Something About Spring
The clocks spring forward, the tulips emerge, students cram for finals, and Hollywood wakes up. This is my perception of spring as I can once again submit to casting calls from the manicured lawns of NYC parks. It’s exhilarating, sending out 14 auditions in 3 weeks. It’s joyfully exhausting, filming my short film “The Piece” that same month. It’s hopeful, spring showing me that no matter how dead a winter, gigs will come again.
The Piece is wrapped and post-production has begun! I have endless love for the cast and crew who were the very model of positivity and professionalism on a very long 13.5 hour shoot. Even when at 11pm, the fire alarm was set off by our artsy-dumb smoke machine, my gaffer and sound mixer simply started a jam band in the spare room of the music studio. Many people would sit in their stress on the couch, but my team chose to create a moment of joy. It was my first time helping direct a film and I was worried I couldn’t pull it off. Sort of fitting for the imposter syndrome theme of the short. Driving to set with my make up artist riding shotgun, I turned to her and said “What if no one shows up?” She just laughed and replied “Emma, people are gonna show up. You’re paying them.” Yes everyone did show up. People were asking me to make a new decision every 10 minuets and I needed to have a good answer. I needed to know where this thing was headed and how we’d get there in time. I was also playing the lead, blocking my other actors, and anxiously checking if everyone was well-fed and happy. Having been on many sets before, I had the foresight to know it’d be overwhelming. Every time I didn’t have the answers, or I was too busy acting to direct, I turned my anxious gaze to Bob Klein, my producer, and total hero on set. Honestly, everyone should have a Bob in their life. Someone who knows the definition of “rack focus” when your brain stops working on hour 12 and reminds you what it means without judgement. That’s a small example of the truly vast amount of work he did, but I feel it represents our dynamic quite well that day.
Filming last weekend was a dream come true and I am so excited to see how far this piece of cinema can go over the coming months. It is one thing to imagine a camera and team of professionals surrounding you someday as you write your story from your bedroom. It is surreal to live it all, 3 times better than you pictured, with a group of passionate individuals, on a perfectly rainy day for a moody film. Since this is the Forest Friends Blog, you really signed up to read about my emotions behind the glitter of whatever nyc actor life I post about on instagram. Yes there’s the theme of the film and wanting to act and wanting to pay forward a gig to locals I’ve work with before…but the root of it all and why I wrote this short is because I was desperate for something more in my life. Constantly auditioning and sending emails into the void of manager inboxes, I felt I lost control over my creativity and voice. I didn’t know how to get it back. So I went to the library (Also the first place I went when I moved here. Priorities.) I checked out the best-looking motivational coffee table jargon in the stacks and I read it cover-to-cover…with annotations. Then I followed every, single, step. I let myself fully believe a bunch of overused pinterest quotes and played along like the lead in a Hallmark special. Everything from step 1. close your eyes and picture it. To step 10. send thank you cards. It’s dumb and silly and it worked for me. Today I have this film and a stronger voice than when I began.
I booked a play in NYC!
I will be playing Maisie in the new, original work Remembering Morgan for the Downtown Urban Arts Festival! This is my first play in NYC and I am giddy with excitement to start rehearsals. In keeping with my brand of angry teenage theater roles, this is yet another piece where I get to cry in frustration over a friend’s death live on stage! It will be so fun! See you there opening night June 9th!
