Friday, October 29, 2010

Barry Levinson - The Bay

Many of you know, I consider myself the "accidental actor", since opportunities to work with some of the leading actors and filmmakers in the world are happening without leaving the Carolinas.

Last month, I had the opportunity to travel to Georgetown, SC to work on a film with legendary director Barry Levinson, (Rain Man, Diner, Good Morning Vietnam). This film is being shot in a docu-drama format. It is a story of a virus which jumps from fish to humans in the Chesapeake Bay.

The scene I was fortunate to work on was shot at the hospital in Georgetown. Upon my arrival on day 1 of my two day shoot, I was in the special effects makeup chair for about 90 minutes while I became "diseased".I had the opportunity to have the makeup provided by some very talented special effects makeup artists.

We worked on various scenes around the hospital and although I was a background extra, had a chance to be on camera a lot, including some other special effects while we shot scenes.

One of the fun and interesting things which occurred, was that I kept my makeup on between day one and day two. With the makeup on my face which looked zombie-like, I went to the Front Street area of town and walked in the bar. I did get some looks as I found a table in the corner of the pub. I got some really strange looks as the makeup looked very real.

Well, this two day experience was another great part of the journey of the accidental actor.