Nice beat, but I can't dance to it...
I was at a callback for a Molson's commercial (which was fun, I should post about it later), when I ran into someone who was involved with a music video that I had a bit part in.
Yeah. I did it during that summer blackout in my journal where I was licking my wounds from theatre producing. Going in to it, all I knew was that it was a non-union production for some folk singer from B.C. that I'd never heard of. It started off on a sour note, as I didn't like how the casting office arranged the audition. Usually when I go to auditions that have multiple roles, they slot each character in a small time slot, so often when I arrive I'm sitting around with a small bunch of guys who, more or less, look like me and I'm not waiting around for more than 20-30 minutes. This audition, however, was an antiquated cattle call. The room was packed with everyone who'd been called in to audition. Male, female, old, young, big, small; take a number, have a seat. When they called out the next number, I realized that there were at least 50 people ahead of me. Aw gee, no problem, they don't need me back at my day job, so what's the harm in a two hour wait anyway? At least I was relaxed by the time I got in to see the casting director, because I had no interest in actually landing the part. Turns out, it helped.
About a week later on a very early Sunday morning, all us bit players gathered at the casting office and were shipped an hour out of the city to Newcastle (or maybe Bowmanville, I slept the whole way) via school bus. We were dropped off at a small 19th century era farm. The concept of the video was as such: the singer brings a fat kid via bicycle to a local county fair with the intention of cleaning up at the pie eating contest. (I'm not trying to avoid spoilers by keeping it to one sentence... it's just not that riveting of a plotline) My agent was told that as one of the pie eating contestants, I couldn't be allergic to lemon merangue pie. Not a problem. In fact, it's my absolute hands-down favourite... where do I sign up? Well, apparently there was a miscommunication somewhere along the line. The title of the song was "Lemon Meringue Pie". When we got there, we saw stacks and stacks of cherry pie. (yeah I know, the song was in my head all day) Oh well, no big loss.
We were all told to bring a few clothing options to represent "country/rural hick". Over the past year I had been trying to get rid of all the plaid and flannel that I happened to own, so I didn't have all that much in choices besides some simple t-shirts and shorts. Some people had garment bags full of tacky clothing. When we arrived on set however, they had a wardrobe department set up and ready to get us dressed. As each actor returned from wardrobe they'd make a comment on how they "brought all these clothes and not a single piece was used, what a waste of effort". In the end, I was the only person who used their own clothes as costume.... an I'm still not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
I suppose if the video actually had credits, my role in the story would have been Pie Eating Champion's Lackey. I was grouped together with three other big guys for the day, of which I was the shortest one. (the Champion was about 6'9") Standing around under the hot sun waiting for the crew to set up each shot was actually the most fun I had during that day. Not to inflate a stereotype, but when you get four big guys together who can act, invariably it's going to lead to humour. It was a great bonding. We simply spent the hours between takes cracking each other up. All the other actors wanted to hang out near our area on the country fair set. We were the cool kids. Heh heh.
So all day I'm eating sparingly from the craft services table, figuring that I need to make sure I have room for pie. Late in the afternoon, the director comes up to me and gives me my own little scene where I'm freaked out by the fat kid's plethora of first-place ribbons on his bike, and quietly sneak over to the registration table and cross my name off the pie eating contest list. I was a little annoyed that I was (good-naturedly) ostracized by the pie eating group while I stood in the audience watching. Still, I had my own shot where the camera was on just me and the whole crew was focused on my actions. It was really cool... and also totally cut from the video. So all I had to show for my troubles was a nasty sunburn and some brief of glimpses of my head off to the side in a couple of shots. Oh well.
I'd like to point out here that the singer, Jeremy Fisher, is a really good guy. He thanked all of us personally for being there, and he was very polite and sociable through the whole thing. (I'd also like to point out that I'm still waiting to get paid for it, but that's my agent's worry) *grin*
Anyway, the guy from the audition told me that the music video is up on the singer's website, under the music section (duh.) in a simple link above the "postage stamp". (and lo and behold he was right) The interesting thing about it is that it's also in rotation at MuchMoreMusic, and you can request it to be seen by voting for it in their Top 10.
I don't enjoy requesting favours, but I would really appreciate it if you and all your friends would go here and, as you check off 10 videos and hit the submit button, select Jeremy Fisher's "Lemon Meringue Pie". It's probably only on the list to satisfy Canadian Content requirements, and it's unlikely that it will oust Shania Twain or Kelly Clarkson from their (yeesh) champion status, but I think we have a shot at smacking aside Vanessa Carlton or Robbie Williams to squeeze in at the bottom if there can be an LJ rally 'round this cause. Thanks, kids!
Yeah. I did it during that summer blackout in my journal where I was licking my wounds from theatre producing. Going in to it, all I knew was that it was a non-union production for some folk singer from B.C. that I'd never heard of. It started off on a sour note, as I didn't like how the casting office arranged the audition. Usually when I go to auditions that have multiple roles, they slot each character in a small time slot, so often when I arrive I'm sitting around with a small bunch of guys who, more or less, look like me and I'm not waiting around for more than 20-30 minutes. This audition, however, was an antiquated cattle call. The room was packed with everyone who'd been called in to audition. Male, female, old, young, big, small; take a number, have a seat. When they called out the next number, I realized that there were at least 50 people ahead of me. Aw gee, no problem, they don't need me back at my day job, so what's the harm in a two hour wait anyway? At least I was relaxed by the time I got in to see the casting director, because I had no interest in actually landing the part. Turns out, it helped.
About a week later on a very early Sunday morning, all us bit players gathered at the casting office and were shipped an hour out of the city to Newcastle (or maybe Bowmanville, I slept the whole way) via school bus. We were dropped off at a small 19th century era farm. The concept of the video was as such: the singer brings a fat kid via bicycle to a local county fair with the intention of cleaning up at the pie eating contest. (I'm not trying to avoid spoilers by keeping it to one sentence... it's just not that riveting of a plotline) My agent was told that as one of the pie eating contestants, I couldn't be allergic to lemon merangue pie. Not a problem. In fact, it's my absolute hands-down favourite... where do I sign up? Well, apparently there was a miscommunication somewhere along the line. The title of the song was "Lemon Meringue Pie". When we got there, we saw stacks and stacks of cherry pie. (yeah I know, the song was in my head all day) Oh well, no big loss.
We were all told to bring a few clothing options to represent "country/rural hick". Over the past year I had been trying to get rid of all the plaid and flannel that I happened to own, so I didn't have all that much in choices besides some simple t-shirts and shorts. Some people had garment bags full of tacky clothing. When we arrived on set however, they had a wardrobe department set up and ready to get us dressed. As each actor returned from wardrobe they'd make a comment on how they "brought all these clothes and not a single piece was used, what a waste of effort". In the end, I was the only person who used their own clothes as costume.... an I'm still not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
I suppose if the video actually had credits, my role in the story would have been Pie Eating Champion's Lackey. I was grouped together with three other big guys for the day, of which I was the shortest one. (the Champion was about 6'9") Standing around under the hot sun waiting for the crew to set up each shot was actually the most fun I had during that day. Not to inflate a stereotype, but when you get four big guys together who can act, invariably it's going to lead to humour. It was a great bonding. We simply spent the hours between takes cracking each other up. All the other actors wanted to hang out near our area on the country fair set. We were the cool kids. Heh heh.
So all day I'm eating sparingly from the craft services table, figuring that I need to make sure I have room for pie. Late in the afternoon, the director comes up to me and gives me my own little scene where I'm freaked out by the fat kid's plethora of first-place ribbons on his bike, and quietly sneak over to the registration table and cross my name off the pie eating contest list. I was a little annoyed that I was (good-naturedly) ostracized by the pie eating group while I stood in the audience watching. Still, I had my own shot where the camera was on just me and the whole crew was focused on my actions. It was really cool... and also totally cut from the video. So all I had to show for my troubles was a nasty sunburn and some brief of glimpses of my head off to the side in a couple of shots. Oh well.
I'd like to point out here that the singer, Jeremy Fisher, is a really good guy. He thanked all of us personally for being there, and he was very polite and sociable through the whole thing. (I'd also like to point out that I'm still waiting to get paid for it, but that's my agent's worry) *grin*
Anyway, the guy from the audition told me that the music video is up on the singer's website, under the music section (duh.) in a simple link above the "postage stamp". (and lo and behold he was right) The interesting thing about it is that it's also in rotation at MuchMoreMusic, and you can request it to be seen by voting for it in their Top 10.
I don't enjoy requesting favours, but I would really appreciate it if you and all your friends would go here and, as you check off 10 videos and hit the submit button, select Jeremy Fisher's "Lemon Meringue Pie". It's probably only on the list to satisfy Canadian Content requirements, and it's unlikely that it will oust Shania Twain or Kelly Clarkson from their (yeesh) champion status, but I think we have a shot at smacking aside Vanessa Carlton or Robbie Williams to squeeze in at the bottom if there can be an LJ rally 'round this cause. Thanks, kids!