-02/16/2014-My first day of filming on “Slade Collins 2: In & Out of Time.” They had already started filming a few weeks previous. This day was at an abandoned school out in Herkimer, NY. As you can see from the pics, this place is a wreck-but quite atmospheric. Of note, there was A LOT of Arabic-related stuff here. There was even a library here, but by the time I was done filming, it was too dark to explore.

-The day started off with finding out that the entrance wasn’t plowed and snow was at least knee high. In addition, it was pretty cold this day-albeit colder inside. As for the basement, there was a layer of ice on a good chunk of the floor. There was even a fan on the ice with it’s electrical cord going into the ice, then emerging a few feet away and plugged into an outlet. The pic I took of it didn’t show it too well due to lighting issues unfortunately…

-Even with wearing three layers on top and two on the bottom, it was quite on the chilly side. One of the main reasons that, when one of my gloves was dropped while filming in the basement, I went back alone to find it. Isn’t that a plot to a horror movie? 🙂

-The character I’m playing is Captain James T. Morris-a hard ass who has a typical stereotypical view of women in the 1940’s. He also has a Southern Accent. Becca hates me when I’m in this character so I must be doing something right 🙂 In regards to the stache, hair grows rapidly on top of my head, but on my face…I had a little “help” with the stache for those who were wondering 🙂

-The first scenes involved many, if not all the extras who showed up. Matt had costumes and weapons laid out and it was pretty cool to see everyone dressed up, even the one American soldier who decided to keep on his Nike’s instead of wearing boots…Wendell…(and I did get a pic of it) 🙂 At this point I was darting in and out cause I was going over lines as well as trying to tame my hair. No matter how much goop I put in it to slick and hold it back, a few strands always pop out. If I wasn’t involved in other projects that require me to have normal / long hair I seriously would have considered getting a buzz cut for this. I also got to play light stand for a little bit (see pic)-hey, I could always use another IMDb credit 🙂

-Then we went down to the basement to film some sneaking around and quick fight scenes. Not only was the ground ice but the helmet I got (which we found out later was actually two helmets-probably needed for my watermelon head) had no strap so that was interesting to do. Also of not, this area was not made for tall people at all-banged my head 13 times (yes, I counted)-good thing I had that helmet on.

-Then we went back upstairs to film another quick fight scene and we got to do a little improv as well. Unfortunately, we had to do some extra takes cause, when I’m in “Morris-Mode”, he’s normally quite loud and we’re suppose to be sneaking around so you can see what initially happened… 🙂

-By this time, all the extras had been released and we filmed the scene where Captain Morris is introduced. It was a lot of fun on several levels and it didn’t take too long to do (although we did make some additions (hopefully) to the blooper reel. 🙂

-Then we all went out to eat and then went home. I basically just fell asleep as soon as I walked in so sorry for the lateness with this recap. I have three more days of filming for this scheduled in May. Everyone did great and I have to say, Morris is already in my top favorite roles. Looking forward to getting this done. Pics are now up on my acting page on Facebook. More pics can be seen on the Slade Collins page, also on Facebook.

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