Happy New Year 2007

Well, after a great Christmas here in Germany I'm looking forward to seeing the taillights of 2006 dwindle into oblivion. I'm spending tonight with a few old-time musician friends (ie my old heavy metal buddies) listening to the loudest music this planet has ever produced and probably demolishing a few kegs of beer. Hell yeah!

I hope all of you have as much fun as I will tonight, I'll see you next year.

Happy New Year.

Chris

Footsteps in mud, blood and rain...

The week before I decided to jump back over the pond for a nice cozy Christmas in Germany I figured I oughta do something to get me into the true spirit of the festive season. Together with his fantastic team, director and newfound friend Nic Dawkes invited me to just the thing I was looking for: Trench warfare and the killing of women and children...

No, we did not enlist into the American army and go to Irak. Instead we shot a WWII based shortfilm entitled "Footseps" (the plot of which I won't spoil and will rather direct you to the homepage: www.getmescene.com/footsteps ).

I don't want to jinx it, but if the production values are anything to go by I think this will be one hell of a piece of work. Everyone from the DOP to the make-up artists were astonishing in what I struggle to call a low budget production.

The culmination of the project for me was in the last night of shooting. The cast and crew stood side by side till 5 am after the heavens opened and we were up to out ankles in mood and artificial blood.
The carefully planned, perfectly equipped shooting schedule turned into guerrila warfare: Making sure the equipment stayed dry... Make-up artists straddling actors in vans to apply gunshot wounds... Friends of the crew sticking around to help wherever they could... Actors lying half-naked in the middle of a field shivering - no - convulsing with cold before having to play perfectly still corpses... it was great.

One of the corpses remarked jokingly he would kill the next person who said an actors life is glamorous... Well, maybe not glamorous, but a hell of a lotta fun.
Guys if you're reading this: Any time, any place.

almost Cupid at the Old Vic...

What a pleasant coincidence...

After blogging about the Old Vic, I've been offered a play-reading of a new adaptation of Ovid's "Metamorphosis". It's part of the Old Vic - New Voices programme and will be shown to the board of the Old Vic with an option to be performed on the Old Vic Stage sometime next year... How exciting!

Amongst others I get to play Actaeon, The God of The Underworld -muahahaha- and ironically Cupid.

Credit must go to the wonderful Emily Randall who recommended me (thank you very much) just from working along side me at Theatre 503.

And while we're at it, thank you also to Jamie McLachlin (whose Spotlight page I can't find). He got me a part in a short film we will be shooting in two weeks. More info about that when I get to it.

-------Amendment--------

They've decided to cut the story of Pygmalion... Hence Cupid and Venus are no more! *ROFL* Well, as much as I will miss that bit of the script, it makes more sense in reality... (and that picture of me as a naked winged minor was starting to disturb me a bit).