Portlandia, land of fun

So, I've been thinking about writing this blog for a while now. But I'm so busy doing all this fun, crazy stuff that I have little time to sit down and talk about it. Well, f- it. I'm going to make time, rather than wait for it to come to me. That's one thing I've really learned in the past couple years, if you wait until you have the free time to do something, you'll never do it. You have to plan. You have to say to yourself that "I'm going to do such and such at this specific time" (hopefully you're plans are more concrete than that). Then stick to that schedule, it's the only way you'll get anything done. And remember, no one is advocating for you. You have to be you're own motivation.

Enough with the poster quotes.

I'm going to start this blog off with what I did yesterday. You see, I have a job. I tell other people how to get Photoshop to do the things they want it to do. It's not what I dreamed about as a kid. It's not what I went to college for. But I like it nonetheless. However, for a long time I wanted to make movies. Usually that meant writing or directing. I went to college to learn computer animation so I could make digital effects. Although I've moved in a different career direction, I still have a great love of movies. I watch them as often as I can. I love going to the theater on premiere night. I love watching movies in foreign countries without subtitles. And I am still fascinated by all the behind the scenes techno-babel.

So yesterday, I had another opportunity to work at my side job. From time to time I get to be an Extra. It's a mini-dream come true. I get to watch as something is created. It's the same kind of thrill as opening the box of a jigsaw puzzle or turning the newspaper to that blank crossword. Being on the set of a TV show is cookie dough to me. The finished product is great, but the process of getting there is half the fun.

I've been an extra a couple times now, and it's mostly minimum wage work, but I don't do it for the money. I get to watch the lighting crews set up the scene, to see actors rehearse and flub their lines, to ad lib. Watch as a director makes order out of chaos. And most importantly, I get to be on TV!

This time around I filmed an episode of Portlandia for it's third season. I love this show for it's great ability to stereotype all of the friends and strangers I've come to know since making PDX my home. As I tell my out of town friends and family, this show is a spot-on depiction of what Stumptown is like.

When you are an extra, you are generally given very little notice of where you are going to shoot, or when. You are asked to wear something specific and to bring extra options. If you fail, they still have the wardrobe department to back you up. This time around, my second option was the preferred costume. But I can't really say why, as we signed an NDA, but it had to do with product branding. Other extras were wearing brand conflicting materials and had to ditch them. They didn't like my shoes (nothing personal, just not what they were looking for), so I was given a brand new pair. At the end of the day, when returning the shoes to wardrobe, they said "keep 'em". Score! Free pair of fancy athletic shoes.

There were 8 or 9 extras for the shoot (I wasn't sure if one guy was an actor or not, plus we were at an open gym, so there were lots of "civilians" running around). I got to work very closely with the lead actors of the show: Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein. Let me just say, they are great people to work with. Fred constantly thanked us for our patience and for helping them create the shots. It was interesting to find out that the show (or at least our skit) was unscripted, the director would shout out a general direction for the scene to move in and the actors would just roll with it. Each take was unique, very little overlapping dialog. I'm sure it's an editors worst nightmare to mine the footage and assemble it. Or it might be a dream to have so much material from which to create something. Actually, video editing was one of the things I liked learning most while in school.

We filmed at a gym, but I was surprised by the amount of exercise I got. So when you see the episode and were watching through a window as Fred and Carrie fight, those arms pumping iron are mine. Later we all did a cycling class together. We biked a lot and we biked hard.

I don't know when my episode will air, but I'll be sure to let all my friends and family know when I do.

Tomorrow's adventure: Tomato fighting.