It must be getting close to Halloween . . .

I filmed a small cameo for a new horror movie called “The Restaurant.”  It’s directed by Eric Ford-Holevinski, whom I met at UCLA a couple of years ago at a Taliesin Nexus film program.  Mark Robert Turner is the finely-moustached architect of my demise in the picture . . .  (SPOILER ALERT) I buy the farm seconds later!

Movie-making isn’t for sissies.  It’s a team effort with producers, directors, writers, actors, make-up people, lighting people, sound people, camera people, money people and people people!  It’s like orchestrating the D-Day invasion (and I was only around for the filming of two scenes).  Every person’s job is important whether it is running the fog machine or being a believable villain.  It’s also helpful to have a guerilla mentality because there are never enough resources or time.

Someone once said that “warfare is 99 percent boredom and 1 percent sheer terror”.  Movie-making is similar!  There is a lot preparation, experimentation and rehearsal.  Ultimately, there is a lot of waiting around.  I have a lot of respect for the people that have to “turn it on” after standing around for a few hours (or days)!  How actors can remember their lines and produce something believable after 20 takes I ‘ll never understand.  And there is actual pressure!  If the final shot was screwed up, it would have taken an hour to clean up the blood (corn syrup) and get everything reset — if the location was still available.

I’ll never make fun of D-List actors again (at least in public).  It almost makes Christian Bale’s blow up in Terminator 3 understandable . . . Christian Bale’s Meltdown . . .

Anyway here is the trailer . . . Let’s cheer on the creative forces that produce the movies we see . . . it’s tough work!  And let’s hope “The Restaurant” becomes the next “Halloween” or “Blair Witch Project”.

Trailer for “The Restaurant”