Remember the Alamo-Part 5

February 10-14

We worked on more scenes that were begun last week, by I had to sit out quite a bit for the sake of continuity. Any time the same moment in the movie is shot, either from a different angle, or if there are simultaneous actions occurring at a different location, a person has to be consistent in action and appearance. In other words, if I'm on one side of a wall, and the scene shifts to the other side of the wall, I can't be on both sides unless there is a VERY good reason for me to appear in both places at once. Likewise, if I shoot a scene from different angles, I need to be certain I am dressed the exact same way and doing the exact same action. Otherwise, in the movie, as the shots are edited together, I may be holding a rifle at certain moments, then suddenly, the rifle is sitting on the ground next to me, then back in my hands...it might look really stupid. These inconsistencies are generally referred to as "incontinuities." The production staff works diligently to see that no errors like this occur, but it helps them if the actors can remember where we were and what we were doing in a specific scene.

I got to be in a fairly tight shot with Patrick Wilson (portraying William B. Travis) while he talked with Leon Rippy (portraying William Ward). I stood behind Leon, so I only saw him from the back, but I had a great view of Patrick. The guy is gonna be a huge star. He has a significant part in the upcoming HBO miniseries "Angels in America" and of course he stars in this "little" movie about the Alamo. He was really great in this scene. He was great in the way that De Niro and Nicholson are great. His superb acting had as much to do with what he DIDN'T do as well as what he DID. I wouldn't have expected a stage actor to pull off such subtleties as well as Patrick. I don't mean to discredit theater actors, and I'd never seen Patrick act before. It's just that most plays that I have seen were acted via a slightly over-the-top technique. I assume the idea is to play to the audience so that the emotion is communicated to the people in the back row, and those audience members would never see a quivering lip nor a teary eye. Evidently, working on "Angels" opposite actors like Pacino did Patrick some good. He is going to be a TV/movie star, and he deserves such recognition.

I'm still having fun. I'm finally over my sinus infection and the weather was (occasionally) pleasant. I appeared in several shots this week and made more great friends in soldados Julio, J.C., and Robert Allen, and defenders "Wild" Bill, Hank, Michael, Dustin, Clayton, Richard ("I got a disease...and the cure...is more screen time!"), Roger from Nederland, TX (my hometown), Greg Romero, an Austin playwright, and many more who are cool, but whose names I'll just have to learn before production ends. There was plenty of excitement in the form of explosions, "bullet hits" in the dirt around me, and firing of our guns. There were also horses and wagons on the set one day and the wranglers handled them expertly. I've gotten quite a bit of screen time, for an extra, but it's still early in the shoot and my foreground shots will taper off. Besides, I have no idea which scenes will make it to the finished film. My best shots may end up on the cutting room floor. Anyway, I'll enjoy it while it lasts. I just wish there was more time for SLEEP! We are supposed to start night shoots soon, so wish me luck in the sleep department.