Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Acting for SBCC - Day 2!

Today was another of those incredibly different days. I am truly amazed at the possibilities that one can find if he/she just sticks his/her head out. 
JSB Cafe and the movie set.
I arrived at school around midday. First, I saw a couple of friends and ran some errands. Then, at 12:30, I went down to JSB cafe to record a new scene for the SBCC Virtual Tour. When I arrived, I was introduced by Peter, the cameraman at the head of this project, and he introduced me to Sean and Sarah, two students at SBCC. I never met these people before, but I was supposed to act like they were some of my best friends. They were sitting at a table with two beautiful sandwiches in front of them. I was al little confused, because I wasn't given many instructions… But I was supposed to figure it out!
Camera is rolling, and… action! So the camera is filming Sean and Sarah as they bite on some French fries and talk and I come in the scene, join them, greet them, and seat at the table. Then I steal a couple of fries from Sean, and I join in their conversation. This was very interesting.
Peter was filming us interact and we really didn't have to try that hard… We were not acting, we were just being ourselves, and getting to know each other. Sean is a soon-to-be-22 year old, first at SBCC, completing the scuba diving program. And Sarah is on her second year, and she wants to be nurse. They were actually really cool and we laughed a lot, which was much appreciated by Peter. 
Sean informed us that when he was in high school he took one acting and recitation class, and one thing he remembered from it is that when actors don't know what to say, they just say the word “watermelon.” This is because “watermelon” has many syllables and therefore it gives the impression that an actor is talking when he is really not saying anything… In fact, the camera only records video, but not sound, which is cool because when acting we always end up talking about funny stuff. For example, while Sarah and I didn't know how accurate was the information about the word watermelon, we thought the whole thing was very funny and kept making jokes using that word. 
We were having a great time! And we got a delicious free lunch, too, so nothing to complain about :)
Peter asked us to take a selfie while he was filming!
After that, Sean and Sarah left, my friend Alissa arrived, and we went to film some more. Alissa and I jumped in the car with Peter, and he drove to the Butterfly preserve in Goleta. This is a forest, where, supposedly, there should be a lot of butterflies; however, I only saw two or three. It was definitely fun but also pretty weird. Peter asked us to imagine we saw a storm of butterflies and to point at them and pretend like we were amazed and fascinated by it…. but there were no butterflies. We walked through the forest, a big field, and then arrived to the coast, where we could see the whole ocean. It was an astonishing view. 
Looking at it, I started thinking about how much I am going to miss this little paradise that is Santa Barbara. Of course I am excited about the life journey I am experiencing and about starting a new adventure up in the Bay next semester… But I became very attached to Santa Barbara and I am definitely going to miss it. 
We finished filming a little after 4pm, and then Peter drove us back to school and dropped us off. I probably should not be an actor, but I am having fun. I am excited to see the final video once it’s ready!

A presto,

- Fede

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