It was a cold sunday morning and after weeks of planning the day had finally arrived. We were scheduled to shoot our short film that day and I was a part of the cast, what was truly exciting for me was that this was my first experience with movie making. After about 3 years in Theater I was finally going to try something professional with movie making.

The short movie was discussed over the past few weeks, I was fortunately a part of the team from the very start and got the opportunity to watch the whole process up close. As the days neared to the shoot we spent a bit of our time rehearsing our roles. I had a very small part to play and that gave me a chance to burst into random improvisations, usually it would make our serious script into a spoof. Fortunately for me the group of actors I was working with were really professional and they weren’t that easily distracted by my antics :D

So the day arrived and we were busy preparing the first scene to be shot. The director asked the actors to get into costume and the three actors in the scene got ready. The remaining actors(the heroine and me) chose not to get into costume to avoid creasing or perspiring in the clothes.

One of the advantages of movie making over theater is that you can be very close to the actors to watch their performance, as long as you dont disturb them or get into the camera’s field of view.

So as the scene started I carefully positioned myself away from the eyes of the camera and watched as my fellow actors started the shoot. The scene went along well, there were a couple of cuts here and there but the scene looked good.

The scene was nearing the end and thats when I suddenly realized I was supposed to be a part of the ending of the scene! As one of the actors called out the name of the character I was playing, I stood there frozen. I was actually praying for the director to say “Cut”. He didnt…

I was supposed to walk into the scene formally dressed and I walked into the scene, wearing a t-shirt and terribly out of character. What does “terribly out of character” mean? Well lets just say its not what I should be doing :D

After my entry the customary cut at the end of the scene happened and I slowly walked up to the director half expecting him to blast me. I told him I was sorry I was out of costume and he said “well go get into your costume…”

And thats how I gave my first shot on film, out of costume and out of character :D