Filtering by Category: Television

Acting

September 22, 2012  /  Charles Alan Ratliff

On August 8th I made the following tweet:

The post I made on Twitter on August 8th, 2012.

There wasn't any particular reason for me to feel that way; it was just a feeling.

Three days later, on the 11th, I was looking up behind-the-scenes videos of The Dark Knight Rises. The first one I came across took place during the football scene as someone in the crowd was filming the explosions set off by Bane. Through that, I found a YouTube channel where a guy in Pittsburgh had recorded over 50 videos of various TDKR sets along with a few scenes being filmed there. What stood out to me the most was just how close people that weren't working on the film were able to get to the cast and crew during production, or even to vehicles and props used. It seemed odd, so I looked into it, and came across a site called Before the Trailer. It was there that I saw We're the Millers, a comedy starring Jason Sudeikis and Jennifer Aniston, was filming in Wilmington, North Carolina, which is only a couple of hours away from me. The website is always looking for photos of sets and actors, and I toyed with the idea of driving to Wilmington to watch them film. I decided not to as I would feel weird standing off set like that staring at people as they're trying to work. Afterward, I saw that Before the Trailer also posts casting information, including that for background actors (extras). I soon learned that Wilmington is, apparently, a popular place for filming movies and television shows, a fact my brother has known for a year now but never told me. If only I knew sooner, I could have been in Iron Man 3! Perhaps I'll be able to do Captain America 2...

After a little more research, I found Facebook pages for various casting agencies in the North Carolina area, which seems to be their main way of posting job info. I created a Facebook account - after a year of not having one - to follow the pages more closely and researched how to apply for roles properly. Four days later, on the 15th, I had gotten a role as an extra on Revolution, and then, on the 20th, I got a role on We're the Millers. I'll be writing and releasing separate posts for these and any more of my acting experiences as the movies/shows come out.

My only prior experience with acting is doing three musicals during my time in middle school and taking a drama class in high school. The first two musicals were at the Junction City Little Theater in Kansas, while the final (and worst) one was at Fort Riley Middle School. Only the first play I did, Kilroy Was Here, was any good. I'll write more about these sometime in the future. Of course, acting in a musical and doing background acting are completely different things, and I'll soon be going into more detail on just what a day as an extra can be like.

While this isn't something I'm currently interested in making a career out of (not that I could in North Carolina), I will be taking as many opportunities for background acting as I can. It's a fun diversion that pays well and gives a cool story to tell. Plus, the food is always free and delicious!

 

A couple of the Google+ posts I made that day.

A couple of the Google+ posts I made that day.

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categories / Acting, Film, Television, Theatre
tags / We're the Millers, Revolution, Jennifer Aniston, Jason Sudeikis, The Dark Knight Rises, Iron Man 3, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Kilroy Was Here, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google+, 2012

Master Shake Graffiti

July 28, 2012  /  Charles Alan Ratliff

I was going through some old, unorganized pictures on my computer and found these two I took on April 29th, 2011 on our move from Texas to North Carolina. It's graffiti of Master Shake from Aqua Teen Hunger Force:

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categories / Television
tags / Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Master Shake, 2011

Breaking Bad: Netflix Replaced Extended Pilot with Edited Version

October 11, 2011  /  Charles Alan Ratliff

Hello! I figured I would let everyone know this since I just found out yesterday. I recently finished up all three seasons of Breaking Bad on Netflix and, like with most good shows, just started watching it again with my brother. I was seriously confused for the first half of the pilot, as scenes that I vividly remembered watching before were no longer there. Figuring that I wasn't some creative genius that imagined scenes that fit so perfectly into the show, I told my brother to wait a few minutes so I could look something up on the Internet. While I couldn't find anything specifically about this situation, I did learn that there were two versions of the pilot: a 58-minute version, and a 48-minute version that aired later. Netflix originally had the 58-minute pilot, but, for some reason, replaced it with the edited one fairly recently.

I feel that the full pilot is the one to watch, as cutting out nearly 1/6th of a TV episode results in a lot of missing scenes, some of which I consider to be important and make Walt's decision to start cooking meth make more sense. We went to Amazon's streaming service and bought the episode, which is the full version, and went back to Netflix for the rest.

Just something to think about for those of you that would care.

Here are some of the scenes that were cut out (minor spoilers ahead!): 

  • The ambulance scene where you learn Walt's never smoked.
  • The part where the car he is wiping down belongs to his asshole student, who proceeds to take a picture of him.
  • The handjob scene where you learn Skyler sells stuff on eBay.
  • The broken glove compartment scene. 

There might have been more scenes that were cut, too. We stopped the episode about 25 minutes in, so I'm not 100% sure on what was left out.

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categories / Television
tags / Breaking Bad, Netflix, Amazon, 2011

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