Kindred is in the bag!

Two production meetings, one conference call and about 1600 emails later, we finally shot Kindred and it was a complete success!

Call time for crew was 6am at Sac State University so I was out and about by 5:15am, on my way to the store to pick up bagels and a few other things for the cast and crew. Cast had a call time of 7am and Giovannie Pico, one of our three principal actors was the first to show up. We hit it off right away, she was such a sweetheart and I was happy being on crew where I could cater to her, especially after hearing that she had driven in from San Francisco! At the end of the day after watching her amazing performance I regret not asking her if she wanted a back massage and a steak and/or lobster... the woman is a phenomenal actress!

Next to show was Sacramento actor, Ron Brokenbrough. Hands down one of the nicest guys I have ever met and just extraordinary on screen. His delivery was so natural like he has been doing this since day one. Throughout the shoot I could hear different people complimenting him, both to his face and behind his back (I was one of those people). His ears must have been burning all day.

Jodi "Patient Tracy" shot her scenes in the afternoon so she showed up with her mom a little later in the morning. It was SO MUCH FUN watching this girl at work! I hope that she chooses the acting path, she'll really go somewhere with it! A memory that makes me smile was listening to her dad, director Scott Howe, coach her to clearly pronounce the word "Cholera" (as Jodi has a touch of a Chinese accent).

Oh really? I can be in charge of casting our extras? Hold on a sec... (dials cell phone) "Hey Michelle? What're you doing on Saturday?"


I had a blast recruiting and casting our extras, which I have always wanted to try (recruiting, scouting, casting). Everyone was an absolute treat to work with! Plus, I found out after talking to Bill Hennig (a.k.a "Vacaville Bill") that he worked on Oliver Stone's movie "The Doors" as an extra. I'll have you know that The Doors is one of my favorite movies of all time and Oliver Stone is my favorite director (right after Scott Howe, of course). "Here Bill, make yourself comfortable as I am about to ask you 250+ questions". See "Vacaville Bill" and one of the sweetest ladies ever, Anne Mox -below. Megan Page and Jim Quales were also wonderful to work with!




Another fun task was managing craft services, maybe it's the Filipina in me that loves hosting and feeding but it was a blast. Next time we will have pre-sliced cheese so I don't find myself saying, "let me cut the cheese for you" any more.

The script supervising wasn't bad. Well, for me any way... I wasn't there to see the reaction when it (my log) was busted out in the editing room. Logging each take and jotting down production notes for continuity kept me VERY busy. I may have kept Scott and Angela even busier trying to decode it though.



We shot my scene later in the evening around 8:00pm at the nursing education building at Sac State. What an honor to shoot and be in the same scene as Jodi and Giovannie Pico (SAG actress), I hope I didn't ruin the scene for them! Hey, I've always wanted to be a nurse so at least now, I can act as though I had the drive to make it through nursing school!



Kindred wrapped at 10:30pm. Long day which was VERY rewarding and an experience that I will never forget!

Relationships

Relationships by Keven Nguyen was shot today at a coffee shop out in Elk Grove called Plantation Coffee and Bakery http://plantationcoffee.com/bakedgoods.htm Call time was noon but the camera man didn't show up until about 1:30pm (he said he got lost), needless to say, we were off to a slow start. That's ok though because the desserts at this place were amazing! I picked up some sort of raspberry brownie and a white mocha, making me a happy camper. Dude could have shown up at 1:45pm and I would have still kept my cool after a dessert like that!

After the camera man arrived (with the camera) I was notified that they switched my role to "Kelly" instead of "Waitress #2". No complaints here.

I guess I better read the script huh?
(Or at least pretend to, for the camera.. hehe)

Check out the crew waiting for their
camera guy.

Wondering: "why does the guy that was late get the chair?"

The star of "Relationships" Peter (played by Tyler Thompson) & me, tanning under the bright lights of movie magic.






















That's one shoot down and three to go!

Dew or Dew not, there is no try

WOO-HOO!

Three rehearsals and two performances later, the scripted reading of "Mrs. Teach's Washday Miracle" was a total hit!

The director approached me and asked if I would be in the real production come Spring 2008!!!

There's no way I would turn it down, the cast was FABULOUS (on stage and as people) and the script by Donya Wicken is absolutely brilliant. It was her script that really opened my eyes to quality dialogue in script.

Oh and also, one of the owners of the Thistle Dew approached me and asked if I would be in his Children's Christmas play. He asked if I would play a cat! That's kind of cool, I haven't played a cat since I was in the Davis Nutcracker circa 1987!

*Happy Birthday Jr*

Who am I today?

Today will be my last session at UCD Med School for this academic year, acting as a "Standardized Patient". The last six months has been such a growing experience with my acting. I first heard about the gig through Sally Forcier (who has been so awesome as both my Casting Director and Coach) http://www.forciercasting.com I can still remember the email that Sally sent me at the start of January, letting me know that they were looking for people of specific ethnicities for certain days and the money was pretty decent. There was a contact email and so I sent them my resume and headshot and got a call back about 15 minutes later! I thought I was going to be helping out for a few specific dates but next thing I know I am swept off of my feet into the world of SP's who's motto is "Always be prepared" (translation: Always have a back story).

What exactly is a standardized patient?

Standardized Patients (SP's) are people who have been trained to accurately portray the role of a patient with a specific medical condition. The term "standardized patient" comes from the fact that SP's are specifically trained to not only represent the context of situations or problems, but to also consistently recreate that same situation or problem each time they encounter a student. Consequently, each student will see a patient with the same history and physical findings.

Many graduates of medical schools across the country report that they left school without ever being observed taking a medical history or performing a physical exam on a patient. The ability to perform a competent physical exam and take an accurate, thorough medical history are fundamental clinical skills that all graduates should possess. The Standardized Patient Program's primary objective is to ensure that all graduates possess these essential skills. Stanford currently uses standardized patients in two different capacities:

1) Teaching Sessions. These informal activities allow students to practice their skills and receive feedback on their performance.

2) Formal Examinations in Exam Situations. SP's must not only role-play, they must also fill out a written evaluation of the student's performance. The scores that the students receive on SP exams are passed on to their supervising physician and help inform the physician's final assessment of the student.

-http://ome.stanford.edu/spp.html


I remember filling out a form for the gal who directs the program at UCD Medical School and I came across a question asking if I would be willing to receive a breast exam (my eyes got wide)
I think I wrote something along the lines of, "For me this is an experience to strengthen my acting, was not aware of any physical exam, no." When she was going over my form, I remember her asking why I was opposed to it and I was like, "sheesh, I dunno... first of all, I'd have to be paid a few thousand more!" There was some truth to that, the truth was what I wrote on my form, I really was not aware of physical exams. The false was when I suggested being paid thousands more... You couldn't pay me enough.

I later found out why that question was on there. If someone says yes, it opens up the opportunity to be involved in the physical exam part where you actually go through a pap smear and breast exam to teach the procedure to the student. I'll pass.
When I met some other ladies who did the physical exams I asked them how they brought themselves to do it and some said because they didn't really care and others said it was for the sake of medicine. I'm laughing thinking of other things they could have said.

Over the last six months I have acted as:
-A Sac State student who was sexually assaulted (this was part I)
-The same student who goes for a follow up after she finds out she got pregnant from the incident. This case dealt with the conflict of abortion and catholicism (part II)
-A 28 year old mother of 3 who has had abdominal pain w/abnormal pap result
-Vietnamese woman with facial pain (sinus infection and alcoholism)
-Prostitute with HIV (who continues to "work") You probably wonder why a careless prostitute like this would even bring herself to the doctor? Well, "It burns when I piss" she replies. That was a fun case. Sad but fun.
-A woman Stomach pain / liver damage
-A mother who feels responsible for the drowning of her 3 year old son
-Non-adherent pregnancy (smokes, drinks and does drugs if they are around)


I LOVED this form of acting because it was so organic. It was 20% medical and 80% improv acting and the student took every slight movement as something.
I had to develop my character because you better believe the interviewing med student wouldn't just stick to the medical stuff. I have been asked questions like, "What brought you to the US? What does your diet consist of? Which fast food chains and what do you get? What does your spouse do for work? What do you fight about? What indigenous methods of treatment have you tried?" the list goes on with obscure and off topic questions too.

I remember when we had partners for the first time (mother who felt responsible for the drowning of their 3 year old son). I was paired with an "ex-husband" who also blamed me for the accident. He was supposed to act verbally and emotionally abusive. When we all met up in our conference room before the session there were 6 females and 6 males, naturally we all glance around wondering who we will be paired with. I remember leaning over to a girlfriend and whispering, "Yo L? They better not pair me with that guy over there, it will be SO hard to get into character. I could see myself getting verbally and emotionally abusive with HIM if he got loud with me..." picture Weezer's lead singer, pants tighter than mine (getting LOUD???). So you can figure out who my partner ended up being.

We did this case twice. The second time was better than the first but we REALLY needed that first session to be the best as the Director of Doctoring was in the room. Oh well.

*

Seeing these first, second and third year med students is so inspiring. They are much younger than I am and on a road to something I could never even attempt to tackle.

Kindred ball is rolling

I met director Scott Howe before I met any of the other writers and directors at the PCS Cast & Crew Call. I introduced myself as "Dr. Chen" as I knew that was the lead character's name in his movie Kindred http://www.kindredthemovie.com (I know you're thinking, "smooth move ex-lax") needless to say, I didn't score the role of Dr. Chen. What I did score however, was a role as "Nurse Sarah", Script Supervisor , on-camera host for the "Making of Featurette", the lead role in two other films that Scott wrote (which we will begin filming after Kindred is wrapped), an appreciation for the film making process, amazing contacts (not the lenses but the people like Paul Nicknig and his family, Tomi Kelley and her family, Joaquin Murietta, Laura Tapia (hair/makeup/special effects) http://www.myspace.com/spfx_laura, Ron Brokenbrough, Chris Terry, Giovannie Pico http://www.giovannie.com I could go all night) but most importantly I scored a new friend.
Get this, later I find out that Scott's wife, RuiXia (pronounced "Ray-ja") was actually a classmate of mine in a comm. course I took at Sac City College a while back! I absolutely adored her then and I adore her now. Same goes for Scott's daughter Jodi (who plays "Patient Tracy" in Kindred), love that girl!

Today was our first production meeting for Kindred. I went online and looked at Script Supervisor duties before I took off and quickly wondered if I bit off more than I could chew...

What's continuity again?