Acting on a Film Set During Covid 19

Hey, I'm Aaron Marcus, and if you're watching this on my YouTube channel, don't forget, if you haven't done this yet, subscribe and just click the little subscription button and also the bell, the little notification button, and that way every time I upload a new video, you'll be told. So, gotta tell you, very exciting. Last week I was on a set for the very first time since like January. It's been crazy, and I'll tell you, even though I've been telling people and I've been trying this too, To try to keep my acting muscle memory together during this time period. Honestly, at the very beginning, I felt a little bit rusty. It felt a little bit weird. It's a different setting on a set. You know, things are just done differently to make sure everybody is safe. But after a while, things kicked in. It's kind of like getting on the bike again, which felt really good. But There are 2 things I wanted to share with you. One is something that I've always felt, but this just really hit home and it made sense. Working on a film or a TV show, it's a team effort. It really is. Yeah, you know, you might have the star or, you know, you might have the big-name director. Still, it's a team effort because if everybody isn't doing a great job, It doesn't turn out well. And once again, I can't give out any details at all, but one of the camera operators on the set had an idea. Not, not a character idea or anything like that. It was a physical movement, and it was a great idea. He didn't have to say anything. The director heard it. Director said, yeah, hey, I like that idea. And that's what we went with. And it made a difference. And so when you are on a set, you know, if you do have an idea for something that will be beneficial to everybody, please, you know, share it. Now, having said that, you also have to be careful. You know, you've got to understand there are some directors who do not want to hear from anybody. Like, if you're a star, yeah, you've got more leeway with that kind of stuff. But if you are, you know, guest star or you've got a week contract or you're a day player, you've got to really feel things out and make sure this is someone who is open to hearing ideas. Now I'm not suggesting you walk over to Steven Spielberg and say, you know, that angle that you have the camera, I don't like that. I'm talking about if there's something with your character, yeah. I'm going to share this with you. Um, yeah, I'm going to share it with you. So there was a film that I shot last year and it's called Irresistible. Actually, it should be coming out like today, tomorrow. I know it's the end of June and it was written, directed by, um, Jon Stewart and Steve Carell stars in it. And, and just on a side note, both Jon Stewart and Steve Carell, they just seem like the nicest human beings. I've run across in the industry. They both were just so caring, nice, open to things. And so at the very end of the day, it was a very, very long day, and I was, I was in 2 very small scenes, very short scenes. Hopefully I made it in there. If I watch the movie— actually, if you watch the movie and you see me in the party scene, let me know. I'm not going to give out any more information about that. So at the very end of the day, Jon Stewart was actually writing out lines for about 5 of us, just kind of like ad-libbing things— not ad-libbing, but he was giving us lines that weren't initially scripted. And so did them, did them like 2 or 3 times. After the second time, one of the extras walked over to a woman who I was standing next to and said, hey, I don't know if you realize this, but you said it this way the first time and you said it differently. You dropped a couple words the second time. Oh, really? Now, that is not a time where you open up your mouth and start telling people what to do. It's— and not because she was an extra, it's just inappropriate. It would be inappropriate for any actor to say that to another actor, not because the person was an extra. And the actor who she was talking to felt a little weird. uncomfortable. I felt angry, to tell you the truth, and I felt protective of this woman. Now look, I didn't want to create a scene and say, look, my— you know, I didn't want to get into any of that stuff, but I just very calmly walked over to her and I said, you know, I'm glad you noticed. That was great. You know, if the director feels that it needs to be changed, the director will let us know, but, you know, just let the actor, you know, kind of do her thing. And so I just said it very nicely. So in that kind of situation, no, don't offer suggestions. Don't offer ideas. It's, it's just not your place to tell another actor what to do. So anyhow, I just wanted to share both of those things with you. It was exciting being back on a set. Hopefully things will continue. I know it's going to be a slow rollout here, and there will be lots of changes. Like, I witnessed things that I never saw on a set before, from everybody having hand sanitizer, people wearing masks prior to shooting scenes, trying to separate as much as possible. Even the food situation was very different. You know, you're not going to have, you know, craft services set up where there's just tons of food where people are sticking their hands in there and crowding around. It's a very different world. It's going to happen. We're going to make this thing happen, but it's going to be very different. So anyhow, I just wanted to share those things with you. And by the way, if you can, and I always ask this, I would love to have you support this channel in 2 ways. One is please share the link throughout all of your social media. You know, get all of your friends to subscribe. I want to create A large community of people who are helping each other. So I really appreciate you spreading the word and sharing the link, telling people, look, I've got over 220, you know, free acting and modeling quick tip videos here, uh, that will be helpful. So that's one thing. The other thing, if you can, it'd be great if you could make a donation. There is a PayPal link right below, and I would love to have you help support, uh, the channel, keep everything going. As you can imagine, it's a lot of time and effort, uh, to make things look good, to create all these videos. So whatever you can do, I would greatly appreciate that. The link is right below. If you have any suggestions for other topics you want me to cover, just shoot me an email. You can go to howtoactamodel.com and, uh, just click on the contact, uh, tab and shoot me an email. And I'd love to hear your comments if you've been on a set, what your experiences has been like. Please, that's why I have this channel, share information with others. All right guys, take care, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya. See ya.