MY FIRST LEAD!

It took me long enough, but another item on my things I'd like to experience list just happened to occur to me yesterday. I was the lead in a student film!  Not only was I the lead, but, the film is called THE PAINTER and well I played… the painter. Cool.  

Its been a rather eventful 2015 for me. From getting back on stage, several times, to finally getting my first real speaking role (VIRTUAL REALITY RE UP) and then attending my first screening of something that I'm actually acting in. But my most recent gig, which I filmed on Monday November 23rd, a short, written and directed by Julie Angelo at the New York Film Academy's beautiful new space on Broadway was my first real lead on film. And yes, it was shot on actual film, not digital, and I was the lucky person who she chose to play the lead.  
Below is a posting I just put on Facebook with some new added commentary, about my experience working on the film and playing my first lead and title character in The Painter.
Yesterdays filming of the short 'The Painter' was lots of fun. Basically it was kind of a full circle moment for me. Playing an artist setting up a paint shoot is something which I did as a teenager a lot while learning how to paint.  Especially during my days at SVA, and my early years as an illustrator. And something at the time, I thought I would be doing for the rest of my life, that is until this crazy dream I've been living the last 18 years or so began. Well all these years later, here I was at NYFA, doing something I hadn't really done in years… using live models to paint from (in character), directing my assistant in the movement of the lighting, and telling the actors [playing my models in the film], how to pose for me. 
You see the film was about an artist recreating the great Caravaggio's brilliant David with the Head of Goliath. Growing up Caravaggio was one of my idols. I loved his art, and yes, I attempted to learn from recreating some of his genius, among the many other talents I aspired to one day become. Somewhere in my storage I probably have one or two of them waiting to be showcased in a retrospective, if I'm ever given one.
So its seems this was a role I was born to play. Guess, my acting teachers were right, All experiences in life, get you ready for when you need to perform them on stage or screen. So what I did yesterday, wasn't acting. When I painted, I was really painting, not pretending to be a painter, painting.
The night before the shoot as I rehearsed, imagining what I would be doing during the filming, I visualized what the set was gonna be. Playing with how I would stand holding the brushes, how I would direct the other players in the game. Not knowing exactly what I had to play with. I mean, was my set up, my props as it were, gonna work?  
So I entered the set to see a new easel, Blank canvas, a single paint brush and 4 tubes of acrylic paint [white, black, red and a golden ochre type yellow]. Luckily I brought my own dozen brushes of various sizes and two rags I've used over the last few years when painting in oil. I did suggest we needed a place to put the items on, since all we had to place things was the easel. And a small table magically appeared from another room in the building a few minutes later.
I was given off-white over-alls to wear. Which I proceeded to mess up with the paint, with lots of help from my director, Julie Angelo. Since as I queried, is this the first time I've ever painted, meaning am I a novice in the film or am I an experience painter? As expected this wasn't my first time at the rodeo. So we had fun for a few minutes making my threads, seem authentic. I dirtied my hands with paint, we also took what was a brand new palette and made it seem that I had been painting with it for a while. 
Well as the day began. I was staring at this approximately 26" x 40" blank canvas. I asked Julie, was I allowed to mess up the new canvas or were they saving it for the next shoot? She told me to play, but that the canvas wouldn't be seen. She was gonna frame the camera, so that the actual canvas itself would never be on screen. 
You see, the film was about the setting up, not about the painting process itself, before I started the actual painting. Well as we rehearsed, and filmed sequences and as I killed time, between takes and set ups. I began to play with the paint. At first trying to match the original painting, and then, really trying to match the actors. Even when they were not in their proper  positions. Simply painting in character. Well, as the painting was developing, the crew, and the director every so often would, stare at me, watch me paint and what I was painting, and someone was taking lot of stills (so there might be pictures of the filming I might be able to share, sometime). Anyway, as this was happening, our director starting making noises about using the painting somehow in the shoot.
Well, turns out that the ending of the film will showcase at least some part of the painting. So it seems, my artistic abilities again, helped me achieve another goal of mine. Playing the lead in a film. 
I must say, that approximately half of the painting was done without my glasses on. So  basically as I was painting, my models were out of focus. Also, no I didn't sign the painting during filming. So when its showcased, my signature will not appear on screen. Afterwards, I  put my John Hancock on it, gave the painting to Julie as a gift. The best part of the whole experience, beside the whole experience of being the lead in a film, again, my first. Or getting another chance to say words on camera and continue this current hot streak that I'm on. But, honestly  it was getting the chance to pick up the brush and just freestyle a painting without really worrying how it looked, or even if it looked like the original. 
And as I type this to my right is my easel, standing there, awaiting for me to pick up my brushes… 

See dad, it did pay to go to art school. 
Neil