The Wandering Monkey

Yesterday was my final scheduled day of filming for the White Countess production.  Overall, I was on site five days, plus five days of rehearsals and two dance lessons with the primary actors.  While it was going on, the days can seem very long.  For me the shoot was always very beneficial, but I know that for many it was a difficult and sometimes frustrating experience.

 

The schedule begins at 6am, give or take.  The shoot runs until 7pm, or 9pm as we wore on. Some days we practially did nothing at all.  Those are the hardest days to deal with.  But once people got the idea of what it was like working on the set, we all adapted and could handle the situation better.  Lots of people brought a deck of cards or brought their Chinese studying books.  I used the down-time during the set to collect emails and phone numbers of virtually everyone who was in the group of extras. 

 

After my first day in which I danced with the film's lead actress, I was no longer so much at the center of attention.  But I had no issues with this, since it would seem my appearance in the film and ability to make contacts on the set was pretty assured.  I could tell my dance partner Andrea was getting a bit frustrated, though, because she had to dance with people who were just recently trained. She's a champion dancer, but as a follower you can only do so much as your leader takes you through.

 

After the first day of filming the official choreographer flew in from New York.  Once she was present, most of the film staff talked to her directly and I stopped being so pro-active with getting involved in dance decisions.  But I got along with her quite well.  Our skill sets did not overlap too much, so there was little to no conflict of interest or 'creative differences' as they say!  She works in avante guarde ballet, while I deal more with lead-and-follow dancing for the masses.  She came up with the ideas and overall plan, and I suggested here and there how that plan might be executed and trained the people on those dance skills they would need to make it look good.

 

In the last day of shooting I finally did get to dance on film with my partner Andrea.  This is good, because, she'd been getting a bit frustrated, as I'd said.  We did a couple of dances together, though not in our own style -- rumba and foxtrot.  I had to learn the basic steps, since I'd never done either style at all.  It occurs to me that if I'm to be taken more seriously as a 'dance instructor', I need to learn all the basics of all the general forms of dance.

 

It's funny, because in this experience, though everything is very good and positive, people will get mad at you because they were perhaps not properly included.  An actress who I'd done work with before did not make the call backs for dancing extras because of a strange decision-making done at the studio.  During rehearsals, the extras coordinators asked me to rank everyone A,B, or C.  At the time, it looked like we didn't have enough female dancers, so everyone would have been used.  I put my friend down as a B, which was pretty much accurate, and she'd make the movie regardless.

 

However, they seemed to get more dancers or didn't use everyone on the list, and she was dropped off.  Some of the people who did make it were also B dancers but less in skill than she.  The extras coordinators picked all the A dancers, then picked those B dancers with best rehearsal attendance.  My friend had only made one rehearsal, thought I vouched that I had trained her myself before.  In the end she didn't make it, and she was upset with me for not using my influence to bring her on.  I just told her I thought they would have picked her, and I would have happily given her an A listing if I thought there was any doubt she would make it.  I think we are OK between myself and this actress now.  She ended up getting another role in the meanwhile, so no harm done.

 

Towards the end of the shoot, I talked on the phone to my swing dance comrade in Beijing.  He was upset I hadn't called HIM for the shoot.  My first instinct was to be defensive, saying I had just heard about it.  But I had sent a posting to the Yahoo group which he should have read, except that he only gets special notice postings and this post was sent out as regular.  So he was not happy that he was excluded.  But, for both of them I said I'd tell them immediatley if there's more dancing going on in the future.

 

 

These problems aside, I'd have to call the overall event a great success.  Nothing's going to be all positive, but we've gotten a great breath of life into the dance movement.  A lot of people want to take courses, and even more want to come to our parties, especially if we hold them on the film location.  The potential has boosted amazingly.  At this point I need to stay focused and keep a sharp mind.  I've just hit a springboard and now I'm bouncing high up in the air.  If I keep this under control, I may make this into something good.

 

And, in case you are wondering, the movie will probably release one year from now!

 

Peace-

J