Background artist

I made my acting debut on Friday night as an extra in the movie. You'll be able to see me in two shots standing at the counter of a tuxedo rental shop with my onscreen fiancée (who I later found out is only 15 years old!). It was a fun night. I'm really enjoying working with people who have a broad knowledge of movies and feel the same satisfaction as me when making them. These people have a lot of great stories: our D.P. was telling us about the times he met director John Waters (a Baltimore native), our key grip worked behind the scenes at last year's Academy Awards, and the actor standing across the tuxedo counter from me was an extra in Sex and the City. Software developers don't have experiences like that.

This weekend turned out to not be as much work as I expected. It's been raining off and on since Friday night, so the big BBQ/picnic shoot we had planned was rescheduled for a weekend in July. I ended up with a couple days off.

R. and I drove up to Philly yesterday for the Manayunk Art Festival, which was surprisingly smaller than the Minneapolis Uptown Art Fair and the Fairhope Art Fair in Alabama. However, they handed out free samples of food/beverages at this one, which ranks it ahead of the other two, at least in my book. Otherwise it was a pretty typical art fair. R. found some jewelry to purchase.

On Saturday night we went to see the movie version of A Prairie Home Companion in the theater. I recommend it if you are a fan of the radio show or if you are from Minnesota. It was a cute movie with some dark touches, and it contained a lot of clever observations about Minnesotans. Seeing some St. Paul landmarks and hearing the accents made us a bit nostalgic for home. Good thing we'll be heading out there next weekend.

I've got a 15-hour day of movie making scheduled for tomorrow. The other notable schedule irregularity for me is a two-day, midweek shoot down at the Delaware beaches. As a little perk, the producers are taking us out in the party town of Dewey Beach on Wednesday night and setting us up with a place to stay for the night. I look forward to it!