story than a frame-for-frame remake of Arnie's sci-fi action adventure. I've always been into this stuff, and I'm crazy excited to be a part of this. Hopefully, I won't be on the cutting room floor when this is all said and done.
But if we're going to remake this film again, maybe we can see something along the lines of this:
Source material from Wikipedia.org. Those guys are the best, yeah?
I'm especially excited about this week. I've loved magic tricks since I was a kid. I remember Dad getting me a magic kit for my ninth birthday, I perfected each and every one of them in that kit. I couldn't get enough. There was a novelty & joke store in the local mall I used to get a bunch of pocket tricks from and carry them around to practice. I even made up stage names and costumes from Dad's suit jackets and hat collection, performed little shows in the living room every Sunday. I had so much fun!
I'm excited to pass on the same fun I had to the camp kids this week - three older girls with a passion for dance and fantastic attitudes all around - a perfect way to end the summer!
I had put together a basic Magician's Glossary and a few simple tricks for the kids to perform, each needing props and plenty of practice: the I had also thrown in a 'bonus trick' from my early years of pocket tricks, and something that they could do at home.
I can't believe I'm doing this - some of you stage magicians might be a little upset with me, but consider it for the love of art and passing on the craft, so to speak. Take a look at these fantastic and simple tricks - and how you can do them yourself!
Everyone loves pirates. Who doesn't love a good swashbuckling adventure? We couldn't resist ourselves when it came to our love of the original rebels and decided to school our campers this week with a little bit of the seafarin' life!
The kids made their own pirate hats, eyepatches and swords as part of their costumes, and we've been working on a bit of pirate speak, courtesy of International Talk Like a Pirate Day! Alessandra will have the kids decorate their very own treasure chests to participate in a scavenger hunt! We're looking forward to that on Friday. In the meantime, have a read of our Pirate Adventure!
Pirates are celebrating and feasting on fruits and veggies to make sure they don’t get scurvy on their sea journey – they’ve found a treasure map in a bottle! The map leads to a mysterious island in the middle of the ocean and the legend of the buried treasure of Captain Bluenose! They’ll have to be brave pirates to battle a sea monster and overcome a terrible storm – and finally find the mysterious island! They follow the map and dig at the ‘X’, where they find a chest full of pieces of eight, doubloons, precious gems and pearls – and they wondrous treasure of the Magical Invisible Ever-Changing Whirly-Burly Ball – changing into any round object the holder desires! With their bountiful booty, they sail back home to the Caribbean, where they become the most famous pirates of all for revealing the legend of Captain Bluenose!
Scene: The pirates are feasting on their favourite fruits and vegetables as they prepare to take a sea journey. They sing heartily and dance a jig and practice their ‘sword fighting’ until the pirate Captain Sassypants enters with her parrot, Peggy. The pirates all cheer when the captain holds up a bottle with a message inside.
After learning about our animal characters and starting on our puppets, we've got our story line all mapped out - now it's just up to me to put it into a script! And here it is - enjoy!
Explorer
Welcome to our jungle adventure, where we’re on the search for the elusive and rare pink dragonfly! I’ve been studying about this rare insect for years, and I’ve come to this very jungle – the only jungle where it lives in the world! – to snap a photograph. When I’m all done, I’ll just get back in my boat and float up the river to the local village, safely back to civilization. I even have this map with me to help remember the way! (Pulls out a thick folded piece of paper.) I’m very glad you’re all here – maybe we can find some other animals on our adventures!
This week we're gonna have some fun in the jungle - puppet style!
Puppets are a great way for shy kids to express themselves if they've got terrible stage fright. It's also a great acting exercise to have a sense of bodily presence outside of yourself, and also learning how to focus on different elements of performance other than physical stage presence. That, and puppets are just so darn fun.
Welcome to Synergy Arts Camp King of the Jungle Week!
We’ll be exploring our ‘inner animals’ and learning how to ‘move’ and ‘act’ like our favourite exotic animals in the jungle – lions, monkeys and lizards, oh my! This week, we’ll play theatre games that will focus on how we can move different parts of our body to ‘become’ these animals, give them personalities and help solve a crisis!
Our explorer is lost in the jungle after being chased by a ferocious tiger and other sneaky fiends, but with the help of a few animal friends – and the protection of the ‘king of the jungle’ himself, Brave Lion! – our explorer finds the boat on the river that leads back to a local village.
Each animal in the jungle has a unique ability to help our explorer reach her boat and return to civilization. Animals can do many things that our explorer cannot do, as well – breath underwater, fly in the sky and many more! What can our animal friends do to help the explorer find the river – and how can they protect her from the predators of the wild?
Get ready to release your inner animal – the fun’s about to begin!
Our first day focused on theatre games that helped the kids become uninhibited with their body movements, forming them into animal shapes, taking turns walking and behaving like the animals above after we completed a writing exercise describing them. Consider how differently you would move when you're a hovering dragonfly, or a slithering snake, or a limber monkey!
The kids will start making their puppets during the art portion today. Because we've got a number of younger kids this week, we're sticking to the regular 'popsicle stick' puppets. The older one will be making their puppets out of paper bags. The lesson plans were inspired by something I found on childdrama.com, with more puppet projects I hope to use with future students, such as the Japanese Doll Theatre or shadow puppets. Puppetry work is a great tool to have in an actor's kit.
After the kids get a sense of 'character' with their assigned animals, we'll go through a scenario to decide whether they'll help or hinder a lost explorer in their jungle. That's tomorrow!
Here it is, friend of friends! The script to be performed on Friday for Synergy Superheroes week, based on the kids' superhero characters and guided suggestions to solve the mission! The characters and their abilities are all named after the kids, and they were rather pleased with the outcome. We'll be rehearsing this skit for the rest of the week to perform on Friday!
Script for Mission: “What? No Milk?!”
Narrator
The last we left our heroes, they’ve ready to enjoy their delicious treat of their favourite cookies
(Simran pretends to take cookies out of the oven, while the other heroes are around a table, waiting eagerly. She pretends the cookie pan is hot, and carefully brings the “pan” over to the table without dropping any cookies. The heroes at the table cheer!)
