Caught on Film

I was really going to take a break from blogging today but I had to get down on "paper" what happened the day I acted as a main character in a student film so I don't loose details with my failing mind. It was nuts.

Where do I begin? After getting the part in one e-mail after being told I didn't have it in the first e-mail, I was thrilled. This really sounded like it could be fun. I was just helping out a student finishing her video project for the quarter. So it was REALLY a service project (don't grimace just yet). I would be the nice hostess of a party where a gossipy obnoxious guest tries to ask me personal questions which I deflect and nicely get her out the door. Sounds easy, right? Done that plenty of times. (No, I am not talking about you, J. I always enjoy your company.)

All week, I would waft between what the "heck am I doing" and "wow, I have a real peace that God has a purpose here" and "my husband in the script had better not get too close and personal -- I am happily married after all and want to keep it that way."

Saturday morning arrived and I gathered my things. I fixed my hair and makeup thinking that there would be people on set redoing hair and makeup anyway but I would start the process.

I should have had some inkling on how the day would go by the sheer amount of traffic and difficulty I would have getting there. I get a call that they are running about an hour late and to come later. I pulled my SAHM Suburban into a very WASP Starbucks to get the classic low-fat blueberry coffee cake and a latte to kill a few minutes. Finishing up, I got back in my vehicle and headed in the direction of the house procured at the last minute by the friends of the cameraman since some girls with a house backed out at the last minute. I offered my home but the college students didn't want to go that far from school.

So, I drove into the big city, past the tall buildings, past clean gentrified rowhouses and pulled off at the exit on the map. I begin to notice warning signs that I might not be in the best neighborhood in town, verified later by sheer shock on people's faces when I said where I had been not to mention a cop asking us at the end of the day if we knew where we were. I apparently had come to the armpit of the city and just prayed that God's purpose would reveal itself without any bodily injury.

I pulled up to the address mentioned, noting the barred windows and gang-like groups down the street. I was early but after awhile a taxi pulled up and two young college girls hop out with expensive looking equipment and head towards me. This was my new director. They had not been to see the place before bringing all of us here and had that "Nothing can touch me" look on their freshman faces. Ahhh, I was worried now but I had come this far and wasn't going home. Apparently these freshmen had decided to get real actors through the public classified website I won't mention here instead of using their friends like other students had done.

We entered a renovated home after getting the key from a really very nice neighbor and found ourselves immediately in the armpit of the armpit. Someone had lovingly redone the floors and walls and old wooden touches but these absent occupants were obviously college boys with nothing better to do on the weekend than to drink beer and completely wreck the place. It was a mess and I don't know what I was even looking at in ashes on the coffee table. Yikes, forgot the Purell and Clorox wipes today and I was the "hostess" of the party in this place?  On its worst day, I have to say with some pride my house will never look like this.

Next, the girls realized they had brought the wrong kind of camera and the tripod from school was broken. They would have to go get the right items from a friend who had finished his project for the day. While we waited, I got to know the other 3 actors, never letting on my complete lack of experience. I was acting like an actor after all and fulfilling my high school dreams of being a lead in the play, which I didn't get.

One actor was a writing teacher at the school - nice guy with stories of working in Soho and serving coffee to movie stars. One woman was a "real" actress trying to get a break. She had done exciting stuff like a dead body on one of the major TV shows and regaled us with tales of complete body makeup and stopping her breathing for four long minutes to look completely gone from this world. She was doing this project to add to her demo reel to give to real producers and get her big break. Yeah, me too (haha).

The fourth actor was a fifties-something gentleman who was actually an emergency room technician and played around with bit roles while his teenage daughters had fun doing more serious stuff. As I got to know him, I became aware of at least one of the reasons God had brought me to the armpit of the city and that was to share Jesus with a hurting man who had just separated from his wife and was completely distraught over it. But we'll get to that later.

Needless to say, there was no makeup or hair person and so what we came in with is what the camera recorded. I did change once but of my own decision to do so. This was quite the grassroots effort but I applaud the girls' ingenuity (just not the location choice) and hope they got an "A." I am not sure I ever want to see the end result except through squinting eyes if at all. Improv was the name of the game and we fortunately made it through all the lines with much laughter, lines whispered off screen for us oldies to remember, lines taped to the cabinet out of view, and tripods tied with a shoestring.

But back to the older actor -- when a scene was being shot in a different room, I got a chance to hear this man's stories and he apologized for letting his dissolved marriage come up like it does everywhere he goes. I had just shared with a room of little girls the night before about sharing Jesus and being proud of it. What example was I if I didn't bring it up with this man? I asked simply, "Are you a praying man?" which led into a deeper discussion. I was able to share with him my hope as a Christian. We discussed the results of not having God front and center in one's life. He said that he watched a particular tele-evangelist on Sunday mornings whose name I did not recognize. Amazingly, I just happened to be flipping channels the next morning and there was the very man talking about fighting the Goliath in your life with faith in Jesus. I prayed that though I may not know everything about this speaker, perhaps the actor was listening and receiving more encouragement to turn to God in his troubles. I hoped that at least more seeds were planted in this man's journey who so obviously needed help.

After feeling like the best discussion of the day was over, we still had three more hours of shooting which went quickly -- fortunately. I was ready to go home. I began to think that maybe this new interest and new contacts could led to a video used in the pregnancy counseling center where I volunteer or perhaps in another ministry. Wouldn't that be cool?

After it was over, we all hugged goodbye and I hightailed it home -- back to my safe home, safe world where everything was familiar again. But, as I watched the speaker the next morning talk about David defeating Goliath and how David was not David without the Goliath he slayed, I was convicted of the Goliaths in my life. I won't go into them here (wouldn't want to scare anyone) but hearing David come up again I recalled reading Psalms 119 earlier in the week and reflecting on David's own ability in creativity and leadership and yet how Psalms 119 is mostly about meditating on God's laws. I think one of my Goliaths is flippancy and details - not focusing seriously enough on one thing and just not being serious enough at all. My prayer for this week (and today is National Prayer Day) is to take the word of God more seriously in my life and heart and walk in truth, not acting like I am living a Godly life but REALLY living it. I want to hear an AMEN on that one!