At the Movie Set

So what have I been doing this Memorial Day weekend? Funny you should ask.

I took part in a movie shoot!

I worked with Judith Escalona, a Puerto Rican movie director based in New York who is filming a movie in Manhattan and the Bronx about three Puerto Rican friends growing up in the South Bronx in the late seventies and early eighties and how their lives turn out. One of my Internet pen pals, a young woman by the name of Clarisel Gonzalez, is an assistant to Ms. Escalona, and she needed volunteers to help out as production assistants. So I volunteered.

So how was my foray into the art of cinema? Let me first say that this movie is an independent production, and no big names are involved. That's actually a good thing, given the cinematic claptrap Hollywood has been putting out. My role was simply this: I blocked pedestrian traffic. Ms. Escalona shot a single scene on a side street, and it was my duty to keep people walking through the scene and spoiling the shot. The scene lasted ten seconds, but shooting took nearly an hour and a half; it took nine or ten takes for Ms. Escalona to perfect the scene. Later, she told me I did a very good job, and my friend Clarisel was happy to have me help out.

Although shooting continues this weekend and next, I probably won't help out again due to time and money, both of which are in short supply for me at the moment. It would have cost me thirty-six dollars in round-trip bus fare to go every day this weekend, and next weekend might be a problem owing to a couple of freelance writing assignments I've gotten (more about which later). But I was glad to help, and I also finally got to meet Clarisel, a woman I've been corresponding with for the past eight months via e-mail (we met through Flickr).

Between Clarisel, my British ladyfriend Therisa, and Sachiyo Ito, the Japanese choreographer I'm volunteering for, I'm certainly broadening my horizons. :-)