Grey Matter_02.The First Week

by bot on September 20, 2009 at 6:53 pm
Posted In: JEFblog

Blogging about my adventures as an actor on the set of the horror film, Grey Skies.

ALIEN LANDING ZONE

ALIEN LANDING ZONE

We just finished our first week of shooting and, although it’s been hectic and crazy like any other film set, it’s also been an absolute blast. Today the production gets a break though, and the Internet connection seems stable, so I thought I’d blog a bit about what’s been going on this past week here in Clare County, Michigan.

For the most part, they’ve been shooting this movie chronologically, so the first few days had us actors getting to the set early to shoot exterior scenes of our characters arriving at the house. The past couple of days had us getting to the set a bit later in the day though, to shoot night scenes and some interiors. Now that all the exposition about a group of friends vacationing in a remote cabin by a lake has been shot, the real fun can begin: ALIEN ABDUCTIONS!

We actually finished a few scenes a couple of days ago, where a group of us is searching the house for a missing friend with flashlights after the power has gone out, and we find out that the circumstances of her disappearance are… strange. I won’t spoil anything, but the way the aliens take us one by one is pretty cool and creepy. We also filmed a scene yesterday where my character, Brian, is taking pictures in the woods when he hears something that sends him running back to the house. It was one of those shots where the camera swoops around the actor 360° while they are getting increasingly freaked out, and being the actor in such a scene was a huge thrill. I haven’t seen the footage yet but I’m hoping it turned out as well as in my head.

MICHAEL CORNACCHIA AND I, ROLLIN DEEP

MICHAEL CORNACCHIA AND I, ROLLIN' DEEP

Another cool thing is that a couple of reporters from Michigan newspapers have visited the set, one from The Morning Sun and the other from The Clare County Review. Both articles were featured in their respective papers, one of which had a picture of the cast (including me!), right there on the front page. I’ll try and post a picture of that next time I see the paper lying around the set. The article from The Morning Sun is online now, which you can find by clicking here. It focuses mainly on how husband-and-wife-team, Stacy Jorgensen and Mark Reilly, were able to get this film into production. When the other article in TCCR goes online, I’ll post about it here. Someone also photographed a bar with “Welcome Grey Skies!” on their marquee, and I’ve heard there have been other sightings along those lines as well, so it appears we’ve made a bit of an impression here in Clare.

MY FIRST FIRE. :)

NOT ALL MY FIRES WERE AWESOME

Other than shooting, I’ve mostly been rehearsing lines, sketching, writing and hanging out by the lake or sitting by the campfire which one of my roomies, Production Designer Kevin Parson, makes every day outside of our cabin. I’ve actually gotten pretty good at making fires, myself; there’s so much wood and dry kindling in the forest thirty feet away, that collecting and lighting it is fairly simple (most of the time). While I sit by the fire every chance I get throughout the day, most nights the cast and crew come over to hang out around the bonfire at our camp for some beer and to decompress after the shoot. Especially since we’ve transitioned to later call times, wrapping at 1 in the morning, then hanging out by the fire ‘til around 4:30am happens almost every night. Although I miss my 360 and PS3 and HDTV and DVR, I’m afraid I’m getting drawn into this lifestyle, and the transition back to life in L.A. in a couple of weeks might be a bit more difficult than I would have assumed.

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