Quick & Dirty Research
Cue the Action!
Cue the Action!
Clapperboard Definition: The board depicted above is called a ‘clapperboard,’ because of a small piece of wood which is slapped down from the top edge and makes a clacking noise on the sound track of a film. Because audio and video are separated in a film, the resulting “clap” is used to sync the audio so the words and lip movements stay together.
Two of my kids grew up working in theater and also did commercials and industrial videos. In addition, they dabbled in the movie industry, vying for roles, and filling the need for background actors. The latter, though it paid union wages, did not thrill them artistically. No spotlights, no lines to learn, plus a mother who lurked off stage, keeping a close eye.
Typically, these opportunities were not local. We’d drive the 100 miles to Boston or take MetroNorth to NYC for a ten-minute SAG audition, at best a six-hour round trip. Though the mileage may sound like a great big slog, the trips encouraged conversation between us in the car or train (or a nap for the young actor!). Many priceless moments of clarity or insight were gained by this mother during those commutes.
In their off seasons, when not cast in a play, they had an agent and a favorite casting director who called them on a regular basis to shoot an industrial or commercial. Sometimes they were hired for a live appearance or to work an event like a Color War or to do a music video for a popular country band. Once my daughter had to climb into a semi-trailer cab for a law firm because her shoe size matched that of a truck driver involved in a lawsuit. Unusual jobs for preteens and teenagers perhaps, but ones they enjoyed overall.
Another great part of this experience was my growing connection to movie land. I was a tried and true theater mom (the good kind) shuffling my actors to and from their weeks of rehearsal when they performed at the Hartford Children’s Theatre. I loved to watch the building of a play and how the pieces meshed in dress rehearsal. But the spark I feel on set for a commercial or major film burns much brighter than waiting in a dressing room at the theater. The clapperboard—now in electronic form—the lights, even the set pieces with temporary walls surrounding them fascinate me still.
Word got around and people from the hospital where I worked at as a nurse asked if my actor-children would appear in one of their educational films. Their acceptance led to inquiring if I would play a patient, specifically my kids’ ailing mom. (Please note, no one asked me until my children accepted.) I loved doing this fun activity with them and another role or two followed as the hospital used more videos to educate both staff and the public. I studied how the media teams put a segment together and imagined the role of director and/or screenwriter in my future.
Two serendipitous things happened for me after the hospital gigs. In the first, my daughter was cast in an indie film portraying a young girl who received her first kiss. The actor who had the role of her mother never showed up, and they asked me to jump in. Perhaps I stood and volunteered too, though I’d like to remember that it was the director’s idea. I got a few minutes of screen time with my daughter whose waist-length hair had been gelled into a bald cap and watched her get her first kiss (not really her first).
In my next “appearance,” my son was doing background at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut for a major film. Big stars roamed around the set like Uma Thurman and Evan Rachel Wood. However, the background casting company failed to send enough union people to provide an adequate crowd scene. I happened to be sitting near the casting director’s table, overheard their dilemma, and offered myself up. This is never the way to be cast in anything, but it worked in this case.
While I was busy raising my hand, my son had been off shooting a scene in a different building. He returned to the holding area to find me with my hair and makeup done and in a different outfit. He, a later-aged teenager, sat across the room and rolled his eyes. We were placed in a huge lecture hall a few rows apart for one scene and perhaps my shoulder shows on screen but nothing else.
Then one day it happened. Hollywood actually called. They had my number because I had a profile on the extras’ website. A casting director selected me for the role of Meryl Streep’s stand-in. Honest to goodness. Okay that’s not a real role so to speak, but it was exciting to think that Meryl and I would be switching seats or positions all throughout the shooting of the film. The way it works is the stand-in stays for lighting and blocking, and then at the last minute, the real star enters, shoots their scene, and exits to go to their trailer for a cup of tea. I gave my available dates and waited by the phone all set to drive to Boston and stay for a few days. How exciting to be on set and so close to all the action, or so I thought.
I’m still waiting by that phone. I can’t remember exactly what happened, whether my dates didn’t match the right dates, or if the film was put off or even canceled. Such things happen in Hollywood.
Instead, I sit on the laurels of my mother-of-the-bald-girl getting her first kiss and lecture-hall-participant roles. However, I have not lost my attraction to a live movie set. Perhaps I never will. Most writers I know imagine their books being made into a TV series or a movie, and media rights are sold left and right in the publishing industry. However, it’s rare for a project to actually go to production. A girl/debut author can dream though.
My perfect cast for Paige Cunningham’s Remarkable Life includes Kathy Bates as Paige, despite her being ten years older than the protagonist. Another choice is my hometown girl, Ann Dowd, who slips into any role seamlessly. I have her in mind to play Lutey, one of Paige’s dear friends. In fact, Lutey works as a background actor on occasion in the manuscript. However, I’m fully aware that the writer has little say once the media rights are sold but it’s fun to imagine that I might be invited to a set one day and see my work come to life.
Though my experience touching fingertips with Hollywood and Meryl is fondly remembered here, there is a greater education that resulted from being Hollywood adjacent. When I write my manuscripts, I often see my characters maneuvering as they would through a movie set. And I’m sure that comes from being exposed to so many different types of productions as an avid observer.
I happened to write a pilot script for television years before I decided to write novels. The script is centered around a pizza shop and its bike messenger on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Perhaps one day it will find its way into a director’s hands, or else morph itself into another novel. I submitted it to one contest and though I did not win, place, or show, I received personalized feedback from the kind judge who basically said I had a good concept and to keep revising. Novel writing is hard but screenwriting is impossible to succeed at without lots of experience and connections, as I’ve learned. The script sits somewhere on a hard drive but the characters do dance into my mind on occasion.
That said, the ability to see characters in motion while writing has served my manuscripts. Let’s hope that, one day, we’ll see them traipsing across your Netflix or Hulu apps!