The cold’s settling in… which means I need to buckle down and edit this film if I want to meet my (self-inflicted) March 12 deadline for a FULL ROUGH CUT.
So for now, I’m turning over the blogging to others in the Oh, Sophia family, starting off with the one and only Angela Gulner, who plays Jules, the reckless and passionate playwright/instigator/leader of the bohemian pack that accepts Diya into its fold and snaps her out of her funk.
Most of our actors had prior film experience but Oh, Sophia was the first time Angela had ever acted in or even been on a film set and quite frankly, you never would have guessed it. Now back at school (she’s getting her MFA in Acting at Harvard) Angela sums it up in her post below. Enjoy!
AugustNewYorkOhSophia – FINALLY
I had been looking forward to shooting my first film for months, and as I boarded the plane from Minneapolis to New York, I was suddenly terrified. Bornila has trusted me with her story, her character, her dream – and I had no idea what I was doing. Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!
But I was surprised at how quickly I felt at home. Never have my anxieties about my work been calmed so quickly – and I attribute that to such a warm, welcoming, supportive, and professional group of crew and cast members. It’s really a gift when a director can make an actor (especially an exceptionally hard-on-oneself actor like me) feel so safe and so free so immediately. It was a really rare experience, I think.
As I’ve re-entered the world of ‘Acting School’ this fall, I’ve tried to process and hold onto all I learned from the shoot. It was surprise after surprise – “Film is so weird!” felt like my mantra. I had always heard that films shoot out of order, but I had no idea how this would shape my understanding of my character, Jules. You can read a script and think about a character as much as you want on your own, but you only really discover who that person is by playing with the other actors, exploring the world, the relationships, and the story in the moment. With a play, you have weeks to do this, but with film, it’s all jumbled. I came to set on Day One with my idea of Jules and her arc — but Bornila (thankfully) never let me hold onto this. She would shake things up, have us try a scene five different ways, and so suddenly I had no idea what the story was anymore – I had to let go of trying to control or plan (the biggest no-no for an actor) anything, and just play around in Jules’ dirty shoes.
It was great. Though at times odd – learning things about Jules out-of-order. I’d discover something one day and think to myself – “Argh! If only I had known this about Jules yesterday when we shot that scene from the end of the film!” The puzzle was put together in a really strange way — but I think the disorder was a blessing – forcing me to just ‘exist’.
There was also a bizarre freedom in doing so many takes. I started to feel like everything I did both mattered and didn’t matter at all. The fact that everything we tried was shot meant that I could try new things all the time and not worry about if they were better or worse than the time before, because they were all documented and ultimately Bornila would choose what was best. If the beginning of one take was great, and then end of another was great, well, great! She’d use them both. The knowledge that I really had no control over how Jules would “seem” in the film allowed me to let go of trying to make her “seem” anything. I think it freed me up to play more recklessly as the shoot went on.
Focus was another interesting thing. Stage acting takes an extraordinary amount of physical, mental, and emotional focus, and oddly so does screen acting, but in a different way. Shoots are long, at weird hours, in weird places – it takes a lot of energy to hold onto a character for that long. Also, film uses strange conventions like sometimes playing to nobody during a close up, or mouthing scenes, or shooting in really small fragments — it’s all very strange and requires great focus if you’re still trying to exist truthfully despite the weirdness.
Another odd thing about film… the camera. It’s like, right in your face. When you’re crying, when you’re laughing, when you’re kissing your girlfriend. I mean, obviously, yes, the camera is there – but it’s REALLY there. It was another lesson in focus, to not play to the camera, or look at the camera, or to elbow Gabe in the face. I’m not sure if this is something you ever get used to…?
I really grew to love the whole experience and owe a lot to the rest of the cast, the crew and to Jules. Acting for film is a completely different kind of craft, and yet as I reflect, not so different. An actor should let go of control, take risks, play, be messy — oddly enough, “Oh, Sophia” ended up reinforcing the heart of everything we study in grad school. On top of that, there’s something really special about having physical evidence of your work. At the wrap party last weekend, we saw a trailer and a few other segments of the footage, and I felt such a sense of joy, excitement, and pride. It’s a special sense of accomplishment, to be able to see everyone’s work come together and I can’t wait to see the film!
